Questions and Doubts 1 part 2/9

QUESTION: What are the rods which Jacob peeled and set in the watering troughs, and who is Rachel who stole the idols, and what is the terebinth in which Jacob hid these things? ANSWER: Every 'Jacob,' that is, every heel-grabber, peels the rods — that is, makes the inner principles of beings pure of the material forms lying upon them — and sets them in the watering troughs, that is, in the settled state of knowledge, so that those being instructed like sheep, conceiving through learning in it, may be imprinted toward its imitation.

So every soul thus instructed steals the idols of its own father, who had previously begotten it wickedly in evil.

Now the idols are shapes not naturally present in visible things, but fashioned into idols by the evil father, the devil, for deception;

which he steals well who, according to the Apostle, takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

And she hides these in the saddle-bags of the camels;

here take the camel as the body, on account of its crookedness, and because the camel, continually imprinting the tracks of its feet upon the ground, signifies our body, which has become crooked and subject to passion as a result of the transgression;

and the saddle-packs are the various modes of ascetic discipline, sitting upon which the soul escapes the father of evil who searches and seeks the idols devised by him for deception — idols which, having well torn them away from him through the lofty anagogical sense and contemplation concerning them, she has hidden in the saddle-packs of self-control that press upon our body.

But whenever she comes to the land of promise, that is, to perfect knowledge, then she is also commanded to remove these — that is, the things well stolen for our anagogical understanding — whether the more moral modes, like a garment, or the natural inner principles heard from them, like earrings.

For these things the far-seeing mind, having taken them, hid in the terebinth, that is, in the mystery of the cross;

for all action and knowledge is hidden in it.

The cross is likened to the terebinth because in winter the tree is altogether unpleasant, but in spring it is altogether most fragrant and most pleasant;

thus also the cross of the Lord in the present life seems to have the appearance of scorn, but in the age to come it sends forth the comeliness of great fragrance and glory.

QUESTION: What does the history concerning Judah and Tamar signify? ANSWER: Our Lord Jesus Christ, having come according to the flesh from the tribe of Judah, and having come, in the way of life, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, found on the way of error the Church, which had fornicated after the other gods of the nations; and being joined to her, he gave her the staff, the necklace, and the ring — that is, the mortification through the cross, and the pious opinion concerning beings, and the grace of the Spirit; and, simply put, the practical, natural, and theological knowledge.

QUESTION of St. Cyril of Alexandria, concerning Naboth and Ahab.

ANSWER: The things concerning Naboth are referred to Christ;

and the vineyard is Israel, according to Isaiah;

and Ahab stands as a type of the rulers of Israel, who wished to have it as a garden of vegetables, watering it with a turbid overthrow;

and Christ, holding the person of Naboth, was unwilling to give it up as an ancestral inheritance;

whence the spiritual Jezebel, that is, the Synagogue, does away with him through false accusation.

QUESTION: As the person of whom are Jephthah and his daughter taken? ANSWER: Jephthah, as the person of the Lord; and his daughter, as his all-immaculate flesh.

For just as Jephthah had been born of a harlot, and was driven out by his own kin, and went out and made war and conquered the adversaries, having promised God to offer up as a sacrifice whoever from his own household should meet him — so also the Lord, having come forth sinlessly according to the flesh from our fornicating nature, and having become the sower of his own flesh, and having been driven out by the Jews who seemed to be his own, and having won the war fought on our behalf, offered up his own flesh to God the Father;

For 'Jephthah' is interpreted 'the opening of God.' QUESTION: What does the saying in Proverbs mean, 'through slothfulness the roof-beams will be brought low, and through idleness of hands the house will drip'? ANSWER: The roof-beams are taken to signify the natural powers of the soul;

for just as roof-beams, when neglected, bend under the weight lying upon them and fall down, so also the natural powers of the soul, when not tended through meditation on the divine oracles, bend under the weight of voluntary and involuntary trials and fall down toward things perceived by sense.

'Through idleness of hands the house drips' whenever the soul, being inactive in good things, receives through the senses the fantasies of material things after the manner of drops, and thereby drives away the grace dwelling within it.

...it may come to belong to the mind, which by nature orders it.

But since the cognitive settled state was diluted through the dissipation caused by pleasure that came from the disobedience that occurred, the Word came, bringing back to earth the firmness it had from the beginning.

And the mother who asks is faith, or also humility, or also scientific wisdom;

for each of these is by nature apt to give birth, in human beings, to the highest God-like settled state.

