Theological and Ethical Discourses 1 part 8/27

And where would he have had to live and die and return again to the earth from which he was taken, after his condemnation?

Nowhere at all — he would surely have had to be condemned while living in Hades, having thenceforth no recourse to salvation;

and thenceforth there would be neither procreation nor increase of the world into a multitude, and man — so great and so remarkable a work of God's wisdom — would have perished.

But since God knew before the ages that man was going to transgress, he predestined also his refashioning through regeneration; for this reason, after creating all things and resting, having mystically prefigured both the seasons and the ages in the seven days, he afterward took, as it were, leaven and seed and a portion from each one of his works, so that, taking the portions from the works created in the seven days — not within those days themselves but in the eighth — he might sketch out beforehand the age to come through the creative activity within it; not numbering this day among the seven nor making it manifest, but leaving it to lie altogether unknown to those before the Law, while causing it to be somewhat dimly disclosed and announced to the prophets under the Law, and manifesting it to us the faithful, making it shine forth as at dawn — just as we also expect the unsetting sun of righteousness to rise before long.

And I said that he took portions: from the whole earth, as a single place in which he planted paradise; from the whole body of Adam, one rib, that is, one member; and from the days, nothing.

These were taken so that, through them, the things akin and connatural, which were bound to be united to the heavenly things, might be renewed; but the days, since they were not going to be renewed but were going to be completely brought to an end by that [eighth] day, were left alone, and for this reason God did not take from them a portion for renewal, but he did take from the ages.

Seven ages were bound to be fulfilled, according to the number of the seven days.

The six, then, have already passed, but the seventh is not being completed; rather, he takes from it a portion and joins it to the eternal age that has no end.

But how much he predetermined to take, or when the end of these days is going to come, no one knows except the Holy Trinity alone, the one and undivided Godhead.

For as for what was said by the Savior Jesus Christ, that not even the Son knows that day and hour, he said this of his ignorance according to his human nature, not according to his divinity.

For what reason, then, did he not take a portion from the days, but does take one from the ages?

Because these ages, being measured by days and weeks, are called ages, but the age to come, the eternal age, is not measurable by days, but is immeasurable, and is and shall be, and is unending;

and since it is not going to be a matter of days but of an age, God, taking a portion not from the days but from the ages, joins it to the age to come.

The portion of the earth, that is, paradise itself, was a type of the Jerusalem above, I mean of the kingdom of heaven, in which God also placed man, so that he might be led up, by progress, from the type and the shadow to the truth.

And the tree of life in the midst of paradise was an image of eternal life, which is God.

And the rib of Adam that was built up into a woman was a type of the Church — this too being another mystery of the dispensation — so that whenever man should fall away from the image that had become a type of the kingdom of heaven (which was paradise) and from the tree of life, he might, through the rib, be joined to Christ and God, and be led back again to that same ancient and original beauty.

But since Eve, having been first deceived, transgressed the commandment and tasted of the fruit, and then gave it to Adam, and he too ate, and they were altogether unwilling to repent and fall down before the Master, they were exiled from there and condemned to dwell in this world.

But observe also the ineffable goodness of God's providence toward him.

For since he had already been brought down into corruption through sin, in order that he might not, by eating prematurely of the tree of life, become immortal, and be both incorruptible and undying, and thus evil become immortal, God set the flaming sword to guard the entrance to the tree of life.

Concerning the flood, and of what things the things in the ark were images;

and concerning Abraham and the portion according to election, and what this 'piece' is;

and concerning Israel and circumcision.

So then, having known one another, they bore children and had sons and daughters, and Adam called his wife Eve 'Life,' because she was the mother of all the living.

But when men had multiplied and fallen into a depth of evils and into a great multitude of sins, God, being about to flood the world with water and to wipe man off the earth, did not forsake his portion even then, but preserved Noah safe in the ark, together with his sons and his daughters.

the creeping things were a type of the nations.

But whereas the ark saved only that man, together with those with him, this one delivered both the ark itself and the whole world from the flood of sin, from the slavery of the Law, and from death.

But after the flood, men, having again been brought down into ignorance of God and having likewise again become stiff-necked, because they had one lip, that is, one tongue and one voice, began to build a tower and attempted to ascend into the heavens, again imagining in themselves equality with God.

