As the title of this document indicates, I have compiled a list of both "secular" and "ecclesiastical" references which pertain to Gregory of Nyssa's Commentary on the Song of Songs. The criterion for choosing this list was determined by Werner Jaeger's critical edition; I give the pages and lines according to this edition followed by the pertinent references.

By no means are these excerpts complete but are intended to direct the reader to the broader context in which the excerpts are found. However, I have attempted to make the list as full as possible.

Some references allude to other passages within the Song Commentary which I have indicated by the letter "J" and the appropriate page number. The letter "J" also refers to other critical editions by Gregory of Nyssa. I have presented the list according to the various English (and sometimes French) editions instead of the respective Greek and Latin texts.

It is hoped that a listing of the sources coupled with pertinent Song Commentary passages, not simply a catalog of them, will bring to clearer light those influences which came to bear upon Gregory of Nyssa and that it will be a fruitful source for further research.

Aelian: On Animals, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Ma, 1958).

St. Ambrose: Saint Ambrose: Seven Exegetical Works, translated by Michael P. McHugh, The Fathers of the Church (FOTC), (Washington, D.C., 1972).

Traite sur L'Evangile de S. Luc, Sources Chretiennes (Paris, 1958).

Aphraates: Patrologia Syriaca, Pars Prima (Turnhout, Belgium, 1980).

Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 73 (Cambridge, Ma, 1926).

The Basic Word of Aristotle, edited by Richard McKeon (New York, 1941).

The Complete Works of Aristotle, Bollingen Series, vols. 1 & 2, edited by Jonathan Barnes (1984).

St. Athanasius: Against the Heathen & The Incarnation of the Word, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (PN), (Grand Rapids, Mi, 1975 reprint).

St. Basil the Great: Hom. Quod Deus Non Est Autor Malorum & Homilia in Illud, "Attende Tibi Ipsi," PG#31 (Paris, 1857), references to these texts only.

Clement of Alexandria: Stromateis, translated by John Ferguson, Fathers of the Church (FOTC), vol. 85. (Washington, D.C., 1991).

The Stromata, The Anti-Nicene Fathers (AN), (Washington, D.C., 1975 reprint).

Christ the Educator, translated by Simon P. Wood, Fathers of the Church (FOTC), vol. 23 (Washington, D.C., 1954).

Dionysius the Areopagite: Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, translated by Colm Luibheid, (New York, 1987).

Gregory of Nyssa: Vie de Sainte Macrine, Sources Chretiennes, vol. 178 (Paris, 1971).

Life of Moses, translated by Abraham J. Malherbe & Everett Ferguson (New York, 1978).

Gregorii Nysseni in Canticum Canticorum, vol. 6, edited by Werner Jaeger (Leiden, 1960). For a list of Gregory's works in the critical editions, refer to the Bibliography contained within this Home Page.

Methodius of Olympus: The Symposium: A Treatise on Chastity, translated by Herbert Musurillo, Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 27 (Westminster, Md, 1958).

Origen: Commentaire sur S. Jean, Sources Chretiennes #120, 157, 222, 290 (vols. i-iv), (Paris, 1966, 1970, 1975, 1982).

On First Principles, translated by G.W. Butterworth (New York, 1966).

Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, translated by Ronald E. Heine, Fathers of the Church (FOTC), vol. 71, (Washington, D.C., 1982).

Homilies on Leviticus, translated by Gary W. Barkley, Fathers of the Church (FOTC), vol. 83 (Washington, D.C., 1990).

Homelies sur Jeremie, Sources Chretiennes, vol. 232 (Paris, 1976).

Ovid: Ovid: V Fasti, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 253 (Cambridge, Ma, 1976).

Philo: On the Creation, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Ma, 1929).

Who is the Heir, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1968).

Plato: The Dialogues of Plato, vols. 1 & 2, translated by Jowett, M.A. (New York, 1937).

Plotinus: Enneads, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Ma, 1966); vol. 3 (1967).

Enneads of Plotinus, translated by Stephen MacKenna (Boston, Ma, 1916).

The Posterity and Exile of Cain, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 2, (Cambridge, Ma, 1968).

Xenophon: The Whole Works of Xenophon, translated by Ashely Cooper, Spelman, Smith, Fielding & others (Philadelphia, 1843).

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4: for I am persuaded that your soul's eye is pure from every passionate, unclean thought.

But why should we dispute about names when we have realities of such importance to consider? Why indeed, he said, when any name will do which expresses the thought of the mind with clearness? Republic, 533d

Wherefore we also, from the position where we find ourselves, earnestly beg the hearers of these things to mortify their carnal senses. They must not take anything of what has been said with reference to bodily functions, but rather employ them for grasping those divine senses of the inner man. Origen, Song Commentary, p.79

10-13: Because some members of the Church always think it right to follow the letter of holy scripture and do not take into account the symbolic and allegorical meanings

But in our desire to explain the divine blessings which are bestowed upon us by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that Trinity which is the fount of all holiness, we have somewhat digressed from our subject in these last remarks; for when the question of the soul had arisen, we felt we ought to deal with it here, seeing that we were discussing the cognate topic of our rational nature. But the subject of rational nature as a whole, with its divisions into three genera and species, will be more conveniently considered in its proper place. Origen, On First Principles, p.41

If, therefore, I too shall begin to discuss the words of the ancients and to seek in them a spiritual meaning, if I shall have attempted to remove the veil of the Law and to show that the things which have been written are "allegorical" [Gal 4.24], I am, indeed, digging wells. but immediately the friends of the letter will stir up malicious charges against me and will lie in ambush for me. They will contrive hostilities immediately and persecutions, denying that the truth can stand except upon earth. But if we are servants of Isaac, let us love "wells of living water" and springs. Origen, Homilies on Genesis, FOTC#71.189

So also when the Word of God was brought to humans through the Prophets and the Lawgiver [Moses], it was not brought without proper clothing. For just as there it was covered with the veil of flesh, so here with the veil of the letter, so that indeed the letter is seen as flesh but the spiritual sense hiding within is perceived as divinity. Such, therefore, is what we now find as we go through the book of Leviticus, in which the sacrificial rites, the diversity of offerings, and even the ministries of the priests are described. But perchance the worthy and the unworthy see and hear these things according to the letter, which is, as it were, the flesh of the Word of God and the clothing of its divinity. But "blessed are those eyes" [Lk 10.23] which inwardly see the divine spirit that is concealed in the veil of the letter; and blessed are they who bring clean ears of the inner person to hear these things. Otherwise, they will perceive openly "the letter which kills" [2Cor 3.6]. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, FOTC#83.29

17-18: Thus if the literal sense, as it is called should be of any use, we will readily have the object of our search.

Origen, On First Principles, cf. J.4.10-13.

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4-6: But if anything in the hidden, symbolic sense cannot be of use with regard to the literal sense, we will, as the Word teaches and as Proverbs says [1.6], understand the passage either as a parable, a dark saying, an utterance of wise men or as a riddle.

"Though hast desired Wisdom: then keep the commandments, and God will give her to thee." This, then, was the reason why this master, who was the first to teach men divine philosophy, put at the beginning of his work the Book of Proverbs, in which, as we said, the moral science is propounded--so that when a person has progressed in discernment and behaviour he may pass on thence to train his natural intelligence and, by distinguishing the causes and nature of things, may recognize the vanity of vanities that he must forsake, and the lasting and eternal things that he ought to pursue...he will surely reach out for the things unseen and eternal which, with spiritual meaning verily but under secret metaphors of love, are taught in the Song of Songs. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.43-4

6: With regards to anagogy, it makes no difference what we call it--tropology or allegory.

For Lordship is not a name of His being but of His being in authority, and the appellation of Christ indicates His kingdom, while the idea of His kingdom is one, and that of His Nature another. Suppose that Scripture does say that these things took place with regard to the Song of God. Let us then consider which is the more pious and the more rational view. Against Eunomius, vol. 2, J.154-159; PN.190a

10: The great Apostle [Paul] says that the Law is spiritual.

For, just as the Church's dowry was the volummes of the Law and the Prophets, so let us regard natural law and reason and free will as the soul's betrothal gifts. Origen, Song Commentary, p.61

13-15: They teach not only through precepts but through the historical narratives: both lead to knowledge of the mysteries and to a pure way of life for those who have diligent minds.

Since the goal of the virtuous way of life was the very thing we have been seeking, and this goal has been found in what we have said, it is time for you, noble friend, to look to that example and, by transferring to your own life what is contemplated through spiritual interpretation of the things spoken literally, to be known by God and to become his friend. Life of Moses, p.137

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14: we must pass to a spiritual and intelligent investigation of scripture.

This book, therefore, will be like that all through; and, reading it along those lines, we shall get from it according to our powers a simple record of events. And the spiritual interpretation too is equally in line with that which we pointed out in our prologue....But let us see if the inner meaning also can be fitting along these lines; Let it be the Church who longs for union with Christ. Origen, Song Commentary, p.58 & 59

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19: to remind us of the necessity of searching the divine words, of reading them.

His holy angels put themselves at my service and ministered to me, bringing me the Law as a betrothal gift; for the Law, it is said, was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. [Gal 3.19]

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5-6: Unless a person contemplates the truth through philosophy, what the text says here will be either inconsistent or a fable.

I think, moreover, that this threefold structure of divine philosophy was prefigured in those holy and blessed men on account of whose most holy way of life the Most High God willed to be called "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" [Ex 3.6]. For Abraham sets forth moral philosophy through obedience...Isaac also is an exponent of natural philosophy, when he digs wells and searches out the roots of things. And Jacob practises the inspective science, in that he earned his name of Israel from his contemplation of the things of God, and saw the camps of heaven, and beheld the House of God and the angels' path--the ladders reaching up from earth to heaven. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.44-5

For, if the sensual man, as he is called, the man who cannot perceive and understand the things of the Spirit of God, were to hear these matters so interpreted, he would doubtless mock and pronounce them foolish and empty, tell us we are discussing dreams, rather than the causes of things and the divine teachings. Ibid, p.81

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3: Enter the inner chamber of the chaste bridegroom and clothe yourselves with the while garments of pure, chaste thoughts.

cf. Origen, Commentary on Matthew, Tom xvii, 24 (p.650 Klostermann)

18: For some there is salvation by fear: we contemplate the threat of punishment in hell and so avoid evil.

But those who appear to be incurable by reason of the greatness of their crimes--who have committed many and terrible deeds os sacrilege, murders foul and violent, or the like--such are hurled into Tartarus which is their suitable destiny, and they never come out. Phaedo, 113d

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1: Further, there are those who, because of the hope of the reward held out for a life piously lived, conduct themselves virtuously.

Those who are wise in mind have a certain attribute of nature peculiar to themselves; and they who have shown themselves capable, receive from the Supreme Wisdom a spirit of perception in double measure. For those who practise the common arts, are in what pertains to the senses highly gifted...For sensibility finds and invents; since it persuasively exhorts to application. And practice will increase the application which has knowledge for its end. Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, AN.305a

5: On the other hand, the person who is hastening to spiritual perfection rejects fear. (Such a disposition is servile).

Yet the exchange of one fear or pleasure or pain for another fear or pleasure or pain, and of the greater for the less, as if they were coins, is not the exchange of virtue. O my blessed Simmias, is there not one true coin for which all things ought to be exchanged? Phaedo, 69b

This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because like slaves we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some business--like and contractual arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God's friendship as the only thing dreadful and we consider becoming God's friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. Life of Moses, p.137

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1: No, another Solomon [Christ] is signified here: one who is also descended from the seed of David according to the flesh.

It is, I think, unquestionable that Solomon is in many respects a type of Christ, first in that he is called the Peaceable, and also because "the queen of the south...came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" [Mt 12.42]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.51

3: one whose name means peace, the true king of Israel and builder of God's temple.

Cf. vs. 1 just above and: Let no one think that she loves anything belonging to the body or pertaining to the flesh, and let no stain be thought of in connection with her love. So the Song of Songs is simply Solomon's; it belongs neither to the Son of David, nor to Israel's king, and there is no suggestion of anything carnal about it. Origen, Song Commentary, p.53

12: Not all periods of life according to the flesh are capable of every natural operation.

And indeed, if these passages, it may be that they would derive neither profit nor much harm, either from reading the text itself, or from going through the necessary explanations. But if any man who lives only after the flesh should approach it, to such a one the reading of this Scripture will be the occasion of no small hazard and danger. Origen, Song Commentary, p.22

Of these two men [cf. Rom 7.22] he tells us that the one, namely, the inner man, is renewed from day to day; but the other, that is, the outer, he declares to be corrupted and weakened in all the saints and in such as he was himself.

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14-15: You see here that the soul is at a stage of life where it is tender and easily formed.

You know, I said, that we begin by telling children stories which, though not wholly destitute of truth, are in the main fictitious; and these stories are told them when they are not of an age to learn gymnastics. You know also that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken. Republic, 377a-b

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8-10: rather, it [beauty] draws the child by yearning and desire to participate in the good.

If, then, a man has completed his course in the first subject, as taught in Proverbs, by amending his behavior and keeping the commandments, and thereafter, having seen how empty is the world and realized the brittleness of transitory things, has come to renounce the world and all that is therein, he will follow on from that point to contemplate and to desire "the things that are not seen and that are eternal" [2Cor 4.18]

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3-4: for he means the same thing by wisdom, prudence, sense perception, knowledge, apprehension and the like.

But Solomon goes on forthwith to discriminate between the meanings of words: he distinguishes knowledge from wisdom, and instruction from knowledge, and represents the understanding of words as something different again, and says that prudence consists in a person's ability to grasp the shades of meaning in words. Origen, Song Commentary, p.42

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3: Solomon added other counsels by clear and easily grasped utterances.

"Thou shalt also understand the parable, and dark speech, and the sayings of the wise, and riddles" [Prov 1.6]. Thus by these several means, he expounds the rational science clearly and plainly; and, following the custom of the ancients, he unfolds immense and perfect truths in short and pithy phrases. Origen, Song Commentary, p.43

15: Having cleansed the heart with respect to external matters, Solomon then initiates the soul into the divine sanctuary by means of the Song of Songs.

This book [Song of Songs] comes last that a man may come to it when his manner of life has been purified, and he has learnt to know the difference between things corruptible and things incorruptible; so that nothing in the metaphors used to describe and represent the love of the Bride for her celestial Bridegroom--that is, of the perfect soul for the Word of God--may cause him to stumble. Origen, Song Commentary, p.44

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9: I boldly add to these words, "Be passionate about it."

It seems to me, however, that the divine Scripture is anxious to avoid the danger of the mention of love becoming an occasion of falling for its readers; and, to that end and for the sake of the weaker ones, it uses a more respectable word for that which the wise men of the world called desire or passion--namely, charity or affection. Origen, Song Commentary, p.30

De meme en effet que, pour le corps, ce sont des sens differents que le gout et la vue, de meme aussi, pour ce que Salomon appelle "les sens divins" [Prov 2.5], autre serait la faculte visuelle et contemplative de l'ame, autre la gustative, perceptive de la qualite des nourritures intelligibles.

Et le Seigneur est sapide, en tant qu'il est le pain vivant descendu du ciel [Jn 6.51], etant nourrissant pour l'ame; il est visible, en tant qu'il est la Sagesse--c'est, en effet, de sa beaute qu'avoue etre epris celui qui did, "Jai ete epris de sa beaute" [Sag 8.2]--et il nous donne cet ordre "Sois epris d'elle et elle te gardera" [Prov 4.6]: c'est pourquoi on trouve dans les Psaumes la declaration: "Goutez et voyez que le Seigneur est bon" [Ps 33 (34).9. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, xx, SC#290.353

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3-4: let no one who is passionate, fleshly and still smelling of the foul odor of the old man drag down the significance of the divine thoughts.

For he, not knowing how to hear love's language in purity and with chaste ears, will twist the whole manner of his hearing of it away from the inner spiritual man and on to the outward and carnal; and he will be turned away from the spirit to the flesh, and will foster carnal desires in himself, and it will seem to be the Divine Scriptures that are thus urging and egging him on the fleshly lust! Origen, Song Commentary, p.22

6: Let him ascend to paradise through detachment, having become like God through purity.

He [David] has been lifted by the power of the Spirit out of himself, and sees in a blessed state of ecstasy the boundless and incomprehensible Beauty; he sees it as fully as a mortal can see who has quitted his fleshly envelopments and entered, by the mere power of thought, upon the contemplation of the spiritual and intellectual world. On Virginity, PN.354, J.290.4

8-9: Then let him enter the inner sanctuary of the mysteries revealed in this book [the Song of Songs].

Tell me, Theaetetus, in reference to what I was saying, are you not lost in wonder, like myself, when you find that all of a sudden you are raised to the level of the wisest of men, or indeed of the gods?--for you would assume the measure of Protagoras to apply to the gods as well as men? Theaetetus,b-c

Then this must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death: for the gods have a care of any one whose desire is to become just and to be like God, as far as man can attain the divine likeness, by the pursuit of virtue? Republic, 613b

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11: Now let us enter the Holy of Holies, the Song of Songs.

We must now pass on to our next point, and discuss the actual title of "The Song of Songs." You find a similar phrase in what were called the holy of holies in the Tent of the Testimony, and again in the work of works mentioned in the Book of Numbers, and in what Paul calls "the age of ages" [Rom 16.27]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.46

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5: Indeed, human understanding left to its own resources could neither discover nor absorb the Song's mystery.

Created I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. But the father and maker of this universe is past finding out; and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible. Timaeus, 28c

6-7: The most acute physical pleasure (I mean erotic passion) is used as a symbol in the exposition of this doctrine on love.

I imagine, I said, at the next step in his progress, that there will be feats and carousals and revellings and courtesans, and all that sort of thing; Love is the lord of the house within him, and orders all the concerns of his soul.

That is certain.

Yes; and every day and every night desires grow up many and formidable, and their demands are many. Republic, 573e

9-12: It teaches us of the need for the soul to reach out to the divine nature's invisible beauty and to love what is akin to itself. The soul must transform passion into passionlessness.

But beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is. Symposium, 211 b-3

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22-3: The form constituted by these terms is blessedness, detachment, union with God, alienation from evil and likeness to what is truly beautiful and good.

Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible: and to become like him is to become holy, just and wise. But, O my friend, you cannot easily convince mankind that they should pursue virtue or avoid vice, not merely in order that a man may seem to be good, which is the reason given by the world, and in my judgment is only a repetition of an old wives' fable. Theaetetus, 176b-c

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14: those introduced into the hidden mysteries of this book are no longer men, but they have been transformed in their nature.

For the attempt to supervise or refute the notions or opinions of others would be a tedious and enormous piece of folly, if to each man his own are right; and this must be the case of Protagoras' Truth is the real truth, and the philosopher is not merely amusing himself by giving oracles out of the shrine of his book. Theaetetus, 162a

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12-14: The passions now disturbing us because of the flesh will not be restored with those bodies; rather, we shall become tranquil.

But perhaps the Beatitude ["blessed are the peacemakers"] does not only regard the good of others. I think that man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no longer wars against the law of the mind, but is subjected to the higher rule and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance. The Beatitudes, ACW.165

But if the unmeasured impulses of men's passions were calmed and allayed by self-mastery, and their earnestness and eager striving after the infliction of wrongs were checked by righteousness; if, in a word, the vices and the fruitless practices to which they prompt were to give place to the virtues and their corresponding activities, the warfare in the soul, of all wars veritably the most dire and most grievous, would have been abolished, and peace would prevail and would in quiet and gentle ways provide good order for the exercise of our faculties, and there would be hope that God, being the Lover of virtue and the Lover of what is good and beautiful and also the Lover of man, would provide for our race good things all coming forth spontaneously and all in readiness. For it is clear that it is easier without calling in the husbandman's art to supply in abundance the yield of growths already existing than to bring into being things that were non-existent. Philo, On the Creation, 81

13: no longer will the flesh's prudence dispute with the soul.

Then may we not confidently assert that the lovers of money and honor, when they seek their pleasures under the guidance and in the company of reason and knowledge, and pursue after and win the pleasures which wisdom shows them, will also have the truest pleasures in the highest degree which is attainable to them, inasmuch as they follow truth; and they will have the pleasures which are natural to them, if that which is best for each one is also must natural to him? Republic, 586e

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5: For God alone is truly sweet, desirable and worthy of love.

Cf. Republic, 583a

7: The present enjoyment of God is the starting point for a greater share of his goodness, and it increases our desire for him.

And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives and understands and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is the first of one opinion and then of another, and seems to have no intelligence?

Just so.

Now, that which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower is what I would have you term the idea of good, and this you will deem to be the cause of science, and of truth in so far as the latter becomes the subject of knowledge; beautiful too, as are both truth and knowledge, you will be right in esteeming this other nature as more beautiful than either; and, as in the previous instance, light and sight may be truly said to be like the sun, and yet not to be the sun, so in this other sphere, science and truth may be deemed to be like the good, but not the good; the good has a place of honor yet higher. Republic,508e

But granting that some pleasures are bad, it does not therefore follow that a certain pleasure may not nevertheless be the Supreme Good; just as a certain form of knowledge may be supremely good, although some forms of knowledge are bad. On the contrary, since every faculty has its unimpeded activity, the activity of all the faculties, or of one them (whichever constitutes Happiness), when unimpeded, must probably be the most desirable thing there is; but an unimpeded activity is a pleasure; so that on this showing the Supreme Good will be a particular kind of pleasure, even though most pleasures are bad, and, it may be, bad absolutely. This is why everybody thinks that the happy life must be a pleasant life, and regards pleasure as a necessary ingredient of happiness; and with good reason, since no impeded activity is perfect, whereas Happiness is essentially perfect. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, vii, 2, pp.439-41

13sq: Moses conversed with God face to face, as scripture testifies [Dt 34.10], and he thereby acquired a still greater desire for these kisses after the theophanies.

But every desire for the Good which is attracted to that ascent constantly expands as one progresses in pressing on to the Good. This truly is the vision of God: never to be satisfied in the desire to see him. But one must always, by looking at what he can see, rekindle his desire to see more. Thus, no limit would interrupt growth in the ascent to God, since no limit to the Good can be found nor is the increasing of desire for the Good brought to an end because it is satisfied. Life of Moses, p.116

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4: they never cease to desire, but every enjoyment of God they turn into the kindling of a still more intense desire.

The truth is, I have a great deal of compassion for these men, when I consider the distemper that afflicts them. Is it not an unhappy condition to have a great deal to eat, to eat a great deal, and yet never be satisfied? For my part, though I confess I have no money at home yet I want none; because I never eat but just as much as will satisfy my hunger, nor drink but to quench by thirst. I clothe myself in such a manner that I am as warm abroad as Callias, with all his great abundance...But don't mistake me, gentlemen, for governing my passion in this as in other things; I am so far from desiring to have more pleasure in the enjoyment, that I wish it less; because, upon due consideration, I find those pleasures that touch us in the most sensible manner deserve not to be esteemed the most worthy of us. But observe the chief advantage I reap from my poverty; it is, that in case the little I have should be taken entirely from me, there is no occupation so poor, no employment in life so barren, but would maintain me without the least uneasiness, and afford me a dinner without any trouble. Xenophon, Banquet of Xenophon, #4 (p.612)

6: Even now the soul united to God never has its fill of enjoyment.

But it is otherwise with the soul; for the more she ripens, and the longer she endures, the more lovely she becomes. Besides, as the constant use of the finest delicacies is attended, in progress of time, with disgust: so the constant enjoyment of the finest beauty palls the appetite at last. But that love that terminates on the bright qualities of the soul, becomes still more and more ardent: and, because it is in its nature altogether pure and chaste, it admits of no satiety. Xenophon, Banquet of Xenophon, #8 (p.619)

15: It [fountain] fills the mouth drawn to it just as with the prophet when he drew in the spirit through his mouth [Ps 118.131].

Moreover, the plural, "kisses," is used in order that we may understand that the lighting up of every obscure meaning is a kiss of the Word of God bestowed on the perfected soul. And it was perhaps with reference to this that the prophetic and perfected soul declared, "I opened my mouth and drew breath" [Ps 118.131]

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11-12: it looks to the treasure house of all good things. A name for this treasure house is the heart.

This treasure, then, is hidden, not in some desert place, nor in the woods, but in a field. And it is certainly possible that the field has in it vineyards to produce wine, that it has the treasure for the sake of which the finder spent all that he possessed and bought that field. He, then, who bought that field, can say that the treasure which is in the field is better than the wine which is in it. And in the same way also the Bridegroom is good, and the breasts of the Bridegroom, who is hidden, like a treasure in the Law and the Prophets, are better than the wine that those contain--that is to say, the teaching in them that is open and rejoices all who hear. The breasts of the Bridegroom, therefore, are good, because treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him. Origen, Song Commentary, p.69

13-14: From it there comes to the breasts the wealth of divine milk by which the soul is nourished and draws grace in proportion to its faith.

But it behooves us primarily to understand that, just as in childhood we are not affected by the passion of love, so also to those who are at the stage of infancy and childhood in their interior life--to those, that is to say, who are being nourished with milk in Christ, not with strong meat, and are only beginning "to desire the rational milk without guile" [Heb 5.12, 1Pt 2.2]--it is not given to grasp the meaning of these sayings. For in the words of the Song of Songs there is that food, of which the Apostle says that "strong meat is for the perfect;" and that food calls for hearers "who by ability have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil" [Heb 5.14].

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2sq: perception within us is two-fold: bodily and divine...A certain analogy exists between the activities of the soul and the sense organs of the body...Wine and milk are distinguished by taste while the intellectual and apprehending capacity of the soul grasps spiritual realities.

He [Paul] points out that there are other senses in many besides these five bodily senses; these other senses are acquired by training, and are said to be trained when they examine the meaning of things with more acute perception. For what the Apostle says about the perfect having their senses trained to discern good and evil must not be taken carelessly and in any sense one likes. Origen, Song Commentary, p.79

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6: all human wisdom, science, power of observation and comprehension of imagination cannot match the simple nourishment of the divine teaching.

And all other thinkers are confronted by the necessary consequence that there is something contrary to Wisdom, i.e., to the highest knowledge; but we are not. For there is nothing contrary to that which is primary; for all contraries have matter, and things that have matter exist only potentially; and the ignorance which is contrary to any knowledge leads to an object contrary to the object of the knowledge; but what is primary has no contrary. Aristotle, Metaphysics, bk xii, chap 10 (1075)

16sq: We understand the perfumes as virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance, fortitude and so forth.

"But we want perfumes to make up the treat," answered Callias: "What say you to that?"--"Not at all," replied Socrates; "perfumes, like habits, are to be used according to decency; some become men, and others women; but I would not that one man should perfume himself for the sake of another; and for the women, especially such as the wife of Cribobulus or Nicerates, they have no occasion for perfumes, their natural sweetness supplying the want of them. Xenophon, Banquet of Xenophon, #2 (p.605).

If, however, on the third interpretation it behooves us to take this passage as referring to the soul that is following the Word of God, to every soul that has been first instructed in ethics and then practised in natural philosophy, then the Word of God is drawn by means of all those things which, as we showed just now, are taught in the aforesaid studies--namely, amendment of manners, knowledge of affairs, and uprightness of conduct. And He is willing to be drawn, and comes very gladly to instructed souls; and He accepts their drawing of Him courteously, and kindly yields thereto. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.76-7

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4-5: However, all of them together [odors of virtues] could not compare with that perfect virtue which the heavens contain.

Just as the end of life is the beginning of death, so also stopping in the race of virtue marks the beginning of the race of evil. Thus our statement that grasping perfection with reference to virtue is impossible was not false, for it has been pointed out that what is marked off by boundaries is not virtue. Life of Moses, p.30

16sq: the unlimited [divine] nature cannot be accurately contained by a name; rather, every capacity for concepts and every form of words and names, even if they seem to contain something great and befitting God's glory, are unable to grasp his reality.

What strength, what vigour will these maidens get from it [ointment], if ever they are able by some means to attain to His actual, incomprehensible, unutterable Self? I think myself that if they ever did attain to this, they would no longer walk or run, but, bound as it were by the band of His love, they would cleave to Him, and would have no further power ever to move again...

In the meantime, apparently, the Bride, who has associated with herself the many maidens--they are said to be numberless a little further on--relates that she is running towards the fragrance of the Bridegroom's ointments under the compulsion of one single sense, the sense of small alone...

This comes about, as we have seen, when as yet they have received only the scent of Him. What, do you think, will they do when the Word of God takes possession of their hearing, their sight, their touch, and their taste as well, and offers excellences from Himself that match each single sense according to its nature and capacity? Origen, Song Commentary, pp.77-8

Cf. Republic 508e above, 31.7

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1-2: But starting from certain traces and sparks, as it were, our words aim at the unknown, and from what we can grasp we make conjectures by a kind of analogy about the ungraspable.

Paul the apostle teaches us that the invisible things of God are understood by means of things that are visible, and that the things that are not seen are beheld through their relationship and likeness to things seen [Rom 1.20 & 2Cor 4.18]. He thus shows that this visible world teaches us about that which is invisible, and that this earthly scene contains certain patterns of things heavenly [Heb 9.23]. Thus it is to be possible for us to mount up from things below to things above, and to perceive and understand from the things we see on earth the things that belong to heaven. On the pattern of these the Creator gave to His creatures on earth a certain likeness to these, so that thus their great diversity might be more easily deduced and understood. Origen, Song Commentary, p.218

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18-9: it [the soul] has no spot or wrinkle or the like; it is neither lacking in perception because of infancy nor enfeebled by old age.

But now it says that when "Thy name" has been emptied out as ointment, "have they loved Thee," not those little old souls clothed in the old man, nor yet the spotted and wrinkled, but that "the maidens" have don so--that is to say, the young souls growing up in years and beauty, who are always being made new and renewed from day today, as they put on the new man, who is created according to God [Eph 4.24].

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1: Therefore, such maidens have grown through their virtues and at the proper time have entered the bridal chamber of the divine mysteries.

But that which is said here: "Thy name is as ointment emptied out. Therefore have the maidens loved Thee, have they drawn Thee. We will run after Thee into the fragrance of Thine ointments"--the maidens, namely, draw Christ to themselves--this surely must be taken as referring to the churches, which are one Church when perfected, but many "maidens" while they are still under instruction and advancing on their way. These, then, draw Christ to themselves through faith. Origen, Song Commentary, p.76

17: Those who are not yet perfect in virtue and who are still young promise to run towards the goal which the scent of perfumes represents.

To make its meaning clearer, therefore, let us if you like take an example from these bodily senses, and thus we shall come at length to those divine senses which Scripture calls those of the inner man. If, then, the bodily eye has the faculty of sight and there is no obstacle in the way, it will perceive the colours and sizes and qualities of bodies in their entirety and without any deception; for if the power of sight be hindered either by dimness or by any other weakness, the mental judgment undoubtedly will be disturbed, and one thing will be done in place of another.. And in the same way, if the interior vision, instead of being trained by learning and diligence so as to acquire the power of discerning good and evil through much experience, gets its eyes misted as it were by ignorance and inexperience, or bleary as from the feebleness induced by some disease, it cannot manage to discern good from evil by any means at all.

We have digressed somewhat over this, because we wished to show that the sense of smell, by which the Bride and the maidens perceived the fragrance of the Bridegroom's ointments, denotes not a bodily faculty, but that divine sense of scent which is called the sense of the interior man. Origen, Song Commentary, p.80

21: But the more perfect soul...has already obtained the goal for which the course is undertaken, and it is worthy of the treasures in the storehouse.