'My hour has not yet come' signifies that teaching precedes signs; for it is on account of those who disbelieve the teaching that the display of signs occurs; but he had not yet taught there and gained experience of their unbelief, and for this reason he said this;

And the servants signify the prophets, who ministered to nature — emptied through the transgression — by their teaching; but the Lord, having come, changed it into spiritual knowledge, and led nature up into what is above nature, through faith.

For she holds the person of the Theotokos;

for just as the Theotokos, existing by creation from the Lord who is her own Son, herself bore him according to the flesh, so also faith, existing from the Word, brings the Word into operation through the operation of practice.

And the water-jars, since they are six, signify the productive settled state of good things, because the Lord also created the visible world in six days.

And the master of the feast is the discerning law;

every man sets out the good wine first, and then the lesser;

for the pure and discerning law, in discerning, means, it says, that the mind ought first, by full knowledge, to run back up to the cause, and only then to the things that come after it — which Adam did not do; or also that the teaching of the Lord ought to have been desired first, before the law and the prophets.

QUESTION: How are we to understand the Gospel saying that among those born of women none greater than John has arisen, yet he who is lesser than him in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him? ANSWER: Whoever humbles himself more than John — for this is what 'the lesser one' means — that one is greater than John.

since John is believed to have attained the knowledge accessible here through contemplation, the small and last knowledge, according to the condition that is to be manifested in the age to come, is greater than the knowledge here.

Or also because the supreme theologian among human beings is lesser than the least among the angels.

Or also, he who holds the last rank according to the evangelical way of life is greater than the one supreme according to the righteousness of the law.

QUESTION: What, then, do the birds, land creatures, and water creatures unclean according to the Law signify, in a universal sense? ANSWER: We have understood the birds to signify, universally, the passion of vainglory and pride, divided into various modes according to the differences among the birds.

And the land creatures in general signify the passion of love of money, split into differences according to the difference in the character of each of the creatures.

And the water creatures in general signify the passion of gluttony, because the fish unclean according to the Law are viscous and sluggish, wallow upon the ground, and are phlegmatic;

...the sea; and by the one that has fins on its tail is signified the one who skillfully escapes the graspings of the hunting demons, while by the one that has fins on the head, on this side and that, is signified the one who possesses the contemplative faculty, guarding the mind securely on every side.

QUESTION: For what reason does Scripture say that, before Esau was born, he was hated by God, but Jacob was loved? ANSWER: According to the letter, it is clear that God, who knows all things, knew before their birth what sort each would become according to his own choice, and, as one who knew, already hated the one and loved the other.

But if one examines the matter according to the anagogical sense, every mind is hated by God that, like Esau, is shaggy with worldly matter and roughened by forbidden thoughts;

but every Jacob is loved — a mind that is smooth, without excess, immaterial, and single.

And in another way, every Isaac has two sons, of whom, before they are born, the one is hated and the other loved;

and these are the law of the Spirit and the mindset of the flesh;

which, even before they come into operation, the one is loved and the other is hated.

And in another way, Isaac is taken as a type of God;

this one had two sons, the written law and the spiritual law;

and the one was shaggy and rough, the other smooth.

For the Law had many and countless observances, and it was hated, according to Isaiah, who says, 'my soul hates your feasts and sabbaths';

for the Gospel is smooth and concise;

for it requires sincere faith toward God and a good conscience toward one's neighbor.

[Concerning the same, otherwise] Or also, according to the interpretation of the names, every despiser and one worthless in piety is hated by God;

for this is what 'Esau' is interpreted to mean;

but every supplanter of wickedness is loved, which is what 'Jacob' is interpreted to mean.

QUESTION: Why is it that Abraham saw three angels, but Lot two? ANSWER: Abraham, inasmuch as he was perfected and had transcended the things that appear, and had been illumined with the knowledge of the Holy Trinity and Unity — for which reason he also received the alpha as an addition to his name, as one who alone had drawn near, according to knowledge, to the Alone — fittingly sees three angels;

but Lot, not yet having passed beyond visible things by knowledge, but worshipping the divine from visible things and imagining nothing more than these, nor having come to be above the two — matter and form — from which visible things consist, nor having grasped by knowledge the account concerning Unity and Trinity, for this reason sees two angels.

Hence, when the angels were urging him and pressing him to be saved on the mountain, he shrank from going up to the mountain, but begged instead to reach Zoar, that is, the lesser knowledge;

for 'Zoar' is interpreted 'small.'

for through these one is cast out and flees the error concerning sensible things, and escapes the conflagration that arises from them.