So then, God, being about to confuse their tongues and, from this, to divide and scatter them over all the earth — they being as many members that had come from the rib of Adam, and, by their one language, being one body — again took from them his portion, that is, the rib, and, having made the remaining body into many portions of members, scattered it;

and he called them nations, since they had utterly no knowledge of God.

This portion, then, he named Israel, that is, 'one who sees God':

and this was Abraham, in whom, by succession from above, the seed of faith and of the knowledge of God had been preserved, to whom he also appeared, saying:

'Go out from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land that I will show you':

'I will make you into a great nation' (Gen 12:2), to whom He also gave circumcision, making it known to him as, so to speak, a signal and a seal.

And He swore to him that He would multiply his seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand upon the shore of the sea.

After this, God again appeared to him and said:

'Know for certain that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not their own' (Gen 15:13), foretelling to him the descent into Egypt of Joseph, and of Jacob his father, and of his brothers.

from whom this portion multiplied there and became a great nation, whom He also led out from there through Moses, having first feasted them upon the lamb, the antitype of the true one.

Then, having split the sea and brought them across, and having led them up into the wilderness and nourished them there forty years, 'Jacob became the LORD's portion, His people; Israel the line of His inheritance' (Deut 32:9).

These, then, had circumcision as a seal, and all of them were circumcised; and by this the LORD's portion was, as has been said, made recognizable, like a flock of royal sheep, each of them bearing circumcision as a seal upon the hidden member.

And this was wisely arranged by God so that they should not mingle with the rest of the sheep — that is, the nations — who through ignorance of God had been brought down to the rank of beasts and irrational creatures.

But why did He ordain that the seal should be made not on some other part of the body, but on this one?

Because from it comes forth the seed, and from it the fleshly generation of the whole man takes place.

And besides, as though signifying the whole man putting off the flesh, He sketches this for us in advance through this rite, so that from it those circumcised might also be recognized as children of the flesh, and it might become a type of the spiritual circumcision of the spiritual children who were later to be regenerated apart from flux, intercourse, and corruption; so that when that spiritual circumcision should appear, this one, the fleshly, would then cease, and each of the sheep, in the foreskin of the flesh, would be sealed instead with the blood of Christ — namely, in the circumcision not made with hands, according to Paul, and in the putting off of the flesh (I mean, of the earthly mind), we being circumcised mystically, yet coming to this in the perception and knowledge of the soul.

That to the first world, brought into being at the beginning, two others were subsequently added, of which the last is a type of the things that were afterward to come to be, being itself something intermediate between the ancient things and those that came later.

And of what was the land of promise an image? And so on.

This people, then, who are from the seed of Abraham — that is, the portion from the rib of Adam — was established by God as a new and, as it were, third world, bearing the image of that first world and paradise, and also of the second, namely that of the ark; and not only this, but also a type of the things that were afterward to come to be, being something intermediate, both depicting the ancient things for those to come later, and signifying to those who came later that the ancient things were connected to them.

For it had the land of promise as another, second paradise in place of that first paradise, and the ark in place of the Theotokos, foretelling to us through these things and picturing beforehand the return and inheritance that was to come to the saints in that true paradise through the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

It had the law, corresponding to the commandment given to the forefathers; and through the bondage of the law it signified the freedom above the law that was to be given in a spiritual law.

It had the jar of manna in place of the tree of life in the midst of paradise, of which those in the first paradise were not permitted to eat — the jar bearing the image and signifying her who was to bear Christ within.

It had the manna in place of Christ:

for He is the bread that came down from heaven and gives eternal life to the world;

for this reason also the manna was from the heavens;

for, as it is said, 'man ate the bread of angels' (Ps 78:25).

And, to put it briefly, having made it a new paradise, He placed in it many things more precious and more exalted than that first paradise, inasmuch as it was a type of greater promises and realities.

For He also placed Moses in it, just as He had placed Adam in that first paradise;

and God spoke to him as He had spoken to Adam, and Moses spoke to God just as Adam had done;

But Adam did not have, as this one did, the hope of the promise that the only-begotten Son of God and God Himself would come bodily to that place.

That one had the tree of life, but not that life itself;

whereas this one possessed, more manifestly than the tree of life, the grace of the Spirit in the prophets, who promised that the perfect and true life would be given in Christ.