The Bride has drawn her Bridegroom's attention to the fact that the maidens, attracted by His fragrance, were running after Him, and that she herself likewise was going to run with them; so that in all things she might set them an example. But now, as though she has already attained the reward of her labour in thus running with the runners, she tells us that the King has brought her into His chamber, that she may see there all the royal riches. And this gives her good reason for gladness and rejoicing, in that she has now beheld the secrets of the King and hidden mysteries. Origen, Song Commentary, p.84

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10-12: she searches the depths of God within the innermost sanctuary of paradise and...sees things unseen and hears words not to be spoken [2Cor 12.4].

She named the King in this connection, I believe, to emphasize how very rich this chamber was, being thus royal and filled full with many and vast riches. I think that the man who said he had been rapt to the third heaven, and thence to Paradise, and had heard unspeakable words that it is not lawful for a man to utter, had been close to this King, or following Him. For what words to you think he heard, unless he heard them from the King, and heard them either in the chamber or from just outside? [cf. Is 45.3] Origen, Song Commentary, p.85

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1-3: "Let us rejoice and be glad in you" [Sg 1.4], for your joy is our common rejoicing. Because you love the Word's breasts more than wine, we shall imitate you and love your breasts more than human wine, for through them you feed those who are infants in Christ.

But the maidens, who had not yet reached that degree of blessedness, nor attained the summit of perfection, nor yet had so produced the fruits of perfect charity in conduct and works as to enable them to say from experience that His breasts are good, these, I say, seeing the Bride delighted and refreshed by the Bridegroom's breasts--that is to say, by the springs of wisdom and knowledge that proceed from them--seeing her drink the cups of heavenly teaching, promise and say, as those who copy her perfection and desire to follow in her steps: "We will love thy breasts more than wine." Origen, Song Commentary, p.87

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7: Whatever is crooked he makes straight.

It follows, therefore, that as far as there is any iniquity in us, to that extent precisely are we far from loving Christ, and to that extent also is there in us transgression of His commandments. Let us, therefore, make equity into a sort of straight-edge; so that if there be anything of iniquity in us, by using this ruler and adding thereto the rule of God's commandments, anything crooked or twisted that there may be in us may be put straight by this ruler's edge; so that it may be said of us also: "Equity hath loved Thee." Origen, Song Commentary, p.89

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17sq: However, the elements inside [the tent] form a kind of brilliant lampstand and are full of mysteries. There is the censer's good odor, expiation from sins, that solid gold altar of piety, the beauty of veils elegantly woven from the good colors of virtues, the firm pillars of reason, the unshakable pedestals of doctrine, the gracefulness of capitals which refer to the grace in the directing part of the soul, the basins of the soul and whatever else that looks to the heavenly, incorporeal way of life.

Each one of us, however, can also build a tabernacle for God in himself...He ought, therefore, to apply the pillars of the virtues to himself, silver pillars, that is, rational patience...It is also possible to extend the courts in yourself when your heart enlarges in accordance with the word of the Apostle to the Corinthians: "You also be enlarged" [2Cor 6.13]. One can also defend himself with bars when he has bound himself with the unanimity of love. One can stand on silver bases when he stations himself upon the stability of the word of God, the prophetic and apostolic word. It is possible to have a gilded capital on the pillar if the golden capital on it is the faith of Christ. Origen, Homilies on Exodus, FOTC#71.341

For it not only Peter and John and James who are pillars of the Church, nor was only John the Baptist a burning light, but all those who themselves support the Church and become lights through their own works are called "pillars" and "lights."...And again the divine Apostle bids others to be pillars, saying "Be steadfast and unmovable." And he made Timothy into an excellent pillar when he made him a pillar and ground of truth. In this tabernacle both the sacrifice of praise and the incense of prayer are seen offered continually at morning and evening...When hearing about the lavers, one will certainly perceive those who wash away the blemish of sins with mystical water. Life of Moses, pp.101-2

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11: Although I have become dark through sin and have dwelt in gloom by my deeds, the bridegroom made me beautiful through his love.

There are two patterns eternally set before them; the one blessed and divine, the other godless and wretched: but they do not see them, or perceive that in their utter folly and infatuation they are growing like the one and unlike the other, by reason of their evil deeds; and the penalty is that they lead a life answering to the pattern which they are growing like. Theaetetus,177a

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15-16: you will become the "curtains of Solomon," that is, you will become the king's temple with King Solomon dwelling in you.

The curtains of Solomon likewise are black; but that blackness of his curtains is not considered unbecoming for so great a king in all his glory...Because of my dark colouring you may compare me to the tents of Cedar and the curtains of Solomon; but even Cedar was descended from Ismael, being born his second son, and Ismael was not without a share in the divine blessing [Gen 25.13, 16.11]. Origen, Song Commentary, pp. 91 & 92

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1: Solomon, who is named after peace, is peaceful.

That, I think, is why curtains are mentioned in the Song of Songs, and are said to be Solomon's, by whom is understood the Peaceable Christ. The tabernacle, then, is His; so also are its fittings; especially if we consider that tabernacle which is called the "true tabernacle, which God hath pitched, and not man" [Heb 9.24]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.105

12: The soul is thus led over from error to the truth, and the dark form of its life is changed to resplendent grace.

Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good. Republic, 518 c-d

But the release of the prisoners from chains, and their translation from the shadows to the images and to the light, and the ascent from the underground den to the sun, while in his presence they are vainly trying to look on animals and plants and the light of the sun, but are able to perceive even with their weak eyes the images in the water [which are divine], and are the shadows of true existence (not shadows of images cast by a light of fire, which compared with the sun is only an image)--this power of elevating the highest principle in the soul to the contemplation of that which is best in existence, with which we may compare the raising of that faculty which is the very light of the body to the sight of that which is brightest in the material and visible world. Republic, 532 b-c

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7: The cause of darkness is not ascribed to the Creator, but its origin is attributed to the free will of each person.

But the reverse is the case with the blackness of the soul; for the soul is scorched, not by being looked at by the sun, but by being looked down upon. Its blackness, therefore, is acquired not through birth, but through neglect; and, since it comes through sloth, it is repelled and driven away by means of industry. Origen, Song Commentary, p.107

Mortal souls, behold a new cycle of life and mortality. Your genius will not be allotted to you, but you will choose your genius; and let him who draws the first lot have the first choice, and the life which he chooses shall be his destiny. Virtue is free, and as a man honors or dishonors her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser. Republic, 617 d-e

Error arises either from fearing what one ought not to fear, or from fearing in the wrong manner, or at the wrong time, or the like; and similarly with regard to occasions for confidence.

The courageous man then is he that endures or fears the right things and for the right purpose and in the right manner and at the right time, and who shows confidence in a similar way. (For the courageous man feels and acts as the circumstances merit, and as principle may dictate. Any every activity aims at the end that corresponds to the disposition of which it is the manifestation. So it is therefore with the activity of the courageous man: his courage is noble; therefore its end is nobility, for a thing is defined by its end. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii, vii, pp.157-59

14: I have become dark not by nature, but shame was brought upon me because the sun changed my appearance from radiance to darkness.

It is not (in reference to Col 1.15), as some suppose, that God's nature is visible to one and invisible to others; for the apostle did not say "the image of God who is invisible" to men or "invisible" to sinners, but he makes an absolutely unvarying declaration about God's very nature in these words, "image of the invisible God." And John, too, when he says in the gospel, "No one hath seen God at any time" [Jn 1.18], plainly declares to all who are capable of understanding, that there is no existence to which God is visible; not as if he were one who is visible by nature and yet eludes and escapes the gaze of his creatures because of their frailty, but that he is in his nature impossible to be seen. Origen, On First Principles, p.13

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11-19: Human nature was an image of the true light, far removed from any darkness; it gleamed by imitation of the archetype's beauty. Temptation, however, which has cast down flaming heat through deception, struck down the first tender shoot lacking roots.

All of us, my dear maidens come into this world with an extraordinary beauty which has a relationship and kinship with wisdom. And then it is that men's souls most clearly resemble Him who begot and formed them, when they continue to reflect the pure image of His likeness and the lineaments of that vision which He saw when He fashioned them and gave them an imperishable and immortal form.

For the unbegotten and incorporeal beauty, that knows neither beginning nor decay, but is unchangeable and ageless and without need, He who abides in Himself and is Light itself in secret and unapproachable places, embracing all things in the orbit of His power, creating and arranging them--He it was who made the soul in the image of His likeness. This is why it is endowed with reason and immortality; for, fashioned, as I have said, in the image of the Only-Begotten, it has an unsurpassed loveliness. It is for just this reason that the spirits of wickedness became enamored of it and lie in wait for it: they would force it to defile that godlike and lovely image which it possesses. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.90-1.

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5: He will not be burned by the sun during the day.

And we have shown that this takes place wherever a sinful condition has previously obtained, and that a person is darkened or scorched by the sun where the ground of sin exists. But where there is no sin, the sun is not said to burn or darken; even as it is written of the just man in the Psalms, "The sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night" [Ps 120.6]. So you see that the sun never burns the saints, in whom is nothing sinful; for, as we have said, the sun has twofold power: it enlightens the righteous; but sinners it enlightens not, but burns, for they themselves "hate the light because they do evil" [Jn 3.20].

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3-17: God gave to rational nature the grace of free will and bestowed on man the power to find what he wants that the good might be present in our lives, not coerced and involuntary, but the result of free choice. The movement of our will freely leads us to apparent realities. In the nature of things is found someone who misused this free will, and it has become an inventor of wicked deeds.

cf. St. Basil the Great, Hom. Quod Deus Non Est Autor Malorum, PG#31.345b sq

For the Creator granted to the minds created by him the power of free and voluntary movement, in order that the good that was in them might become their own, since it was preserved by their own free will; but sloth and weariness of taking trouble to preserve the good, coupled with disregard and neglect of better things, began the process of withdrawal from the good. Now to withdraw from the good is nothing else than to be immersed in evil; for it is certain that to be evil means to be lacking in good...And so each mind, neglecting the good either more or less in proportion to its own movements, was drawn to the opposite of good, which undoubtedly is evil. Origen, On First Principles, p.130

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7-10: For those who have abandoned a good attitude give substance to evil by departing from the good (evil has no substance; it is separate from the good). These persons hasten to associate with others in a partnership of evil.

Indeed, different trees are generally understood in the Church as meaning the individual souls of the faithful, of whom it is written: "Every tree that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up" [Mt 15.13]. And again Paul, who calls himself "God's coadjutor" in "God's husbandry," says also of himself: "I have planted, Apollo watered" [1Cor 3.6]; and so too the Lord in the Gospels: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good" [Mt 12.33]. Just so, as the different trees are understood in the Church as meaning the individual souls of the faithful, are the various powers and virtues in the individual soul understood under the figure of sundry kinds of trees. Origen, Song Commentary, p.241

The objects and the personal relationships with which friendship is concerned appear, as was said at the outset, to be the same as those which are the sphere of justice. For in every partnership we find mutual rights of some sort, and also friendly feeling...Thus the other associations aim at some particular advantage; for example sailors combine to seek the profits of seafaring in the way of trade or the like, comrades in arms the gains of warfare, their aim being either plunder, or victory over the enemy or the capture of a city. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, viii, ix, pp.487-9

If human wisdom consists in the comprehension of true works of wisdom and counsel, for me the work of that counsel or wisdom is incorruptibility, the soul's happiness, fortitude, righteousness, prudence and any name understood with regard to virtue which we might add to the knowledge of good things. "After I have seen these things," Ecclesiastes says, "and judged in a scale being with non-being, I discovered the difference between wisdom and foolishness as when I had compared light with darkness. It seems to me that this example is a favorable judgment for that which is beautiful." Because darkness has no substance while light does (if nothing obstructs the sun's rays, we have no darkness), this example shows that evil does not exist by itself but is a deprivation of the good, while the good always remains fully itself and is not preceded by deprivation. Commentary on Ecclesiastes, J.355-6

But when the superior comes to follow the inferior, then is displayed the misshapen character of matter, when it is isolated from nature (for in itself matter is a thing without form or structure), and by its shapelessness is also destroyed that beauty of nature with which it is adorned through the mind; and so the transmission of the ugliness of matter reaches through the nature to the mind itself, so that the image of God is no longer seen in the future expressed by that which was moulded according to it. On the Making of Man, PN.399a

But they deride our state of nature, and din into our ears the manner of our being born, supposing in this way to make the mystery ridiculous, as if it were unbecoming in God by such an entrance into the world as this to connect Himself with the fellowship of the human life. But we touched upon this point before, when we said that the only thing which is essentially degraded is moral evil or whatever has an affinity with such evil. The Great Catechism, PN.497a...What unseemliness, then, is contained in our revelation of God mingled with the life of humanity through those very means by which Nature carries on the combat against death? PN.497b

It [the divine nature] wishes, and admits nothing external. Indeed there is nothing external to It, with the soul exception of evil, which, strange as it may seem to say, possesses an existence in not existing at all. For there is no other origin of evil except the negation of the existent, and the truly-existent forms the substance of the Good. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN.450a

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3: persons keep guard over such evils [idolatry], thinking it a loss to be deprived of iniquity.

They are in a like case who strive to evade justice, which they see to be painful, but are blind to the advantage which ensues from it, not knowing how far more miserable a companion a diseased soul is than a diseased body; a soul, I say, which is corrupt and unrighteous and holy. Gorgias, 479c

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5: Immortality is the vineyard, a state free from passion likeness to God and estrangement from evil.

Theaetetus, 176 b sq; cf. J.28.22-3 above

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1: Teach me, then, where you feed. By finding the pasture of your salvation, I will be filled with the food of heaven.

Him, therefore, the Bride now plies with questions that she may learn and hear from Him in what pastures He keeps His sheep, and in what pleasant places He keeps Himself during the midday heat. And what she calls "midday" denotes those secret places of the heart in which the soul pursues the clearer light of knowledge from the Word of God; for midday is the time when the sun is at the zenith of its course. So when Christ, the Sun of Justice, shows to His Church the high and lofty secrets of His powers, then He will be teaching her where lie His pleasant pastures and His places of repose at noon. Ibid, p.124-5

Whence it appears that in the visitation of Abraham and in the banquet of the patriarchs with Joseph there was no need for that time to be denoted under the name of the number six; it was all right for it be called midday. For the Bride, who was already foreshadowed in them, wanted to learn where the Bridegroom fed and where He had His couch; and therefore she calls the time midday. Origen, Song Commentary, p.126

For this reason, therefore, in the present passage the Bride desires to be enlightened with the full light of knowledge, lest going astray through lack of instruction she may be made in any respect like those schools of teachers which occupy themselves not with the very wisdom of God, but with the wisdom of this world and of the princes thereof. Ibid, p.127

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18: The best safeguard for knowledge is not to be ignorant of oneself.

For, if thou hast not known thyself, and hast lived in ignorance thereof, not trying to acquire self-knowledge, thou shalt certainly not possess a tent of thine own, but shalt run about among the shepherds' tents, and, in those now of one, now of another, thou shalt feed thy goats, those restless, straying creatures that are appointed for sins. Origen, Song Commentary, p.129

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6: Therefore, the safest guard for the good in us is not to be ignorant of ourselves.

[J.40] O man, you who partake of [human] nature, attend to Moses' injunction [Dt 15.9] and know yourself by closely examining your true nature. Whenever you pay attention to external affairs, you are not taking heed of yourself. Learn from the great Paul who considered our [human] nature and said that we are composed of the exterior and interior man; the former is corrupt while the latter is being renewed [2Cor 4.16]. Concerning Those Who Have Died, J.40

12-13: Since only one thing has an intelligible, immaterial nature, the material world continuously passes away by a kind of flux and movement.

There is, then, something which is always moved with an unceasing motion, which is motion in a circle; and this is plain not only in theory but in fact. Therefore the first heaven must be eternal. There is therefore also something which moves it. And since that which is moved and moves is intermediate, there is something which moves without being moved, being eternal, substance, and actuality. And the object of desire and the object of thought move in this way; they move without being moved. The primary objects of desire and of thought are the same. For the apparent good is the object of appetite, and the real good is the primary object of rational wish.

That a final cause may exist among unchangeable entities is shown by the distinction of its meanings. For the final cause is (a) some being for whose good an action is done, and (b) something at which the action aims; and of these the latter exists among unchangeable entities though the former does not. The final cause, then, produces motion as being loved, but all other things move by being moved.

Now if something is moved it is cable of being otherwise than as it is. Therefore if its actuality is the primary form of spatial motion, then in so far as it is subject to change, in this respect it is capable of being otherwise--in place, even if not in substance. But since there is something which moves while itself unmoved, existing actually, this can in no way be otherwise than as it is...The first mover, then, exists of necessity; and in so far as it exists by necessity, the necessary has all these senses--that which is necessary perforce because it is contrary to the natural impulse, that without which the good is impossible, and that which cannot be otherwise but can exist only in a single way.

Of such a principle, then, depend the heavens and the world of nature. Aristotle, Metaphysics, book xii, chap 7

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8-10: "If you know not yourself, beautiful one among women, go in the footsteps of the flocks, and feed the kids by the shepherds' tents." [Sg 1.8]

The admirable maxim "Understand thyself" or "Know thyself" is said to derive, among others, from one of the seven men whom popular opinion acclaims as having been of outstanding wisdom among the Greeks. But Solomon who, as we saw in our Introduction, anticipated all these sages in time and in wisdom and in the knowledge of things, says to the soul, as to a woman, and with the implication of a threat, "Unless thou hast known thyself, O fair one among women, and hast recognized whence the ground of thy beauty proceeds--namely, that thou wast created in God's Image...Origen, Song Commentary, p.128

18: In order that you do not suffer misfortune, watch over yourself as the text says.

Cf. St. Basil the Great, Homilia in Illud, "Attende Tibi Ipsi," PG#31.212b

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1: For this is the surest way to protect your own good; realize how much more than the rest of creation you are honored by the Creator.

And in speaking of the copy and the original we may assume that words are akin to the matter which they describe; when they relate to the lasting and permanent and intelligible, they ought to be lasting and unalterable, and, as far as their nature allows, only the copy or likeness and not the eternal things themselves, is to becoming, so is truth to belief. Timaeus, 29b

For neither is the earth shifted from its own base, nor does the heaven ever relax in its vehemence, or slacken its motion. On the Making of Man, PN.389a

What great thing is there, then, in man's being accounted a representation and likeness of the world,--or of the heaven that passes away, of the earth that changes, of all things that t hey contain, which pass away with the departure of that which compasses them round? Ibid, PN.404a

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5-12: When the bride asked to learn the place of rest where the Good Shepherd passes his time so that she might no longer suffer anything unwillingly through ignorance, the bridegroom's friends then explained the sure norm of truth: the soul must watch over herself and know herself.

To know oneself has always been, so it seems, the greatest of all lessons. For, if anyone knows himself, he will know God; and, in knowing God, he will become like Him, not by wearing golden ornaments or by trailing long flowing robes, but by performing good deeds and cultivating an independence of as many things as possible. God alone has no needs, and He rejoices in a particular way when He sees us pure in the adornment of our minds and our bodies clothed with the adornment of the holy garment of self-control. Christ the Educator by Clement of Alexandria, FOTC#23.199

"And to every understanding heart I have given understanding" [Ex 31.6]; that is, to every one capable of acquiring it by pains and exercise. And again, it is written expressly in the name of the Lord: "And speak thou to all that are wise in mind, whom I have filled with the spirit of perception" [Ex 28.3]. Clement of Alexandria, AN.305a

Cf. St. Basil the Great, Homila in Illud, "Attende Tibi Ipsi," PG#31. 197 sq

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13: "You mounted your horses, and your cavalry is salvation." [Hab 3.8]

Here, then, are the horses of the Lord [4Kg 6.8ff & Hab 3.8] that He mounts, and also His horsemen. And I myself take both the horses and the horsemen to be none other than those souls who accept the bridle of His discipline, and bear the yoke of His sweetness, and are led by the Spirit of God and, in so doing, find salvation for themselves. Origen, Song Commentary, p.141

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19: the Word...to drown their whole evil power in the water and to become like that power leaving behind in the water the opposing army much like a stain.

For who does not know that the Egyptian army--those horses, chariots and their drivers, archers, slingers, heavily armed soldiers, and the rest of the crowd in the enemies' line of battle--are the various passions of the soul by which man is enslaved? Life of Moses, p.83

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1-3: Persons endowed with keen observation claim that this bird [turtledove] remains alone if it is separated from its mate and never takes another as if chastity were naturally exercised in its life.

This beauty of the cheeks, however, that is, of modesty and chastity, is compared to turtle-doves. They say it is the nature of turtle-doves that the male bird never mates with any female but one, and the female similarly will not suffer more than a single mate; so that, if one of the pair be killed and the other left, the survivor's desire for intercourse is extinguished with its mate. The figure of the turtle-dove is thus fittingly applied to the Church, either because she knows no union with any other after Christ, or because all the continence and modesty that is in her resembles a flight of many doves. Origen, Song Commentary, p.146

The turtle-dove and the ring-dove both have but one mate, and let no other come nigh; both sexes co-operate in the process of incubation. It is difficult to distinguish between the sexes except by an examination of their interiors. Ring-doves are long-lived; cases have been known where such birds were twenty-five years old, thirty years old, and in some cases forty. Aristotle, History of Animals, 613 (Barnes edition)

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18: A harbor is a welcome safe refuge for sailors and a calm haven after their sufferings at sea.

...and they sailed across the swelling billows of existence upon this tree of life, as upon a skiff, and anchored in the haven of the will of God; enviable now after so fair a voyage, they rest their souls in that sunny, cloudless calm. They now ride safe themselves at the anchor of a good hope, far out of reach of the tumult of the billows. On Virginity, PN.370a-b

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19: Thus the bride's small necklaces yield us abundant fruit for thought.

Great in this matter, therefore, is the praise of the Bride, great the glory of the Church, when her obedience, patterned as it is on Christ's, equals the obedience of Him whom the Church imitates.

This same sort of necklace is mentioned also in Genesis, as given by the patriarch Juda to Thamar, his daughter-in-law, with whom he had lain as with a harlot [Gen 38.11]. This mystery is not obvious to all. We understand by it that Christ gave to the Church, whom He had gathered in from the prostitution of many philosophical doctrines, these pledges of future perfection, and put this necklace of obedience on her neck. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.147-8

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1: "We will make for you figures of gold with studs of silver while the king was at table." [Sg 1.11-12]

We have already noted that this little book, being cast in the form of a play, is woven out of interchange of characters; and now the friends and companions of the Bridegroom--who, on the mystical interpretation, can be taken, as also we remarked before, either as the angels or even the prophets, or as the patriarchs--appear as speaking the words quoted to the Bride. Origen, Song Commentary, p.148

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10: or whether he is the one dwelling in us and walking about with us and penetrating our soul's depths, it makes no difference for the meaning.

"I will dwell among them, and I will walk among them" [2Cor 6.16], meaning among those, surely, who offer such roomy hearts to the Word of God that He may even be said to walk about in them, that is, in the open spaces of a fuller understanding and a wider knowledge. Origen, Song Commentary, p.158

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20: We should not proceed without considering why the king does not use gold as his ornament but images of gold.

And the soul is like the eye: when resting upon that on which truth and being shine, the soul perceives and understands and is radiant with intelligence; but when turned towards the twilight of becoming and perishing, then she has opinion only, and goes blinking about, and is first of one opinion and then of another, and seems to have no intelligence? Republic, 508e

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8: But for those capable of looking on the truth, they are likeness of gold and not gold shining in the delicate studs of silver.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day? Republic, 516 b

10-11: they are likenesses of gold and not gold shining in the delicate studs of silver. Silver is the meaning of these words as scripture says, "The tongue of the just is fire-tried silver." [Prov 10.20]

We have dealt at unusual length with these matters because we wanted to show that when the Bridegroom's friends tell the Bride that they are making for her likenesses of gold inlaid with silver, they mean thereby the things that have been handed down in writings in the Law and the Prophets by means of figures, and images, and likenesses. Origen, Song Commentary, p.153-4

"I gave you silver and gold, but you have made silver and golden Baalim" [Os 2.10]. Which is as much as to say: "I gave you perception and reason, with which to perceive and worship me, your God; but you have transferred the perception and reason that is in you to the worship of evil spirits."

We are told, too, that "the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire" [Ps 11.7]; again, in another place "the tongue of the just" is said to be "as silver tried by fire" [Prov 10.20]. And the cherubim are described as golden, because they are by interpretation the plenitude of knowledge...But what need is there to multiply proof texts, when those who will can easily see for themselves from many Scripture passages, that gold is applied to the intellect and mind, whereas silver is referred only to language and the power of speech? Origen, Song Commentary, pp.151-2

15: The revelation presented here says that the divine nature transcends every conception which tries to grasp it.

And when two things are alike, must they not partake of the same idea?

They must.

And will not that of which the two partake, and which makes them alike, be the idea itself?

Certainly.

Then the idea cannot be like the individual, or the individual like the idea; for if they are alike, some further idea of likeness will always be coming to light. Parmenides, 132d

17: It [divine nature] does not show its form which no one has seen or can see, but through a mirror and a riddle it provides a reflection of the thing sought, that is, a reflection present in the soul by a certain likeness.

Or les paroles ineffables qu'il entendit, un homme n'avait pas, d'apres lui, le droit de les repeter [2Cor 12.4]. Je pense qu'en regard de la connaissance totale, les Ecritures entieres, meme comprises tres exactement, ne sont que d'infimes elements et de bien modestes commencements. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#222.49

All that is said by any of us can only be imitation and representation. For if we consider the likenesses which painters make of bodies divine and heavenly, and the different degrees of gratification with which the eye of the spectator receives them, we shall see that we are satisfied with the artist who is able in any degree to imitate the earth and its mountains...and further, that knowing nothing precise about such matters, we do not examine or analyze the painting; all that is required is a sort of indistinct and deceptive mode of shadowing them forth. Critias,107 b-d

Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness. Republic, 516e

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2: Every point signifying these conceptions is like a point lacking extension since it cannot show what is present in the mind.

Republic, cf. J.31.7 above

17-8: Perhaps St. Paul himself or someone like him could be worthy of such words.

For Paul shows that this happened when he says: "now these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our sake, upon whom the end of the ages is come" [1Cor 10.11]. but do not take this end, of which Paul speaks, in a temporal sense; for the end of time will find many for whom these things were not written, neither will such grasp their significance. You must understand "the end of the ages" rather as the consummation of things; these are the things that are said to have actually happened to Paul and others like him, and to have been written for their sakes. Origen, Song Commentary, p.153

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14: before her spouse's beauty appears, with the sense of smell she touches the one she seeks.

If you have become as the Apostle and have said, "We are the good odour of Christ..." in every place "in them that are saved" [2Cor 2.15]. Your good works are your spikenard. But if you sin, your sins will exhale a foul odour; the penitent says with truth: "My sores are putrefied and corrupted because of my foolishness" [Ps 37.6]. The Holy Spirit does not have in mind to speak here of the spikenard we see with our eyes, nor did the Evangelist write of visible ointment; it is the spiritual spikenard, the spikenard that sent forth its odour, that is meant. Origen, Second Homily on the Song of Songs, p.286

Is there or is there not an absolute justice?

Assuredly there is.

And an absolute beauty and absolute good?

Of course.

But did you ever behold any of them with your eyes?

Certainly not.

Or did you ever reach them with any other bodily sense?--and I speak not of these alone, but of absolute greatness, and health, and strength, and of the essence or true nature of everything. Phaedo, 65d

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18: by its goodness it [compounded fragrance of virtues] imitates his goodness; by its incorruptibility, his in corruptibility.

The divine intelligence, being nurtured upon mind and pure knowledge, and the intelligence of every soul which is capable of receiving the food proper to it, rejoices at beholding reality, and once more gazing upon truth, is replenished and made glad, until the revolution of the worlds brings her round again to the same place. In the revolution she beholds justice, and temperance, and knowledge absolute. Phaedrus, 247c

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10: such a person would not have it in his nature to look steadily upon the Word of God as upon the sun; rather he sees it within himself as in a mirror.

Though men who see the sun in a mirror do not gaze at the sky itself, yet they see the sun in the reflection of the mirror no less than those who look at its very orb. So, He says, it is also with you. Even though you are too weak to perceive the Light Itself, yet, if you but return to the grace of the Image with which you were informed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves. On the Beatitudes, ACW.149

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are not called realities. He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. Republic, a-b

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1-2: Whichever expression we take, one idea is common to all, namely, that from the virtues we obtain knowledge of the good which transcends all understanding just as the beauty of an archetype can be inferred from its image.

He who would approach the knowledge of things sublime bust first purify his manner of life from all sensual and irrational emotion. He must wash from his understanding every opinion derived from his customary intercourse with his own companion, that is, with his sense perceptions, which are, as it were, wedded to our nature as its companion. When he is so purified, then he assaults the mountain. Life of Moses, p.93

Evils, Theodorus, can never pass away; for there must always remain something which is antagonistic to good. having no place among the gods in heaven, of necessity they hover around the mortal nature, and this earthly sphere. Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible: and to become like him, is to become holy just, and wise. Theaetetus, 176a sq

cf. J.85.20, Republic, 508e

We are no longer obliged to fix our attention upon this nature because it is simply not worth our while. Paul says, "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things which are not seen" [2Cor 4.18]. What is seen is transitory whereas what is invisible is eternal. But once we have turned our minds to the invisible nature within us, we must truly believe in it, even though it escapes our perception. Concerning Those Who Have Died, J.40

It will therefore be no detriment to our participation in the Good, that the soul should be free from such emotions and turning back upon herself should know herself accurately what her actual nature is, and should behold the Original Beauty reflected in the mirror and in the figure of her own beauty. For truly herein consists the real assimilation to the Divine; viz. in making our own life in some degree a copy of the Supreme Being. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN.449b

For when the mind of men does not hold converse with bodies, nor has mingled with it from without aught of their lust, but is wholly above them, dwelling wit itself as it was made to begin with, then, transcending the things of sense and all things human, it is raised up on high; and seeing the Word, it sees in Him also the Father of the Word, taking pleasure in contemplating Him, and gaining renewal by its desire toward Him; exactly as the first of men created, the one who was named Adam in Hebrew, is described in the Holy Scriptures as having at the beginning had has mind to God-ward in a freedom unembarrassed by shame, and as associating with the holy ones in that contemplation of things perceived by the mind which he enjoyed in the place where he was--the place which the Holy Moses called in a future a Garden. St. Athanasius, Against the Heathen, PN.5a

16: the dove becomes stronger by inhaling it [perfume] while the beetle dies. Thus it was with that divine incense, the great Paul, who resembled the dove.

It is said also that vultures die from the smell of unguents, if any one anoints them, or gives them something smeared with an unguent to eat: likewise they say that beetles also die from the smell of roses. Aristotle, On Marvelous Things Heard (Barnes edition), p.1294, #147

If a man sprinkle some perfume upon beetles, which are ill-smelling creatures, they cannot endure the sweet scent, but die. In the same way it is said that tanners, who live all their life in foul air, detest perfumes. And the Egyptians maintain that all snakes dread the feathers of the ibis. Aelian, On Animals, I, 38 (p.59)

If a Lion eats a Lion's bane, it dies. And insects are destroyed if one drops oil on them. And perfumes are the death of Vultures. Beetles you will extirpate if you scatter roes on them. Ibid, iv, 18 (p.231)

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10-11: If the nard of the Gospel has any relationship to the bride's perfume, we may consider that precious, "genuine nard" poured on the Lord's head [Jn 12.3] which filled the entire house with its good odor.

Now how are we to connect what was said before, "while the King is at His repose," with this which follows, "My spikenard sent forth its odour?" The Gospel says that "there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of pure and precious spikenard" [Mt 26.6]; it is the holy woman I am speaking about now, not the sinner. For I know that Luke spoke of a sinner, but Matthew and John and Mark did not do so. Not the sinner, therefore, but the holy woman, whose name John added--it was Mary--came with an alabaster box of pure and precious ointment, and poured it over Jesus' head. Origen, Second Homily on the Song of Songs, p.285

20-21: And the house filled with the fragrance represents the entire universe, the whole world: "wherever this gospel will be preached in the entire world."

