神學與倫理章句 第 1 章 第 3/27 段

For in nature, essence, and will the Holy Trinity is undivided, but in the hypostases it is personally named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, being, these three, one God, and its name is Trinity — who, being far above every name that is named, and above word and utterance, transcends and utterly surpasses the grasp of every understanding, being nothing comparable to any created thing.

But understand from this how the holy Scripture calls the three one.

For it is good again to take up and repeat the same things concerning the same subjects, since delighting in such matters always produces pleasure for one who knows how to delight in them in a manner befitting God, and the divine word sanctifies his soul's very senses.

'God is Spirit,' it says; and the Son is likewise this, as has been said.

If, then, God is Spirit, and the Spirit is the Lord, and the Lord is called Spirit by the divine Scripture, then God is one Spirit known in three persons, or rather hypostases (as the Son himself indicated when he said that they are one) — of equal power, of one throne, of one nature, consubstantial.

These things are thus called 'one Spirit' for this reason, that you might not suppose any inequality of superiority or inferiority among the three persons of the Trinity, nor indeed any separation whatsoever among them in any way;

for it is not on account of that [equality alone] that they are so called, but rather so that, by the names alone, you might be instructed concerning the persons, that is, the hypostases themselves.

Having thus learned these things, and having thus been well initiated into the mysteries concerning God, seek out nothing further through meddlesome inquiry, but having received these things by faith alone, stand firm at this point, both being fully assured and confessing that whatever lies beyond these things is altogether incomprehensible.

But that you may also know the properties of the divine nature — how God, and the things around God, and the things from God, and the things in God, are all one light, worshiped in each of the hypostases and beheld in all his properties and gifts — thus shall we initiate you into these mysteries.

God is light, and light infinite and incomprehensible;

for the things around him are light, being united and yet undividedly divided by the persons; and that I may, by dividing what is undivided, tell you each one individually: the Father is light, the Son is light, the Holy Spirit is light;

these are one simple light, uncomposite, timeless, co-eternal, of equal honor and equal glory.

In addition to these, all the things that come forth from him are also light, being furnished to us as from light;

life is light, immortality is light, the fountain of life is light, the living water is light, love, peace, truth, the door of the kingdom of heaven — the kingdom of heaven itself is light;

the bridal chamber is light, the bridal bed, paradise, the delight of paradise, the land of the meek, the crowns of life — the very garments of the saints are light;

Christ Jesus, the Savior and King of the universe, is light;

his precious blood is light, his resurrection is light, his countenance is light;

his hand, his finger, his mouth are light, his eyes are light;

the Lord is light, his voice, as coming from light, is light, the Paraclete is light;

the pearl, the grain of mustard seed, the true vine, the leaven, hope, faith — all are light.

These things, then, and others besides these — whatever you hear said through the prophets and apostles concerning the ineffable and supra-essential Godhead — understand, I bid you, that all of them are, in their essence, that one supreme, all-transcending Principle, the one worshiped in the unity of a triadic light.

For God is one, in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, being light unapproachable and pre-eternal, which, having also many names, is called by all the things that have been mentioned, and by many others besides these;

and he is not only called these things, but also actually works as these, as I have learned from those who have been taught by experience itself and confirmed and assured by contemplation concerning the good things that belong to the most-good God.

And that, besides what has been said, I may also indicate to you certain other lights of God: his goodness is light, his mercy, his compassion, his embrace is light, his kindness is light, his rod, his staff, and his consolation are light.

But if most of these things, or even all of them, are also said to be present in us, yet in us they are present as in human beings, whereas in him these are present as in God.

And that I may not shrink from telling you these things again one by one: God is named Father; most men also are called fathers;

Christ is the Son of God, and God; we in turn are sons of men;

The all-holy Spirit is the Spirit of God; our souls too are called spirits;

God is life; we too are said to live;

God is love; even the exceedingly sinful have love for one another.

Will you call the love of men God?

But would you say that peace with one another, consisting merely in not quarreling or disputing about something, is that peace which surpasses all understanding?

But is your not speaking a false word to someone the truth of God?