That paradise had a life free of toil and free of care, and trees and fruits beautiful for food;

and this one likewise had the manna from heaven as a food prepared without labor, as has been said;

and they drank water, sweeter than honey, from the rock that followed them;

moreover, their garments and their sandals did not grow old nor wear out, but these too grew along with their bodies, and there was no one sick among their tribes.

Those in the first paradise had the threat of death and of a curse for the transgression of the commandment;

those in this one had the hope of forgiveness of sins and the blessing of eternal life, even if some of them failed to fulfill the law of God, since Christ had promised to come and to make possible what was impossible for them — not for the condemnation of those who did not keep it, but for the salvation of those who believed.

The first paradise had the flaming sword guarding the entrance to the tree of life and barring Adam and those descended from him from it;

this one had the archangel Michael, who rather sheltered and guarded those within it, while not permitting the scattered nations to enter it.

God provided beforehand there that through the rib of Adam the re-forming of Adam should come about;

and for this reason the woman was then made from the man without intercourse, so that in turn, from the woman, the rib of Adam might be taken again, and Christ, who is God and man, might be born without flux and intercourse, and through Him Adam might be renewed;

In this paradise God promised beforehand to Abraham that in his seed He would bring in all the nations that had been cast out, and would make them one flock.

'The LORD your God, the LORD is one, and you shall not worship a strange god' (cf. Deut 6:4; Ps 81:9); yet 'they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and ate and drank the wine of their libations, and worshiped the works of their own fingers' (cf. Ps 106:37-38; Deut 32:17); they killed the saints and stoned the prophets; 'they turned aside like a crooked bow' (Ps 78:57), and provoked to anger, with strange gods and with their abominations, the God who had nourished them in the wilderness, and forgot Him — what, then, did the Lord who chose them above all the nations do?

Did He become angry and turn away from them?

By no means; rather, He sent His Son to wash away their sins in a flood of grace, since they too had come to resemble the nations, as it is written:

'And they mingled with the nations and learned their works' (Ps 106:35), and 'being in honor, they did not understand' (cf. Ps 49:20).

Therefore call to mind for me the ark of the sons of Noah, and the beasts and creeping things that then entered into it, as I said, recounting what was in it: Noah being a type of Christ, his sons of the people under the law, and the beasts and creeping things of the nations.

The men under the law, then, who were called the LORD's portion, His inheritance, became like the beasts, that is, like the nations;

and God, wishing to call them back and to restore them again to their original state, came down upon the earth and was made flesh, taking the rib of Adam from the all-pure flesh of the Theotokos, and became man, being made like us in all things except sin.

so that He might perfect through faith in Him both those who had kept the law, and might join to the rest of the body, through faith, those of them who had fornicated into idolatry, and thus the nations too might likewise be justified through faith, according to what was said in this way by Paul:

'For if their trespass,' he says, 'became the riches of the world, how much more shall their salvation be?' (cf. Rom 11:12). But the contemplation of this saying, as far as I can understand from the letter, clearly suggests to me something further as well.

But pay attention, so that you may understand well what it is that the divine Apostle is saying:

'If their trespass became the riches of the world, how much more shall their salvation be?'

On the saying of the Apostle:

'For if their trespass became the riches of the world,' and so forth:

and a personification of both peoples, I mean of the nations and of Israel.

From the dispersion of the nations, as I have already said, Israel became the LORD's portion.

This Israel, then, having become a great nation and a numerous people, ran aground into idolatry, just as the nations were doing;

and only very few were kept for God, like a certain leaven and portion.

When Christ then came, if they had believed in Him and worshiped Him as God, all of them — both the just and the unjust, the pious and the idolaters — would have become one and been saved together.

And if this had come to pass, the nations would have said to Him:

'O God of all and Master, Lord of the ages, behold, without any works of righteousness You have saved them all!'

'But are we not the work of Your hands, and Your creation?' And the Jews would answer these with what they indeed used to say:

'No; rather, we alone are His portion, we alone are His inheritance;'

'to us belong the tablets of the covenant, circumcision, and the rest of what He promised to us alone and has given to us; but to you He will by no means give them.'

To this the nations, again, would have replied — not deeming the envious Jews worthy of an answer — saying to God instead:

'Us, O Master and Word of God, You justly rejected as unworthy, having left us uncared for as stiff-necked and disobedient, and having justly allowed us the famine of ignorance and the thirst of drought, so that we might not hear Your holy words.'