She, therefore, in pouring her ointment on the head of the Lord, fulfilled the type of that which is said here: "My spikenard sent forth its odour." Do you likewise take spikenard; so that you too, when you have moistened Jesus' head with fragrance, may boldly say, "My spikenard sent forth its odour," and may hear His answering word: "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached, that also which she has done shall be told for a memorial of her" [Mt 26.13], your deed also having been proclaimed among all the nations. Origen, Second Homily on the Song of Songs, pp.285-6

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4-9: Since, in the context of the Song of Songs, nard brings the odor of the bridegroom to his bride, and in the Gospel the good odor of Christ which fills the house becomes the anointing of the whole body of the Church in all the universe and the whole world, perhaps one may find a connection between the two passages.

Origen, Second Homily on the Song of Songs, cf. J.88.14

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11: What now follows seems appropriate for the nuptial theme, that is, a bride preparing herself in her bridal chamber.

But when the Bride, the fair, the perfect one who is without spot or wrinkle, has entered the Bridegroom's chamber, the secret place of the King, she comes back to the maidens and, telling them the things that she alone has seen, she says, "The King brought me into his chamber." She does not say: "He brought us"--using the plural--"into His chamber;" the others remain without, the Bride alone is brought into the chamber, that she may see there dark and hidden treasures and may take back words to the damsels: "The King brought me into His chamber." Origen, First Homily on the Song of Songs, p.275

12: However, the text contains a better teaching available only for those who are already perfect. (made in reference to the location of the heart)

There is a heart, then, in all sanguineous animals, and the reason for this has already been given. For that sanguineous animals must necessarily have blood is self evident. And, as the blood is fluid, it is also a matter of necessity that there shall be a receptacle for it; and it is apparently to meet this requirement that nature has devised the blood-vessels. These, again, must necessarily have one primary source. For it is preferable that there shall be one such, when possible, rather than several. This primary source of the vessels is the heart. For the vessels manifestly issue from it and do not go through it. Moreover, being as it is homogeneous, it has the character of a blood-vessel. Again its position is that of a primary part. For nature, when no other more important purpose stands in her way, places the more honourable part in the more honourable position; and the heart lies about the centre of the body, but rather in its upper than its lower half, and also more in front than behind. Aristotle, Parts of Animals,665 b (Barnes edition)

For the source must, whenever possible, be one; and, of all places, the best suited for a source is the centre. For the centre is one, and is equally or almost equally within reach of every part. Again, as neither the blood itself, nor yet any part which is bloodless, is endowed with sensation, it is plain that the part which first has blood, and which holds it as it were in a receptacle, must be the primary source. And that this part is the heart is not only a rational inference, but is also evident to the senses. For no sooner is the embryo formed, than its heart is seen in motion as though it were a living creature, and this before any of the other parts, it being, as thus shown, the starting-point of their nature in all animals that have blood. Ibid, 666a

For this reason the breasts of quadrupeds are never placed on the chest. But in the human body there is ample space in this part; moreover, the heart and neighbouring organs require protection, and for these reasons this part is fleshy and the breasts are placed upon it separately, being themselves of a fleshy substance in the male for the reason just stated; while in the female, nature, in accordance with what we say is her frequent practice, makes them minister to an additional function, employing them as a store-place of nutriment for the offspring. The human breasts are two in number, in accordance with the division of the body into two halves, a right and a left. They are somewhat firmer and divided, because the ribs in this region are joined together and because their presence is not burdensome. Ibid, 688 a

15-19: "My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh; he shall lie between my breasts" [Sg 1.13]. It is said that women fuss over their ornaments to be recognized as lovely by their companions, but the also take care that their bodies appear attractive with sweet smelling perfumes for their husbands.

Thus if animal is defined by the possession of sensitive soul, this principle must in the sanguineous animals be in the heart, and, in the bloodless ones, in the corresponding part of their body. But in animals all the members and the whole body possess some connate natural heat, and hence when alive they are observed to be warm, but when dead and deprived of life they are the opposite. Indeed, the source of this warmth must be in the heart in sanguineous animals, and in the case of bloodless animals in the corresponding organ, for, though all parts of the body by means of their natural heat work upon and concoct the nutriment, the governing organ takes the chief share in this process. Aristotle, On You, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration, 469b (Barnes edition, p.748)

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16-97.9: Thus the bride has become the mother of the divine cluster of grapes which blossomed, that is, which flourished before the Lord' s passion, while during his passion it poured out its wine. The wine that gladdens the heart [Ps 103.15] is called the blood of the grape after the Passion. We may enjoy a cluster of grapes in two ways: by its blossom which gladdens our senses, by its good odor, and by the ripeness of its fruit when enjoyed by eating or by enlivening banquets with wine. In the context of the Song, the bride gathers the still flowering cluster and calls the vine's first shoots a cypress.

The child Jesus born within us advances by different ways in those who receive him in wisdom, in age, and in grace [cf. Lk 2.52]. He is not the same in every person, but is present according to the measure of the person receiving him. He shows himself according to each one's capacity. He comes either as an infant, or a child advancing in age, or as one fully grown after the example of the cluster. Christ is never seen with the same form upon the vine, but he changes his form with time-now budding, now blossoming, now mature, now ripe and finally as wine. Thus the vine holds out a promise with its fruit. It is not yet ripe for wine, but it awaits maturity. Meanwhile it does not lack any delight, for it gladdens our sense of smell instead of our taste with its expectation of the future; by its fragrance of hope it sweetens the soul's senses. A faith firm in a grace we hope for becomes a delight for us who wait in patience.

Thus the "cluster of cypress" promises wine. It is not yet wine, but by its blossom-

the blossom is hope-it waits for a grace yet to come.

We must observe, however, that the Bride's words are so framed as to make it clear that the spikenard, and the sachet of a myrrh-drop and the cluster of cyprus are for herself alone, as being one who has already risen to these points of progress. For that soul only is perfect, who has her sense of smell so pure and purged that it can catch the fragrance of the spikenard and myrrh and cyprus that proceed from the Word of God, and can inhale the grace of the divine odour. Origen, Song Commentary, p.168

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8: The child Jesus born within us advances by different ways in those who receive him in wisdom, in age and in grace [Lk 2.52].

Cf. J.306.12sq

But supramundane and immaterial nature being free and independent of bodily envelopment, requires no words or names either for itself or for that which is above it, but whatever utterance of the part of such intellectual nature is recorded in Holy Writ is given for the sake of the hearers, who would be unable otherwise to learn what is to be set forth, if it were not communicated to them by voice and word. And if David in the spirit speaks of something being said by the Lord to the Lord [Ps 109.1], it is David himself who is the speaker, being unable otherwise to make known to us the teaching of what is meant, except by interpreting by voice and word his own knowledge of the mysteries given him by Divine inspiration. Against Eunomius, PN.290

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10: The additional mention of En-Gadi signifies a green spot where the vine takes root and produces healthy, sweet fruit.

Or surely, since this cluster is said to come from the vineyards of Engaddi, and Engaddi means "the eye of my temptation," if there is anyone capable of understanding the truth of the saying that "the life of man upon earth is temptation," and if he understands also how one is saved from temptation in God, and who so knows the nature of his own temptation that it can be said of him that in all these things he sinned not with his lips before God" [Job 7.1 & 1.22], to such a one as this the Word of God is made "a cluster of cyprus from the vineyards of Engaddi." Origen, Song Commentary, p.168

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6: For he is the true light, true life and true righteousness and all the rest as Wisdom says [Prov 1.3].

Paul's words show us the significance of Christ's name when saying that he is the power and wisdom of God. But he also called Christ peace, inaccessible light where God dwells, sanctification, redemption, the great high priest and Pasch, propitiation of souls, splendor of glory, stamp of [God's] substance and maker of the ages, spiritual food and drink, rock, water, foundation of faith, chief cornerstone, image of the great and invisible God, head of his body the Church, first-born among many brothers, mediator of God and of men, only-begotten Son crowned with glory, the principle of created beings which he, the beginning, said about himself (Col 1.18). Christ is the beginning, king of righteousness, king of peace and in addition to these, king of all things with his infinite power of lordship; he has many other names which cannot be easily numbered. On Perfection, J.175-7

9: When a person becomes these qualities by good works, he looks into the cluster of his own conscience and sees the bridegroom there and mirrors the light of truth by his own pure life.

And the friend of the gods may be supposed to receive from them all things at their best, excepting only such evil as is the necessary consequence of former sings?

Certainly.

Then this must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death. Republic, 613a

Theaetetus, 176b, cf. J.28.22-3

Because Christ is a rock [1Cor 10.4], our lives should be firm and stable according to virtue, and we should firmly endure sufferings, resist every assault of sin and manifest a constant, steadfast soul. These and similar qualities transform us into the rock imitating the Lord's immutability and constancy as far as possible for our mutable nature. On Perfection, J.192

But I say our recollection of these names is intended to help us achieve the goal we have sought to establish from the outset, namely, how a person might bring about perfection in himself. If one realizes that he participates in this adorable name by bearing the name of Christian in accord with the Apostles' teaching [Acts 11.26], he will show the power of the other names which reveal Christ since he participates in each of them. Ibid, J.209-10

In my judgment this is the perfection of the Christian life: the name of Christ which demonstrates all his other names shares in our soul, words and life's activities so that the holiness praised by Paul [1Ths 5.23] may be constantly kept in the entire body, mind and spirit with no admixture of evil. If anyone says that the good is difficult to attain--for the Lord of creation is alone immutable while human nature is mutable and inclined to change--how can a mutable nature realize what is fixed and stable in the good? My response is that a person who does not lawfully strive in a contest cannot be crowned [1Tim 2.5]; he would not be a legitimate athlete if an opponent were lacking. Ibid, J.212-13

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5-101.4: If any foreign matter becomes mixed with gold and adulterates it, expert goldsmiths remedy the situation by refining the gold in fire. They repeat this process several times, and the gold in fire. They repeat this process several times, and at each repetition they observe how the color of the gold has improved. This cleansing by fire does not end until the appearance of the gold is pure and unadulterated. The reason for mentioning this in the present context will become clear to you from a consideration of the text. Human nature was golden at the beginning and shone by reason of resemblance to the undefiled good. However, it became discolored and blackened by the admixture of vice as we have heard the bride say at the beginning of the Song of Songs: her neglect to tend the vineyard made her black [1.5]. God, who fashions all things in his wisdom, cares for his bride's deformity. He does not contrive for her any new beauty which was not formerly there; rather, he leads her back to her first grace by removing what was blackened through evil, changing her color to one which is not defiled.

It appears, then, as if an eminent craftsman were to cast over again a noble image, wrought by himself of gold or other material, and beautifully proportioned in all its members, upon his suddenly perceiving that it had been mutilated by some infamous man, who, too envious to endure the image being beautiful, spoiled it, and thus enjoyed the empty pleasure of indulged jealousy. For take notice, most wise Aglaophon, that, if the artificer wish that that upon which he has bestowed so much pains and care and labour, shall be quite free from injury, he will be impelled to melt it down, and restore it to its former condition. But if he should not cast it afresh, nor reconstruct it, but allow it to remain as it is, repairing and restoring it, it must be that the image, being passed through the fire and forged, cannot any longer be preserved unchanged, but will be altered and wasted. Wherefore, if he should wish it to be perfectly beautiful and faultless, it must be broken up and recast, in order that all the disfigurements and mutilations inflicted upon it by treachery and envy, may be got rid of by the breaking up and recasting of it, while the image is restored again uninjured and unalloyed to the same form as before, and made as like itself as possible. For it is impossible for an image under the hands of the original artist to be lost, even if it be melted down again, for it may be restored; but it is possible for blemishes and injuries to be put off, for they melt away and cannot be restored; because in every work of art the best craftsman looks not for blemish or failure, but for symmetry and correctness in his work. Now God's plan seems to me to have been the same as that which prevails among ourselves. For seeing man, His fairest work, corrupted by envious treachery, He could not endure, with His love for man, to leave him in such a condition, lest he should be for ever faulty, and bear the blame to eternity; but dissolved him again into his original materials, in order that, by remodelling, all the blemishes in him might waste away and disappear. Methodius of Olympus, From the Discourse on the Resurrection, AN.365a-b

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18-19: The Song teaches us by these words [Sg 1.15] about the restoration of beauty which the bride gained by approaching the true beauty from which she has departed.

Cf. Origen, Song Commentary, J.47.15-16

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1-3: Formerly you were not fair. Having strayed from the archetypal beauty by association with vice, you became ugly.

We must think of the opposing powers in precisely the same way. These have become attached to their particular place or office, so as to be "principalities," or "powers," or "rulers of the darkness of the world," or "spiritual hosts of wickedness," or "malignant spirits," or "impure daemons," not because they hold it essentially nor because they were so created; on the contrary, these ranks in wickedness have been assigned to them in proportion to their bad conduct and the progress they have made in wrong-doing. Thus there exists that other order of rational creatures, who have so utterly abandoned themselves to wickedness that they lack the desire, rather than the power, to return, so long as the frenzy of their evil deeds is a passion and a delight. Origen, On First Principles, pp.71-2

When the holy apostle is desirous of teaching us a great and hidden truth concerning knowledge and wisdom he says in the first epistle to the Corinthians [2.6-8]: "Howbeit we speak a wisdom among the perfect; yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to nought; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory, which none of the rulers of this world knew. For had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory." Here, in his desire to show that there are different kinds of wisdom, he describes one as a "wisdom of this world," one as a "wisdom of the rulers of this world" and another as God's wisdom. Moreover, when he uses the phrase, "wisdom of the rulers of this world," I do not think he means that there is one wisdom for all the rulers of this world, but he seems to me to indicate a particular kind of wisdom for each individual ruler. Origen, On First Principles, p.223

5-6: to wherever the inclination of free will moves, it is changed accordingly.

C'est pourquoi il est necessaire que nous prenions garde a tout ce que nous voulons accomplir et que nous examinions si ce que nous voulons accomplir provient des desirs du diable, afin que, apres avoir passe en revue ce qui provient des desirs du diable, nous cessions de vouloir l'accomplir, sachant que quiconque veut accomplir les desirs du diable n'a en aucune facon Dieu pour pere, mais qu'il s'est rendu enfant du diable, qu'il s'est transforme par la volunte d'accomplir les desirs du malin et qu'il est devenu a l'image du mauvais pere, de qui proviennent les images du terrestre, les siennes, et dont elles recoivent leur empreinte. Car c'est lui le premier terrestre, parce que, en tombant le premier loin des realites superieures et en desirant une vie differente de la vie superieure, il a merite d'etre le commencement non de la production, ni de la creation, mais du modelage du Seigneur, produit pour etre la risee de ses anges. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#290.247-9

Cf. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii, vii: cf. J.50.7

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5-8: Therefore virtue and vice are diametrically opposed to each other, and they can never be present together at one time in the same person.

Now since it is impossible that contradictories should be at the same time true of the same thing, obviously contraries also cannot belong at the same time to the same thing. For of contraries, one is a privation no less than it is a contrary--and a privation of the essential nature; and privation is the denial of a predicate to a determinate genus. If, then, it is impossible to affirm and deny truly at the same time, it is also impossible that contraries should belong to a subject at the same time, unless both belong to it in particular relation and one without qualification. Aristotle, Metaphysics, book iv, chapt. 6

But the soul which has been polluted, and is impure at the time of her departure, and is the companion and servant of the body always, and is in love with and fascinated by the body and by the desires and pleasures of the body, until she is led to believe that the truth only exists in a bodily form, which a man may touch and see and taste, and use for the purposes of his lusts,--the soul, I mean, accustomed to hate and fear and avoid the intellectual principle, which to the bodily eye is dark and invisible, and can be attained only by philosophy;--do you suppose that such a soul will depart pure and unalloyed? Phaedo, 81 c

11: The humble person has separated himself from haughtiness, and he who puffs himself up with vanity has rejected humility.

Let us see whom she [wisdom] affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also how different she would become if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth and rock which in wild variety spring up around her because she feeds upon earth, and is overgrown by the good things of this life as they are termed. Then you would see her as she is, and know whether she have one shape only or many, or what her nature is. Republic, 611d

13-14: What need is there to point out that in contradictory elements the absence of one implies the establishment and exercise of the other?

For even contraries have in a sense the same form; for the substance of a privation is the opposite substance, e.g. health is the substance of disease (for disease is the absence of health); and health is the formula in the soul or the knowledge of it. The healthy subject is produced as the result of the following train of thought:--since this is health, if the subject is to be healthy this must first be present, e.g. a uniform state of body, and if this is to be present, there must be heat; and the physician goes on thinking thus until he reduces the matter to a final something which he himself can produce. Thus the process from this point onward, i.e., the process towards health, is called a "making." Aristotle, Metaphysics, book vii, chapt. 7 (1032)

16: Since our free choice has the capacity to become whatever it desires, the World rightly says to the bride who has been made beautiful, "You have rejected with fellowship with evil."

Let us tell them that they are all the more truly what they do not think they are because they do not know it; for they do not know the penalty of injustice, which above all things they ought to know--not stripes and death, as they suppose, which evil-doers often escape, but a penalty which cannot be escaped.

What is that?

There are two patterns eternally set before them; the one blessed and divine, the other godless and wretched: but they do not see them, or perceive that in their utter folly and infatuation they are growing like the one and unlike the other, by reason of their evil deeds. Theaetetus, 176e

104

11: So too the soul, when cleansed by the Word from vice, it receives within itself the sun's orb and shines with this reflected light.

Beatitudes, cf. J.90.10

Republic, 516 b, cf. J.86.8

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12: Persons skilled in studying natural phenomena say that the eye sees by receiving the impression of images emanating from visible objects.

cf. J.104.4sq

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15: I do not hold anything else as beautiful in comparison with you--neither human acclamation, glory nor worldly power.

And a similar uncertainly surrounds the conception of the Good, because it frequently occurs that good things have harmful consequences: people have before now been ruined by wealth, and in other cases courage has cost men their lives.

Again, each man judges correctly those matters with which he is acquainted; it is of these that he is a competent critic. To criticize a particular subject, therefore, a man must have been trained in that subject: to be a good critic generally, he must have had an all-round education...And it makes no difference whether they are young in years or immature in character: the defect is not a question of time, it is because their life and its various aims are guided by feeling. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, i, iii

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5-7: You are sprung from Judah, and the Jewish people are brothers of the one who comes to you from the Gentiles. Therefore, you are rightly called "beloved" of the one who desired you because of the manifestation of your divinity in the flesh.

We read in Exodus that myrrh, onycha, cassia, and galbanum were at God's command compounded into incense, into the chrism for priests. If you, therefore, see my Saviour descending to earthly and lowly things, you will see how one small drop flowed down to us from mighty power and majesty divine. The prophet also sang about this drop: "And it shall be that, from the drop of this people, Jacob that is to be gathered shall be gathered together" [Mic 2.11]. And just as the coming of Our Saviour in flesh is denoted under another figure by the stone that was cut out without hand from the mountain [Dan 2.34]--for he who came down to earth was not the whole mountain, nor could human weakness be portrayed in terms of such; but He was a stone from the mountain, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense that came down into the world--so, under another figure, He is here called a drop. Origen, Second Homily on the Song of Songs, p.286

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7-8: How could a mortal, perishable nature be joined with an imperishable, inaccessible nature unless the shadow of his body acted as a mediator of the light for us who live in the darkness?

After the ethereal and divine nature, which we declare to be orderly and to be, moreover, free from disturbance, change, and external influence, there follows immediately an element which is subject throughout to external influence and disturbance and is, in a word, corruptible and perishable. In the first portion of this occurs the substance which is made up of small particles and is fiery, being kindled by ethereal element owing to its superior size and the rapidity of its movement. In this so-called fiery and disordered element flashes shoot and fires dart, and so-called "beams" and "pits" and comets have their fixed position and often become extinguished.

Next beneath this spreads the air, which is in its nature murky and cold as ice, but becomes illuminated and set on fire by the fiery element, and thus grows brighter and warm. Aristotle, On the Universe, 392a

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:--behold! Human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and below them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets...

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision,--what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them,--will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him? Republic, 514-15

10: The bride uses the term "bed" to interpret in a figurative sense the blending of human nature with the divine.

As for her speaking of "our bed," in the sense of the place of her body that she shares with the Bridegroom, you must understand this in the light of the figure that Paul also uses when he says the "our bodies are members of Christ" [1Cor 6.15]. For when he says "our bodies," he shows that these bodies are the body of the Bride; but when he mentions the "members of Christ," he indicates that these same bodies are also the body of the Bridegroom. If, then, these bodies are shady, as we said just now, in the sense that they are full of good works and leafy with the abundance of spiritual perception, then we can truly say of them that "the sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night" Ps 120.6]. For the resting as he does beneath the shadow of the Word of God (the sun that does burn the righteous is not the sun that may be praised, but rather he who "transformeth himself into an angel of light," 2Cor 11.14). Origen, Song Commentary, p.173

19: Because of this mystery [union of Christ with his church], the virgin soul names the union with God a bed.

But the bed which she says she shares with the Bridegroom seems to me to denote the soul's body; although the soul is still in the body, she has been considered worthy to be admitted to the company of the Word of God. And she says that it is shady--that is to say, not dry, but fruitful, and as it were bushy with a thicket of good works. Thus speaks the Bride, or the soul rather, she who has dove's eyes. Origen, Song Commentary, p.172

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2-3: This could not have happened unless the Lord had appeared to us "overshadowed" with a human body. He is not only bridegroom but builder of the house.

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.173

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7-10: People familiar with observing birds say that this bird [heron] has a certain aversion to intercourse and only couples with another out of necessity. It becomes depressed, cries and displays sadness at the prospect.

Of herons there are three kinds: the ash-coloured, the white, and the starry heron (or bittern). Of these the first mentioned submits with reluctance to the duties of incubation, or to union of the sexes; in fact, it screams during t he union, and it is said drips blood from its eyes; it lays its eggs also in an awkward manner, not unattended with pain. Aristotle, History of Animals, book ix, chapt. 1 (609)

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5-6: Cypress naturally has a pleasant scent. It is immune to decay and useful in many kinds of skillful artwork because of its lightness and adaptability for construction and decoration in notch-work.

Obviously, then, there are in the Church some things that are called cedars of God. So, when the Bridegroom says, "the beams of our houses are cedars," we must understand the cedars of God to be those who protect the Church, and that among them there are some stronger ones that are called rafters. And I think that those who faithfully discharge the office of a bishop in the Church may fitly be called the rafters, by which the whole building is sustained and protected, both from the rain and from the heat of the sun. And I think that, in the next place after these, priests are called beams. Moreover, the rafters are said to be of cypress, which tree possesses a greater strength and a sweetness of smell; and that denotes a bishop as being at once sound in good works and fragrant with the grace of teaching. And in the same way the beams are said to be of cedar, to show that priests ought to be full of the virtue of incorruption and the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.175-6

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18-19: Whether or not the bride has reached what she desired, her bridegroom's righteous eye sees her. Looking upon her good desire, he consents to make her a lily not suffocated by life's thorns which he calls "daughters."

To a soul whose simplicity and evenness and equity entitle it to be called a field, the Word of God may be said to become the Flower, and to teach her the beginnings of good works. But for such as are already seeking deeper things and pondering matters less to be seen on the surface, souls who, either because of their singular modesty or else because of their outstanding wisdom, are as it were the valleys, for those He becomes the Lily, so that they too may become as lilies breaking forth in the midst of the thorns--that is to say, fleeing from those worldly thoughts and interests which in the Gospel are compared to thorns [Mk 4.18]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.178

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14: Therefore she is named sister of the son, having been introduced by the Spirit of adoption into this relationship and released from fellowship with the daughters of that false father.

Il [Heracleon] dit que c'est parce qu'ils ont aime les desirs du diable et qu'ils les accomplissent que ceux-ci deviennent enfants du diable, alors qu'ils ne sont pas tels par nature...En effet, dit-il, par la nature qui leur est propre, ces etres-la n'engendrent rien: car ils sont cause de ruine et de perdition pour ceux qui leur sont livres; mais ceux-ci sont appeles leurs enfants parce qu'ils ont accompli leurs oeuvres.

Apres avoir enseigne une telle distinction, il n'a pas cherche le moins du monde a justifier par les Ecritures cette explication qui lui est propre. Si ce n'est pas par nature mais par merite qu'on porte les noms d'enfants de gehenne, de tenebres, d'iniquite--celles-ci sont, en effet, cause de ruine et de perdition, plus que de formation--, nous pourrons lui demander comment Paul did ces mots: "Nous etions par nature enfants de colere comme les autres" [Eph 2.3]; sinon, qu'ils nous expliquent comment elle n'est pas source de perdition et en soi une des pires sources de ruine,cette colere dont nous avons ete les enfants. Il dit, en outre, que Jesus les appelle maintenant enfants du diable, non que le diable engendre des enfants, mais parce que, en accomplissant les oeuvres du diable, ils lui ont ete rendu semblables. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#290.263-5

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5: On the other hand, the apple delights three of the senses: it is a pleasant sight to the eyes by its beautiful appearance, a sweet and lovely fragrance and food sweet to the sense of taste.

The Bridegroom is among the sons, therefore, as the apple tree is among the trees of the wood, in that He bears fruit that not only surpasses all other fruits in taste, but also in fragrance, and thus appeals equally to the soul's two senses, taste and smell. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.180-1

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8-12: but by fellowship with the fruit he [God] transforms them into sons of light and the day. Therefore, the soul whose senses are trained says, "His fruit is sweet in my throat" [Sg 2.3]. The fruit is clearly his teaching.

We can, then, take the trees of the wood as meaning those angels who have been the authors and promoters of every heresy; so that in this passage, when the Church compares the sweetness of Christ's teaching with the sourness of heretical dogmas and their barren and unfruitful doctrine, she describes as "apples" the sweet and pleasant doctrines preached in the Church of Christ, but as "trees of the wood" those that are asserted by the various heretics. Origen, Song Commentary, p.181

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3-4: However, the soul cannot be refreshed under the shadow of the tree of life unless she has an eager desire for it.

For no one will be able to reach the things that are true and perfect who has not first desired and longed to sit in this shadow.

Job says in the same way that "the whole life of man is a shadow" [Job 8.9], meaning, I think, that every soul in this life is shadowed by the covering of this gross body. So all who are in this life must of necessity be in the shadow in some sense. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.183-4

19: The intensity of her thirst has become so great that she is not satisfied with the cup of wisdom. The entire cup is not enough to quench her thirst.

It is still the Bride who speaks, but her words are now addressed, I think, to the friends and intimates of the Bridegroom, whom she is asking to bring her into the house of gladness, where wine is drunk and a banquet prepared. For she who had already seen the royal chamber desires now to be admitted also to the royal feast, and to enjoy the wine of gladness. Origen, Song Commentary, p.185

The Church, therefore, or the individual soul who longs for the things that are perfect, hastens to enter this house of wine, and to enjoy the teachings of wisdom and the mysteries of knowledge as the sweetness of a banquet and the gladness of wine.

We must however recognize the fact that besides this wine which is pressed from the dogmas of truth and mingled in Wisdom's bowl, there is another wine of an opposite nature with which sinners and those who accept the harmful dogmas of false learning wickedly get drunk. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.186-7

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9: It is necessary that everything be well ordered, especially with regard to love.

For if, as the Apostle says, "we are members one of another" [Eph 4.25], I think we ought to have towards our neighbours the sort of attitude that makes us love them, not as alien bodies, but as our own limbs. This fact of our being members one of another demands, therefore, that we shall have a similar and equal love for all. Song Commentary, pp.188-9

122

1: It is important to realize the order of love for which the Law is a guide: how one should love God, neighbor, wife and enemy.

For in Christ Jesus God is to be loved with the whole heart, and the whole soul, and the whole strength. So in this there is no measure. But for the love of one's neighbour there is a certain measure: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" [Mt 22.39], as Scripture says. If, then, you have either done somewhat less in the way of loving God than is within your capability and strength, or if you have not kept an even balance between yourself and your neighbour, but have made some differences, then charity is not ordinate in you, and is not keeping the order proper to itself. Origen, Song Commentary, p.188

7: If we have pure souls, we ought to love our wives as Christ loved his Church.

"Husbands, love your wives as your own bodies, as Christ also loved the Church" [Eph 5.25 & 28]. Now then, husbands must love their wives, of course; but must they not also love other women in all purity and holiness? Or will the others not come under the heading of "neighbours?" Are we to bestow love on a wife, or a mother, or a sister, if they are such as believe and cleave to God, and not bestow it on any other woman who has a neighbour's status too? Origen, Song Commentary, p.191

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4: Order love within me, that I may attribute to God his due, that I may not miss the proper measure with regard to everything else.

The Bride, surveying these differences and seeing that the soul in search of perfection needs to have knowledge about them all that she may assess the measure of charity due in every case, says to the Bridegroom's friends--to those, that is, who serve the Word of God--"Set ye in order charity in me;" that is to say, "Teach me and tell me how I must observe the order of charity in each of these cases." For all me, as we have already said, ought to be loved alike simply because they are men like ourselves; nay more, since we ourselves are rational, every other rational being ought to be loved equally by us. but, in respect of charity, there is something extra to be considered in regard to each person, alike as a man and as a rational being. If, for example, a man excels others either in his behaviour, or in his work, or in his intentions, or in his knowledge, or in his occupations, there is some measure of especial charity to be added to the general love that is his due, in return for each of these ways in which he excels, according to its merits. Origen, Song Commentary, p.192

17-19: Is it not clear that the virtues, once ordered in us in all their variety, are named according to their different operations?

There are also three other modes of observing a mean which bear some resemblance to each other, and yet are different; all have to do with intercourse in conversation and action, but they differ in that one is concerned with truthfulness os speech and behaviour, and the other with pleasantness, in its two division of pleasantness in social amusement and pleasantness in the general affairs of life.

In respect of truth then, the middle character may be called truthful, and the observance of the mean Truthfulness...In respect of pleasantness in social amusement, the middle character is witty and the middle disposition Wittiness; the excess is Buffoonery and its possessor a buffoon; the deficient may be called boorish, and his disposition Boorishness.

There are also modes of observing a mean in the sphere of an in relation to the emotions. For in these also one man is spoken of as moderate and another as excessive. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, ii, vii

Whereas, the truth is that God is never in any way unrighteous--he is perfect righteousness; and he of us who is the most righteous is most like him. Herein is seen the true cleverness of a man, and also his nothingness and want of manhood. For to know this is true wisdom and virtue, and ignorance of this is manifest folly and vice. All other kinds of wisdom or cleverness, which seem only, such as the wisdom of politicians, or the wisdom of the arts, are course and vulgar. Theaetetus, 176c

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12: The archer of these arrows is love who sends his own "chosen arrow" [Is 49.2], the only-begotten Son, to those who are saved, dipping the triple-pointed tip of the arrow in the Spirit of life.

If there is anyone anywhere who has at some time burned with this faithful love of the Word of God; if there is anyone who has received the sweet wound of Him who is the chosen dart, as the prophet says; if there is anyone who has been pierced with the loveworthy spear of His knowledge, so that he yearns and longs for Him by day and night, can speak of nought but Him, would hear of nought but Him, can think of nothing else, and is disposed to no desire nor longing nor yet hope, except for Him alone. Origen, Song Commentary, p.198

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4: The arrow's penetration opens up, as it were, a door and entrance for love.