And he has sense-perception, his co-dweller, going up with him;

if, then, this one turns back, it becomes a pillar of salt, set forth as an example to all, bearing the unchangeable settled state of salty evil.

But if he also brings wine from Sodom with him, which signifies the preconceptions of unclean thoughts, the two daughters make such a one drunk, in order to conceive;

So then the first daughter is desire.

For as soon as the mind stirs up the first memories of its preconceptions, desire at once joins with it and conceives assent.

Immediately, then, the second [daughter] also comes forward.

Joining with whom, she conceives the operation.

QUESTION: Though there are many more grievous insults, why does the Lord in the Gospels determine that the one who calls his brother "fool" is liable to Gehenna, but says that the one who says "Raca" is subject to the council? ANSWER: They say that the name "fool" is taken to mean the senseless and unthinking man, while "Raca," in the Hebrew tongue, is interpreted "spat-upon."

Since, then, the name "fool" is spoken of the godless and unbelieving man, according to the saying, "The fool has said in his heart,"

"there is no God," and according to Moses, who says, "This is a foolish and unwise people" — whoever calls his brother, a fellow believer, godless and an idolater, or a heretic and unbeliever, this one calls him "fool," and justly becomes liable to Gehenna.

But whoever says "Raca," that is, "you spat-upon and unclean one," this one slanders his brother's manner of life, and accordingly is subject to a lighter penalty.

QUESTION: What does the narrative in Judges concerning the Levite and the concubine, whom the men of the tribe of Benjamin abused and killed, signify? ANSWER: Since the mind, holy from the beginning as made by God, put the natural law to death through transgression, it took the concubine — that is, the legal worship — which is not natural but imported.

Then, when the natural movements rose up like wolves, they killed her too.

But the holy mind, indignant, divides her into pieces and sends her into every territory of Israel, to the twelve tribes — that is, it divides the legal commandments and assigns each to the fitting power of the soul, so that all the powers might be stirred together to the destruction of the disorderly thoughts.

Now the powers of the soul are three:

the rational, the desiring, and the incensive.

For without these, neither is vice destroyed, nor is virtue accomplished.

Then, in order that the things rightly judged might also come into operation, they need also the five senses, so that the twelfth number might be brought to completion — the number that characterizes all Israel.

Or the number twelve also signifies both time and nature:

for time is reckoned by sevens, and nature by fives.

That many of the Israelites fell in the war, and afterward the few prevailed, signifies that the one who contends against sin must be purified of every passion, since as long as he is mastered by haughtiness, or vainglory, or conceit, or arrogance, or condemns others, or is held by any other passion whatsoever, he is found powerless when supposedly warring against the passions, and falls;

but he must be pure of all passions, and only then draw up for battle; and thus the Lord grants the victory.

That Israel was consoled concerning the survivors of Benjamin who had fled for refuge to the rock of Rimmon shows that the one who fights against the passions must not destroy the natural power together with the passions, but must curtail only what exceeds the natural power:

for example, someone struggles against the passion of gluttony: he must not entirely remove the necessary food required for the sustenance of life, but rather the luxurious and ravenous diet.

Fleeing to the rock signifies faith in Christ, or the firm settled state of the practical life, which readily puts to death the disorder of the passions.

For Rimmon is interpreted "the exaltation of death."

What is that which the Apostle, writing to Timothy, wrote: "Be urgent in season, out of season"? ANSWER: Whether, he says, someone is held by vice — one for whom it is timely to be taught — instruct him through teaching in the flight from evil and the choosing of the good;

or whether someone is not held by vice, which seems "out of season," instruct such a one, he says, in knowledge, fortifying him against the future uprising of temptations.

QUESTION: What does the parable of the ten virgins signify? ANSWER: Since man has five noetic senses apprehensive of intelligible things, and five bodily senses apprehensive of sensible things, the parable seems to hint at each individual man.

Whoever, then, has the lamp of practical virtue, and also has the oil of knowledge watering it — that is, his deeds coming to be with knowledge — this one, having subjected the body and joined its senses to the noetic senses, has become one of the "five wise" [virgins].

But whoever seems to pursue the practical life without having the oil of knowledge, but foolishly practices it either for vainglory, or gluttony, or love of money, this one, having turned the noetic senses toward sensible and temporal things,

and having blunted their taste, he accordingly became one of the "five foolish virgins," being known from sensible things alone.

