Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

102 DIFFICULTY 10
D
1121A
B
9
Contemplation of the fall of Tyre
So again, as it is written, at that time he [Jesus] seized Assor22 and killed its king with the sword, destroying every living thing
in it, which formerly had been the ruler of all the regions (Jos.
11:10), it is taught what mysteries are set before us in these
words. Our true Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has
destroyed the wicked powers and given to those worthy the
inheritance of grace, since in the time of His Incarnation He
seized sin through the cross and killed its king, the devil, by
the word of his power (for sin had ruled over all from the
beginning), and destroyed every living thing belonging to it,
that is the passions that are within us, and the shameful and
wicked thoughts connected with them, in order that sin might
no longer in any way influence the life and movement of those
who are Christ’s and live in accordance with Him.
10
Contemplation of: The heavens declare the glory
of God (Psa. 18:1)
So David, who was after the Judges in time, though their
contemporary in the spirit—if I may pass over the Judges
whose lives contain many mysteries—heard the heavens
declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaim itself the
work of his hands (a miracle! as the Creator placed no soul in
them 23 ). He thus received theological understandings [logoi] of
the mind from what he heard from beings without soul, and of
providence and judgment 24 from its full completion, so far as it
is permitted for humans, and was taught, without attaining
understanding, the ways in which the arrangement of the
universe is various in its parts.
11
Contemplation of: My father and my mother
forsake me (Psa. 26:10)
So again: My father and my mother forsake me, but the Lord
receives me. This says that the judgment according to the
senses of the natural, fleshly law of change and corruption,
according to which we are all begotten and continue in being
through transgression, and of the mother who gave us birth,
are for those who secretly desire incorruptible reality