Here we must make our first start from the first class; these are the perfect or viviparous animals, and of these the first is man. Now the secretion of the semen takes place in all of them just as does that of any other residual matter. For each is conveyed to its proper place without any force from the breath or compulsion of any other cause, as some assert, saying that the generative parts attract the semen like cupping-glasses, aided by the force of the breath, as if it were possible for either this residue or that of the solid and liquid nutriment to go anywhere else than they do without the exertion of such a force. Aristotle, Generation of Animals, p.1145 (Barnes edition)

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7: He therefore allows his bride to participate in his eternal incorruptibility, gracing her with length of years and a long life with his right hand.

But turn with all speed to the life-giving Spirit and, eschewing physical terms, consider carefully what is the left hand of the Word of God, what is the right; also what His Bride's head is--the head, that is to say, of the perfect soul or of the Church; and do not suffer an interpretation that has to do with the flesh and the passions to carry you away. Origen, Song Commentary, p.200

137

4-139.17: The Song of Songs now leads to desire a contemplation of the transcendent good. At the same time it causes pain in our souls when we recognize that we cannot grasp this good. For how could anyone not be sorrowful considering that in such ascents (to the good) the purified soul is exalted through love to participate in this goodness, and yet, as the Apostle says, it does not yet seem to have grasped what it seeks [Phil 3.13]? Earlier, when I described the bride's ascents, I said that she was blessed. She recognized the sweet apple and distinguished it from the barren forest. She desired her bridegroom's shadow, enjoyed his sweet fruit and entered the inner chambers of his joy. (She called this joy "wine" which gladdens the hearts of those who drink it, Ps 103.15.) Established in love, the bride was strengthened by the support of perfumes after having been embraced by the cover of apples; she received the arrow of love in her heart and then, once again in the archer's hands, she herself became an arrow directed at the target of truth by the hands of the powerful bowman [Ps 126.4].

I thought that the bride who had been raised up in so many ways had reached the

ultimate peak of happiness. It seems, however, the things accomplished earlier were but an introduction to the bride's ascent. The bride does not name all those earlier ascents

contemplation and clear recognition of truth, but she calls them the "voice" of the bridegroom whom she desires. That is to say, she can hear and recognize his Voice, but she does not enjoy him and know him. If, then, the bride has been raised to such heights--(for Paul was caught up to the third heaven [2 Cor 12.2-4])--and has not fully obtained what she was seeking, what about us? How should we regard our own situation, for we have not even approached the outer doors of the sanctuary of contemplation?

It is possible to see through the bride's own words the difficulty she has in contemplating her sought-after spouse. "The voice of my beloved," she says-not his form, or face or figure indicating the nature of what is sought after, but his voice which allows inference rather than certainty about who the speaker is. That the bride's words are conjecture rather than full and ambiguous comprehension is clear from the fact that the text does not use a single image but several. The bride thinks that she perceives her spouse in different ways at different times and never has the same image of what she has comprehended. She says: "Behold, he comes" [2.8]. The bridegroom is neither standing still nor remaining nearby that she can get a good look at him and see who he is. Instead, he removes himself from the bride's view before she comes to perfect knowledge: "Leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills." At one time he is thought to be a gazelle; at another he is likened to a young stag; "My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bethel" [2.9]. Thus, what is always

comprehended now has one shape and then another.

Thus, although the Bridegroom promises and tells His Bride--that is, His chosen disciples: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" [Mt 28.20], He nevertheless tells her elsewhere in parables that the householder called his servants and distributed to each one his money to trade with, and departed. And again He says that He went away to seek a kingdom for Himself; and yet again it is said with reference to the absent Bridegroom, that "at midnight there was a cry made" of those who said, "The Bridegroom cometh" [Mt 25.14]!

The Bridegroom is thus sometimes present and teaching, and sometimes He is said to be absent; and then He is desired. And either of these will suit either the Church or the dutiful soul. For when He allows the Church to suffer persecution and tribulations, He seems to her to be absent; and again, when she goes forward in peace and flourishes in faith and good works, He is understood as being present with her.

So it is with the soul. When she is trying to understand something and desiring to know some obscure and secret matters, as long as she cannot find what she is looking for, the Word of God is surely absent from her. But when the thing she sought comes up to meet her, and appears to her, who doubts but that the Word of God is present, illuminating her mind and offering to her the light of knowledge? And again we perceive He is withdrawn from us and comes again, in every matter that is either opened or closed to our understanding. Origen, Song Commentary, p.210 & 11

138

12-13: That is to say, she can hear and recognize his voice, but she does not enjoy him and know him. If, then, the bride has been raised to such heights--and has not fully obtained what she was seeking, what about us?

When Christ was coming, therefore, He stood awhile behind the wall of the house of the Old Testament. He was standing behind the wall, in that He was not yet showing Himself to the people. But when the time is come, and He begins to appear to the Church who sits inside the house, that is, within the letter of t he Law, and to show Himself to her though the things that had been foretold concerning Him, then He calls her to come forth and come outside to Him. Origen, Song Commentary, p.235

140

7-12: The text says, "The voice of my beloved" and immediately adds: "Behold, he comes"...Perhaps these words foresee the dispensation of God's Word which is made known to us through the Gospel.

And, when He has begun more and more to draw near to her senses and to illuminate the things that are obscure, then she sees Him "leaping upon the mountains and the hills;" that is to say, He then suggests to her interpretations of a high and lofty sort, so that this soul can rightly say: "Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills." Origen, Song Commentary, p. 209-10

141

5-7: "Gazelle" (dorkas) signifies keenness of vision, for it is said that this animal has marvelous vision (derkesthai) and gets its name from this fact.

And if you reckon the apostles also as the mountains upon which He leaps, as being higher than them all, and take the hills in the same way as meaning those whom in the second place He chose and sent, it will not be unfitting. For among these He is made "like unto a roe or a young hart"--to a roe, because its sight is keener than that of any other animal, and to a hart, because He comes to destroy the serpent. Origen, Song Commentary, p.209

I am moved also by a passage in the hundred and third Psalm which reads: "The high hills for the harts." We have indeed remarked already, with reference to the harts, that they may be taken as meaning the saints, who came into this world in order to destroy the poison of the serpent. But let us see now what the high mountains are which appear as being reserved for the harts alone, and which none can scale unless he be a hart. My own opinion is that it is knowledge of the Trinity that is called high mountains; no one can achieve possession of that, unless he be made a hart. Origen, Song Commentary, p.226

14-15: God is also compared to a young stag since he crosses the mountains and hills with his leaping. That is, he tramples and destroys the haughty, evil deeds of demons.

Such, then, are the harts whom the voice of the Lord makes perfect. And what is the voice of the Lord save that which is contained in the Law and the Prophets, and reaches even to John who was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" [Mt 3.3]? And John's own voice, that said: "Prepare ye the ways of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God" [Mt 3.3], made harts perfect that they might be "perfect in the same mind, and in the same knowledge" [1Cor 1.10]. For one who is such says with reason: "As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God" [Ps 41.2]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.225

And as for "the hart of friendships," who else should this be but He who destroys the serpent that had beguiled Eve and by spreading the poison of sin in her with his inbreathed encouragement had infected the whole of her posterity with the contagion of the Fall, He who came to loose in His own flesh the enmities which the baneful mediator had brought to pass between God and man? Ibid, p.225

Let us not miss this further point, however, that He is compared to a roe or a fawn in the first place, though a hart is obviously a larger animal than is the roe. Lot at this closely; does not the reason for it lie perhaps in the fact that while the salvation of believers depends upon two things, their understanding of the faith--likened, as we have said, to a roe by reason of its power of sight and contemplative insight--that is taken as the first step in salvation, whereas second place is given to perfection of works, which is represented under the figure of the hart, that conquers and destroys the poison of serpents and the wiles of the devil? Ibid, p.228

142

4-6: Since it is the young stage who is able to destroy wild beasts and to put to flight serpents by its breathing and coloration, the bridegroom who watches over all things is compared to a gazelle.

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.141.5-7

The person who had already tasted virtue and has understood by personal experience the good is no longer wicked, because constraint and admonition have lured him away from inclinations toward evil; he now looks to virtue and thirsts after the good. Psalm Forty-One compares unrestrained, excessive desire to thirst.

It speaks of an especially thirsty animal which represents vehement desire. This animal is a deer which can feed upon poisonous animals. It consumes the hot, fiery humors of these animals and thereby experiences thirst since it has been poisoned by their humor. Hence, the deer desires water more ardently to slake its thirst. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, J.39-40

8-9: he leaps over and destroys every opposing force which the Song symbolically calls mountains and hills.

For it is possible to call every whole-hearted believer in God a mountain or a hill, according to the quality of his living and the extent of his understanding. Though such a one was formerly a valley, as Jesus advances in him in age and wisdom and grace, "every valley shall be filled" [Lk 3.5]; for of such it is said that "they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion" [Ps 124.1], and of Jerusalem it is said that "the mountains are round about her" [Ps 124.2]. But all such as are proud and haughty like mountains and hills shall be brought low; because "everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" [Lk 18.14]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.215-16

143

4: They [demons] were in the synagogues and in many other places where they exalted and raised themselves up against human nature.

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.141.8-10

7: But the young stage who destroys serpents and who fashions the disciples into the nature of stages says to them, "I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions." [Lk 10.19]

If, therefore, in accordance with the principles that we have now established all things that are in the open stand in some sort of relation to others that are hidden, it undoubtedly follows that the visible hart and roe mentioned in the Song of Songs are related to some patterns of incorporeal realities, in accordance with the character borne by their bodily nature. And this must be in such wise that we ought to be able to furnish a fitting interpretation of what is said about the Lord perfecting the harts, by reference to those harts that are unseen and hidden. Origen, Song Commentary, p.223

11: that the greatness of those who are raised on high by virtue might appear and no longer be obscured by the hillocks of evil.

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.142.4-6

145

3-4: We understand the windows to be the prophets who let in the light while the lattices are the "woven work" of the precepts of the Law.

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.138.12-13

5-13: Afterwards, there comes the full brilliance of the light when the true light appears to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and this light blends itself with our human nature. First the rays of the prophetic writings and the Law illumine our soul through their

intelligible windows and lattices; then they create in us a desire to see the sun in the

open air. Finally, what we desire becomes a reality.

Moreover, He does not hide the supernal glory in darkness, making it difficult for those who want to contemplate it; but He first illumines the darkness by the brilliant light of His teaching and then grants the pure of heart the vision of the ineffable glory in shining splendor. The Lord's Prayer, ACW.35-6

147

11-12: for those who gaze at the true God receive in themselves the properties of the divine nature, while those who attend to the vanity of idols are changed into what they behold and become stone instead of men.

And they have the less difficulty in finding the nature of their own god in themselves, because they have been compelled to gaze intensely on him; their recollection clings to him, and they become possessed of him, and receive from him their character and disposition, so far as man can participate in God. Phaedrus, 253a

148

10: Meanwhile the symbolic wall of teaching--I mean the Law--remained in place, forming a shadow of the good things to come.

Republic, 514, cf. J.108.7-8

18: Therefore, by drawing near to the light, human nature becomes light.

Plotinus, Enneads, I 6, 9, cf. J.407.15

He became the image of the invisible God out of love so that in his own form which he assumed, you might be conformed through him to the stamp of archetypal beauty for becoming what he was from the beginning. If we are to become the invisible God's image, we must model the form of our life upon the pattern given us [Jn 13.15]. On Perfection, J.195.3-4

151

1-2: In this light it takes on the beautiful form of a dove, I mean the dove which indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit.

For the Word of God would not otherwise say that she was His neighbour, did He not join Himself to her and become one spirit with her. Not would He call her fair, unless He saw her image renewed day by day. And, did He not perceive her to be able to receive the Holy Spirit, who descended on Jesus at the Jordan in the form of a dove, He would not say to her, "My dove." For she had conceived the love of the Word of God and was desiring to come to Him by a swift flight, saying, "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest" [Ps 54.7]? I will fly with my affections, I will fly with my spiritual perceptions and rest, when I have understood "the treasures of His wisdom and knowledge" [Col 2.3]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.240

10: The word "winter" symbolizes a variety of evils. In winter what once has flourished now wastes away.

Well did He signify the natures of vices and sins in a single marvelous saying, when He said that this kind of winter and of rains that fall upon us from the offense and storm of vices had "departed to themselves," thus indicating that sins have no being. Origen, Song Commentary, p.242

153

8: Hence the various passions were raised to a crest by adverse winds, resulting in shipwreck for the soul.

He would then be describing as "winter" the period in which the hail and storms and the other catastrophes of the ten plagues chastised the Egyptians; or that in which Israel was engaged in diverse wars, or even the time of her resistance to the Saviour Himself when, caught in the storm of unbelief, she was overwhelmed in the shipwreck of faith. Origen, Song Commentary, p.243

14-15: The virtues are the flowers in our life, now blossoming and bearing fruit in their own season.

When, therefore, all these things have gone out of the soul, and the tempest of desires has fled from her, then the flowers of the virtues can begin to burgeon in her; then the time of pruning also comes to her. And, if there be anything superfluous and of small use in her affections and perceptions, it may be cut back and recalled to the buds of spiritual understanding. Origen, Song Commentary, p.240-1

155

10-11: However, it [young fig] is not the fruit itself, but its prelude.

And what else is there that fits the opportuneness of this time and its delightfulness? "The fig tree," He says, "hath put forth her buds." The spirit of man, of which the fig tree is a figure, does not yet bear the fruits of the spirit--love joy, peace, and the rest; but it is beginning now to put forth buds of them. Origen, Song Commentary, p.241

156

9-12: Then he adds to our life certain distinctive marks of the blessedness hoped for by proper living, just as he proclaims the sweet figs to come by the young figs.

This winter, then, is past with its rains, and has "departed to itself;" for everyone did what he did in this life "to himself." The flowers, which have appeared on the earth, we may take as the beginning of the future promises. And take the time of pruning as "the axe laid to the root of the trees" at the consummation of the age, that it may "cut down every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit" [Mt 3.10 & 7.19]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.245-6

15: the flourishing vine whose vine gladdens the heart and will one day fill the cup of wisdom.

A ce qui a ete dit, ajoutons comment le Fils est "la vraie vigne" [Jn 15.1]. Ce sera clair pour ceux qui comprennent, sans preter atteinte a la grace qu'ont recue les prophetes (le verset): "Le vin rejouit le coeur de l'homme" [Ps 103.15]: si le coeur, c'est ce qu'il y a de spirituel en nous et si ce qui le rejouit, c'est la parole la plus delectable, qui arrache aux preoccupations humaines, communique une exaltation qui vient de Dieu et suscite une ivresse, non deraisonnable mais divine, comme celle, je pense, dont Joseph a enivre ses freres [Gen 43.34], la vigne qui donne "le vin qui rejouit le coeur de l'homme" [Ps 103.15] est bien la vraie vigne; elle est vraie, parce qu'elle a pour grappes la verite, pour sarments les disciples devenus ses imitateurs et portant, eux aussi, la verite comme fruit. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#120.161-3

157

1: Now the vine blossoms through its buds and emits a fragrant odor, sweet and delicate.

The Husbandman, who is the heavenly Father, purges the shoots of this vine, that they may bring forth much fruit. But according to him who said, "We are the good odour of Christ in every place" [2Cor 2.15], this vine first rejoices the nostrils with the sweetness of the odour yielded by its flowers. So the Word of God, seeing these beginnings of the virtues of the soul, calls her to Himself, bidding her hasten and come forth and cast aside all things corporeal, and come to Him and be made a sharer in His perfection. Origen, Song Commentary, p.242

15: The blessed, eternal nature surpassing all understanding contains all things in itself and is limited by nothing.

Republic, 508e, cf. J.85.20;

What a wonder of beauty that must be, he said, which is the author of science and truth, and yet surpasses them in beauty; for you surely cannot mean to say that pleasure is the good? Ibid, 509b

Now it appears that each person loves what is good for himself, and that while what is really good is lovable absolutely, what is good for a particular person is lovable for that person. Further, each person loves not what is really good for himself, but what appears to him to be so.

There being then three motives of love, the term Friendship is not applied to love for inanimate objects, since here there is no return of affection, and also no wish for the good of the object...But persons who wish another good for his own sake, if the feeling is not reciprocated, are merely said to feel goodwill for him: only when mutual is such goodwill termed friendship...To be friends therefore, men must (1) feel goodwill for each other, that is, wish each other's good, and (2) be aware of each other's goodwill, and (3) the cause of their goodwill must be one of the lovable qualities mentioned above.

The perfect form of friendship is that between the good, and those who resemble each other in virtue. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, viii, iii

15-21: The blessed, eternal nature surpassing all understanding contains all things in itself and is limited by nothing. For no name or concept can impose limits to it: not time, place, color, form, image, bulk, quantity, dimension, or anything else. Every good conceived as belonging to God's nature is present in infinite and unbounded measure. For evil has no place and the good is boundless.

We therefore approach that which is beyond all as far as our capacities allow us and we pass by way of the denial and the transcendence of all things and by way of the denial and the transcendence of all things and by way of the cause of all things. God is therefore known in all things and as distinct from all things. He is known through knowledge and through unknowing. Of him there is conception, reason, understanding, touch, perception, opinion, imagination, name, and many other things. On the other hand he cannot be understood, words cannot contain him, and no name can lay hold of him. he is not one of the things that are and he cannot be known in any of them. He is all things in all things and he is no thing among things. He is known to all from all things and he is known to no one from anything. Dionysius the Areopagite, The Divine Names, pp.108-9

Paul teaches us here that God is the one who eternally exists (He is the one who alone is greater than human comprehension; if a person understanding the things above constantly draws near to him, God remains forever transcendent by equal measure). The One who is unutterable, ineffable and indescribable transcends all knowledge and comprehension for the purpose of making you God's image. On Perfection, J.194-5

160

16: He says, "Come by yourself"[Sg 2.14]--not out of sadness or necessity but by yourself, confirming your desire for the good by our own reason and not led by necessity.

Again, the unrestrained man is so constituted as to pursue bodily pleasures that are excessive and contrary to right principle without any belief that he ought to do so, whereas the profligate, because he is so constituted as to pursue them, is convinced that he ought to pursue them. Therefore the former can easily be persuaded to change, but the latter cannot...The man of principle therefore is temperate, the man who has lost all principle, profligate.

Is then a man self-restrained if he stands by a principle or choice of any sort, or must it be the right choice? And is a man unrestrained if he fails to stand by a choice or principle of any sort, or only if he fails to stand by the true principle and the right choice?...Perhaps the answer is, that though accidentally it may be any principle or choice, essentially it is the true principle and the right choice that the one stands by and the other does not. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, vii, viii-ix

17-161.1: Virtue must be uncoerced, voluntary and free of all necessity.

Thus there is in us the principle of all excellence, all virtue and wisdom, and every higher thing that we conceive: but pre-eminent among all is the fact that we are free from necessity, and not in bondage to any natural power, but have decision in our own power as we please. On the Making of Man, PN.405b

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii, vii, cf. J.102.1-3

And I think it is not without reason that He says, "their sweet smell," and not a sweet smell; it was to show that there is in every soul a potential force and a freedom of the will, by means of which it has the power to do all things good. But this inborn good had been beguiled by the Fall, and perverted to sloth or wickedness: when it is amended by grace and restored by the Word of God, then assuredly it yields that odour which God the Creator had originally implanted in it, but which the guilt of sin had taken away. Origen, Song Commentary, p.244

161

15: No one understanding our faith would deny that the Gospel can be called a rock.

For no tracks of the serpent--that is, no marks of sin--can be found in this rock which is Christ, for it is He alone who did no sin. Origen, Song Commentary, p.249

Do not be surprised is with David this rock is as it were the ground and basis upon which the soul goes to God, while with Solomon it is the covering of the soul that is set upon reaching the mystical secrets of wisdom; seeing that Christ Himself is at once time called the Way by which believers go, and again the Forerunner, as when Paul says: "Into which the forerunner Jesus is entered for us" [Heb 6.20]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.249-50

19-20: If you, oh soul, have been practiced in the Law and have looked with your mind through the prophetic windows at the bright rays, no longer abide in the shadow of the wall.

cf. J.145.3-4

162

1-2: For the wall casts a shadow of the future good; it does not provide a true image of reality.

Republic, 514 b, cf. J.108.7-8.

166

5: This is the great and mighty commander of the demonic legions. But what does the sole, true power call him? A little fox!

The Bridegroom is speaking now no longer to the Bride, but to the companions, and telling them to catch the little foxes that lurk in the vineyards when they are just coming into bud, and do not let the vines develop the flowers...the foxes must be understood as the opposing forces and the wicked powers of demons who by means of base thoughts and perverted notions destroy the bloom of the virtues of the soul and ruin the fruit of faith. Origen, Song Commentary, p.254-5

10-11: Perhaps these hunters could be the angelic powers who escort the Lord when he appears upon the earth.

Their [angels] catching of the bad thoughts consists in their suggesting to the mind that those thoughts come not from God, but from the Evil One, and in imparting to the soul the power to discern the spirits; so that she may understand which thought is according to God, and which thought is from the devil. Origen, Song Commentary, p.255

15: These hunters might also be the "spirits who are sent to minster to those who are about to inherit salvation" [Heb 1.14].

Origen, Song Commentary, cf. J.166.5

169

14-170.3: It is these shadows chased after by those who have not had the eye of their soul enlightened by the light of truth. They regard shadow and vanity as real, and true being they regard as non-existent.

Republic, 515c, cf. J.108.7-9

170

14: Look as a gazelle which sees the thoughts of men and reads their hearts.

cf. J.141.5-10

16-17: Blot out the offspring of vice as a young stag destroys a serpent.

cf. J.142.3-8

173

7-11: creation is divided into two distinct classes, one sensible and material, the other intelligible and spiritual.

Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator, whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect. Timaeus,28a-b

And eternity could be well described as a god proclaiming and manifesting himself as he is, that is, as being which is unshakable and self-identical, and [always] as it is, and firmly grounded in life. But if we say that it is made up of many parts, t here is no need to be surprised, for each of the beings there is many through its unending power, since endlessness, too, is not having any possibility of failing, and eternity is endless in the strict and proper sense, because it never expends anything of itself. Plotinus, Enneads, III 7, 5

174

6-7: By participation in the transcendent, it continually remains stable in the good.

You would say, would you not, that the sun is not only the author of visibility in all visible things, but of generation and nourishment and growth, though he himself is not generation?

Certainly.

In like manner the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all things known, but of their being and essence, and yet the good is not essence, but far exceeds essence in dignity and power. Republic, 509b

175

20-1: The bride was compared to chains and a necklace, an ornament round the neck. Not being satisfied with these, she presses on to what is still higher.

cf J.73.3-78.4; J.78.17-82.16

176

2: Through sweet nards he recognizes the divine fragrance; she does not stop here, but takes what she desires and suspends it between her spiritual breasts like a fragrant sachet. Placed in the space of her heart, it issues divine teachings.

cf. J.88.10-93.9

cf. J.93.15-95.3

9-10: In her growth through these ascents, the bride is called beautiful; she becomes the bridegroom's companion, and the beauty of her eyes is compared to a dove's.

cf. J.101.115-106.4

11-14: The bride goes even further; her vision is clearer, and she carefully considers the Word's beauty; she marvels how he descended in a shadowy form upon the bed of this life here below, and has been shaded over by the material nature of a human body.

cf. J.106.5-109.3

15-177.3: The bride then describes the house of virtue. Its roof is made of cedar and cypress not susceptible to decay or corruption. By these terms she explains her stable, unswerving attitude for the good.

cf. J.109.4-112.21

177

4: appearing as a lily among thorns.

cf. J.114.10-115.15

6-7: for she calls him an apple in the midst of unfruitful trees adorned with the fresh fruit of spring.

cf. J.116.3-119.11

8-16: She comes under her bridegroom's shadow, enters his house, is supported by fragrances, is propped up by apples, receives his chosen arrow in her heart through a sweet wound, and becomes an arrow once again in an archer's hands. With his left hand he aims the arrow's tip to the target above while his right hand draws the arrow back to himself. Then, as if the bride has already attained perfection, she tells the other companions her ardent desire and excites their love by an oath.

cf. J.119.12-127.6

cf. J.127.7-129.19

cf. J.129.20-135.9

178

1-3: But the end of the bride's advancements becomes a beginning for further advancement. All these examples are like voices summoning the soul to contemplate the [heavenly]

mysteries. The bride begins to see her desired bridegroom, but he appears to her eyes in

another form, a roe and a young hart. Neither is the bridegroom within our vision, nor

does he appear in the same place, but he leaps upon the mountains, bounding from the

high summits to little hills.

Once again the bride is established in a better state when a second call comes to her urging her to forsake the wall's shadow and go into open sunlight, to take her rest upon the rock's shelter near the wall, to delight in the spring, to gather beautiful flowers ready to be cut at the time of full blossom, and anything else this season yields for enjoyment with the melodious voices of the birds. Through all these things the bride becomes even more perfect saying that she is worthy to openly see her spouse's face and to listen to him directly instead of through intermediaries.

It is right for the soul to be glad since she has reached in her lofty ascent the summit of her desires.

cf. J.138.9-139.9

4-8: cf. J.141.1-143.16

10-16: cf. J.145.14-163.10

17: cf. J.163.11-164.15

179

3-5: Again she hears her spouse exhorting the hunters to save the spiritual vines and to pursue the beasts--those little foxes--laying waste their fruit.

cf. J.164.16-168.5

8-15: The bride says, "My beloved is mine, and I am his who feed among the lilies," the same one who has transformed human life from shadowy phantasms to the supreme truth.

Observe the height to which the bride ascends, going from strength to strength, as the

prophet says [Ps 83.8] and appearing to have obtained the summit of her hope. What can

be higher than being in the beloved and having him in oneself?

cf. J.168.6-70.9

180

6: But the mind running on high through its understanding of transcendent reality should realize that all perfection of knowledge attainable by human nature is only the beginning of a desire for more lofty things.

And that happiness consists in contemplation may be accepted as agreeing both with the results already reached and with the truth. For contemplation is at once the highest form of activity and also it is the most continuous, for we can reflect more continuously than we can carry on any form of action...Also the activity of contemplation will be found to possess in the highest degree the quality that is termed self-sufficiency; for while it is true that the wise man equally with the just man and the rest requires the necessaries of life, yet, these being adequately supplied, whereas the just man needs other persons towards whom or with whom aid he may act justly...Also the activity of contemplation may be held to be the only activity that is loved for its own sake...it follows that it is the activity of the intellect that constitutes complete human happiness.

Such a life as this however will be higher than the human level: not in virtue of his humanity will a man achieve it, but in virtue of something within him that is divine; and by as much as this something is superior to his composite nature, by so much is its activity superior to the exercise of the other forms of virtue. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, x, vii

181

4-6: By "night" the bride shows us the contemplation of what is unseen, and like Moses, she is in the darkness of God's presence [Ex 20.21].

Since he [Moses] was alone, by having been stripped as it were of the people's fear, he boldly approached the very darkness itself and entered the invisible things where he was no longer seen by those watching. After he entered the inner sanctuary of the divine mystical doctrine, there, while not being seen, he was in company with the Invisible. He teaches, I think, by the things he did that the one who going to associate intimately with God must go beyond all that is visible and...believe that the divine is there where the understanding does not reach. Life of Moses, p.43

But so unceasingly does he [Moses] himself yearn to see God and to be seen by Him, that he implores Him to reveal clearly His own nature, which is so hard to divine, hoping thus to obtain at length a view free from all falsehood, and to exchange doubt and uncertainty for a most assured confidence. Nor will he abate the intensity of his desire, but although he is aware that he enamoured of an object which entails a hard quest, nay, which is out of reach, he will nevertheless struggle on with no relaxation of his earnest endeavor, but honestly and resolutely enlisting all his faculties to co-operate for the attainment of his object. So see him enter into the thick darkness where God was, that is into conceptions regarding the Existent Being that belong to the unapproachable region where there are no material forms. For the Cause of all is not in the thick darkness, nor locally in any place at all, but high above both place and time....but though transcending and being beyond what He has made, none the less He has filled the universe with Himself; for He has caused His powers to extend themselves throughout the Universe to its utmost bounds, and in accordance with the laws of harmony has knit each part to each...And out of this quest there accrues to him a vast boon, namely to apprehend that the God of real Being is apprehensible by no one, and to see precisely this, that He is incapable of being seen. Philo, The Posterity and Exile of Cain, 14-15

19: but "I did not find him." I called him by a name as far as it was in my power to find him who lacks a name.

cf. J.357.18sq

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5-183.3: Therefore, the bride rises again and goes about in spirit through the spiritual, transcendent realm which she calls a "city" where there are principalities, dominations and thrones assigned to powers. She calls a "marketplace" the solemn assembly of the heavenly host and names "streets" a multitude beyond counting as if in these she can find her beloved. While the bride went about all these places, she scrutinized the entire angelic rank. Not having seen him whom she sought among these good things, she reasoned with herself, "Can my beloved then be comprehended? And she says to them, 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?' " They kept silent, signifying that the one sought after is incomprehensible. After the bride passed throughout that transcendent city and did not perceive her love among immaterial and spiritual beings, she forsakes everything she has found. She realizes that her sought-after love is known only in her impossibility to comprehend his essence, and that every sign becomes a hinderance to those who seek him.

In answer to whom we may also observe that, since they call the Father both Creator and Maker, whereas He who is so called is simple in regard to His essence, it is high time for such sophists to declare the essence of the Father to be creation and making, since the argument about simplicity introduces into His essence any signification of any name we give Him. Either, then, let them separate ungeneracy from the definition of the Divine essence, allowing the term no more than its proper signification, or, if by reason of the simplicity of the subject they define His essence by the term ungeneracy, by a parity of reasoning let them likewise see creation and making in the essence of the Father, not as though the power residing in the essence created and made, but as though the power itself meant creation and making. But if they reject this as bad and absurd, let them be persuaded by what logically follows to reject the other proposition as well. For as the essence of the builder is not the thing built, no more is ungeneracy the essence of the Ungenerate. But for the sake of clearness and conciseness I will restate my arguments. If the Father is called ungenerate, not by reason of His having never been generated, but because His essence is simple and incomposite, by a parity of reasoning the Son also must be called ungenerate, for He too is a simple and incomposite essence. But if we are compelled to confess the Song to be generated because He was generated, it is manifest that we must address the Father as ungenerate, because He was not generated. But if we are compelled to this conclusion by truth and the force of our premises, it is clear that the term ungenerate is no part of the essence, but is indicative of a difference of conceptions, distinguishing that which is generated from that which is ungenerated...If they affirm that the term ungenerate signifies the essence (of the Father) and not that He has His substance without origin, what term will they use to denote the Father's being without origin, when they have set aside the term ungenerate to indicate His essence? For if we are not taught the distinguishing difference of the Persons by the term ungenerate, but are to regard it as indicating His very nature as flowing in a manner from the subject-matter, and disclosing what we seek in articulate syllables, it must follow that God is not, or is not to be called, ungenerate, there being no word left to express such peculiar significance in regard to Him. Against Eunomius, PN.253a-54a

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2-3: She realizes that her sought-after love is known only in her impossibility to comprehend his essence, and that every sign becomes a hinderance to those who seek him.

For leaving behind everything that is observed, not only what sense comprehends but also what the intelligence thinks it sees, it keeps on penetrating deeper until by the intelligence's yearning for understanding it gains access to the invisible and the incomprehensible, and there it sees God. This is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that consists in not seeing because that which is sought transcends all knowledge. Life of Moses, p.95

6-9: "When I passed them by a little," I left every creature and passed by every intelligible being in creation; having forsaken every manner of comprehension, I found my beloved by faith. No longer will I let him go once found by faith until he comes within my chamber.

For after laying down such premises as might naturally lead the mind of the hearer to draw his conclusion for himself.