QUESTION: What does the paradise planted toward the east signify in the anagogical sense? ANSWER: I think that by "paradise" is signified the heart of man, planted in the east, the rising, of the knowledge of God.

In its very midst God planted the tree of life and the tree of knowing the knowledge of good and evil.

And the tree of life is understood with reference to the inner principle of intelligible things, while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is understood with reference to the inner principle of sensible things;

for this one has the knowledge of both good and evil:

for to those who, from the beauty of created things, conceive the Creator in mind, and through them are led up to the cause of these things, it is knowledge of good; but to those who remain fixed in sensation alone, and, being deceived by the outward appearance of sensible things, turn the whole desire of the soul toward matter, it is knowledge of evil.

But if someone, perplexed, should raise the objection: how can this be understood with respect to a single man, that the knowledge concerning one and the same thing should at one time be good, and at another evil? — to him it must be said that, since it has been stated that the intelligible and the sensible world are the two trees, and man partakes of both, being composed of soul and body, therefore, whenever the soul's ruling power inclines toward sensation and the body, behold, he has partaken of the tree and has come to know by experience both good and evil: good, insofar as the body is naturally pleased by the enjoyment of sensible things; but evil, insofar as the soul is harmed, being ruled by the inferior part and having its natural powers weakened.

...having melted away the passions, he made food both for himself and for the apostles.

For the Word always hungers for our salvation, together with those who follow him;

whence, in imitation of him, they also chose to die for our salvation.

QUESTION: What does Zacchaeus the tax collector in the Gospel signify, and what pertains to him? ANSWER: Zacchaeus the tax collector is the one who exacts toll on God's creation for his own private enjoyment.

He hears the Word passing by, and climbs up into the sycamore tree, whenever the inner principle of repentance arises in him;

for it persuades him to get above the mindset of the flesh;

for from there he will easily behold the Word, and hear from him, "Make haste and come down" — that is, "If you desire to receive me wholly into your house, do not think it sufficient merely to get above the fleshly mindset, but also make the journey with me through the virtues."

"I restore fourfold" signifies this: either that he, using each of the four generic virtues for the accomplishment of good works, or also that he strips away from himself the operation, the assent, the preconceptions of memories, and the bare imaginings — the operation, by self-control; the assent, by attentiveness and the guarding of thoughts; the preconceptions, by orderly reading; and the imaginings, by intense prayer.

Or he means the practical, the natural, the theological, and the prayerful:

for the prayerful is higher than the theological;

for the one speaks of the divine on the basis of things that have come to be, while the other joins the soul to God unknowably and ineffably.

QUESTION: What does that which is written in the Song of Moses signify: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their branch is of Gomorrah"? And what is the wine which the Nazirite must not drink, and what is the vinegar, and the strong drink, and the grape, and the grape-skins? ANSWER: The vine of Sodom is irrationality.

For Sodom is interpreted "dimming," that is, "blindness," and Gomorrah, "bitter provocation"; for from irrationality come the bitter provocation of sin and the ecstatic drunkenness of that wine which is vice.

Hence the text enjoins the Nazirite to abstain from such wine;

Nazirite is interpreted "fenced about": for the one who is fortified by the law of God must abstain from such wine of irrationality, but also from the grape, that is, wrath, and from the raisin, that is, rancor — for this is the aging of wrath — but also from vinegar, that is, the grief that comes from missing the mark in matters of pleasure, and from strong drink, that is, that which delights in avenging oneself on one's neighbor (for all strong drinks are sweet), but not even from the grape-skins, that is, the inventive and constitutive forms of vice.

Nor does such a one cut his hair, that is, the various thoughts that are constitutive of the mind and that furnish it with order.

"Having girded your loins with truth" — Gregory, surnamed the Theologian, interpreted well, saying that this signifies the desiring [faculty] being girded, as it were, by the contemplative [faculty] constraining it tightly.

"Having put on the breastplate of righteousness" means this: since righteousness is a settled state that apportions the equal, and it is necessary that the three powers of the soul within us stand in equal balance, and through these the four generic virtues be constituted with equal strength — for this is righteousness — and through prudence the rational faculty, being moved toward the examination of beings, binds inner principle to inner principle, after the manner of a chain-linked breastplate;

likewise also through temperance and the rest, joining the various inner principles into one, one must fortify oneself so as not to be wounded by the arrows sent by the enemy.

One must understand the shield of faith as the mortification of Jesus that is carried about in the body;

for the shield, being made of wood and hide, hints to us at the mystery of the cross and the mortification in the body;

for to those who possess these, they become the shield of faith.

"Having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace" must be understood thus:

since we have surmised that the Gospel of peace is the gift of dispassion, the Apostle, then, exhorts the one who has not yet arrived at it, that in preparation for such a gift, the footings of the soul should be shod with the deadness of the body;

for thus he remains unpricked by the thorn of the passions, and unwounded by serpents and scorpions — I mean, evil thoughts.

The helmet of salvation is hope:

for since the sensible helmet is the casque, made of bronze, and bronze is sturdy and gleaming and does not admit diminishment, and the head signifies faith, one must understand that it is hope which fortifies the faith;

for hope, being firm and undiminishing, does not allow faith to be overlooked.

For it hopes all things and does not depart from confidence concerning God, but even if, like Job, such a one seems to many, like rust, to be held in contempt, yet within, such a one is gleaming and radiant, rejoicing in hope.

The sword of the Spirit is discernment, which divides the better from the worse;

and the Apostle commands that we always have this in hand, that is, that we handle it, always keeping it active through practice;

for just as the sword of iron, when constantly handled, is fearsome to adversaries, but if it is set aside and left idle, it is consumed by rust, so also discernment, if it is not joined to practice, is unprofitable and useless, and is consumed by vice.

And fittingly such a Saul pastures the mules — the barren settled state of virtue.

This one murders the priests of Nob, that is, the divine and propitiatory thoughts that dwell enthroned in virtue — for Nob is interpreted "enthronement" — and three hundred fifty of them, since through the senses, approaching the creation of God that came to be in six days, and marveling exceedingly at its Creator, we glorify him through the scientific knowledge of our thoughts;

and six times fifty makes the number three hundred:

Again, by fulfilling the ten commandments of the law through the senses, we complete the fifty.

Therefore, upon those who from these offer priestly service to God and are settled in virtue, the proud thought is naturally disposed to work death, or also the surge of the passions.

QUESTION: How must one understand what is said in the Symbol, "incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin"? ANSWER: Some of the saints say that from the Holy Spirit, in the manner of a man's seed, the soul was implanted, while the flesh was formed from the virginal blood.

QUESTION: What is the saying of Proverbs, "He who puts hand into hand shall not go unpunished"? ANSWER: He who mixes a base deed with a virtuous deed shall not go unpunished.

"For if you have nothing with which to repay, they will take the bedding that is under your sides."

ANSWER: He calls the body "friend" on account of the soul's attachment to it;

he says not to give surety for this, that is, not to deem it worthy of being spared, nor, when one is obliged to render up labors on behalf of virtue, to let it pursue ease.

For if the mind, attending to ascetic discipline, begins to give way, the mind not finding how to render an account on behalf of virtue, the demons take from it even the ascetic exercises in which it used to find rest;

for this is what "the bedding" signifies.

QUESTION: What does the saying of Isaiah mean, "Who has measured the water in his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with a fistful"? ANSWER: Since, according to the prophet Habakkuk, "the virtue of the Lord covered the heavens" — that is, his manner of life according to the flesh covered the virtue of the angels in the heavens — he himself, by the practice (for this is what "the hand" means), measured all knowledge, called "water" in a tropological sense;

for the nature that was united to the Word has comprehended all knowledge.

by "heaven" meaning the highest inner principle of beings, and by "span" the knowledge of sensible things extended together with practice, because the hand has five fingers;

these inner principles, then, the Lord, having become man, measured out, recapitulating all things in himself.

And "all the earth with a fistful" signifies this: that the Lord so tightly constrained his own flesh, which was earthly, that not even the natural and blameless passions could operate unless he permitted it.

QUESTION: Who is Hezekiah, and what is the sickness, and what is the fig-cake by which the wound was healed? ANSWER: Hezekiah is taken as a figure representing humanity;

and the wound in the thigh signifies the law of sin, because the generative parts lie close to the thigh;

and the fig-cake is the life-giving flesh of the Lord, having no sap of sin, from which healing has come to us for the wound of the transgression.

Irenaeus says that the prophet showed by the deed, in bringing up the iron, that the solid Word of God — whom, having carelessly cast away, we do not find — we shall receive back again through the dispensation of the wood.

And that the Word of God resembles an axe, John the Baptist teaches, saying, "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees"; and Jeremiah too, saying, "The word of the Lord is like an axe cutting rock."