'And accounting all these things as nothing, they forsook You and, together with us, worshiped idols as gods;'

'and whatever deeds we did, they too committed all the same deeds;'

'and just like us, they denied You, their benefactor.'

'But now, on account of faith in You alone, You have had compassion on them, shown them mercy and pity, and numbered them among Your saints who did not sin.'

'Will You not also have mercy on us?'

'Will You not receive us, O lover of mankind?' And thus, justly and reasonably, those in uncircumcision would have been joined to those in circumcision who had sacrificed to idols, and all of them together would have become one in Christ.

But since, in addition to their earlier evils, they also killed Christ Himself, who is God, as a criminal, and demanded and released Barabbas instead, as a counter-type of the Antichrist, and afterward also persecuted His apostles, God, having banished them, as we have said, from paradise, scattered them among all the nations, since they had exchanged their portion for the impiety of the nations.

But the nations—descended, as it were, from the rib of Adam—he who took up the rib of Adam from the woman and built it into a perfect man, being himself wholly flesh, having through her become the Son and Word of God by nature, and having been styled son of Adam according to Adam's nature, drew them to himself.

This is the wealth of the world;

and if this became the wealth of the world, how much more would it have become, if those others too had believed?

Now all Israel, whom He foreknew and foreordained, was from the first dispersion a portion;

and when He came, He called it to faith in Himself.

But since it was unwilling to come to Him, He took from the whole portion a small portion—those who believed in Him, namely John the Forerunner, the apostles, and thereafter the rest—and cast away the greater part of the portion, which through its own resolve had fallen into unbelief;

and in their place the nations entered in, and they too, out of faith, were joined to the portion chosen according to faith.

And observe with me from this point the progress of the discourse along its path, how it comes to relate the things of the new and wondrous portion.

That the Church of Christ is a new world, and faith in Him is a new paradise.

And besides this, it is a recapitulation of the first world, the things accomplished in the Church through Christ being set in contrast to what was done in that first world.

And toward the end, a resumption of the apostolic saying:

The things up to this point were types and shadows and riddles of this reality, but this is the truth, and the renewal and renovation of the whole world.

But indeed the portion that came from Adam, being corruptible and having become a great multitude of a corruptible and mortal people, perished entirely by the flood;

and only Noah from it, and his sons—a portion again from this—were left behind, the beginning of a second world.

But since they again attempted to ascend into heaven, and God promised no longer to bring a flood nor to destroy all living flesh upon the earth, He again took Abraham as a portion according to the election of faith, and scattered all the others into the world.

From this portion of Abraham, then, a portion of his seed—that very rib, as I have often said—God Himself took up and built for Himself, and it was built into flesh without change, and He became man, not a mere man,

not that He was going to take from Himself again another firstfruit later for the generation of another people, but He became an immortal and everliving firstfruit of spiritual children who are being reformed into His very character, as the Apostle says:

'Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's'; and elsewhere:

'until Christ be formed in us.'

For all those forefathers were mortal, but He who took the portion from the portion of Abraham's seed, and who is both the Son of God and has become the son of Adam himself, is incorruptible and immortal, not begetting in the flesh but refashioning in the Spirit.

In paradise, woman came from man, being the mother of all who are born of earth;

but in the Church of the faithful, from woman a man was born—Christ God—the firstfruits and life of all who are spiritually regenerated through faith in Him.

Here there is the wood of the cross, on which Christ, the second Adam and God, was nailed—His hands in place of the hands of Adam that touched the fruit, and His feet in place of the feet that walked in the transgression.

And Adam, having tasted of that tree, became the cause of death and curse to those who came from him;

but Christ and God, having tasted gall and drunk vinegar, delivered them from the curse and freed them from the corruption of death, and to those who believe in Him He granted new life and enabled them to have a life equal to the angels in this world.

There the tree of life was in the midst of paradise, which Adam, by dispensation, was not permitted to eat, but was cast out of paradise; wherefore the flaming sword was appointed to guard its entrance;

but here Christ was pierced in the side with a spear, and turned back that sword, and opened the entrance, and planted the tree of life in the whole world; indeed, He has even given us authority to plant it daily, which grows swiftly and becomes the source of eternal life for all who eat of it.