For after saying that the Only-begotten God is not the same in essence with the true Father, and after sophistically inferring this from the opposition between generate and ungenerate, they work in silence to the conclusion, their impiety prevailing by the natural course of inference. Against Eunomius, PN.255b

12-15: The "chamber" is indeed the heart which becomes an acceptable dwelling of God when it returns to that state which it had in the beginning made by "her who conceived me." We would be correct by understanding "mother" as the first cause of our being.

Mais il ne sera pas difficile de l'expliquer de cette facon: si quiconque accomplit "la volonte du Pere qui est aux cieux est son frere du Christ ne se rapporte pas seulement a la race des hommes, mais aussi aux etres plus divins qu'elle, il n'y aura rien d'etonnant a ce que, plus que tout autre qui s'intitule "mere du Christ," l"esprit-Saint soit sa mere, puisqu'il accomplit la volonte du Pere qui est aux cieux. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#120.263

The mediator between the Father and those who have lost their inheritance [Jas 4.4] speaks these words; he reconciled through his own person God's enemies to the true, sole divinity. According to the prophetic word [Ps 57.4] men were alienated through sin from the life-giving womb and wandered from this womb in which they have been formed; they now speak lies instead of the truth. On Perfection, J.205

184

16-18: What was stated above is the world in which are "virtues" and "powers" and the will of a person loving with his whole heart and soul.

cf. J.132.10-35.6

187

16: How has the bride washed off her dark form? How does her face now gleam as fallen snow?

They at first indignantly oppose him and will not be urged on to do terrible and unlawful deeds; but at last, when he persists in plaguing them, they yield and agree to do as he bids them. And now they are at the spot and behold the flashing beauty of the beloved; which when the charioteer sees, his memory is carried to the true beauty, whom he beholds in company with Modesty like an image placed upon a holy pedestal. Phaedrus, 254b

191

14-16: Since our desire for carnal things in the body's members is subject to passion and defilement, like a band of robbers it ambushes the mind, captivates it and carries away the will.

For we will not to have those who lead us to passion, for then we could be saved without weariness and effort; but that does not come to pass which we will, but that which we will not. For it is necessary, as I said, that we should be tried. Let us not then, O my soul, let us not give in to the Evil One; but putting on "the whole armour of God," which is our protection, let us have "the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel (of peace). Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God" [Eph 6.13.14-17], that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil...For remember how it has been already shown that, from the time when man went astray and disobeyed the law, thence sin, receiving its birth from his disobedience, dwelt in him. For thus a commotion was stirred up, and we were filled with agitations and foreign imaginations, being emptied of the divine inspiration and filled with carnal desire, which the cunning serpent infused into us. Methodius of Olympus, From the Discourse on the Resurrection, AN.372a.

196

17: Israel, therefore, represents all the saved (for "not all Israelites are from Israel, Rom 6.9 but only those who look towards God are rightly called this name by reason of their title.

This Paul takes as spoken figuratively of those who are called Israelites "according to election" [Rom 11.5], in order to show that the coming of Christ was beneficial not only to the gentiles but also to very many of the race of Israel who have been called to salvation. Origen, On First Principles, pp.281-2

201

3-11: In many ways king Solomon is taken as the pattern of the true king; in many ways, I say, scripture speaks about Solomon with reference to better things. For Solomon is called peaceful; he built the temple, had wisdom without measure, ruled over Israel, judged the people in justice, and was born from the seed of David; even the queen of Ethiopia came to visit him. All these and similar examples are symbolically spoken of Solomon and depict in advance the Gospel's power.

cf. J.17.1-7

5: scripture speaks about Solomon with reference to better things.

It is, I think, unquestionable that Solomon is in may respects a type of Christ, first in that he is called the Peaceable, and also because "the queen of the south...came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" [Mt 12.42]. Christ is thus called the Son of David, and reigns in Israel. Origen, Song Commentary, p.51

Fittingly, therefore, and for the same reason as before, we find in this little book that was to be written about the love of the Bridegroom and the Bride, neither "Son of David," nor "king," nor any other term patent of a corporeal connotation; thus the Bride now perfected may say of Him with reason: "And if we have known Christ after the flesh for a while, but now we know Him so no longer" [2Cor 5.16]. Let no one think that she loves anything belonging to the body or pertaining to the flesh, and let no stain be thought of in connection with her love. So the Song of Songs is simply Solomon's; it belongs neither to the Son of David, nor to Israel's king, and let it not surprise you, seeing that Our Lord and Saviour is One and the Same, that we should speak of Him first as a beginner, in Proverbs; then as advancing, in Ecclesiastes; and lastly as more perfect in the Song of Songs. Origen, Song Commentary, p.52-3

202

17: He proclaimed peace to those far off and to those nearby by announcing good tidings [Eph 2.14-15].

Reflechis si, de meme, les autres realities, qu'on identifie au singulier avec le Christ, peuvent exister en plusieurs exemplaires et etre nommees, par analogie, au pluriel: aini, le Christ est notre vie, comme le dit le Sauveur lui-meme: "C'est le Christ, votre vie, aura ete manifeste, alors vousaussi, vous serez manifestes avec lui dans la gloire" [Col 3.4]; mais il est aussi ecrit dans les Psaumes: "Ta misericorde vaut mieux que les vies" [Ps 62.4]: en effet, grace au Christ, qui est vie en chacun, les vies se multiplient. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#157.159-161

204

10: Otherwise the power of God could not be effective, for truth cannot unjustly pervert judgment.

These then are the objects which we must believe were created by God in the beginning, that is, before everything else. And it is this truth which we may suppose to be indicated also in that beginning which Moses somewhat obscurely introduces when he says, "In the beginning God made the heaven and earth" [Gen 1.1]. For it is certain that these words refer not to the "firmament" nor to the "dry land," but to that heaven and earth from which the names of the ones we see were afterwards borrowed. Origen, On First Principles, p.130

11-12: But he who is from David's seed is the Lord according to the flesh.

cf. Theaetetus, 176c, J.123.17-19

15-205.4: The mystery about the Ethiopian queen who left her domain, travelled to meet Solomon because of the report of his wisdom and honored him with precious stones, gold and sweet smelling perfumes [3Kg or 1Kg 10.1-3], is evident to whoever understands the marvels of the Gospel.

He [Christ] calls her "the queen of the south" [Mt 12.42], because Ethiopia lies in southern parts; and He says "from the ends of the earth," in that it is, as it were, situated in the farthest place. Origen, Song Commentary, p.95; NB: Origen quotes at length the story of the queen of Ethiopia in 3 Kg 10, p.93-4; also cf. p.95-6 for Jer 45 (38). 6-10.

205:

6-7: For who does not know that at the beginning the assembly from among the nations was dark from idolatry before it became the Church?

This Bride who speaks represents the Church gathered from among the Gentiles; but the daughters of Jerusalem to whom she addresses herself are the souls who are described as being "most dear because of the election of the fathers, but enemies because of the Gospel" [Rom 11.28]. Those are, therefore, the daughters of this earthly Jerusalem who, seeing the Church of the Gentiles, despise and vilify her for her ignoble birth; for she is baseborn in their eyes, because she cannot count as hers the noble blood of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, for all that she forgets her own people and her father's house and comes to Christ. Origen, Song Commentary, p.92

206

16-18: Let anyone becoming a chariot or a well-tempered horse receive this rider [God], even while completing his course while being directed by God to what lies ahead.

cf. J.75.10-76.16

The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who have been born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But these have their own riders. There are horses whom the Lord mounts and they go around all the earth, of whom it is said, "And your cavalry is salvation" [Hab 3.8]. There are horses, however, who have the devil and his angels as riders. Judas was a horse, but as long as he had the Lord as his rider he was part of the cavalry of salvation...All, therefore, who persecute the saints are neighing horses, but they have evil angels as riders by whom they are guided and, therefore, are wild. If, then, you ever see your persecutor raging very much, know that he is being urged on by a demon as his rider and, therefore, is fierce and cruel. Origen, Homilies on Exodus, p.287

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7-209.1: We know that wood does not endure but changes into gold, silver, or anything else of value. For the Apostle says [2Tim 2.20] that in the great house of God are vessels of gold and silver, hinting through these things at an incorporeal, spiritual creation. Wood and earthenware may signify for us what disobedience created and made into earthenware vessels; through wood, sin made us wooden vessels instead of golden ones. The use of vessels is

determined by the material's worthiness, for while more worthy material is ordained for

honorable purposes, the unworthy is cast aside for common use. But what does Paul say of these matters? By its own free choice, the vessel has the capacity to become either gold from wood or silver from clay. "For if anyone purifies himself, he will be a worthy vessel for the Lord, a vessel prepared for every good deed. [2 Tim 2.21]." These words, therefore, help us to gain a better understanding of scripture.

God, however, who then felt it just to arrange his creation according to merit, gathered the diversities of minds into the harmony of a single world, so as to furnish, as it were, out of these diverse vessels or souls or minds, one house, in which there must be "not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some unto honour and some unto dishonour" [2Tm 2.20]. Origen, On First Principles, p.134

And further, is there not a conflict between this view, which they gather from the words we have quoted, that it is due to the intention of the Creator that a vessel is honourable or the reverse, and the saying found elsewhere: "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honour, and some unto dishonour. If therefore a man purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work" [2Tm 20.21]. For if he who "purges himself" becomes a "vessel unto honour," and he who allows himself to remain unpurged becomes a "vessel unto dishonour," so far as these words go the Creator is in no way responsible. Origen, On First Principles, p.202-3

For instance, then, the images of our kings here, even though they be not formed of the more precious materials--gold or silver--are honoured by all. For men do not, while they treat with respect those of the far more precious material, slight those of a less valuable, but honour every image in the world, even though it be of chalk or bronze. And one who speaks against either of them, is not acquitted as if he had only spoken against clay, nor condemned for having despised gold, but for having been disrespectful towards the King and Lord Himself. The images of God's angels, which are fashioned of gold, the principalities and powers, we make to His honour and glory. AN.369b

212

8: she cries out to her young companions (who may represent the souls that have been saved), "How long will you remain shut up in the cave of this life?"

Republic, 514 a, cf. J.108.7-8

9: Go beyond the veil of human nature and see this marvelous sight.

Therefore they say "Come forth," that is, go out from the limitations of the body, go out from the vanities of the world, and see how the King of Peace possesses love on the day of His marriage, how filled with glory He is, because He has given resurrection to the body and has united the soul to Himself. This is the crown of the mighty contest, this the magnificent gift of the marriage of Christ, His blood and passion. Isaac, or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.37

213

2-6: For how can anything transitory like this be attributed to God? But when we are one in Christ, we are divested of the signs of this difference along with the old man.

cf. lengthy passage from On the Making of Man, PN.405a-407b

214

3-4: "Go then," the bride says to her companions, "and become daughters of Sion, that from a high peak you will be able to see that marvelous sight, the bridegroom adorned with his crown."

Tant que n'est pas encore venue l'heure dont parle le Seigneur, ou l'on n'adorera plus le Pere ni sur cette montagne ni a Jerusalem, il faut fuir la montagne des Samaritains et adorer Dieu a Sion, ou se dresse Jerusalem, car le Christ dit de Jerusalem qu'elle est la cite du grad roi [Mt 5.35]. Quelle peut etre la cite du grand roi, la Jerusalem veritable, si ce n'est l'Eglise, edifee a l'aide de pierres vivantes, ou un sacerdoce saint, des sacrifices spirituels sont offerts a Dieu par des etres spirituels, connaissant la loi spirituelle? Lorsque arrive la plenitude du temps,alors il ne faut plus croire que la veritable adoration et le culte parfait soient encore celebres a Jerusalem, car alors on n'est plus du tout dans la chair, mais dans l'Espirt, plusdu tout dans la figure, mais tout entier dans la verite, car on a ete rendu tel que l'on a acquis une parfaite ressemblance avec les adorateurs que Dieu recherche [Jn 4.23]. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#222.75-7

215

9-11: and a young man is summoned to go out like Abraham--each maiden from her respective land and family with regard to her senses--that she may see the chaste bridegroom adorned with the Church.

Car Jesus reste aupres de ceux qui l'en ont prie, surtout quand ceux qui l'en prient sortent de leur ville et vont aupres de Jesus, imitant en quelque sorte Abraham dans son obeissance a Dieu, quand il lui dit: "Va-t'en de ton pays de ta parente et de la maison de ton pere" [Gen 12.1]. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#222.225

Et le Seigneur Dieu nous apparaitra, lui qui apparut a Abraham, et il promettra de donner la terre autour du grandchene a la semence intelligible de notre ame. A celui qui a l'intelligence de l'ordre "Faites les oeuvres d'Abraham," li revient aussi d'edifier un autel au Seigneur qui nous apparait, a nous aussi, la ou se trouve le grand chene, puis de s'ecarter du lieu du grand chene en direction de la montagne, puis de la montagne vers l'est du Bethel--ce qui se traduit par "maison de Dieu." Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#290.193

14-16: You are beautiful, by having drawn near to beauty by your own noble choice. Here the repetition of praise demonstrates the truth of the bridegroom's testimony, for according to the divine law, a testimony of two persons confirms the truth.

cf. J.150.11sq

Republic, 176b, cf. J.28.22-3

218

17: Images of visible reality striking the purity of the eye's pupil effect the act of seeing, that is, a form impresses itself upon the eye like a mirror.

cf. J.105.10-106.9

219

1-4: When a person has this power of sight in the Church, he never looks to what is material and corporeal; a spiritual and immaterial life is effected in him, and his life is formed by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

J.150.9-151.2

10-19: To me, the phrase "outside your silence (or veil)" means that the bride's praise is not made known by words; rather, her silence withholds information. Silence is opposed to speech, for we are silent when we cannot express anything through words. If silence is thus opposed to speech, the opposite holds true: speech is "outside silence." Thus the Song reads "outside your silence." This clearly means that anything not manifested by speech and belonging to silence is beautiful; it is ineffable and more wonderful than words.

Genesis [Chapter 29] depicts a well with a heavy stone over its mouth which makes it difficult for the female shepherds to draw water. But Jacob removes this stone, fills their jars with water, and lets the sheep take as much water as they need.

cf. J.456.1-15

21-223.9: The body's hair differs from other parts of the body. Sensory powers govern the entire body without which it cannot live (thus the body's life consists in sense perception). We see that hair, a part of the body, lacks sensation. Hair displays its uniqueness by feeling no pain from burning nor from cutting when compared with other bodily parts. Paul, therefore, says that a woman's glory is her hair [1Cor 11.15] which is adorned with braids. The bride's hair teaches us that those persons seen around the bride's head must be of greater value than the senses, for they conceal sensation with wisdom. Such persons give glory to the Church. As the book of Proverbs says, "The wise conceal sensation" [10.14].

The wise do not judge beauty by sight, nor the good by taste; neither is assessment of beauty entrusted to smell, touch, or any other sense organ. When each sense is dead, the soul alone lays hold of and stretches forward to the good with respect to the mind. Such wise persons glorify that woman, the Church. They do not puff her up by honors, nor cast her soul down in sorrow by manifesting scorn. Even if they must be killed due to faith in Christ, cast to beasts, thrown in the fire, or must bear any other pain, these persons assume the insensitivity of hair when experiencing pain. Such was Elijah who came from Galaad. He had a hairy, squalid body covered with goat skins and was undaunted by the tyrant's threats. Those who imitated the prophet's nobility have raised themselves above this world while they remain indigent, oppressed, afflicted, dwell in mountains, caves, and holes in the earth. The world is not worthy of them [Heb 11.37-38]. Seen as herds around the head of the universe, they glorify the Church and ascend with that Galaadite [Elijah] to celestial beauty. Both eyes are praised so that the entire person may share this praise, both his visible and spiritual aspects. The bridegroom adds another excellent praise: "apart from your being silent" [4.1]. A good life is evident to every one, while what is hidden and secret belongs only to God. The person who looks to the uncreated and gazes into what is hidden testifies that silence is more praiseworthy than any thing external. As the text says, "Your eyes are doves apart from your being silent." The bride's exterior beauty has already been praised by silently marvelling at it.

Praise of the bride's beauty follows next: "Your hair is as flocks of goats which have appeared from Galaad" [4.1]. It is appropriate first to consider the nature of hair to understand the praise bestowed upon the bride. Paul calls the glory of a woman's head her hair [1 Cor 11.15] and says that it is given to her instead of a veil, that respect and modesty may act as a fitting veil. Paul says, " As it befits women who profess to worship God, they should adorn themselves modesty and sensibly" [1 Tim 2.9]. Respect and modesty (that is, 'hair') pertain to reverence of God. If the soul lacks hair, its head is subject to shame, as the Apostle says.

If Paul teaches these things about hair, his thoughts may apply to praise of the Church. The Song says "Your hair is as flocks of goats which have appeared from Galaad." The text presents an excellent way of living here, but adds that hair is completely devoid of a living sensation. In no small way does this text enhance the bride's praise, for hair lacks the sensation of pain and pleasure. Hair growing from the body feels pain if plucked out but lacks feeling if cut, scorched, or groomed by fastidious care. To lack sense perception is a sign of being dead. Therefore, the person without feeling for this world's values is neither swollen up from glory and honor, nor sad on account of injury or disgrace, but he guards himself when confronted with any of these adversaries. Such is the noble praise of the bride's hair: it shows itself completely dead and unmoved by things of this world in any circumstance.

The excessive amount of hair is compared to the goat herds that have appeared from Galaad, an obscure point we should not leave unconsidered. We surmise that just as the king made a litter for himself by changing the trees of Lebanon into gold, silver, purple, and precious stones, the good shepherd of the flocks of goats knows how to change the herds on Mount Galaad. The name of this mountain revealing such a marvel pertains to the nations. Those following the good shepherd from out of the nations share in the beauty of the bride's hair which, as we said earlier, signifies chastity, modesty, abstinence, and bodily mortification. Perhaps Elijah corresponds to our consideration of the goats when he practiced the ascetical life for a long time on Mount Galaad. In an outstanding way, Elijah led a life of abstinence and wore a thick cloak of goat hair instead of a soft garment of goat's skin. Thus persons following the prophet's example become an adornment of the Church; holding fast to a philosophic way of life, they gather in herds to perform virtue among themselves. The revelation of these herds from Galaad intensifies their praise because our conversion brought us from a Gentile way of life to one of philosophy with regard to God. Holy Mount Zion did not prescribe this kind of life, but the Gentiles, though being devoted to idols, adapted it in order to adorn the bride's head with its superior virtue.

cf. J.451.4-452.16

224

2: [Plato] who says that teachings are food for the soul does not swerve from the truth.

Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul; and we must take care, my friend, that the Sophist does not deceive us when he praises what he sells, like the dealers wholesale or retain who sell the food of the body; for they praise indiscriminately all their goods, without knowing what are really beneficial or hurtful. Protagoras, 313c

225

21-p.226.2: Persons reducing the divine mysteries into small fragments for a clearer interpretation of the text make spiritual food more easily acceptable for the body of the Church. They perform the function of teeth by receiving the thick, dense bread of the text into their mouths; by a more subtle contemplation, they make the food delectable.

But also if he injured a tooth of the hearer with which he had been accustomed when receiving the food of the word to crush or grind it with his molars in order to transmit the subtle meaning from these words to the stomach of his soul; if that man damaged and tore out this tooth so that by his contention the soul cannot receive the word of God subtly and spiritually, let the tooth of that man who did not crush well and divide the foods of the Scriptures be removed. Indeed, perhaps it is for this reason that it is said elsewhere about the Lord, "You have broken the teeth of sinners" [Ps 3.8]; and elsewhere no less it is written, "The teeth of him who eats the bitter grape will be set on edge" [Jer 38.30]; and elsewhere, "The Lord broke the lions' teeth" [Ps 57.6]. Origen, Homilies on Exodus, FOTC#71.353

226

12-14: [Paul] transfers the story into two Testaments, "one born into slavery, the other free from bondage." [Gal 4.22]

In another epistle, when outlining the arrangements of the tabernacle he quotes the words: "Thou shalt make all things according to the figure that was shown thee in the mount" [Heb 8.5, Ex 25.40]. Further, in the epistle to the Galatians, speaking in terms of reproach to those who believe that they are reading the law and yet do not understand it, and laying it down that they who do not believe that there are allegories in the writings do not understand the law, he says: "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not fear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid and one by the free woman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the free woman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory; for these women are two covenants" [Gal 4.21-4], and what follows. Origen, On First Principles, p.280

231

7: Marriages, migrations, wars and tools for building all prefigure the life to come.

One must therefore portray the meaning of the sacred writings in a threefold way upon one's own soul, so that the simple man may be edified by what we may call the flesh of the scripture, this name being given to the obvious interpretation; while the man who has made some progress may be edified by its soul, as it were; and the man who is perfect and like those mentioned by the apostle: "We speak wisdom among the perfect" [1Cor 2.6].

236

12: The king sprung from David his father prepared man to be the tower secure from falling.

Christ is the beginning, king of righteousness, king of peace and in addition to these, king of all things with his infinite power of lordship; he has many other names which cannot be easily numbered. Since all these titles are related to each other, understanding each one by itself contributes to manifest its meaning and the significance of Christ's name in as much as we can comprehend it for revealing God's ineffable greatness. Since the dignity of [God's] kingdom transcends every honor, power and sovereignty, the name of Christ rightly and above all designates God's kingly power (for it precedes the king's anointing as we have learned in the historical books, 1Sam 9.16) while the word "kingdom" contains the reality of all the other terms. On Perfection, J.176-7

237

19: He knows that when the bride was first loved, she was compared to a horse which fought the Egyptian tyrant and had a lovely neck adorned with the bride's perfection.

cf J.73.3-82.16

240

21-241.2: However, their scent is filled with the good odor of Christ while purity and undefilement appear through their form.

Perhaps the obscurity of the Song's text can now be clarified for us. When two people separately consider the text, the literal and spiritual meaning, these two persons going through life together have a birth with two aspects: neither does the soul come before the body, nor is the body created before the soul, but both are simultaneously brought into life. Their nourishment is purity, a good scent and whatever else the virtues bring forth abundantly.

Lest, therefore, the like should happen to us, and we too should interpret in a vicious and carnal sense the things the ancients wrote with good and spiritual intent, let us stretch out our hands, alike of body and soul, to God; that the Lord, who "gave the word to them that preach good tidings with great power" [Ps 67.12], may by His power bestow the word also on us; so that we, out of these things that have been written, may be able to make clear a wholesome meaning in regard to the name and the nature of love, and one that is apt for the building up of chastity.

I think, therefore, that no one ought any longer to doubt what Moses wrote in the beginning of Genesis about the making and fashioning of two men, since he sees Paul, who understood what Moses wrote much better than we do, saying that there are two men in every one of us. Of these two men he tells us that the one, namely, the inner man, is renewed from day to day; but the other, that is, the outer, he declares to be corrupted and weakened in all the saints and in such as he was himself. Origen, Song Commentary, p.25

It has been shown that the process of deterioration which takes place in the soul will probably be extended downwards; and lower than the insensible we find the inanimate, to which, by consequence, the principle of their doctrine brings the soul: but as they will not have this, they either exclude the soul from insensibility, or, if they are to bring it back to human life they must, as has been said, declare the life of a tree to be preferable to the original state--if, that is, the fall towards vice took place from the one, and the return towards virtue takes place from the other. On the Making of Man, PN.420a-b

There remains the question of the when of the soul's commencement of existence: it follows immediately on that which we have already discussed. For if we were to grant that the soul has lived previous to its body in some place of resort peculiar to itself, then we cannot avoid seeing some force in all that fantastic teaching lately discussed, which would explain the soul's habitation of the body as a consequence of some vice. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN.124b

Now by inferences it may be shown to be true in the following way (spirit in man). If the soul of a man, which while it remains the soul of a man is certainly inferior, can be proved not to have been formed with the body but separately, and placed in the body from without, much more will this be the case with the souls of those who are called "heavenly beings." Origen, On First Principles, p.62

245

23-247.18: Paul teaches us here, I believe, that the blessed nature of the good is eternally much better than what we have received while what lies beyond our comprehension is always boundless. Something similar will occur to those who partake of the good; they will always have a greater participation in God throughout eternity. According to the true words of the Lord [Mt 5.8], the pure in heart will see God. They will receive as much as their minds can comprehend. However, the unbounded, incomprehensible divinity remains beyond all understanding. God's exceedingly great glory is endless as the prophet testifies [Ps 144.5]. God always remains the same as we contemplate Him in his loftiness. Similarly, the great David placed in his heart those wonderful ascents. He always proceeded from strength to strength [Ps 83.7] and exclaimed to God, "You are the Most High forever, Lord" [Ps 91.8]. To me this signifies that in all the endless ages of eternity the person running to you becomes

greater and more highly exalted, always growing in proportion to his ascent through the good. You are the Most High forever, never appearing smaller to those who approach

you; you are always higher and loftier than the capacity of those who are rising.

We learn about the ineffable nature of the good from the Apostle. He says that the eye has not seen that good even though it sees it (for the eye does not completely see the good as it is, but only as it receives the good). The ear as well does not completely hear the Word, but according to its manifestation even though the ear always listens to it. Also, the Word does not enter the heart of man even if the pure in heart always see it. Although the stage attained is indeed greater than what a person had earlier, this stage does not limit his good; rather, the limit of his achievement becomes a beginning for the discovery of higher blessings. The person rising never stands still. He moves from one beginning to another, for the beginning of even greater blessings is never limited. The desire of a soul thus rising never remains in its knowledge, but by an ever greater desire, it moves onwards. The soul thus progresses through higher realms towards the unbounded.

cf. J.157.14-59.11

246

9: However, the unbounded, incomprehensible divinity remains beyond all understanding.

Republic, 508 e, cf. J.85.20

The Divine Nature, whatever It may be in Itself, surpasses every mental concept. For It is altogether inaccessible to reasoning and conjecture, nor has there been found any human faculty capable of perceiving the incomprehensible; for we cannot devise a means of understanding inconceivable things. Therefore the great Apostle calls His ways "unsearchable" [Rom 11.33], meaning by this that the way that leads to the knowledge of the Divine Essence is inaccessible to thought. That is to say, none of those who have passed through life before us has made known to the intelligence so much as a trace by which might be known what is above knowledge. Beatitudes, ACW.146

247

11: rather, the limit of his achievement becomes a beginning for the discovery of higher blessings.

For we must maintain that even the power of God is finite, and we must not, under pretext of praising him, lose sight of his limitations. For if the divine power were infinite, of necessity it could not even understand itself, since the infinite is by its nature incomprehensible. He made therefore just as many as he could grasp and keep in hand and subject to his providence. In the say way he prepared just as much matter as he could reduce to order. Origen, On First Principles, p.129

249

12-16: You have come with me to the mountain of myrrh (You were buried with me through baptism into death, Rom 6.4) and went up with me to the hill of frankincense.

J.189.2-6

251

2: Although man was once made in God's image, he was transformed into an irrational animal, having become a leopard and lion through evil habits.

There he saw the soul which had once been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan out of enmity to the race of women, hating to be born of a woman because they had been his murderers; he beheld also the soul of Thamyras choosing the life of a nightingale; birds, on the other hand, like the wan and other musicians, wanted to be men...and not only did men pass into animals, but I must also mention that there were animals tame and wild who changed into one another and into corresponding human natures--the good into the gentle and the evil into the savage, in all sorts of combinations. Republic, 620a & c

Origen, On First Principles, cf. J.102.1-3

252

10: The Word desires us who are changeable by nature not to fall into evil, but by constant progress in perfection, we are to use our mutability as an ally in our ascent towards higher things.

Now the most beautiful effect of alteration is growth in the good since change to a more divine state is always remaking the man changing for the better. What seems fearful (I mean our mutable nature) can serve as a wing for flight to better things, since it is to our disgrace if we cannot change for the better. No one should lament his mutable nature; rather, by always being changed to what is better and by being transformed from glory to glory [2Cor 3.18], let him so be changed. By daily growth he always becomes better and is always being perfected yet never attains perfection's goal. Perfection consists in never stopping our growth towards the good nor in circumscribing perfection. On Perfection, J.213.14-14.6

Thus then, as we have said, the Creator fashioned the race of men, and thus meant it to remain. But men, making light of better things, and holding back from apprehending them, began to seek in preference things nearer to themselves. But nearer to themselves were the body and its senses; so that while removing their mind from the things perceived by thought, they began to regard themselves; and so doing, and holding to the body and the other things of sense, and deceived as it were in their own surroundings, they fell into lust of themselves, preferring what was their own to the contemplation of what belongs to God. St. Athanasius, Against the Heathen, p.5a-b; also cf. J.91.1-2

255

16: It [divine nature] made all things exceedingly beautiful, as they welled up from the fountain of divine beauty.

Republic, 508 e, cf. J.85.20

There is therefore no nature which may not admit good or evil, except the nature of God, which is the source of all good, and that of Christ; for Christ is wisdom, and wisdom certainly cannot admit folly; and he is righteousness, and assuredly righteousness will never receive unrighteousness; and he is word or reason, which certainly cannot become irrational; further, he is light, and we are sure that "darkness does not comprehend" [Jn 1.5] the light. In like manner also the nature of the Holy Spirit, which is holy, does not admit pollution, for it is holy by nature or essence. Origen, On First Principles, p.70

Thus do they vainly speculate. But the godly teaching and the faith according to Christ brands their foolish language as godlessness. For it knows that it was not spontaneously, because forethought is not absent; nor of existing matter, because God is not weak; but that out of nothing, and without its having any previous existence, God made the universe to exist through His word, as He says firstly through Moses: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" [Gen 1.1]; secondly, in the most edifying book of the Shepherd, "First of all believe that God is one, which created and framed all things, and made them to exist out of nothing" [Hermes, Mand. I]. To which also Paul refers when he says, "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear" [Heb 11.3]. God is good, or rather is essentially the source of goodness: nor could one that is good be niggardly of anything: whence, grudging existence to none, He has made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. St. Athanasius, The Incarnation of the Word, PN.37b

256

19: Therefore, if the Church is Christ's body with Christ as its head, he forms its countenance with his own features.

Now I think that the Church is here said to bring forth a man child simply because the enlightened spiritually receive the features and image and manliness of Christ; the likeness of the Word is stamped on them and is begotten within them by perfect knowledge and faith, and thus Christ is spiritually begotten in each one. As so it is that the Church is with child and labors until Christ is formed and born within us, so that each of the saints by sharing in Christ is born again as Christ. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.113

257

1-3: In the same way, one cannot look at the sun but must behold its brightness in water. Thus persons looking into the Church's face as if it were a clean mirror see the Sun of Righteousness [Mal 4.2] who is comprehended by that which is visible.

Republic, a-b, cf. J.86.8

Quelle glorification (revient) a celui qui transcende les trones, les seigneuries, les principautes, les dominations et tout nom qui se peut nommer non seulement en ce siecle mais encore dans le siecle a venir, et en outre les saints anges, les esprits, les ames justes (a quoi bon) le dire? Cependant, bien qu'il transcende par son essence, sa dignite, sa puissance, sa divinite--il est, en effet, le Verbe vivant--et sa sagesse, tant d'etres si admirables, cependant il n'est en rien comparable a son Pere. Il est, en effet, l'image de sa bonte et le rayonnement, non de Dieu mais de sa gloire et de sa lumiere eternelle, l'exhalaison, non du Pere mais de sa puissance, la pure emanation de sa gloire de Tout-puissant, le mirroir sans tache de son activite, (miroir) a travers lequel Paul, Pierre et leurs semblables voient Dieu, car il a dit: "Qui m'a vu, a vu le Pere qui m'a envoye" [Jn 14.9]. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#222.115

258

14-16: The person who beholds God alone is blind with respect to everything else. Because of this, the bride makes her friends marvel at one of her eyes.