For just as the words of men are fleeting and vain, whereas the Word of God is living, hypostatic, and active — true God — so also truth, that is, God, is beyond the conception and beyond the reason of men;

it exists unchangeable, unfleeting, hypostatic, and living.

Thus, then, neither is the water we have like that living water, nor the bread we have like that bread; but, as has been said above, all those things are light, and God is one light, and whoever partakes of him, by that participation, becomes at once a partaker of all the good things we have mentioned.

And these things, again, are light along with what has been mentioned; or rather, whoever has that light also possesses these things together with the light.

But moreover, together with these, God is also called wakefulness, inasmuch as he rouses to good things the soul of the man in whom he dwells, and becomes for that soul every good thing;

and such a soul, having God dwelling within it, lacks no good thing, but is ever filled and overflows in all those ineffable good things of God, dwelling and rejoicing together with the ranks of the heavenly powers; may it be granted to us all to attain these things as well, and to come into rich enjoyment of them, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

A certain partial account of nature concerning the creation of the world and the fashioning of Adam

On the transgression and the exile of Adam

On the incarnation of the Word, and in what manner he became incarnate for our sake

How creation is again to be renewed and become new heavens and a new earth, according to the divine Apostle

What the final splendor of creation will be;

in which also concerning angels and concerning the soul

How all the saints are united to Christ and God, and become one with him

How the world above must be filled up, and of what sort it is, and in what manner it will be filled up

On the saying of the Gospel:

'The kingdom of heaven has been likened to a king'

And what the mystical marriage of God is

That all the saints also conceive the Word of God within themselves, in a manner like unto the Theotokos, and give birth to him, and he is born in them, and they are born by him;

and how they are called his sons and brothers and mothers

On the saying of the Gospel:

'And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they did not want to come.'

That none of the uninitiated ought to search into the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of heaven before the practice of the commandments and progress and perfection in virtue;

and that at the Lord's second coming all the saints will recognize one another

As for what needed to be said in our defense against those set in opposition to us, and against their bitter, chattering tongues by which everything that falls in their path is dragged down together, even if it be something of greater honor — this is now sufficient; and just as the Word has made this discourse prosper, so may the good running of the discourse and its well-aimed shafts not be reckoned as from us, but as from above, from the alliance of the Spirit, by whom every right achievement is brought to a successful issue for all.

But now that our contention against those men has ceased, it is necessary to look and to examine closely and to consider, obeying the divine Paul, what things have been granted to us by God: what is the wealth of his goodness toward us, which he granted us from the very beginning of creation; what our formation was, and how we transgressed the commandment given from above and fell away from those immortal goods; what the present life is, and what this world is, under which and after which the whole is seen to be in motion; and what things await hereafter us who worship the Trinity.

And I shall begin from this point, making God the starting point of the discourse.

A certain partial account of nature concerning the creation of the world and the fashioning of Adam

...much more, before him, having brought forth in five days the whole earth — this very earth we inhabit — and everything on the earth, and moreover heaven also and the things in it, on the sixth day he fashioned Adam and appointed him lord and king of all visible creation.

And at that time neither had Eve yet been brought forth, nor indeed paradise, but this world itself had been made by God as a single paradise, as it were — incorruptible, yet brought forth as material and perceptible;

this world, as has been said, he gave to Adam and to those descended from him, for their enjoyment.

But let this not seem strange to you; rather, await the discourse, and it will demonstrate this most clearly from the divine Scripture itself.

'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth;'

'and the earth was invisible and unformed.'

And then, expounding in detail and in order all the remaining works of God's creation, after saying:

'And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day,' he then adds:

'Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.'

'And God made man; according to the image of God he made him; male and female he made them.'

He says 'male and female' not as though Eve had already come into being, but inasmuch as she was still present in Adam's rib and existing together with him;

And God blessed them, saying:

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and all the cattle and all the earth and all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.

Do you see how God, from the beginning, gave this whole world to man as one paradise?

For what other earth does he mean, if not this one in which, as has been said, we ourselves now dwell, and no other at all?

Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant, sowing seed, which is upon the face of the earth;

and every tree which has in itself fruit of seed-bearing seed shall be to you for food, and to all the beasts of the earth and to all the birds of heaven and to every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

Have you seen how he gave all things that are seen, both those on the land and those in the sea, to Adam and to us who are of him, for enjoyment, and did not grant paradise to him alone?

For whatever he said to Adam, he was saying as to all of us, just as afterward the same God said to the apostles also through the living Word:

'What I say to you, I say to all,' knowing that our race was destined to be multiplied upon the earth into infinite and innumerable multitudes.

For if, even though we transgressed his commandment and were condemned both to live and to die, we human beings became so numerous, consider for me how many those would have been who were born from the creation of the world, had they not died — and what sort of life and manner of living they would have had in an incorruptible world, being preserved incorruptible and immortal, living evidently a sinless and griefless life, and passing their days free of anxiety and free of toil; and how, by progress in the keeping of God's commandments and in the working of good thoughts, they would in due season have been led up to a more perfect glory and transformation, drawing ever nearer to God and to the streaming rays of the Godhead — the soul of each becoming ever more radiant, while the sensible and material body was being changed and transformed into something immaterial and spiritual, beyond all sense-perception;

and how great the joy and gladness that would have come to us from our life together with one another — this is altogether unutterable in truth, and inaccessible to reasoning.

But let us return to the matter at hand.

Just as, then, one might give a single country or a single field — to say the same thing again — so he granted the whole world to Adam, as has been said.

And these things God completed in the six days;

and hear how divine Scripture declares this most clearly.

he made him in the image of God;

male and female he made them, and he blessed them, and so on in order — then it goes on, saying thus:

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good;

and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day;

and God completed on the sixth day his works which he had made, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had begun to make.

Then, wishing to teach us how and from what God made man, recapitulating the account, it speaks again in this manner:

This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when it came to be;

And God formed man of dust from the earth — which we must understand thus:

God made man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Having thus made clear to us the manner of creation, [Scripture then proceeds] just as some man — a king or ruler and rich man — over the land and country that he possesses, does not merely enclose the whole city with a wall, nor make the whole into a single fenced house, but dividing the one territory into many parts, allows one part to be arable land, sets apart another for a vineyard, leaves another to lie fallow, while in one particular part and place — pleasant and most beautiful — he makes his dwellings, where he also builds palaces and constructs houses, builds baths and plants gardens, and devises there every kind of enjoyment, and sets a fence around all these on the outside, and makes gates and doors that open and close;

and not only this, but he also appoints guards — even though he fears no one — so that his dwelling may be most conspicuous and set apart above all things, and so that it may be inaccessible to ungrateful and wicked friends, and to those among his subjects and servants who have given offense, should any such ever appear, while for his genuine and faithful friends, and for his grateful servants, entrance to it and exit from it may remain unhindered;

so indeed did God also do for the first-formed man.

For after creating all things out of nothing and forming man himself, and resting on the seventh day from all his works which he had begun to make, he then planted paradise in Eden toward the east, planting it in one part of the world as a kind of royal residence, and placed there the man whom he had made.

Why then did he not make paradise, which was going to come into being, on the seventh day, but planted it toward the east only after the bringing forth of the whole creation together?

Because God, as one who foreknew all things, created the creation with order and orderly arrangement, and appointed the seven days as a type of the seven ages that were afterward to pass, while he planted paradise after these, as being significant of the age to come.

For what reason, then, did the Holy Spirit not join the day which is the eighth to the preceding seven?

Because it was not fitting for that day to be numbered together in the cycle of these days, in which the first, second, and so on in order — the seven days, recurring in a cycle — make up the weeks, producing in this cycle many 'first' days and just as many 'seventh' days; but it was necessary that that day be outside of these, as having neither beginning nor end.

For it is not that it does not now exist, but is going to come into being and take a beginning;

rather, it both existed before the ages and exists now and will exist unto ages of ages; but it is said to take a beginning inasmuch as it shall certainly come and be revealed to us at the last, as one day without evening and without end, occurring within our own order of things.

Observe, moreover, that it is not even written:

'God made paradise,' nor that 'He said':

having indeed that which was most delightful, and producing for the first-formed an indescribable pleasure and delight.

For it was fitting that incorruptible food also should be supplied to their incorruptible bodies;

whence also their manner of life was without toil and their life without weariness — this, clearly, in the midst of paradise, which its maker, having as it were walled about, provided them with an entrance through which they went in and went out.

Concerning the transgression and the exile of Adam

Thus indeed Adam was formed having a body that was incorruptible, yet material, and not yet wholly spiritual; and he was established by God the Creator as an immortal king in an incorruptible world — I do not mean paradise alone, but the whole world under heaven.

But since he had also given them a law, commanding them not to eat from that one tree alone, [Adam] despised it and disbelieved his maker and master, who had spoken thus to him:

'On whatever day you eat of it, you shall surely die' — having considered the crooked serpent, who spoke thus, more trustworthy:

'You shall not surely die, but on whatever day you eat, you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.'

And he ate of it, and immediately he was stripped of his incorruptible garment and glory, and put on the nakedness of corruption.

Seeing himself naked, then, Adam hid himself, and having sewn fig leaves together he girded himself with them, trying to cover his shame.

Whence also, when God said to him:

'Adam, where are you?' he said, 'I heard your voice, and perceiving my nakedness, I was afraid and hid myself.'

'And who told you that you are naked, unless you have eaten from that very tree of which I commanded you alone not to eat — have you eaten of it?'

But since he was unwilling to say, 'I have sinned,' but on the contrary, rather, he even attached the blame to God, who had made all things very good, by saying:

'The woman whom you gave me, she gave to me, and I ate' — and she in turn charged the blame upon the serpent; and they were by no means willing either to repent and fall down before the Master or to beg forgiveness. Then he thrust them out and cast them forth — as it were, from royal palaces and most splendid houses, I mean, of course, from paradise itself — so that they might remain in this earth as exiles and outcasts.

And immediately he stationed the flaming sword to guard the entrance to the tree of life — not as though they were, after their recall, going to be brought back again into that sensible and material paradise;

for it was not for this reason that it has been preserved until now, nor is it for this reason that God did not curse it, but because it holds the type of the indissoluble life to come, and is an image of the eternal kingdom of the heavens;

for if this were not so, it ought rather to have been cursed, since the transgression too took place in it.

But this he does not do; yet as for the rest of the whole earth — since, as we said, it was incorruptible just as paradise was, bringing forth all things spontaneously — in order that Adam, going out from there too, might not again have a life free of toil, free of labors and sweat, he cursed it beforehand, saying thus:

'Cursed is the earth in your labors;'

'in sorrow you shall eat of it all the days of your life;'

'thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plant of the field that has been set apart for the wild beasts and the irrational animals;'

'in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for you are earth, and to earth you shall go.'

Fittingly, then, it was necessary for him who had been brought down to corruption and death through the transgression to dwell likewise in an unstable and corruptible earth, and to partake, as was fitting, of such food accordingly —

receiving his food from it sparingly, as though from some steward.

Have you seen how the earth, having first been cursed and deprived of its former spontaneous growth, thus received the transgressor?

So that, when worked by him in sweat and toil, it might yield what grows from it in due measure for his sufficient need, but when unworked, it might remain barren, bringing forth only thorns and thistles.

Thus, then, when he had gone forth from paradise, all creation, which had been brought forth by God out of non-being, beholding him, was no longer willing to be subject to the transgressor;

the sun was unwilling to shine, the moon could not bear to give light, the stars did not choose to be seen by him, the springs were about to cease their flowing;

the rivers did not wish to flow, the air was minded to draw in upon itself and not give breath to the offender;

the wild beasts and all the animals of the earth, beholding him stripped of his former glory, and despising him, all immediately turned savage against him;

heaven was, as it were, moved to fall justly upon him, and the earth could not endure to carry him upon its back.

God, who created all things and formed him, knowing before the foundation of the world that Adam was going to transgress the commandment, and having foreordained his life and refashioning arising from his regeneration through the incarnate birth of his only-begotten Son and God — what does he do?

