§60μῦθον μὲν οὖν οὐδένα περὶ γιγάντων εἰσηγεῖται τὸ παράπαν, βούλεται δὲ ἐκεῖνό σοι παραστῆσαι, ὅτι οἱ μὲν γῆς, οἱ δὲ οὐρανοῦ, οἱ δὲ θεοῦ γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι·
Therefore he does not introduce any myth at all about giants, but wishes to present this to you: that some have become men of the earth, others of heaven, and others of God.
γῆς μὲν οἱ θηρευτικοὶ τῶν σώματος ἡδονῶν ἀπόλαυσίν τε καὶ χρῆσιν ἐπιτηδεύοντες αὐτῶν καὶ πορισταὶ τῶν συντεινόντων εἰς ἑκάστην, οὐρανοῦ δὲ ὅσοι τεχνῖται καὶ ἐπιστήμονες καὶ φιλομαθεῖς — τὸ γὰρ οὐράνιον τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ νοῦς (νοῦς δὲ καὶ τῶν κατ’ οὐρανὸν ἕκαστον) τὰ ἐγκύκλια καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἅπαξ ἁπάσας ἐπιτηδεύει τέχνας, παραθήγων καὶ ἀκονῶν ἔτι τε γυμνάζων καὶ συγκροτῶν ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς αὑτόν —, §61θεοῦ δὲ ἄνθρωποι ἱερεῖς καὶ προφῆται, οἵτινες οὐκ ἠξίωσαν πολιτείας τῆς παρὰ τῷ κόσμῳ τυχεῖν καὶ κοσμοπολῖται γενέσθαι, τὸ δὲ αἰσθητὸν πᾶν ὑπερκύψαντες εἰς τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον μετανέστησαν κἀκεῖθι ᾤκησαν ἐγγραφέντες ἀφθάρτων καὶ ἀσωμάτων ἰδεῶν πολιτείᾳ.
Men of the earth are those who hunt after the pleasures of the body, practicing the enjoyment and use of them and procuring the things that contribute to each. Men of heaven are all those who are craftsmen, possessors of knowledge, and lovers of learning—for the heavenly element in us is the intellect (and intellect is also each of the things in heaven), which practices the encyclical and all other arts once for all, sharpening and whetting, and furthermore training and compacting itself in intelligible things— and men of God are priests and prophets, who did not deem it worthy to obtain citizenship in the world and to become citizens of the world, but having peered over the whole sensible world, migrated into the intelligible world and dwelt there, being enrolled in the citizenship of incorruptible and incorporeal ideas.
§62ὁ γοῦν Ἀβραὰμ μέχρι μὲν διατρίβων ἦν ἐν τῇ Χαλδαίων γῇ τε καὶ δόξῃ, πρὶν μετονομασθῆναι, καλούμενος Ἀβρὰμ ἦν ἄνθρωπος οὐρανοῦ τήν τε μετάρσιον καὶ τὴν αἰθέριον φύσιν ἐρευνῶν καὶ τά τε συμβαίνοντα καὶ τὰς αἰτίας καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο ὁμοιότροπον φιλοσοφῶν—οὗ χάριν καὶ προσρήσεως οἷς ἐπετήδευσεν ἔτυχεν οἰκείας· Ἀβρὰμ γὰρ ἑρμηνευθεὶς πατήρ ἐστι μετέωρος, ὄνομα τοῦ τὰ μετέωρα καὶ ἐπουράνια περισκοπουμένου πάντα πάντῃ νοῦ πατρός, πατὴρ δὲ τοῦ συγκρίματος ὁ νοῦς ἐστιν ὁ ἄχρις αἰθέρος καὶ ἔτι περαιτέρω μηκυνόμενος —· §63ὅταν δὲ βελτιωθεὶς μέλλῃ μετονομάζεσθαι, γίνεται ἄνθρωπος θεοῦ κατὰ τὸ χρησθὲν αὐτῷ λόγιον „ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεός σου· εὐαρέστει ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ, καὶ γίνου ἄμεμπτος“(Gen. 17,1).
Abraham, at any rate, as long as he was dwelling in the land and opinion of the Chaldeans, before he was renamed, being called Abram, was a man of heaven, investigating both the lofty and the ethereal nature, and philosophizing about occurrences, causes, and anything else of a similar kind—for which reason he also obtained an appropriate appellation for what he practiced; for Abram, being interpreted, is 'lofty father,' a name of the father-intellect which inspects all lofty and heavenly things in every way, and the father of the composite organism is the intellect which is extended as far as the ether and even further— but when, having been improved, he is about to be renamed, he becomes a man of God, according to the oracle declared to him: "I am your God; be well-pleasing before me, and become blameless" (Gen. 17:1).
§64εἰ δ’ ὁ τοῦ κόσμου θεὸς καὶ μόνος ὢν θεὸς καὶ αὐτοῦ κατὰ χάριν ἐξαίρετον ἰδίᾳ θεός, ἐξ ἀνάγκης δήπου καὶ αὐτὸς θεοῦ.