For he does not hold aloof in order that he may gain a reputation; but the truth is, that the outer form of him only is in the city: his mind, disdaining the littleness and nothingness of human things, is "flying all abroad" as Pindar says, measuring earth and heaven and the things which are under and on the earth and above the heaven, interrogating the whole nature of each and all in their entirety, but not condescending to anything which is within reach. Theaetetus, 173 d

259

6: "With one" is similar to "with one of your eyes," assuming by this "with one soul."

Republic, 611 d

Of these theories let us first discuss the one which some are accustomed to frame, that we have within us one soul that is good and heavenly and another that is lower and earthly; and that the soul which is superior is implanted from heaven...But that which they call the lower soul is, they maintain, produced along with the body from the bodily seed, and consequently they deny that it can live or subsist apart from the body. Origen, On First Principles, p.232

260

11: Because of this we confess that "you have given us heart" with these wonders, showing one eye, one soul and the chain of your neck.

cf. J.253.18-19

264

9: that the Word proceeding from the divine mouth might come to her mouth as indicated by the symbol of a kiss.

cf. J.32.8sq

271

11-12: The end of a virtuous life is likeness to God.

Theaetetus, 176 a-b, cf. J.215.14-16

274

3: Everyone knows about the sweetness of the fig tree's fruit once it has been ripened from bitter juice.

But I do not wish to give some the impression, my dear maidens, of being sophistical, of drawing these conclusions from mere probabilities and so to be merely babbling; and in proof of what I say I shall bring forward a document of the Old Testament, a prophecy from Judges, in which the reign of chastity was already clearly foretold. It says, "The trees went to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, 'Reign thou over us.' And the olive tree said to them, 'I leave my fatness, which god and men have extolled, and go to rule over the trees?' And all the trees said to the fig tree, 'I leave my sweetness and my delicious fruit and go to rule over the trees?' And the trees said to the vine, 'Reign over us.' And the vine said to them, 'I forsake my wine that cheereth man, and go to rule over the trees?' And the trees said to the bramble, 'Come, reign over us.' And the bramble said to the trees, 'If indeed you anoint me to be king over you, come trust my shelter; if not, let fire come out from the bramble and devour the cedars of Libanus.'" [Jdg 9.8-15] The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.141-2

276

7-13: Because a sea protects the inviolability of whatever it guards, it scares off thieves; everything not stolen remains unharmed for the master. Praise of the bride in the Song would then testify to her excellence in virtue because her mind remains safe from enemies and is guarded for her Lord in purity and tranquility.

After such discourses, dear Arete, I must not be remiss, but place unqualified trust in the manifold wisdom of God which has the power to give to whomsoever it wills in rich abundance. Experienced sailors tell us that, although it is the same wind that blows on all who sail the sea, yet different men have different ways of managing their course, and they do not all strive to reach the same harbor. For some the wind is fair, striking astern; for others it blows across their course, and yet both easily accomplish their course. Well, then, in the same way the spirit of understanding, holy, one, blowing gently from our Father's treasure rooms above, will give us all a sharp, fair wind of knowledge, and this should suffice us to steer the course of our speech without difficulty. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.96

277

10-11: by not flowing out, it [intellectual faculty], it will be sealed by the stamp of truth and formed with a disposition towards the good.

For the fountain which draws from the Church has what it may attribute to the grace of virginity, because the soul is set in a paradise of delight and gathers spiritual fruits without toil. Thus the souls of the patriarchs bestow their own fruits upon her by working the land, as it were, in order for her to enjoy the constant sweetness of them. She is rightly called a fountain sealed, because the image of the invisible God is represented in her. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.39

280

11-12: The end of a virtuous life is participation in God.

cf. J.272.12-19

284

5-15: All virtue lies between two evils: a defect or an excess of the good. Courage and liberality may be observed as between timidity and audacity, while generosity lies between stinginess and profligacy. Timidity and stinginess, which are defective regarding

the norm, are said to be evil. Profligacy and rashness follow excess and superabundance

while the mean between both is considered virtue. Thus saffron as treated by the Song

pertains to virtue because of its power of moderation, the avoidance of excess or defect

in virtue.

He, in fact, who grasps the middle point between doing too little and doing too much has hit the distinction between vice and virtue. Instances will make this clearer. Cowardice and audacity are two recognized vices opposed to each other; the one the defect, the other the excess of confidence; between them lies courage...Reason in all of them [good qualities] has established virtue to be a middle state between two extremes. On Virginity, PN.352a

When the people are purified of this passion, then they cross the foreign life. As the Law leads them along the royal highway, they deviate from it in no way at all. It is easy for a traveler to turn aside. Suppose two precipices form a high narrow pass; from its middle the person crossing it veers at his peril in either direction (for the chasm on either side swallows the person who turns aside). In the same way the Law requires the person who keeps in step with it not to leave the way which is, as the Lord says, narrow and hard, to the left or to the right.

This teaching lays down that virtue is discerned in the mean. Accordingly, all evil naturally operates in a deficiency of or an excess of virtue. Life of Moses, p.128

There would be no virtue or lack of the proper measure or excess as in fortitude whose deficiency is fear and whose excess is audacity. Therefore worldly wisdom with which we are perhaps familiar clarifies the meaning of this text and does not lack terse sayings cautioning about excess. Ecclesiastes now speaks about the best measure and makes a pronouncement about a lack of excess showing that both do not determine the measure of virtue, and that we must reject anything pertaining to measure. Nevertheless, he offers us the measure of opportunity because we can neither judge as good the opportunity we have already received nor the one to follow. Commentary on Ecclesiastes, J.376

The psalm says that the fields rejoice, a symbol of stability in virtue which Isaiah mentions when he orders the ravines to be filled and the hills and the mountains to be set up [Is 40.4]. To me this seems nothing other than a defect and excess in our behavior with regard to virtue. The text wishes us to be attentive here so that we may not fabricate [literally, "hollow out"] a reason for virtue through a defect of the good, nor to cause unevenness by excess. "Let the fields and all that is in them rejoice." Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, J.103-4

But it is not enough merely to define virtue generically as a disposition; we must also say what species of disposition it is. It must then be premised that all excellence has a twofold effect on the thing to which it belongs: it not only renders the thing itself good, but it also causes it to perform its function well.

...by the mean of the thing I denote a point equally distant from either extreme, which is one and the same for everybody.

...and if virtue, like nature, is more accurate and better than any form of art, it will follow that virtue has the quality of hitting the mean...Virtue, therefore, is a mean state in the sense that it is able to hit the mean.

Virtue then is a settled disposition of the mind determining the choice of actions and emotions, consisting essentially in the observance of the mean relative to us, this being determined by principle, that is, as the prudent man would determine it. And it is a mean state between two vices, one of excess and one of defect. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, ii, vi

287

14: You therefore imitate by truth of speech the sleepless angels who do not shrink away from truth by any fantasies of the imagination.

We should sleep half-awake...A man who is asleep is not good for anything, any more than a man who is dead. Therefore, even during the night we should arouse ourselves from sleep often and give praise to God. Blessed are they who have kept watch for Him, for they make themselves like the angels whom we speak of as ever wakeful. "No man who is asleep is good for anything, any more than if he were dead" [Plato, Laws vii, 808d]. He who has the light stays away, and the darkness does not overcome him, and if darkness does not, much less does sleep. Therefore, he who has been enlightened stays awake, and such a one lives. "For what was in Him, was life" [Jn 1.4,5]..."He who has the most respect for life and for reason will stay awake as long as he can, reserving only as much time for sleep as his health demands; much sleep is not required, if the habit of moderation be once rightly formed" [Plato, Laws vii, 808bc]. Christ the Educator by Clement of Alexandria, FOTC#23.161-2.

288

15-17: her [Almatheia] wild goats were fond of that Cretan whose horn fell and as a result, every kind of fruit flowed out of it.

Begin the work with Jupiter. On the first night is visible the star that tended the cradle of Jupiter; the rainy sign of the Olenian She-goat rises. She has her place in the sky as a reward for the milk she gave the babe. The Naiad Amalthea, famous on the Cretan Mount Ida, is said to have hidden Jupiter in the woods. She owned a she-goat, conspicuous among the Dictaean flocks, the fair dam of two kids; such as the nurse of Jove might have. She suckled the god. But she broke a horn on a tree, and was shorn of half her charm. The nymph picked it up, wrapped it in fresh herbs, and carried it, full of fruit, to the lips of Jove. He, when he had gained the kingdom of heaven and sat on his father's throne, and there was nothing greater than unconquered Jove, made his nurse and her horn of plenty into stars: the horn still keeps its mistress' name. Ovid, Fasti, v.115-28

18: Can we believe in scripture what is said about Almatheia? Certainly not.

cf. J.289.5

But it will be well, I think, to pass over his [Eunomius] nauseating observations (for such we must term his senseless attacks on the method of conception), and dwell more pleasurably on the subject matter of our thought. For all the venom that our disputant has disgorged with the view of overthrowing our Master's speculations in regard to conception, is not of such a kind as to be dangerous to those who come in its way, however stupid they may be and liable to be imposed on. Against Eunomius, PN.289a

290

6-15: No one can share God's glory unless he has been first conformed to the likeness of Christ's death [Phil 3.10]. Therefore, the spices' catalogue of praises mentions the choice berries of pomegranates. Along with them are myrrh, aloes and the chief spices. Myrrh and aloes have something in common with Christ's tomb (As the sublime Gospel says, Jn 19.39, he who was buried tasted death for us).

cf. J.189.2-15

295

1-5: we need greater help through prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit that we might not suffer the same fate as the sublime marvels we are accustomed to seen among the stars. In admiring the stars' distant beauty, we are unable to know the means by which they were created, but we can enjoy their beauty and marvel at them.

Similarly, the patriarch Abraham studied Chaldean philosophy and became skilled in it. He also pondered the stars' position, harmony and motion which acted as a ladder for him to contemplate the good above. If [Abraham] grasped them by his senses, even though they transcended the senses, and happened to attain what he sought from pagan wisdom, he surpassed it and moved on to what was loftier.

Thus he [Gregory] became great by his acquaintance and attention to pagan philosophy which augments Greek [wisdom] and leads to an understanding of Christianity. Having forsaken the erroneous religion of their ancestors, he sought the truth, for such foreign teaching is not in harmony with regard to Greek beliefs. Since [Gregory] knew that philosophy concerning the divinity was two-fold, Greek and barbarian, he pondered over these conflicting teachings and attempted to confirm each by close attention to their words. He abandoned them to their own devices as though they were engaged in civil war and apprehended the firm position of faith minus logical, convoluted technical tricks; rather, he honored every person who understood them by using simple words while he himself had faith which transcends knowledge [cf. Eph 3.19]. For if human reason could grasp his words, it would not differ from Greek wisdom which, if they had strength to absorb it, would express their own opinions. Since comprehension of [God's] transcendent nature cannot be fathomed by human reasoning and intelligence, faith takes it place and fosters it. Therefore just as Scripture says that Moses was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" [Acts 7.22], so was that man [Gregory] great who was familiar with Greek education and knowledge. By experience he realized the deficiency and insubstantial nature of their teachings since he followed the Gospel. Before his initiation through a mystical and incorporeal birth, he conducted his life in order to be cleansed of sin's filth. Gregory the Wonderworker, J.9-10

11-16: Elijah's example shows us how our mind is taken up in a fiery chariot [2Kg 2.11] and raised on high to that heavenly beauty. (We understand this fiery chariot as the Holy Spirit which the Lord had come to cast upon the earth; in the likeness of tongues, it was divided among the disciples.

In the revolution she [divine intelligence] she beholds justice, and temperance, and knowledge absolute, not in the form of generation or of relation, which men call existence, but knowledge absolute in existence absolute; and beholding the other true existences in like manner, and feasting upon them, she passes down into the interior of the heavens and returns home; and there the charioteer putting up his horses at the stall, gives them ambrosia to eat and nectar to drink. Phaedrus, 247e

296

10-11: It is not by prayers that the bride obtains her wishes, but by the true voice of him who makes a promise; he calls "lord" the faithful and prudent dispenser whom the Master appoints over all his possessions. [Lk 12.42]

Tatian, The Diatessaron, #43: this section is composed of the following scriptural passages : Lk 12.41-2; Mt 24.45-6, 25.

297

4-7: He [Israel] contended with the adversary and barely escaped a fall because of God's help; Israel was by no means immune to the adversary's harm [Gen 32.25-9].

So I think that a man can probably never by himself overcome an opposing power, but only by the use of divine help. That is why an angel is said to have wrestled with Jacob. Now we understand the passage in this way, that to wrestle with Jacob does not mean to wrestle against Jacob, but that the angel, who was present in order to same him, and who after learning of the progress he had made gave him the additional name of Israel, wrestled together with him, that is, was on his side in the contest and helped him in the struggle; for undoubtedly it was some other against whom Jacob was fighting and against whom his struggle was being waged [Gen 32.22-30]...If therefore Jacob also wrestled, he wrestled undoubtedly against one of these powers, which Paul enumerates as opposing and making attacks on the human race and especially on the saints. Origen, On First Principles, p.220

20: the centurion calls another servant, but not the one whom he first sent away.

For "Socrates" and "musical Socrates" are thought to be the same; but "Socrates" is not predicable of more than one subject, and therefore we do not say "every Socrates" as we say "every man."

Some things are said to be the same in this sense, others (2) are the same by their own nature, in as many senses as that which is one by its own nature is so; for both t he things whose matter is one either in kind or in number, and those whose essence is one, are said to be the same. Clearly, therefore, sameness is a unity of the being either of more than one thing or of one thing when it is treated as more than one, i.e., when we say a thing is the same as itself; for we treat it as two.

"Different" is applied (1) to those things which though other are the same in some respect, only not in number but either in species or in genus or by analogy; (2) to those whose genus is other, and to contraries, and to all things that have their otherness in their essence. Aristotle, Metaphysics, book v, chapter 9 (1018)

299

1: She does not order it [north wind] to be calm in the same way the Lord ordered the storm to quiet down when he was upon the sea's waves [Lk 8.23-4], but she commands the south wind to depart and flee.

Tatian, the Diatessaron, #11: this section is composed of the following scriptural passages: Mt 7.28-8.8; Lk 7.8-17, etc.

300

7-8: The north wind signifies the power set up in opposition [to God], a fact which becomes clear to anyone considering the nature of visible reality.

As therefore God is "fire" and the angels "a flame of fire" and the saints are all "fervent in spirit," so on the contrary those who have fallen away from the love of God must undoubtedly be said to have cooled in their affection for him and to have become cold. For the Lord also says, "Because iniquity has multiplied, the love of the many shall grown cold" [Mt 24.12]. And further, all those things, whatever they may be, which in the holy scripture are likened to the adverse power, you invariably find to be cold...Now the north wind is described in the scriptures as cold, as it is written in Wisdom, "the cold north wind" [Eccl 43.20]. This then must undoubtedly be understood of the devil. Origen, On First Principles, p.124

15: Since the north is always cold and frigid, never illumined and warmed by the sun's rays, the ruling power of darkness petrifies souls by making them solid and hard.

If therefore the things which are holy are termed fire and light and fervent things while their opposites are termed cold, and the love of sinners is said to grow cold, we must ask whether perhaps even the word soul, which in Greek is psuche, was not formed from psuchesthai, with the idea of growing cold after having been in a diviner and better state, and whether it was not derived from thence because the soul seems to have grown cold by the loss of its first natural and divine warmth and on that account to have been placed in its present state with its present designation. Origen, On First Principles, p. 124; also, cf. J.300.7-8

Each of the elements has thus found it partisan, except earth--earth has found no supporter unless we count as such those who have declared soul to be, or to be compounded of all the elements. All, then, it may be said, characterize the soul by three marks, Movement, Sensation, Incorporeality, and each of these is traced back to the first principles. That is why all those who define the soul by its power of knowing make it either an element or constructed out of the elements. They language they all use is similar; like, they say, is known by like; as the soul knows everything, they construct it out of all the principles. Hence all those who admit but one cause or element, make the soul also one (e.g. fire or air), while those who admit a multiplicity of principles make the soul also multiple. Aristotle, On the Soul, book i, chapter 2 (405)

302

2: The bride now says to the south wind, "Blow through my garden" because her bridegroom made her a mother of the gardens.

Those who thus lose their wings and fall into pleasure will have no end of grief and pain, until, because of the yearning of their passions, they fulfill their irresistible longing for incontinence, and thus they will remain outside of the mysteries, uninitiated into the drama of truth, madly indulging the wild pleasures of love instead of living a chaste and temperate life as procreators of children. But those who are nimble and light of wing, soaring up into the supramundane regions above this life, see from afar things that no mortal has gazed upon, the very meadows of immortality bearing a profusion of flowers of incredible loveliness. And there they are ever and always contemplating the sights of that place. And hence they care nothing for the things which the world thinks good--riches and fame and family trees and marriage ties--and there is nothing they esteem higher than the things they see above. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.106

304

3: This salvation then is the food prepared for him.

For if there were no rain, neither fruits nor thorns and thistles would grow; but after the showers have fallen the earth produces both kinds from out of itself. But although the earth has produced both kinds of growth by the blessing of the rain, the diversity of the growth is not to be attributed to the showers, but the blame for an evil crop must fall on those who, when, they might have broken up the land by frequent ploughing and turned over the dull clods with the heavy mattocks...have neglected this and will accordingly reap those most appropriate fruits of their idleness, thorns and thistles. Thus it happens that the goodness and impartiality of the rain visits all lands alike, yet by one and the same operation of the showers that land which has been tilled produces useful fruits with a blessing to its diligent and useful cultivators, whereas that which by the idleness of its cultivators has become hardened brings forth thorns and thistles. Origen, On First Principles, p.173-4

4: The fruit is our free will which gives God our souls to pluck, as it were, on a small branch.

Methodius of Olympus, cf. J.276.7-13.

306

12-13: To be enjoyed along with the fragrance of the bride's fruit is myrrh combined with spices. They mortify our earthly members and make a pure, fragrant life from the varied, different spices of virtue.

cf. J.189.6sq

307

5: when the bread appeared to the disciples with honey after the Lord's [tou kuriou] resurrection. It [bread] was sweetened with honey from the comb [to kerio]

cf.J.269.14sq

308

17: All inebriation makes the mind overcome with wine go into ecstasy.

cf. J.156.14-20;

The Spirit next anoints the head with oil and offers wine to gladden the heart [cf. Ps 103.15] with that sober inebriation for the soul, situating our thoughts in eternity instead of temporal concerns. A taste of inebriation brings an abrupt halt to life's incompleteness through sudden death and extends our residence in God's house to the length of days. Ascension, J.324

309

5-9: Similarly, the great David became inebriated because he went out of himself and into ecstasy: he saw the invisible beauty and exclaimed in that inspired voice of his, "Every man is a liar" [Ps 115.2]. By that statement David explained those ineffable treasures.

Well does the great David seem to me to express the impossibility of doing this. He has been lifted by the power of the Spirit out of himself, and sees in a blessed state of ecstasy the boundless and incomprehensible Beauty; he sees it as fully as a mortal can see who has quitted his fleshly envelopments and entered, by the mere power of thought, upon the contemplation of the spiritual and intellectual world, and in his longing to speak a word worthy of the spectacle he bursts forth with that cry, which all re-echo, "Every man is a liar." On Virginity, PN.354-5

10-11: Thus Paul, the new Benjamin, was inebriated and said in ecstasy "whether we are transported in mind, it is to God (Here ecstasy is a movement towards God) or whether we be sober, it is for you" [2Cor 5.13]

The psalm of "ecstasy" [Ps 30] following the one about the house's dedication has the inscription, "For the end. A psalm of David, of ecstasy." This latter inscription is in harmony with the preceding one, for it warns us not to be attached to anything harmful. Commentary on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, J.88

310

17-19: and by the third voice, that God the Holy Spirit purifies everything. Such is the inebriation from wine which the Lord offers to those at his table.

Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#120, cf. J.56.15.

311

12-16: This sleep is quite extraordinary and different from one's natural habit, for in natural sleep, one is not awake.

Accordingly, if the waking period is determined by this fact, that in it sense-perception is free; if in the case of some contraries one of the two must be present, while in the case of others this is not necessary; if waking is the contrary of sleeping, and one of these two must be present to every animal; it must follow that the state of sleeping is necessary. Aristotle, On Sleep, 454 b (Barnes edition)

19-20: We see in the bride a new, paradoxical mixture of opposites: "I sleep," she says, "but my heart is awake." [Sg 5.2] What can we understand by this statement? This sleep is like death.

Now the much-desired tabernacle of the soul is fallen, and sunk down into the "dust of the earth" [Dan 12.2]. For it is not that which is not death, but that which is dead, that is laid down. But it is the flesh which dies; the soul is immortal. So, then, if the soul be immortal, and the body be the corpse, those who say that there is a resurrection, but not of the flesh, deny any resurrection; because it is not that which remains standing, but that which has fallen and been laid down, that is set up. Methodius of Olympus, From the Discourse on the Resurrection, AN.367b

But creatures which have sense-perception have likewise the feeling of pain and pleasure, while whose which have these have appetite as well; but plants have none of these affections. A mark of this is that the nutritive part does its own work better when the animal is asleep than when it is awake. Nutrition and growth are then especially promoted, a fact which implies that creatures do not need sense-perception to assist these processes. Aristotle, On Sleep, 454 a (Barnes edition)

312

10-314.7: As long as the mind lives alone and untroubled by the senses, it is as though the body were overcome by sleep and torpor. One can then truly say that sight is at rest through inaction while the soul has contempt for visions which frighten little children. I speak not only of material things such as gold, silver, and colorful stones which arouse greedy eyes, but the wonderful marvels in the heavens: the twinkling stars, the sun's orb, the moon's many changes, and anything else giving pleasure to the eyes; these things will not last forever, but will move and pass away with the cycle of time. Despising all such wonders through the contemplation of true goodness, the body's eye becomes tired, and the more perfect soul is not attracted to anything visible; with the mind it regards only what transcends visible objects. Hearing, too, is dead and does not function, for it is now occupied with what lies beyond speech. The soul keeps far away from our more animal sensations as if they were a foul stench; I mean the sense of smell which enjoys perfumes, the sense of taste which is subservient to the stomach, and the vulgar sense of touch which lacks sight; it seems that touch is for the blind. Once all these senses have been put to sleep and are gripped by inaction, the heart's action is pure; reason looks above while it remains undisturbed and free from the senses' movement.

Pleasure has two aspects: one is effected in the soul by freedom from passion, and another by passion in the body. Of these two, the one which free will chooses has power

over the other. If a person pays attention to the senses and is drawn by pleasure in the body, he will live his life without tasting the divine joy, since the good can be overshadowed by what is inferior. For those who desire God, a good not shadowed over by anything awaits them; they realize that what enters the senses must be avoided. Therefore, when the soul enjoys only the contemplation of Being, it will not arise for those things which effect sensual pleasure. It puts to rest all bodily movement, and by naked, pure insight, the soul will see God in a divine watchfulness.

Is it [death] not the separation of soul and body? And to be dead is the completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from the body and the body is released from the soul, what is this but death?...

Or did you ever reach them with any other bodily sense?--and I speak not of these alone, but of absolute greatness, and health, and strength, and of the essence or true nature of everything. Has the reality of them ever been perceived by you through the bodily organs? or rather, is not the nearest approach to the knowledge of their several natures made by him who so orders his intellectual vision as to have the most exact conception of the essence of each thing which he considers?...

And he attains to the purest knowledge of them who goes to each with the mind alone, not introducing or intruding in the act of thought sight or any other sense together with reason, but with the very light of the mind in her own clearness searches into the very truth of each...

And when real philosophers consider all these things, will they not be led to make a reflection which they will express in words?...For the body is a source of endless trouble to us by reason of the mere requirement of food...It has been proved to us by experience that if we would have pure knowledge of anything we must be quit of the body--the soul in herself must behold things in themselves: and then we shall attain the wisdom which we desire, and of which we say that we are lovers; not while we live, but after death...

But O my friend, if this be true, there is great reason to hope that, going whither I go, when I have come to the end of my journey, I shall attain that which has been the pursuit of my life...

And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I was saying before. Phaedo, 64c-67d

313

17-18: Pleasure has two aspects: one is effected in the soul by freedom from passion, and another by passion in the body.

For with the maintainers of the opinion that all pleasures are a cessation of pain, I do not agree, but as I was saying, I use them as witnesses, that there are pleasures which seem only and are not, and there are others again which have great power and appear in many forms, yet are intermingled with pains, and are partly alleviations of agony and distress, both of body and mind.

Then what pleasures, Socrates, should we be right in conceiving to be true?

True pleasures are those which are given by beauty of colour and form, and most of those which arise from smells; those of sound, again, and in general those of which the want is painless and unconscious, and of which the fruition is palpable to sense and pleasant and unalloyed with pain.

My meaning is certainly not obvious, and I will endeavor to be plainer. I do not mean by beauty of form such beauty as that of animals or pictures, which the many would suppose to be my meaning; but, says the argument, understand me to mean straight lines and circles, and the plane or solid figures which are formed out of them by turning-lathes and rulers and measurers of angles; for these I affirm to be not only relatively beautiful, like other things, but they are eternally and absolutely beautiful, and they have peculiar pleasures, quite unlike the pleasures of scratching...

And now, having fairly separated the pure pleasures and those which may be rightly termed impure, let us further add to our description of them, that the pleasures which are in excess have no measure, but that those which are not in excess have measure; the great, the excessive, whether more or less frequent, we shall be right in referring to the class of the infinite, and of the more and less, refer to the class which has measure. Philebus, 51-2

316

1-317.4: By such drowsiness and sleep I mean those dream-like fantasies formed in persons such as rulers and rich lords who are sunk in the deceptions of this life: vanity, seductive

pleasures, love of glory and its enjoyment, love of honor, and every other kind of deception sought after in this life by careless persons. Such things are transitory and pass with the flow of time. They seem to have existence but are not what we think, nor do they always remain in the way we think of them. Just as the sea, swells into waves and has a kind of substance by the wind's movements, then suddenly subsides and is calm, so it is with transitory things. They are destroyed like waves.

In order that our minds may not partake of illusions, we are exhorted to shake off heavy sleep from our soul's eyes lest by our inclination to non-existent things, we slip away from what has substance and true being. Christ, therefore, admonishes us to be watchful: "Let your loins be girded and have lamps burning in your hand" [Lk 12.35].

Now, since the mental image (so to call it) which penetrates it [soul] at the part which is said to be subject to affections produces the consequent affection, disturbance, and the likeness of the expected evil is coupled with the disturbance, this kind of situation was called an affection and reason thought it right to do away with it altogether and not to allow it to occur in the soul, on the ground that if it does occur the soul is not yet in a good state, but if it does not the soul is in a state of freedom from affections since the cause of the affection, the seeing in the soul, is no longer present in it...But the purification of the part subject to affections is the waking up from inappropriate images and not seeing them, and its separation is effected by not inclining much downwards and not having a mental picture of the things below. Plotinus, Enneads, III, 6, 5

We maintain, and it is evident truth, that the Supreme is everywhere and yet nowhere...

He is not in the everywhere but is the everywhere as well as the giver to the rest of things of their being in that everywhere. Holding the supreme place--all lies subject to Him; they have not brought Him to be but happen, all, to Him--or rather they stand there before Him looking upon Him, not He upon them. He is borne, so to speak, to the inmost of Himself in love of that pure radiance which He is, He Himself being that which He loves

Again, if He preeminently is because He holds firmly, so to speak, towards Himself, looking towards Himself, so that what we must call his being is this self-looking, He must again, since the word is inevitable, make Himself: thus, not "as He happens to be" is He but as He Himself wills to be.

That his being is constituted by this self-originating self-tendency--at once Act and repose--becomes clear if we imagine the contrary; inclining towards something outside of Himself, He would destroy the identity of his being. This self-directed Act is therefore his peculiar being, once with Himself. If then his act never came to be but is eternal--a waking without an awakener, an eternal wakening and a supra-Intellection--He is as waked Himself to be. This awakening is before being, before Intellectual-Principle, before rational life, though He is these; He is thus an Act before Intellectual-Principle and consciousness and life; these come from Him and no other; his being, then, is a self-presence, issuing from Himself. Thus not "as He happened to be" is He but as He willed to be. Plotinus, Enneads, VI, 8, 16

319

7-8: "The voice of my beloved knocks at the door" [Sg 5.2]. How can we worthily consider the bride's ascent to what is more divine? By exhibiting such authority and boldness she dismisses the biting north wind, summons the light breeze.

Even though you are asleep, if only Christ has come to know the devotion of your soul, he comes and knocks at her door and says, "Open to me, my sister." "Sister" is well put, because the marriage of the Word and the soul is spiritual. For souls do not know covenants of wedlock or the ways of bodily union, but they are like the angels in heaven "Open to me," but close to strangers. Close to the times, close to the world, do not go out of doors to material things, do not abandon your own light and search for another's because material light pours out a dark mist, so that the light of true glory is not seen. "Open," therefore, "to me;" do not open to the adversary or give place to the devil. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.41

322

13: By this example [cf. Ex 24.15-18] we learn that our withdrawal from false, deceptive ideas of God is a transition from darkness into light.

First, impatient of love and not bearing the delays of the Word, she asked that she might deserve his kisses and she deserved to see her beloved, and was also led into the king's chamber. Second, as they were speaking with one another, she rested in his shadow, and suddenly the Word departed from her in the middle of their conversation, yet he was not absent for long, for as she sought him, he came leaping over the mountains and bounding over the hills...Third, although she had not found him by searching in bed and at night, in the city and public places and streets, she finally summoned him back with her prayers and grace, so that she was even called closer by the bridegroom. Fourth, she is now awakened from sleep by him, although she was keeping watch with her heart so that she might hear his voice at once when he knocked. But while she was rising, she experienced a delay, because she could not match the swiftness of the Word. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.41

Scripture teaches by this that religious knowledge comes at first to those who receive it as light. Therefore what is perceived to be contrary to religion is darkness, and the escape from darkness comes about when one participates in light. But as the mind progresses and, through an ever greater and more perfect diligence, comes to apprehend reality, as it approaches more nearly to contemplation, it sees more clearly what of the divine nature is uncontemplated.

For leaving behind everything that is observed, not only what sense comprehends but also what the intelligence thinks it sees, it keeps on penetrating deeper until by the intelligence's yearning for understanding it gains access to the invisible and the incomprehensible, and there it sees God. This is the true knowledge of what is sought; this is the seeing that consists in not seeing because that which is sought transcends all knowledge. Life of Moses, p.95

323

12-15: Then the sun looked unfavorably upon her, the very sun that warms the seeds lacking roots cast upon the rocks by temptation. The bride was defeated by those who fought against her; she has not kept her vineyard.

cf. J.48.12-13; 50.10-51.19

15-16: Because the bride did not know herself, she pastured flocks of goats instead of sheep.

cf.J.56.12-60.22

16-17: But when she disassociated herself from evil and desired to approach the fountain of light by that mystical kiss, she became bright with the light of truth.

cf. J.63.12-67.7

324

7: The Song speaks of the shade of an apple tree instead of a cloud.

cf. J.322.17-18

326

1: It is impossible for a person entering the inner part of the sanctuary of the invisible to meet a drenching torrent of knowledge.

How shall I name that which can neither be seen nor heard, nor comprehended by the heart? By which words shall I make known His Nature? Where among the things we know can I find a likeness of this greatest good? What new words can I coin so as to describe the wholly inexpressible? I have heard the Divinely inspired Scriptures disclose marvelous things about the transcendent Nature--yet what are they compared with that Nature Itself?...If measured by our understanding, they [words in scripture] are indeed exalted above all greatness; yet they do not reach the majesty of the truth. Beatitudes, ACW.155

1-3: Rather, one must be content, if by a few obscure insights, truth bedews his knowledge: these spiritual drops flow from the saints and the bearers of the divine.