He holds all things together by his own power and compassion and goodness; he restrains the impulse of all created things, and immediately subjects all things likewise to this man as well, so that creation, having become enslaved to the man through whom it came into being, having become corruptible for the sake of the corruptible one — when that man is again renewed and becomes spiritual, incorruptible, and immortal — then creation too, being set free from its servitude, that creation which was by God subjected to the offender and had served him, might be renewed together with him, and become incorruptible, and become wholly spiritual;

But these things having come about so wisely from God, Adam, having been cast out of paradise, begot children, lived, and died;

and likewise so did those who came from him.

Accordingly, the people of that time, having a fresh memory of the fall, being taught it by Adam and Eve, revered God and honored him as Master.

For this very reason Abel together with Cain offered him sacrifices from what belonged to them;

whence it is also written that God had regard for Abel's offering and sacrifice, but no longer for Cain's;

and it is said that Cain, knowing this, was grieved to the point of death, and from this proceeded to envy and the murder of his brother.

But Enoch, having afterward pleased God, was translated by him, and Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire — God showing by these things that, if after the sentence issued against Adam and his seed, after Adam had been exiled by Him, He nevertheless honored the sons who pleased Him with such translation and length of days, and freed them from corruption — that is, from returning to the earth and descending into Hades — even though they were destined to die later, or more truly to be changed; then how much glory, honor, and compassion would He have deemed that man himself worthy of, had he not transgressed the commandment, or even after transgressing, had he repented, allowing him to remain within paradise?

Thus, then, for ages, being taught in succession by one another the things concerning God, the ancients came to know their Maker.

having defiled the earth, the air, the heaven, and everything beneath it with their monstrous deeds.

For nothing else among all things so defiles and renders the pure work of God impure, as this very thing — that it should be deified and worshiped equally with God, apart from the One who made and created it.

But when the crowning point of exceeding wickedness was reached, and all were shut up unto disobedience, according to the divine Apostle, then the Son of God, who is also God, came down to earth, to refashion him who had been shattered, to give life to him who had been put to death, and to call back his own creation from error.

But attend, I beseech you, to the precision of this discourse;

for the discourse will be profitable both to us and to the generations that come after.

It is necessary, by means of some image, to contemplate the incarnation of the Word and his ineffable birth from the ever-virgin Mary, and thereby to know well the mystery of the economy hidden before the ages for the salvation of our race.

Concerning the incarnation of the Word, and in what manner he was incarnate for our sake.

Just as, then, of old in the forming of our foremother Eve, God took Adam's ensouled rib and built it up into a woman — for this reason He did not breathe into her the breath of life as into Adam, but rather made the part which He had taken from his flesh into a complete body of a woman;

and made the firstfruit of the spirit, which He had taken together with the ensouled flesh, into a perfect living soul, thereby making the two together into a man — in the very same manner, taking ensouled flesh from the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, as it were a leaven and small firstfruit from the lump of our nature, that is, from soul together with body, God the fashioner and creator united it to His own incomprehensible and inaccessible divinity — or rather, uniting the whole hypostasis of His divinity essentially to our essence, and mixing it, His own humanity, unconfusedly with that divinity — He built this up into a holy temple for Himself, and, without alteration and without change, the very Maker of Adam became a perfect man.

For just as He made the woman from his rib, as we said before, so, borrowing and taking up flesh from his own daughter Mary, the ever-virgin and Theotokos, without seed He was likewise born as the first-formed man was, so that just as the latter through transgression became the origin of our birth in corruption and death, so Christ and God, through the fulfillment of all righteousness, might become the firstfruit of our refashioning in incorruption and immortality.

For this is also what the divine Paul means, saying thus:

The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven;

as is the earthy, such also are those who are earthy;

and as is the heavenly, such also are those who are heavenly.

Christ the firstfruit, then those who belong to Christ.

For since he became, in soul and body, a perfect man like us in all things except sin, through faith in him imparting to us of his divinity, he makes us also kindred to him according to the nature and essence of his divinity.

God the Word took flesh which by nature He did not have, and became man, which He was not;

He imparts to those who believe in him of his own divinity, which no one, neither of angels nor of men, has ever yet possessed, and they become gods, which they were not, by adoption and by grace;

And hear the divine Paul exhorting to this:

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

But let the discourse again hold to its proper sequence.