O paradise now planted by Christ God!

O new mystery and awe-inspiring wonders!

For there, admittedly, there existed sensible and visible things: Adam and Eve, and the tree of knowledge itself, and together with it the tree of life, being distinct from it;

but here the new Adam becomes all things at once to the faithful—both delight and knowledge—not a knowledge that brings death and bars from the tree of life, but one that teaches what must fittingly be answered to the serpent in words:

'Get behind me, Satan,' He says, and so forth;

and not this alone, but also leading into the life which He Himself, again, is.

For behold, we see that the whole world exists just as it was constituted from the beginning;

and we dwell upon the earth on which we have been condemned to eat our bread in toil and labor and by the sweat of our face.

Where, then, is the paradise you are describing to us?

If you wish to learn the invisible and incomprehensible works and mysteries of the incomprehensible and invisible God—invisible and incomprehensible, that is, to unbelievers—apply your mind from this point on, and, as they are related, you shall come to know and learn them.

First God made heaven and earth and all things in them, and after all these, with His own hands He fashioned man; then thus He made paradise and the things in it, and placed in it the man whom He had made;

and having taken one of his ribs, He built it into a woman, and thus He gave them the commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest they die the death, but that they should work according to the commandment and keep the garden.

And not only they, but also all those born of them, suffered this until the very coming of Christ and God, the new Adam, and His descent into Hades, and His resurrection from the dead.

But when He who then created all things, and who willed to renew them, had come, He did not will to renew them according to the same sequence in which He had created them.

First man, and thus the creation afterward.

For then, indeed, He first prepared all visible things as a royal domain for Adam, for his habitation and enjoyment, and only then brought him forth;

but now again, if He had willed first to renew creation and to render it spiritual, incorruptible, and eternal, where then would man—clothed as he is with corruptible flesh, that is, the natural and mortal man himself—have been going to dwell?

And in what world would he then have had to live, and to marry and be given in marriage, to beget and be begotten and be reared?

But just as we have spoken in order concerning the creation and its fall, so must we also speak of its renewal.

Consider the comparison of the old things, how, when set alongside the dispensation and covenant of God, it corresponds in equal measure.

First, then, Adam was brought into paradise by God, and then Eve was brought forth;

likewise, the Son of God, He who Himself made Adam, first came down and entered into the immaculate womb of the Virgin, and thus took from her the rib of Adam, that is, the all-spotless flesh, and became man, and came forth into the world in place of Eve who had been deceived by the serpent, and had eaten from the tree, and transgressed the commandment, and died the death of the soul;

first, the Theotokos Mary is given the good tidings by the angel, and believes the counsel of God announced to her, and is persuaded, saying:

'Let it be to me according to your word.'

And thus she was the first to receive the Word of God substantially within herself, He who had redeemed her soul, that is, from that eternal death.

And then, having become incarnate, He refashioned the body of Adam, into which He immediately breathed the breath that became a living soul;

for having later taken his ensouled rib and built it into a woman, it is not written that He also built in the breath.

And that we may speak more clearly, let us work out further this very thing that has been said.

God took from Adam a portion of his flesh, and in its place He filled in other flesh; and that which He took He built into a whole human being, but He neither added a soul to Adam in place of the one He took along with the rib, nor again did He increase this soul in Eve;

but, as it were, the flesh that was taken in place of the rib had its replacement, but the soul did not.

But hear this yet more clearly.

God took from the Virgin flesh possessed of mind and ensouled—that which He had taken from Adam, having filled in other flesh in its place;

and having taken this from her, He gave to it His Holy Spirit, and filled up the eternal life which its soul did not have.

For the flesh that was filled in Adam's body in place of the rib—this was the pledge and the guarantee of God's dispensation, so that, from the rib, He might again take a rib and give in its place not flesh again, for it had already been filled in beforehand, but the Spirit of God substantially, so that, just as from the rib of Adam woman came to be, and all mortal men from her, so also from the flesh of the woman the Man, Christ God, might come to be, and from Him all might become immortal, and He might fill up that which Adam had more than the woman.

The flesh that was filled in, in place of the rib, in his body.

To say it plainly, when Christ took the flesh from the Virgin, it was necessary for Him to fill it up again, just as He had also then filled up the flesh of Adam.