For on minds of rich soil that cloud sends in gentle showers the drops of wisdom, whose very nature exempts it from all harm, but on the sour of soil, that are barren of knowledge, it pours the blizzards of vengeance, flooding them with a deluge of destruction most miserable. Philo, Who is the Heir, p.385, #204

327

14-15: She did what she heard, that is, she removed her garment of skin [Gen 3.21] with which she clothed herself after her sin.

Now she is not aware of the remnants of the flesh; now, like a spirit, she has divested herself of the connection with the body; now, as if she had forgotten and could not remember their union even if she wished, she says, "I have taken off my robe, how shall I put it on?" For she took off that robe of skins which Adam and Eve had received after their sin, the robe of corruption, the robe of the passions. "How shall I put it on?" She does not seek again to put it on, but by this she means that it has been thrown away, so that it cannot now be her covering. St. Ambrose, Isaac or the Soul, FOTC#65.42

328

16-17: This action confirms the Lord's word which exhorts those once bedecked with the divine garment to no longer put on the tunic of sin, nor to have two tunics but only one, lest these two tunics be incompatible with each other. For what fellowship does the dark garment have the luminous, immaterial one?

Light's fellowship can neither be joined nor reconciled with darkness; for this reason the person embracing one of these opposing elements has war within himself. He has a division between virtue and evil drawn up in himself much like a hostile battle-order. On Perfection, J.180

329

15-16: Neither is a person soiled again with dust from the earth after having washed his feet. "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" [Sg 5.3]

"I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?"; that is, I have washed my feet, togo forth and lift myself up from association with the body; "how shall I defile them?" to return to the enclosure of the body and the gloomy prison of its passions? Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.42

331

17: We understand this rock to be the Lord who is the light, truth, incorruptibility and righteousness with which the spiritual road is paved.

Since the divine nature is righteousness, wisdom, power, truth, goodness, life, salvation, incorruptibility, the stable and the unchangeable, and whatever noble thought is made known through these terms, all are Christ and are called Christ. On Perfection, J.134

333

1: Neither does she fix her footsteps on the earth. She has heard her bridegroom's voice and trusts in its command.

Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, cf. J.322.13.

13-15: The human soul has two natures: the incorporeal, intellectual and pure on the one hand; the bodily, material and irrational on the other.

Of all existing things there is a twofold manner of apprehension, the consideration of them being divided between what appertains to intellect and what appertains to the senses; and besides these there is nothing to be detected in the nature of existing things, as extending beyond this division. The Great Catechism, PN.480a

334

10-18: Similarly, water moved by wind does not remain at the edge of the lake, but it becomes a spring gushing forth which rushes on high to its connatural state. Once it has passed the highest manifestation of water and becomes mixed with air, the wind's movement comes to rest on high. Such is the case with the soul seeking the divinity.

The framework of things was to his [Epicurus] mind a fortuitous and mechanical affair, without a Providence penetrating its operations; and, as a piece with this, he thought that human life was like a bubble, existing only as long as the breath within was held in by the enveloping substance, inasmuch as our body was a mere membrane, as it were, encompassing a breath; and that on the collapse of the inflation the imprisoned essence was extinguished. To him the visible was the limit of existence; he made our senses the only means of our apprehension of things. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN.432a

335

1-15: The soul sees the heavenly beauty, the splendor of the luminaries, the swiftness of the earth turning on its axis, the good order of things, the harmony of the stars' course, and the

yearly cycle with its four seasons. The earth is sustained by God who embraces it. He

changes the functions of the stars above. He sustains the great variety of living beings: water creatures, birds, things on the earth such as plants and grasses, their quantities and differences and the properties of fruits and juices. All these manifest God's power.

When the soul looks at these wonders, it considers him who is recognized in his works. Similarly, in the age to come all limitations will yield to that life which is beyond anything seen, heard or understood.

If we have an unfortunate experience as a result of following poor counsel instead of good advice, death is not responsible for it because we have the capacity of free choice. How can persons be sad when the pain of death no longer exists? Unless a person cleanses himself of passion derived from pleasure and grief associated with the body, he would be no better off than those who wail for their friends in prison. They are sullen in appearance, have a gloomy attitude and consider this present life as filled with despondency. Once prisoners are released from their gloomy confinement, they are unfamiliar with the splendor they now behold. They gazes upon celestial wonders, the sky's beauty, the lofty heaven, rays of heavenly lights, the chorus of stars, the sun's passage, the moon's course, the diverse beauty and sweetness of the earth's growth and the calm sea which radiates under the sun's rays and which is rustled by a gentle wind. Whenever persons see cities deprived of public buildings adorning them like lamps and then come upon a prison, they do not bewail newly released captives who have been cut off from the good. Instead, persons not confined in prison recognize those who are still jailed as being extremely wretched and needing mercy. They sympathize with their distress and lament this life beset with pain since such persons cannot behold the heavenly, immaterial beauty, the thrones, principalities, powers (Col 1.16), governing forces, angelic array, congregation of holy persons, the transcendent city above and the festive assembly described in it [Heb 12.22]. The [Gospel] text depicts the surpassing transcendent beauty which only the pure of heart can behold [Mt 5.8], for it exceeds any hope and image we can possibly have. Concerning Those Who Have Died, J.37-8

336

5: Then we will no longer know in part [1Cor 13.12] the Good through its works as now.

First, God the Word is seen in his works, as I said, as if through an opening in the door, and not completely and perfectly. Then her love increases, and once implanted, grows to maturity; from his seeds which the soul received in a spiritual womb, as it were, she longs to see the entire fullness of his divinity dwelling in him in bodily form, as we have read. She rose, that she might see the wonderful Word of God more closely. And in this her advance is being represented, because she rose through the power of virtue, just as by the presence of Mary, when she was heavy with child, He gave instruction to John, who was in the womb, so that he leapt in the womb and rejoiced to know the presence of the Lord. She rose to open, and her works and deeds were dead to the world. The soul who is about to receive the Word should be such that she dies to the world and is buried together in Christ. So it is that Christ is found, and such is the reception he asks for himself. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.43

337

5-21: Every soul endowed with the faculty of reason is struck by the wonderful deeds of the divine hand which transcends our human capacity, for the divine nature effecting such wonders can neither be grasped nor contained. Every created being is the work of that hand which appeared through the aperture. So John cries this out in his Gospel, "Everything was

made through him" [1.3] and the prophet Isaiah expresses the same thought. He calls the

hand God' s operative power: "My hand made all these things" [Is 66.2]. Man's inquiring

mind cannot comprehend that operation: the celestial beauty, namely the sky, the sun, or any other wonder of creation. His heart is nevertheless moved at God' s power. If he cannot understand these things, how can he comprehend God who lies beyond them?

cf. Against Eunomius, PN.253b-54b

16-18: Man's inquiring mind cannot comprehend that operation: the celestial beauty, namely, the sky, the sun or any other wonder of creation.

The mind which dwells in the body speaks as follows: Oh men, you are ignorant of these things and have no knowledge of the place to which you will migrate. Man in his present existence cannot fathom this since he is only capable of knowledge as it pertains to life here and now, that is, the order of the body's limbs, the constitution of entrails, the self-determined movement of nerves and how they are fixed to our bones, the radiance shining in our eyes, food and drink whose nourishment extends all the way to our hair and our very fingertips, the fire continuously burning in the heart which is carried through the arteries throughout the entire body, and the drink we consume which passes to the liver where it is changed and automatically turns into blood. We are ignorant of these operations, let alone this present life. On the other hand, that life which cannot be detected by the senses remains invisible to persons yoked to sense perception. How, then, can we see anything which transcends the senses? Thus the characteristics of both lives remain unknown; we contemplate only the visible while conversely, the senses cannot perceive that which is invisible. Why, oh man, do you suffer such affliction? You are ignorant of this good which we have embraced. Because you are unaware of such a good, you are terrified of it for no reason at all as though it were something horrible. Many other things known by the senses and of which we are ignorant frighten us such as the heavenly luminaries, the turning of the [heavenly] spheres which revolve in an opposite direction, the earth's solid foundation, the flow of water which bubbles up continuously from the earth and never ceases, as well as many other wonders which we do not know and fear due to ignorance. We believe that the divine nature transcends all these, is blessed and escapes our comprehension. The human mind can never grasp nor discover [God's] essence. Similarly, we love what we do not know with our whole heart, soul and strength [Dt 6.5], even though it transcends our thoughts. Concerning Those Who Have Died, J.44-5

341

4: Of chief concern in their prayer is a gentle breeze to push their sail in the direction desired by the pilot at the ship's stern.

Methodius of Olympus, cf. J.276.1-13 above.

15-16: The vast sea represents contemplation of the divine words.

And must not we swim and try to reach the shore: we will hope that Arion's dolphin or some other miraculous help may save us?

I suppose so, he said.

Well then, let us see if any way of escape can be found. We acknowledged--did we not? that different natures ought to have different pursuits, and that men's and women's natures are different. And now what are we saying?--that different natures out to have the same pursuits,--this is the inconsistency which is charged upon us. Republic, 453d

342

1-5: But the Song's text acting as pilot, does not touch the tiller before prayer is offered to God by the entire crew so that the Holy Spirit's power might breathe on us and put into motion the waves of our thoughts.

Look on him who has succeeded, and boldly launch upon the voyage with confidence that it will be prosperous, and sail on under the breeze of the Holy Spirit with Christ your pilot and with the oarage of good cheer. On Virginity, PN.370b

16: unless we remove the veil of flesh by the mortification of our bodies on earth.

The priest has entered the sanctuary and inner chamber of the tent where Christ our precursor has preceded us [cf. Heb 6.19-20] after he removed the garment of skin. No longer does he minister by an image and shadow of heavenly reality but intercedes face to face with God on our behalf and the people who are unenlightened. He has discarded the tunics of skins since he has no need for them in paradise. On the other hand, once he has put on the clothing which he had weaved by a pure life, he brought glory upon himself. Meletius, J.454

343

5: by making my hands fountains of myrrh from which flowed spices, and by showing that my fingers were filled with myrrh.

"My head is wet with dew," that is, the soul which was suddenly disturbed by the temptations of the world and was bidden to rise, and indeed is on the point of rising, as it were, speaks; fragrant with aloe and myrrh, signs of burial, she says, "I have taken off my robe, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.41-2

15: myrrh did not come into her hands from any other source (if this were so, myrrh would mean something accidental and involuntary).

Virtue however is concerned with emotions and actions, and it is only voluntary actions for which praise and blame are given; those that are involuntary are condoned, and sometimes even pitied. Hence it seems to be necessary for the student of ethics to define the difference between the Voluntary and the Involuntary.

It is then generally held that actions are involuntary when done (a) under compulsion or (b) through ignorance; and that (a) an act is compulsory when its origin is from without, being of such a nature that the agent, who is really passive, contributes nothing to it. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii, i

348

5-8: Man would not have been beautiful if the sullen stamp of death were in him. However, man was the image and likeness of eternal life, truly beautiful and exceedingly good, adorned with the radiant form of life.

For the image of the earthy which we have borne is this, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" [Gen 3.19]. But the image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead, and incorruption, in order that "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life" [Rom 6.4]. But if any one were to think that the earthy image is the flesh itself, but the heavenly image some other spiritual body besides the flesh; let him first consider that Christ, the heavenly man, when He appeared, bore the same form of limbs and the same image of flesh as ours, through which also He, who was not man, became man, that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" [1Cor 15.22]. Methodius of Olympus, From the Discourse on the Resurrection, AN.3681

12: In the midst of paradise was planted a tree teeming with life.

cf. J.10.13-11.4

349

20-21: Death was not planted, nor did it have roots nor room of its own.

cf. St. Basil the Great, Hom. Quod Deus Non Est Autor Malorum, PG#31.345a

350

1-2: by the barrenness of its life, participation in the good became fruitless for living beings. Since life was at the center of all the things God planted, death's nature consists in the cessation of life.

But since it was to happen that some should fall away from life and bring death upon themselves by the very fact of their falling (for death is nothing else but a departure from life), and yet it would certainly not have been logical that beings once created by God for the enjoyment of life should utterly perish, it was needful that before the existence of death there should exist a power capable of destroying the death that was to come, and that there should exist a resurrection, the figure of which was shown in our Lord and Saviour, which resurrection should have its ground in the very wisdom and word and life of God. Origen, On First Principles, p.17

351

1: Man immediately died to the better life, having exchanged divine life for one brutish and devoid of reason.

Now if this is so, it seems to me that the departure and downward course of the mind must not be thought of as equal in all cases, but as a greater or less degree of change into soul, and that some minds retain a portion of their original vigour, while others retain none or only a very little. This is the reason why some are found right from their earliest years to be of ardent keenness, while others are duller, and some are born extremely dense and altogether unteachable. Origen, On First Principles, p.127

2-6: Once death had been mixed with nature, mortality passed on to successive generations of children. Thus our very life has become death, for in a way, our life has died. Our life is mortal, indeed, having been deprived of immortality.

Thus, then, God has made man, and willed that he should abide in incorruption; but men, having despised and rejected the contemplation of God, and devised and contrived evil for themselves, received the condemnation of death with which they had been threatened; and from thenceforth no longer remained as they were made, but were being corrupted according to their devices; and death had the mastery of them as king...For man is by nature mortal, inasmuch as he is made out what is not; but by reason of his likeness to Him that is (and if he still preserved this likeness by keeping Him in his knowledge) he would stay his natural corruption, and remain incorrupt. St. Athanasius, The Incarnation of the Word, PN.38a & b

What opposition, for instance, is there between "incorporeal" and "just," even though the words do not coincide in meaning: and what hostility is there between goodness and invisibility? So, too, the eternity of the Divine Life, though represented under the double name and idea of "the unending" and "the unbeginning," is not cut in two by this difference of name; nor yet is the one name the same in meaning as the other; the one points to the absence of beginning, the other to the absence of end, and yet there is no division produced in the subject by this difference in the actual terms applied to it. Against Eunomius, PN.298a

352

12: "Upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved." And she adds, "My beloved was gone. My soul went forth at his word" [Sg 5. 5-6]

cf. J.180.1-7

cf. 245.11-47.18

Similarly, the soul moves in the opposite direction. Once it is released from its earthly attachment, it becomes light and swift for its movement upward, soaring from below up to the heights.

If nothing comes from above to hinder its upward thrust (for the nature of the Good attracts to itself those who look to it), the soul rises ever higher and will always make its flight yet higher--by its desire of the heavenly things straining ahead for what is still to come, as the Apostle says [Phl 3.13].

Made to desire and not to abandon the transcendent height by the things already attained, it makes its way upward without ceasing, ever through its prior accomplishments renewing its intensity for the flight. Activity directed toward virtue causes its capacity to grow through exertion; this kind of activity alone does not slacken its intensity by the effort, but increases it. Life of Moses, p.113

19: Being filled with myrrh, the bride symbolically names "fingers" death to evil in every action of life.

Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.43, cf. J.343.5.

cf. J.336.12, 343.16

356

1-16: But as great and exalted as he was with such experiences, Moses still had an insatiable desire for more. He implored God to see him face to face, despite the fact that scripture already says that he had been allowed to speak with God face to face. But neither did his act of intimately speaking with God as a friend make him cease to desire more; rather, " If I have found favor before you, show me your face clearly." And he who promised to grant this request, said, "I have known you above all others" [Ex 33.17]. God passed Moses by at the divine place in the rock shadowed over by his hand. Moses could hardly see God's back even after he had passed by. I believe we are taught that the person desiring to see God can behold the desired One by always following him. The contemplation of God's face is a never ending journey toward him accomplished by following right behind the Word.

While following these things in the sequence of our investigation, we were led to a deeper meaning in contemplating this passage. Let us return to the subject. How does someone who Scripture says saw God clearly in such divine appearances--"face to face, as a man speaks with his friend" [Ex 33.11]--require that God appear to hi, as though he who is always visible had not yet been seen, as though Moses had not yet attained what Scripture testifies he had indeed attained?

The heavenly voice now grants the petitioner's request and does not deny this additional grace. Yet again He leads him to despair in that He affirms that what the petitioner seeks cannot be contained by human life. Still, God says there is a place with himself where there is a rock with a hole in it into which he commands Moses to enter. Then God placed his hand over the mouth of the hole and called out to Moses as he passed by. When Moses was summoned, he came out of the hole and saw the back of the One who called him. In this way he thought he saw what he was seeking, and the promise of the divine voice did not prove false. Life of Moses, pp.111-12

357

18: I have sought him by my soul's capacities of reflection and understanding; he completely transcended them, and escaped my mind when it drew near to him.

cf. J.181.19sq

358

14-16: God also spoke to Manassah who prophesied about his son. When asked about God's name, Manassah responded that he is marvelous and greater than the human ear can contain. [Jdg 13.18]

We mentioned Manes' statements only in order to show, that he at all events thought it his duty to separate evil from anything to do with God. But the blasphemous error with regard to the Son, which these men systematize, is much more terrible. Like the others, they explain the existence of evil by a contrariety in respect of Being. Against Eunomius, PN.83b

359

19: "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? [Sg 5.3]

Well put, her coming as if a bride with a mantle to cover her head, when the bridegroom should meet her. Rebecca, when she knew that Isaac was coming to meet her, dismounted from her camel and covered herself with a mantle [Gen 24.65]. Just so this soul anticipated the mark of the wedding garment, so that she might not be cast out as one not having a wedding garment, or else wore it to cover her head on account of the angels. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.45

362

15-17: If that sweet blow embraces such elements of which Proverbs and the prophet speak, it is good to be struck by the rod from which comes an abundance of good things.

cf. St. Basil the Great, Hom. Quod Deus Non Est Auctor Malorum, PG#31.337b

364

8: The text, however, says that the soul is God's dwelling.

cf. J.360.15

9: Here the soul is found as in the case of a sheep by the Good Shepherd.

cf. J.168.18

366

11-14: The soul which looks to God and conceives that desire for incorruptible beauty always has a new desire for the transcendent, and it is never dulled by satiety. Such a soul never ceases to stretch forth to what lies before, going out from her present stage to what lies ahead.

Thus the working of the Father, which endows all with existence, is found to be more glorious and splendid, when each once, through participation in Christ in his character of wisdom and knowledge and sanctification, advances and comes to higher degrees of perfection; and when a man, by being sanctified through participation in the Holy Spirit, is made purer and holier, he becomes more worthy to receive the grace of wisdom and knowledge, in order that all stains of pollution and ignorance may be purged and removed and that he may make so great an advance in holiness and purity that the life which he received from God shall be such as is worthy of God, who gave it to be pure and perfect, and that which exists shall be as worthy as he who caused it to exists. Thus, too, the man who is such as God who made him wished him to be, shall receive from God the power to exist for ever and to endure for eternity. Origen, On First Principles, pp.38-9

367

3-4: she prepares food for the Lord of creation with her own fruit.

cf. J.303.3-05.13

4-5: waters her gardens and becomes a spring of living water.

cf. J.291.16-93.20

368

2-3: The bride thus received a blow like the flint Moses struck so that she might stream forth for those thirsting after the Word [Ex 17.6].

But the watchmen struck her so that she might be tested the more, for souls are tried by temptations. They took the mantle form her, for they were searching whether she bore the true beauty of naked virtue, or else because everyone ought to enter the celestial kingdom without clothing and not bring any covering of deceit with him. There are also those who demand that no soul carry with herself the remnants of carnal delight and the concupiscence of the body. She is stripped of the robe when her conscience is revealed. But there is also the soul which is stripped with good intent, the soul that is allowed to imitate Christ when he says, "The prince of this world is coming, and in me he will find nothing" [Jn 14.30]. Blessed is the soul in whom he does not find grave sins, or many, but on her he finds the cloak of faith and the rule of wisdom. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.45

369

20-21: Because the desire for her beloved is frustrated, her yearning for his beauty cannot be fulfilled.

cf. J.137.4-38.18

370

4-7: Thus the veil of her despair is removed, and the bride will always see more of her beloved's incomprehensible beauty throughout all eternity. The bride is enflamed by a more vehement longing and makes know her heart's affliction through the daughters of Jerusalem because she has received God's chosen arrow within her.

There is in you, human beings, a desire to contemplate the true good. But when you hear that the Divine Majesty is exalted above the heavens, that Its glory is inexpressible, Its beauty ineffable, and Its Nature inaccessible, do not despair of ever beholding what you desire. It is indeed within your reach; you have within yourselves the standard by which to apprehend the Divine. On the Beatitudes, ACW.148

372

9-13: The covering of its head is removed by stripping off the old tunic and by casting away the veil from its face which we understand as a doubtful, wavering mind. Thus the soul may look straight at the truth.

For so long as a man does not attend to the spiritual meaning "a veil lies upon his heart" [2Cor 3.15-17], in consequence of which veil, in other words his duller understanding, the scripture itself is said or thought to be veiled; and this is the explanation of the veil which is said to have covered the face of Moses when he was speaking to the people, that is, when the law is read in public. But if we turn to the Lord, where also the Word of God is, and where the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge, the veil will be taken away, and we shall then with unveiled face behold in the holy scriptures the glory of the Lord. Origen, On First Principles, p.8

375

12-20: "I have charged you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the virtues of the field" [Sg 5.8]. What doe these words enjoined upon us mean? We certainly understand the "field" to be the world in a symbolic sense as the Lord explains it [Mt 13.38]. What, then, are the many "powers" and "virtues" of the world proposed in the oath? We should understand these powers and virtues greater than ourselves so that the oath may confirm us in the truth of these greater realities.

cf. J.132.5-34.9

376

16-19: This two-fold notion of the good allows us to consider that which truly exists and to put to flight passions which are harmful to the soul. The mention of "roes and stags" symbolically represent the "power."

cf. J.141.3-42.8

377

18-20: Each soul will say to him, "I am wounded with love." The wounds of love are beautiful, as we learn from Proverbs: "Desirable are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are bad" [Prov 27.6].

cf. J.127.7-29.16

378

15-18: The bride, in turn, is enflamed with love and shows the shaft of love deeply placed in her heart, for this represents fellowship with God. For God is love [1Jn 4.8] who penetrates the heart by the arrow of faith.

cf. J.127.9-17

379

9-11: "My soul went out at his word." They [virgins] know that after the bride had gone out, she sought him who cannot be found by any signs and cried out to him who is not summoned by any name.

cf. J.357.3-59.4

382

12: but through its limbs the body is joined together by various functions in order that the members may be in harmony with the whole.

And, as in a body which is diseased the addition of a touch from without may bring on illness, and sometimes even when there is no external provocation a commotion may arise within--in the same way wherever there is weakness in the State there is also likely to be illness, of which the occasions may be very slight, the one party introducing from without their oligarchical, the other their democratical allies, and then the State falls sick, and is at war with herself; and may be at times distracted, even when there is no external cause. Republic, 556e

383

5: He who sees the Church sees Christ who builds and increases it by the addition of the saved.

cf. J.256.15

8-10: and is wounded by a spiritual, fiery shaft of desire [eros]. For love [agape] which aroused is called desire.

It follows that, just as there is one love, known as carnal and also known as Cupid by the poets [Symposium, 203 b-e], according to which the lover sows in the flesh; so also is there another, a spiritual love, by which the inner man who loves sows in the spirit. And, to speak more plainly, if anyone still bears the image of the earthy according to the outer man, then he is moved by earthly desire and love; but the desire and love of him who bears the image of the heavenly according to the inner man are heavenly. And the soul is moved by heavenly love and longing when, having clearly beheld the beauty and the fairness of the Word of God, it falls deeply in love with His loveliness and receives from the Word Himself a certain dart and wound of love. Origen, Song Commentary, p.29

11-12: but the bride boasts of her wound when she receives the point of spiritual desire in the depths of her heart.

cf. J.128.1-3

384

20: He made the invisible visible by deeds; and was manifested through the Church.

Pour ma part, je pense que les quatre evangiles sont comme les elements de la foi de l'Eglise--ces elements dont est constitute le monde entier reconcilie avec Dieu dans le Christ, comme le did Paul: "Dieu etait dans le Christ se reconciliant le monde" [2Cor 5.19]; de ce monde Jesus a pris le peche, car c'est le monde de l'Eglise que concerne cette parole: "Voici l"agneau de Dieu, qui ote le peche du monde" [Jn 1.29]--et je pense que les premices des evangiles se trouvent dans le texte que tu nous demandes d'expliquer autant que nous le pourrons, l'evangile de Jean qui, pour parler de celui dont d'autres ont fait la genealogie, commence par celui qui n'en a pas. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#120.69

386

5-9: Similarly, whoever views the world of this new creation in the Church sees it in him who is all in all. This person is then led by faith through what is finite and comprehensible to knowledge of the infinite.

cf. J.256.17-57.5

387

8-12: The mixture of these two colors describes the properties of flesh. This was touched upon earlier when the bride calls her spouse an apple whose form is composed by a blend of two colors. An apple is white and becomes red, the symbol of blood.

cf. J.125.18-26.3

389

8: Because woman brought death to human nature through sin, she was condemned to give birth in pain and labor [Gen 3.16].

Whenever we hear Christ called the "First-Born of creation" [Col 1.15], the "First-Born from the dead" [Col 1.18] and "First-Born among many brothers" [Rom 8.29], we should first refute any heretical opinions so that according to Paul, their fabricated doctrine may have no excuse for evil. Next let us consider what he has to say about our ethical life. Since heretics maintain that the Only-Begotten God, the Creator of the universe from whom, through whom, and in whom are all things [Rom 11.36], is a work of God as well as a creature and something made, they define the First-Born of all creation as the brother of creation preceding his elders in time. Such was the case of Reuben and his brothers [Gen 29.32]: he was not predetermined by nature but preceded his elders in time. First, it must be said against the heretics that they do not believe Christ to be the Only-Begotten and First-Born, for neither does the Only-Begotten have brothers nor does the First-Born lack them. If Christ is the Only-Begotten, he does not have brothers; if he is the First-Begotten of his brothers, neither is he the Only-Begotten, nor can this be said of him.

Since these names are incompatible and have nothing in common as pertaining to Christ, it is impossible to call him the two names, that is, the Only-Begotten and First-Born. But when scripture speaks of the Word existing in the beginning, he is the Only-Begotten of God; Paul says that he is the First-Born of all creation [Col 1.15]. It behooves us to judge name to accurately understand the Only-Begotten as the Word who existed before the ages; however, all creation was made in Christ, the Word who became the First-Born by his incarnation. If we understand Christ as the First-Born from the dead and First-Born among many brothers, we will comprehend that he is the First-Born of creation. Therefore, Christ is the First-Born from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep [1Cor 15.20] for the purpose of resurrecting all flesh. When we who were first children of wrath [Eph 2.3] were about to be made sons of day and sons of light [1Ths 5.5] by a rebirth from above through water and the Spirit [Jn 3.3-5], Christ became our guide to such a birth in the Jordan River. He brought the Spirit's grace upon the first fruits of our nature so that all those born into life from a spiritual rebirth might bear the name of "brothers of the First-Born" through water and the Spirit. We stay within the bounds of reverent opinion by understanding the First-Born of creation as begotten in Christ. Since the old creation has passed away as having been rendered useless through sin [2Cor 5.17], the new creation of life constituted by a rebirth and resurrection from the dead succeeded the passing away of those things which had been destroyed. The leader and author of this new creation is the First-Born of creation and bears this title. But we must answer our adversaries to adequately defend the truth against persons wishing to cause trouble. On Perfection, J.200.4-202.19

392

5: These locks laden with dew are named "clouds" by the prophets.

Car la parole "Ta verite va jusqu'aux nuages" [Ps 35.6] ne peut se rapporter aux nuages sans ame, mais la verite du Seigneur va jusqu'aux nuages qui ecoutent l'ordre de Dieu et savent ou repandre leur pluie et qui en priver. Qu'il ait en effet des nuages a qui Dieu ordonne de ne pas pleuvoir ou de pleuvoir, c'est ce qui est ecrit: "J'ordonnerai aux nuages de ne pas laisser tomber depluie sur elle" [Is 5.6]. Quand il s'agit des nuages d'ice-bas, s'il n'y a pas pleuvoir sur la vigne ou le pays, mais c'est qu'aucun nuage ne se montre, comme il est ecrit au troisieme livre des Rois [18]: la, pendant l'epoque de las secheresse aucun nuage ne se montrait, mais lorsque, selon la parole du prophete Elie, la pluie devait venir, il apparut une trace de nuage comme une trace d'homme [3Kg 18.44] et il se forma un nuage donnant la pluie; mais qu'il y ait d'autres nuages et qu'ils recoivent l'ordre de ne pas pleuvoir lorsque l'ame est indigne de la pluie, c'est ce que did la parole: "J'ordonnerai aux nuages de ne pas laisser tomber la pluei sur elle" [Is 5.6]. Donc chacun des saints est un nuage. Moise etait un nuage et c'est comme nuage qu'il disait: "Prete l'oreille, ceil, et je parlerai; que la terre ecoute les paroles de ma bouche; que mon enseignement soit attendu comme la plue",--s'il n'etait pas nuage, il n'aurait jamais dit: "Que mon enseignement soit attendu comme la pluie,"--"et que mes paroles descendent comme une rosee" Dt 32.1-2] C'est en tant que nuage qu'il dit: "Comme une ondee sur le chiendent, et comme neige sur l'herbe. Car j'ai invoque le nom du Seigneur" [Dt 32.3]. De la meme maniere, c'est en tant que nuage qu'Isaie did aussi: "Ecoute, ciel, et tends l'oreille, terre, parce que le Seigneur a parle" [Is 1.2]. Et c'est bien parce qu'il etait lui-meme un nuage et qu'il appelait nuages ceux qui prophetisaient avec lui qu'il dit dans sa prophetie: "J'ordonnerai aux nuages de ne pas laisser tomber de pluie sur elle" [Is 5.6].

Si tu as compris cet exemple, regarde maintenant le nuage spirituel. Moise etait nuage, Jesus, fils de Nave, etait nuage; eh bien! ces nuages conversent entre eux et de leurs paroles nait l'eclair. Jeremie etait nuage, Baruch etait nuage...Dans le Nouveau Testament aussi, Paul et Sylvain etaient deux nuages, ils se rencontrerent: l'eclair de l'epitre jaillit. Origen, Homelies sur Jeremie, SC#232.363-67

394

11-395.12: The eyes' natural function is to see. For this reason they are situated above all the sense organs and are ordained by nature with the guidance of the entire body. We hear

of persons named by divine scripture for guiding us into the truth such as "he who sees"

[1Sam 9.11], and "he who looks" and "watchman" [Ezk 3.17]. Such persons are named by

the prophets. "Eyes" represent those commanded to watch, to observe, and to carefully pay attention. We learn about their qualities by comparing their beauty to something better. The bride says, "Your eyes are as doves." The spouse's eyes are indeed praised, for they live by the Spirit's direction and are thereby innocent and undefiled.

The spiritual, pure life is expressed by a dove, the form which John saw the Holy Spirit flying upon the waters [Jn 1.32]. Thus he who is established by God as eyes for the Church's body must wash away anything blocking his vision if he is to watch and oversee as he should.

cf. J.216.17-19.8

397

12-13: instead, they have sat by the rivers of Babylon and have been condemned by God himself.

Now if "the rivers of Babylon," as the scholars tell us, represent the floods of passion which confuse and disturb the soul, then the willows must stand for chastity, on which we may draw up and hang our "instruments" of generation which weigh down and burden the mind, so as to prevent them from being carried along the channels of incontinence and, like worms, come in contact with purulence and putrefaction. For God has given us virginity as a most useful and helpful possession for our integrity, sending it as an ally to those, as the Psalmist teaches, who strive and long for Sion, that is, for that shining charity and the commandment which enjoins it on us.

Thus it is that they sing the song of the Lord in a strange land, dragging the Law into the mire by their interpretation of it, looking forward to a sensual kingdom in this "strange land" which divine Wisdom tells us shall pass away, and putting all their hopes in it; while here those who are trying to ensnare them lie in ambush to entice and deceive them with the bait of pleasure. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.78-9

400

4-5: Such jaws in Christ's body must no longer attend to the teats of the Word, but now go after firmer food of which the bride says, "His cheeks are as bowls of spices pouring forth perfumes." [Sg 5.13]

cf. J.224.2-10

11-14: The eye situated by the fullness of spiritual waters must be washed by unmixed, pure milk like an innocent dove in order that the bridegroom may share his own goodness with all the members of the Church.

cf. J.395.2-98.4

403

5-10: They [perfumes] are adapted according to the different persons who receive God's word--Jews, Greeks, women, men, lords, slaves, parents, children, both those subject and not subject to the Law. The loveliness of this manifold teaching is combined with every virtue.

But those who cannot grasp the clearness itself of God nor observe the whole splendor of the truth with an attentive mind, hear about the festivals second hand from those who had learned firs; and since the distinctive character of the investigation has given to the first the truth of things, the hearer alone bears the shadow of the truth to the second. Conscious of this mystery, the Apostle used to say about the Jews, "They serve a shadow and a copy of the heavenly" [Heb 5.8]. For it is written that Moses had seen "the heavenly things" themselves, but had passed on to the people types and images of what he had seen. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, FOTC#83.232

404

5: One example is truth which shines in his words (for a lily symbolizes purity and truth). The other is the spiritual, immaterial way of life set forth by his teaching and by contemplation of the spiritual realm which mortifies the world, that is, the life of flesh and blood.

cf. J.114.6-9

...for such things are visible and tangible [what comes through senses], but what she sees in her own nature is intelligible and invisible. And the soul of the true philosopher thinks that she ought not to resist this deliverance, and therefore abstains from pleasures and desires and pains and fears, as far as she is able; reflecting that when a man has great joys or sorrows or fears or desires, he suffers from them, not merely the sort of evil which might be anticipated...but an evil greater far, which is the greatest and worst of all evils, and one of which he never thinks. Phaedo, 83b

11-15: Myrrh, a symbol of death, flows from his body and fills souls docile to him. Quite often the divinely inspired scripture uses myrrh as referring to death. Therefore, the perfect, pure eye makes its cheeks a bowl which pours forth spices.

cf. J.189.6-10

405

1-11: Out of desire for the transcendent good, the cares of this life are nullified and put to death. Paul pours this myrrh from his mouth. It is mixed with the pure lily of temperance and fills the ears of that holy virgin Thekla was her name) who received in her soul these flowing drops. She put the outer man to death and quenched every carnal thought and desire. After Thekla received this salvific teaching, her youth and external beauty died, along with all her body's faculties. The Word alone lived in her. Because of him the entire world was dead for her, and she the virgin had died to the world.

Il lui sembla alors qu'elle tenait dans ses bras l'enfant qui se trouvait encore dans ses entrailles, et qu'un personnage, se manifestant avec une apparence et un maintien plus majestueux que ceux d'un homme, donnait a celle qu'elle portait le nom de Thecle, de cette Thecle dont la vie est fameuse parmi les vierges. La Vie de Sainte Macrine, SC#178.145-6

407

11: the bridegroom's hands are gold, signifying that he is completely pure, undefiled and without evil.

cf. J.390.11-91.14

15: The hand will become pure when stripped of anything carved in gold which hinders its beauty.

What does this inner sight see?...So that the soul must be trained, first of all to look at beautiful ways of life: then at beautiful works, not those which the arts produce, but the works of men who have a name for goodness: then look at the souls of the people who produce the beautiful works. How then can you see the sort of beauty a good soul has? Go back into yourself and look; and if you do not yet see yourself beautiful, then, just as someone making a statue which has to be beautiful cuts away here and polishes there and makes one part smooth and clears another til he has given his statue a beautiful face, so you too must cut away excess and straighten the crooked and clear the dark and make it bright, and never stop "working on your statue" [Phaedrus 252d] til the divine glory of virtue shines out on you, til you see "self-mastery enthroned upon its holy seat" [Phaedrus, 254b]. Plotinus, I 6, 9

Every one chooses his love from the ranks of beauty according to his character, and this he makes his god, and fashions and adorns as a sort of image which he is to fall down and worship. The followers of Zeus desire that their beloved should have a soul like him; and therefore they seek out some one of a philosophical and imperial nature, and when they have found him and loved him, they do all they can to confirm such a nature in him. Phaedrus, 252d

409

9: It is therefore necessary for our hands to be carved and hollowed out for the removal of our connatural evils.

Her immortality is demonstrated by the previous argument, and there are many other proofs; but to see her as she really is, not as we now behold her, marred by communion with the body and other miseries, you must contemplate her with the eye of reason, in her original purity; and then her beauty will be revealed, and justice and injustice and all the things which we have described will be manifested more clearly. Thus far, we have spoken the truth concerning her as she appears at present, but we must remember also that we have seen her only in a condition which may be compared to that of the sea-god Glaucus, whose original image can hardly be discerned because his natural members are broken off and crushed and damaged by the waves in all sorts of ways...

Let us see who she affects, and what society and converse she seeks in virtue of her near kindred with the immortal and eternal and divine; also how different she would become if wholly following this superior principle, and borne by a divine impulse out of the ocean in which she now is, and disengaged from the stones and shells and things of earth. Republic, 611d-e

Basilides and his followers used to call the passions adventitious occurrences. They say that they are in essence spirits attached to the rational soul in some primitive disturbance and confusion, and that there are other different, bastard spiritual natures which grow up in attachment to these--the natures of wolf, ape, lion, goat, for example. Their peculiar characteristics make their appearance in the region of the soul and bring the desires within the soul into a plausible likeness of animals. People then imitate the actions of the animals whose characteristics they hold within them, and not only grow familiar with the impulses and inner perceptions of animals without reason, but are keen to emulate the movement and beauty of plants because they carry attached to them the characteristics of plants. Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria, FOTC#85.231

415

2-4: The guiding faculty of the soul must be engraved with the clear, pure memory of the divine words and be made clear by conspicuous letters.

And the origin of truth and error is as follows: When the wax in the soul of any one is deep and abundant, and smooth and perfectly tempered, then the impressions which pass through the senses and sink into the heart of the soul, as Homer says in a parable, meaning to indicate the likeness of the soul to wax; these, I say, being pure and clear, and having a sufficient depth of wax, are also lasting, and minds, such as these, easily learn and easily retain, and are not liable to confusion, but have true thoughts. Theaetetus, 194 c-d

...but all souls do not easily recall the things of the other world; they may have seen them for a short time only, or they may have been unfortunate in their earthly lot, and having had their hearts turned to unrighteousness through some corrupting influence, they may have lost the memory of the holy things which once they saw. Few only retain an adequate remembrance of them; and they, when they behold here any image of that other world, are rapt in amazement. Phaedrus, 250a

8: Indeed, sapphire is included to praise the bridegroom's belly alone with the tablet whose gleam resembles the sky.

And he who employs aright these memories is ever being initiated into perfect mysteries and alone becomes truly perfect. But, as he forgets earthly interests and is rapt in the divine, the vulgar deem him mad, and rebuke him; they do not see that he is inspired.

Thus far I have been speaking of the fourth and last kind of madness, which is imputed to him who, when he sees the beauty of earth, is transported with the recollection of the true beauty; he would like to fly away, but he cannot; he is like a bird fluttering and looking upward and careless of the world below; and he is therefore thought to be mad. Phaedrus, 249d

420

2-5: I think that she points out her spouse here more clearly [Sg 5.15-16] because the beauty she praises is visible. This visibility follows the apostle's consideration of the Church as a body with its respective limbs [1Cor 12.12]

cf. J.383.15-86.17

421

4: According to prophesy [Ps 28.5-6], it [Lebanon] is like a calf which must be destroyed. The other form is honorable, fitting for God and like him.

And when they are filling in the work, as I conceive, they will often turn their eyes upwards and downwards: I mean that they will first look at absolute justice and beauty and temperance, and again at the human copy; and will mingle and temper the various elements of life into the image of a man; and thus they will conceive according to that other image, which, when existing among men, Homer calls the form and likeness of God. Republic, 501b

422

15-18: This prophesy teaches us that every evil raising itself high against the knowledge of God will be brought to nothing.

cf. J.209.10-13

425

1-2: what lies under the chin is called the throat and sound emanates from the windpipe by wind whirling about inside.

Voice and sound are different from one another; and language differs from voice and sound. The fact is that no animal can give utterance to voice except by the action of the pharynx, and consequently such animals as are devoid of lung have no voice; and language is the articulation of voice by the tongue. Thus, the voice and larynx can emit vowel sounds; consonantal sounds are made by the tongue and the lops; and out of these language is composed. Consequently, animals that have no tongue at all or that have a tongue not freely detached, have no language; although they may be enabled to make sounds by other organs than the tongue. Aristotle, History of Animals, 535 a (Barnes edition)

Some people hold that it is owing to the adhesive condition of the lungs that the breath cannot pass out and abroad; but they are wrong, for what really happens is that they make a sound but cannot be heard, because the impact upon the air does not take place with sufficient energy, but they only make a sound such as the breath would make when forced merely from the throat. Aristotle, On Things Heard, 804 b (Barnes edition, p.1236)

8-10: And blessed Paul offers proof of Christ speaking within him by whom his voice became sweet [2Cor 13.3]. All the prophets offered themselves as vocal organs of the Spirit.

cf.J.235.19-36.2

427

4-8: he healed his wounds with oil, wine and bands; he placed him upon his own ass; he gave him rest at the inn; he offered two denarii for staying there; and upon his return, promised to pay for any extra service [Lk 10.30-5].

cf.J.215.3-42.13

427

1-428.7: After the bride set before her maidens the characteristics by which they could

recognize the one whom she sought, she then points him out by saying, "This is he, the sought-after one, who rose from Judah to become our brother. He became the companion of him who fell in among robbers; he healed his wounds with oil, wine and bands; he placed him upon his own ass; he gave him rest at the inn; he offered two denarii for staying there; and upon his return, promised to pay for any extra service [Lk 10.30-35]". Each of these deeds is indeed evident. When the lawyer wished to test the Lord and set himself above the others, and in his haughtiness despised any equality with them, he said, "And who is my neighbor" [Lk 10.29]? Then the Word of God explained in a story the full dispensation of God's love for mankind. He told of man's descent from heaven, the ambush of robbers, the removal of the garment of incorruptibility, sin's wound, and the progress of sin over half of man's nature while the soul remained immortal. Our Lord also spoke of the passing by of the Law which was of no avail; neither priest nor Levite tended the wounds of the man who fell in among robbers, for the blood of goats and bulls are unable to take away sin [Heb 9.13]. However, Christ put on our full human nature as the first fruits of the dough [Rom 11.16 which included a part of each race: Jew, Samaritan, Greek, and all mankind. With his body, that is, the ass, he hastened to the place where evil had befallen man, healed his wounds, put him upon his own beast, and made for his loving providence a resting place in which all those who labor and are burdened can rest [Mt 11.28].

This charity, however, reckons all men as neighbours. For on that account the Saviour rebuked someone, who thought that the obligation to behave neighbourly did not apply to a righteous soul in regard to one who was sunk in wickedness; and for that same reason He made up the parable that tells how a certain man fell among robbers, as he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and blames the priest and the Levite, who passed by when they saw the man half-dead, but approves the Samaritan who showed mercy. And by means of the reply of him who raised the question, He affirmed that the Samaritan was the neighbour of the man, and said, "Go, and do thou in like manner" [Lk 10.37]. Origen, Song Commentary, pp.33-4

Consideree plus a fond, elle revele d'admirables myteres. Jericho est en effet la figure de ce monde, ou, chasse du paradis, c'est-a-dire de la Jerusalem celeste, Adam est descendu par la decheance de sa prevarication, passant de la vie aux enfers: c'est le changement non pas de lieu, mais de moeurs, qui a fait l'exil desa nature...Prenez donc garde d'etre d'abord depouille, comme Adam a d'abord ete mis a nu, depourvu de la protection du commandement celeste et depouille du vetement de la foi: c'est ainsi qu'il a recu la blessure mortelle a laquelle aurait succombe tout le genre humain, si le Samaritain n'etait descendu pour guerir ses cruelles blessures...

Ce medecin a bien des remedes, au moyen desquels il a coutume de guerir. Sa parole est un remede: tel de ses discours ligature les plaies, un autre les fomente d'huile, un autre y verse le vin; Il ligature les plaies par tel precepte plus austere, Il rechauffe en remettant le peche, Il pique comme avec le vin en annoncant le jugement...

Mais ce Samaritain n'avait pas le losir de demeurer longtemps sur terre: il Lui fallait retourner au lieu d'ou Il etait descendu. Aussi "le jour suivant"--quel est cet autre jour? Ne serait-ce pas celui de la resurrection du Seigneur, celui dont il est dit: "Voici le jour que le Seigneur a fait" [Ps 117.24]? Traite Sur L'Evangile de S. Luc by St. Ambrose, SC#52.33-35

cf. J.436.11-16

431

16: A change of names applies to Abraham and Sarah, who after many theophanies, received a blessing from the Lord with the passage of much time.

And when he had given him [Abraham] this name [Abraham] immediately he added: "And I shall make my covenant between me and you and your seed after you" [Gen 17.7]. Origen, Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, p.93

I think, therefore, that Sara, which means prince or one who governs empires, represents arete, which is the virtue of the soul. This virtue, then, is joined to and clings to a wise and faithful man, even as that wise man who said of wisdom: "I have desired to take her for my spouse" [Wis 8.2]. Ibid, p.122

436

12-13: "He descended" refers to the One who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell in among robbers.

cf. J.427.2-28.7

437

8-10: The bowls of perfume describing the bridegroom's beauty fittingly praise his cheeks which grind up the spiritual wheat for nourishment.

cf. J.401.12-03.11

15: If anyone becomes a bowl of perfume which pours forth choice myrrh, he will become a cup of wisdom which receives the pure wine of gladness.

cf. J.403.6-7

439

6-11: We learn here that the purified soul must have God alone and never look at anything except him. Thus it must cleanse itself of every material deed and thought and be transformed into that which is spiritual and immaterial, a splendid image of the archetype's beauty.

Theaetetus, 176a sq, cf. J.215.14-16

Dieu est donc le vrai Dieu. Les dieux qui sont formes d'apres lui sont comme les reproductions d'un prototype; mais, d'autre part, l'image archetype de ces multiples images, c'est le Verbe qui est aupres de Dieu, qui etait dans le principe, qui, parce qu'il est aupres de Dieu, demeure toujours Dieu, car il ne serait pas Dieu s'il ne perseverait dans la contemplation interrompue des profondeurs du Pere. Origen, Sur L'Evangile de Jean, SC#120.219

440

1-10: In her conformity to Christ she receives her proper beauty, that primal blessedness of our nature, according to the image and likeness of the original beauty which alone is true and worthy of adoration. This resembles a mirror expertly fashioned by hand which accurately reflects the image of a face. Thus, when the soul has prepared itself and has rejected every material stain, it represents the image of that pure, unstained beauty.

The soul, a living mirror possessing free will, says, "when I look at my beloved's face, the beauty of his form is reflected in me."

For he who made you did at the same time endow your nature with this wonderful quality. For God imprinted on it the likeness of the glories of His own Nature, as if moulding the form of a carving into wax. On the Beatitudes, ACW.148

443

12-14: It is clear that the bride compares her own beauty to such divine benevolence by imitating Christ in her works; she is to others what Christ was in his human nature.

Accordingly, she is praised by the bridegroom, because she sought after him so well and so steadily, and now not only is she called sister, but also well-pleasing--for she is pleasing to him who was pleasing to the Father--and beautiful as Jerusalem, an object of admiration in her array. For she possesses all the mysteries of the heavenly city and arouses admiration in all who see her. Because she is like the full and perfect justice, having borrowed her splendor from the light of the Word, while she strives always toward him, she becomes terrible too as she advances in a certain array to the heights of virtue. Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, FOTC#65.46-7

445

14-17: Those forces in battle array are the Powers perpetually holding sway; Dominations rule over everything; Thrones are firmly established; Principalities remain free from servitude; the Powers praise God without interruption.

Origen, On First Principles, cf. J.102.1-3

For because the two seraphim [cf. Is 41.12] alone have their wings over the face of God and over his feet, we may venture to declare that neither the armies of the holy angels, nor principalities, nor powers can wholly know the beginnings of all things and the ends of the universe. We must understand, however, that those holy spirits and powers who are here enumerated are nearest to the very beginnings of things and reach a point which the rest of creation cannot attain to. Ibid, p.311-12

The word of God has provided nine explanatory designations for the heavenly beings, and my own sacred-initiator has divided these into three threefold groups. According to him, the first group is forever around God and is said to be permanently united with him ahead of any of the others and with no intermediary. Here, then, are the most holy "thrones" and the orders said to possess many eyes and many wings, called in Hebrew the "cherubim" and "seraphim." Following the tradition of scripture, he says that they are found immediately around God and in a proximity enjoyed by no other. This threefold group, says my famous teacher, forms a single hierarchy which is truly first and whose members are of equal status. No other is more like the divine or receives more directly the first enlightenments from the Deity. The second group, he says, is made up of "authorities," "dominions," and "powers." And the third, at the end of the heavenly hierarchies, is the group of "angels," "archangels," and principalities." Dionysius the Areopagite, The Celestial Hierarchy, pp.160-1

446

1-4: Since these powers are established by God, the order of spirits and transcendent powers remain distinct and constant, for their order is not upset by evil.

For each one among created things must remain in its own proper place, that none may be wanting to any, but all may be full: heaven of angels, thrones of powers, luminaries of ministers; and the more divine spots, and the undefiled and untainted luminaries, with seraphim, who attend the Supreme Council, and uphold the universe; and the world of men. For if we granted that men are changed into angels, it would follow that we say that angels also are changed into powers, and these into one thing and the other, until our argument proceed too far for safety. Methodius of Olympus, From the Discourse on the Resurrection, AN.366b-67a

14-15: It seems that the Lord addresses these words [Sg 6.5] to the pure soul, although I think they can apply to the bride.

Isaac or the Soul by St. Ambrose, cf. J.443.12-14.

447

10-11: "How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings" [Mt 23.37]!

For "on the same day" this one who is cleansed from leprosy is not yet worthy of the divine altar. This is why the Lawgiver commands that "on the same day that he is cleansed, two hens are received" [LEv 14.2 & 4] for his purification. But I think that here there is a secret understanding of this hen through which purification is made for sinners, about which it was written, "How many times I wanted to gather your sons as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you would not let me" [Mt 23.37]! Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, FOTC#83.168

448

3-12: But according to scripture, the prototype has a wing; hence human nature was created with wings so that it may be in the divine likeness. It is clear that the term "wings" may be symbolically applied to God. They represent God's power, blessedness, incorruptibility, and anything else. All these divine attributes were in man as long as he resembled God in everything, but the inclination towards evil robbed us of our own wings. (Not being under the protection of God's wings, we were stripped of our own wings.)

And let the figure [of the soul] be composite--a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed; the human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him. I will endeavour to explain to you in what way the mortal differs from the immortal creature. The soul in her totality has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms appearing:--when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and orders the whole world.

The wing is the corporeal element which is most akin to the divine, and which by nature tends to soar aloft and carry that which gravitates downwards into the upper region, which is the habitation of the gods. The divine is beauty, wisdom, goodness, and the like; and by these the wing of the soul is nourished, and grows apace. Phaedrus, 246

Thus that which is by nature fine and mobile, namely the soul, first becomes heavy and weighed down, and because of its wickedness comes to dwell in a human body; after that, when the faculty of reason is extinguished, it lives the life of an irrational animal; and finally even the gracious gift of sensation is withdrawn and it changes into the insensate life of a plant. For this condition it rises again through the same stages and is restored to its heavenly place. On earth by means of virtue souls grown wings and soar aloft, but when in heaven their wings fall off through evil and they sink down and become earthbound and are mingled with the gross nature of matter. Origen, On First Principles, p.73

Hence, we must keep looking upwards, and soaring on high, fly from the charm of their beautiful voices and from their forms, which are colored over on the outside with an appearance of continence, even more than we would from Homer's Sirens. Thus many who enter on our way of life, become weighted down and bemused by the pleasures of error and lose their wings; for the sinews which support the substance of the wings of continence and keep them soaring when they tend to droop towards the corruption of the body, have become instead soft and flabby. Also, cf. J.302.2 The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.105-6

450

2-3: I can now fly and rest in the same repose which God had when He rested from his works [Gen 2.2].

Again, not understanding the meaning of the words, "And God ended on the sixth day His works which He had made, and ceased on the seventh day from all His works which He had made: and God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because on it He had ceased from all His works which He had begun to make" [Gen 2.4]; and imagining the expression, "He ceased on the seventh day," to be the same as this, "He rested on the seventh day," he makes the remark, "After this, indeed, he is weary, like a very bad workman, who stands in need of rest to refresh himself!" For he [Celsus] knows nothing of the day of the Sabbath and rest of God, which follows the completion of the world's creation, and which lasts during the duration of the world, and in which all those will keep festival with God who have done all their works in their six days, and who, because they have omitted none of their duties, will ascend to the contemplation (of celestial things), and to the assembly of righteous and blessed beings. Origen, Against Celsus, PN.601a

23: "and your speech is comely; your cheek is like the rind of a pomegranate without your silence." [Sg 6.5-7]

cf. J.219.20-31.4

451

4-452.16: Sensory powers govern the entire body without which it cannot live (thus the body's life consists in sense perception). We see that hair, a part of the body, lacks sensation. Hair displays its uniqueness by feeling no pain from burning nor from cutting when compared with other bodily parts. Paul, therefore, says that a woman's glory is her hair [1Cor 11.15] which is adorned with braids. The bride's hair teaches us that those persons seen around the bride's head must be of greater value than the senses, for they conceal sensation with wisdom. Such persons give glory to the Church. As the book of Proverbs says, "The wise conceal sensation" [10.14].

The wise do not judge beauty by sight, nor the good by taste; neither is assessment of beauty entrusted to smell, touch, or any other sense organ. When each sense is dead, the soul alone lays hold of and stretches forward to the good with respect to the mind. Such wise persons glorify that woman, the Church. They do not puff her up by honors, nor cast her soul down in sorrow by manifesting scorn. Even if they must be killed due to faith in Christ, cast to beasts, thrown in the fire, or must bear any other pain, these persons assume the insensitivity of hair when experiencing pain. Such was Elijah who came from Galaad. He had a hairy, squalid body covered with goat skins and was undaunted by the tyrant's threats. Those who imitated the prophet's nobility have raised themselves above this world while they remain indigent, oppressed, afflicted, dwell in mountains, caves, and holes in the earth. The world is not worthy of them [Heb 11.37-38]. Seen as herds around the head of the universe, they glorify the Church and ascend with that Galaadite [Elijah] to celestial beauty.

cf. J.220.2-23.9

454

5-13: The teeth of the bride are likewise praised, for they nourish the Church's body. The bridegroom always wishes these teeth to be clean from all filth, lack hair by having been recently shorn, bear twins according to the birth of virtues and be seen as having destroyed by their teeth everything defective with respect to soul and body.

cf. J.225.16-28.3

455

10-456.1: Her ruddy cheeks are adorned like a pomegranate'sskin. They testify to the bride's perfection in the good, because she herself is a treasure of every good. As skin surrounds the edible part of a pomegranate, so does the beauty of her outward life manifest her inner treasure. Therefore, something like a pomegranate's skin surrounds the hidden treasure of the bride's longings, the fruit of her own soul produced from a virtuous life.

cf.J.229.21-31.4

456

1-15:

To me, the phrase "outside your silence (or veil)" means that the bride's praise is not made known by words; rather, her silence withholds information. Silence is opposed to speech, for we are silent when we cannot express anything through words. If silence is thus opposed to speech, the opposite holds true: speech is "outside silence." Thus the Song reads "outside your silence." This clearly means that anything not manifested by speech and belonging to silence is beautiful; it is ineffable and more wonderful than words.

cf. J.219.10-19

458

17-460.2: In the first creation there was no impediment present with the birth of our human nature, for it was perfect and lacked evil. But in the second restoration, an interval of time necessarily accompanies those pursuing the first good. Because our minds incline towards evil, our association with evil is removed like bark which is gradually scraped off by a more becoming life.

We have learned that the Father's house has many mansions [Jn 14.2]. This analogically corresponds to the good state of each person and to the rejection of evil prepared as a remedy. For example, one person with a better inheritance from the beginning has recently emerged from the depths of an evil into the truth, while another has done it by diligence and progress in the good. Still another person has grown by a desire for the good; yet another remains firmly in his ascent to on high, while another person goes further; some even pass these while others press forward in their upward course. God accepts each person according to his free will; He allots the choice according to each one's worthiness, bestows compensations to nobler persons, and measures out rewards to those of a lesser account.

And there is a law of Destiny, that the soul which attains any vision of truth in company with a god is preserved from harm until the next period, and if attaining always is always unharmed. But when she is unable to follow, and fails to behold the truth, and through some ill-hap sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and vice, and her wings fall from her and she drops to the ground, then the law ordains that this soul shall at her first birth pass, not into any other animal, but only into man. Phaedrus, 248c

460

20-461.3: Such persons are called "young maidens" because they have attained spiritual youthfulness. Begotten by the Word of faith, they do not advance further to marriage or attain perfection. in stead, they are pregnant with fear of the Lord and begat the spirit of salvation; however, they still have an infantile, imperfect understanding or a somewhat brutish disposition. Nevertheless, they are among the saved as the prophet says, "You, Lord, will save both man and beasts" [Ps 36.6]. He calls the more irrational among the saved "beasts."

...the maidens, namely, draw Christ to themselves--this surely must be taken as referring to the churches, which are one Church when perfected, but many "maidens" while they are still under instruction and advancing on their way. These, then, draw Christ to themselves through faith; for, when Christ sees "two or three together in" the faith of "His name," He goes thither, and "is in their midst," drawn by their faith and called forth by their unity of mind [Mt 18.20]. Origen, Song Commentary, p.76

Blessed to is the man who enters the holy of holies! Blessed is he who observes the sabbaths! Blessed likewise is he who understands songs and sings them--of course nobody sings except on festal days--but much more blest is he who sings the Song of Songs! And as the man who enters holy places still needs much to make him able to enter the holy of holies, and as he who keeps the sabbath which was ordained by God for the people still requires many things before he can keep the sabbath of sabbaths: so also is it hard to find a man competent to scale the heights of the Song of Songs, even though he has traversed all the songs in Scripture. Origen, The First Homily on the Song of Songs, p.266

The bride, of course, is the Church. The queens are all those royal souls who lived before the Deluge and were pleasing to God, that is, those who lived in the days of the prophets: for before the Church was espoused to the Lord, He lived with them as concubines, as it were, and sowed the seeds of truth in a rich and pure philosophy, that by conceiving faith they might bring forth to Him the spirit of salvation. Such indeed is the fruit that is brought forth by those souls who are wed to Christ, fruit that has an everlasting beauty. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.100

462

18-19: There are six commandments which prepare the kingdom of God. Each of these commandments is a talent which the master offers to the good and faithful steward.

Residui vero totius mundi, hi qui vocantur peccatores, in iudicium resurgent et increpabuntur. Eos qui in paucis defecerint iudex redgarguet, suaque eis peccata manifestabit, et post iudicium vitam dabit eis in hereditatem. Id autem intellige, quot Dominus in Evangelio suo nobis ostendit: quemcumque scilicet pro ratione operis sui mercedem recipere [Lk 19.16 sq]. Qui pecuniam acceperat lucrum exhibuit. Ille cuius mna aut talentum decemplicata sunt, accepit vitae consummationem, nulla re plane deficiente; cuius autem mna et talentum fuerunt quinqueplicata, dimidium ex decem recepit. Unus partes decem obtinuit, alter autem quinque. Adverte etiam et vide minus esse lucrum e quinque quam ex decem, et operarios qui mercedem requirunt, iis antecellere qui eam silentio tollunt. Qui per totum diem laboraverunt, stipendium suum cum fiducia percipiunt atque audacter efflagitant, ut illud magis amplietur; at qui una hora laboraverunt [mercedem] tacite sumunt, scientes se misericordiam et vitam gratuito adipisci. Peccatores denique, quorum iniquitates multiplicatae sunt, in iumdicio damnabuntur et ibunt ad supplicium, atque inde et in posterum iudicium in eos dominabitur. Aphraatis, Demonstratio xxii, #19

464

2-21: The psalms with the inscription eight admonish us out of fear for things hoped for and

bend God's ears to us in mercy. The number eight speaks of a fearful judge; "Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled" [Ps 6.2-3]. And anything offered to the judge is not subject to bribery as when anything offered to the judge is not subject to bribery as when it is lamented that there is no remembrance of God in death. [Ps 6.6] (For how can those condemned to wailing and grinding of teeth be happy when remembering God?) In another place, the prophet says that remembrance of God produces gladness [Ps 77.3]. The prophet offers the person fearing the number eight similar words when he partakes of God's mercy: "He has heard the weeping of my voice." [Ps 6.81]

With respect to these various enemies, Psalm Six says, "Depart from me, all you who work iniquity" [vs. 8]. It later shows the good hope offered to us from conversion. Right away the psalm speaks of conversion to Cod and comes to perceive God' s good will for a person. It proclaims his grace and announces his bounty by saying. "The Lord has heard the voice of my petition; the Lord has accepted my prayer" [vs.9]. Concerning the Eighth, J.192

But in the meantime, "one the eighth day" both he who was born male is circumcised and she "who bears a male child" becomes clean. It is difficult enough to touch on this thing in this brief time. Nevertheless, that we may say something in passing, this week can be seen as the time of the present life, for the world was completed in seven days. Here, as long as we are placed in the flesh, we cannot be pure liquid unless the eighth day should come; that is, unless time of the future ages should come. Yet, on that day, he who is a male and acts like a man will be cleansed immediately in the very coming of the future age and the mother, who bore him, is immediately made. clean. For he will receive from the resurrection a flesh purified from vices. but when one has nothing manly in oneself against sin but was negligent and effeminate in one's deeds, whose sin is such that "it is forgiven neither in the present age nor in the future one" [Mt12.32], this one passes first one and then a second week in uncleanness, and only at the beginning of the third week is cleansed from the uncleanness which was contracted by being born female. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, FOTC#83.159

Hence God, to prevent the human race from being completely destroyed through forgetfulness of the good, bade His own Son to reveal to the prophets a knowledge of His future coming into the world in the flesh, when the knowledge and joy of the spiritual Eighth Day should be proclaimed, bringing about the remission of sings and the resurrection of the body; and that thus would be effected the circumcision of man's passions and his corruptibility. And hence He referred to the list of the prophets from the days of Abraham as eighty concubines, because of the dignity of the circumcision--and this comprises the number eight--on which, again, the Law depends. There were the first, before the marriage of the Word with His bride the Church, to receive the divine seed and to proclaim the Circumcision of the spiritual eighth day. The Symposium by Methodius of Olympus, ACW#27.102

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17-19: He adds the crown of such blessings, that in the diversity of their lives' activities, they should all be one [Jn 17.22], united into a single good through the unity of the Holy Spirit.

And, since all the further barriers by which our sin has fenced us off from the things within the veil are in the end to be taken down, whenever the time comes that the tabernacle of our nature is as it were to be fixed up again in the Resurrection, and all the inveterate corruption of sin has vanished from the world, then a universal feast will be kept around the Deity by those who have decorated themselves in the Resurrection; and one and the same banquet will be spread for all, with no differences cutting off any rational creature from an equal participation in it. On the Soul and the Resurrection, PN.461a