And if the God of the world, being the only God, is also by special grace his own God in particular, he himself also must of necessity belong to God.
καλεῖται γὰρ πατὴρ ἐκλεκτὸς ἠχοῦς ἑρμηνευθεὶς Ἀβραάμ, ὁ τοῦ σπουδαίου λογισμός· ἐξειλεγμένος τε γὰρ καὶ κεκαθαρμένος καὶ πατὴρ φωνῆς ᾗ συνηχοῦμεν.
For Abraham, being interpreted, is called 'chosen father of sound,' which is the reasoning of the virtuous man; for it is both chosen and purified, and the father of the voice with which we sound.
ὁ δὲ τοιοῦτος τῷ ἑνὶ μόνῳ προσκεκλήρωται θεῷ, οὗ γινόμενος ὀπαδὸς εὐθύνει τὴν ἀτραπὸν τοῦ παντὸς βίου βασιλικῇ τῷ ὄντι χρώμενος ὁδῷ τῇ τοῦ μόνου βασιλέως καὶ παντοκράτορος, §65ἐπὶ μηδέτερα ἀποκλίνων καὶ ἐκτρεπόμενος.
Such a person is allotted to the one and only God, whose follower he becomes, and directs the path of his whole life, using in truth the royal road, the road of the only King and Almighty, leaning and turning aside to neither hand.
οἱ δὲ γῆς παῖδες τὸν νοῦν ἐκβιβάσαντες τοῦ λογίζεσθαι καὶ μεταλλοιώσαντες εἰς τὴν ἄψυχον καὶ ἀκίνητον σαρκῶν φύσιν — „ἐγένοντο γὰρ οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν", ᾗ φησιν ὁ νομοθέτης (Gen. 2, 24) — τὸ ἄριστον ἐκιβδήλευσαν νόμισμα καὶ τὴν μὲν ἀμείνω καὶ οἰκείαν τάξιν ἔλιπον, πρὸς δὲ τὴν χείρω καὶ ἐναντίαν ηὐτομόλησαν ἄρξαντος τοῦ ἔργου Νεβρώδ·
But the children of the earth, having evicted the intellect from reasoning and changed it into the inanimate and motionless nature of the flesh—for 'the two became one flesh,' as the lawgiver says (Gen. 2:24)—adulterated the finest coin and left their better and proper post, but deserted to the worse and opposite one, Nimrod having begun the deed.
§66λέγει γὰρ ὁ νομοθέτης, ὅτι „οὗτος ἤρξατο εἶναι γίγας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς" (Gen. 10,8), ἑρμηνεύεται δὲ Νεβρὼδ αὐτομόλησις· οὐ γὰρ ἐξήρκεσε τῇ παναθλίᾳ ψυχῇ μετὰ μηδετέρων στῆναι, ἀλλὰ προσχωρήσασα τοῖς ἐχθροῖς ὅπλα κατὰ τῶν φίλων ἤρατο καὶ φανερῶς ἀνθεστῶσα αὐτοῖς ἐπολέμει.
For the lawgiver says that 'this man began to be a giant upon the earth' (Gen. 10:8), and Nimrod is interpreted as 'desertion.' For it did not suffice for the all-miserable soul to stand with neither party, but having gone over to the enemies, it took up arms against its friends and openly opposing them made war.
παρὸ καὶ ἀρχὴν τῷ Νεβρὼδ τῆς βασιλείας ὑπογράφει Βαβυλῶνα, μετάθεσις δὲ καλεῖται Βαβυλών, συγγενὲς αὐτομολίᾳ καὶ ὄνομα ὀνόματι καὶ ἔργον ἔργῳ· παντὸς γὰρ αὐτομολοῦντος προοίμια γνώμης μεταβολὴ καὶ μετάθεσις.
For which reason also he sketches Babylon as the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom, and Babylon is called 'change of place,' which is kindred to desertion, name with name, and deed with deed; for of every deserter, the prelude is a change of mind and change of place.
§67ἀκόλουθον οὖν ἂν εἴη λέγειν, ὅτι κατὰ τὸν ἱερώτατον Μωυσέα ὁ μὲν φαῦλος, ὥσπερ ἄοικος καὶ ἄπολις καὶ ἀνίδρυτος καὶ φυγάς, οὕτως καὶ αὐτόμολος, ὁ δὲ σπουδαῖος βεβαιότατος σύμμαχος.
It would then be consistent to say that, according to the most sacred Moses, as the base man is, like one without a home, without a city, without a settled place, and a fugitive, so also is he a deserter, whereas the virtuous man is a most steadfast ally.
τοσαῦτα εἴς γε τὸ παρὸν ἀρκούντως περὶ τῶν γιγάντων εἰρηκότες ἐπὶ τὰ ἀκόλουθα τοῦ λόγου τρεψώμεθα.
Having spoken thus much sufficiently at least for the present about the giants, let us turn to the next topics of the discourse.
ἔστι δὲ ταῦτα·
And they are these: