Reading ᾧ, with several of Forbes’ MSS., for the ἥ of the Paris ed., and the ὅ of Forbes’ text. ↩
The Latin version (and with it several of the Greek MSS.) makes this the fourteenth chapter. The Bodleian MS. gives as its title:—“That our body is always in motion.” ↩
Life is represented as a succession of opposite states (τῶν ἐναντίων διαδοχὴ), which yet recur again and again in the same sequence (διὰ τῶν ὁμοίων). This is illustrated in the following section. ↩
Reading μηχανῆς with the earlier editions and (apparently) a large number of Forbes’ MSS. in place of μηχανικῆς. But μολυβδίνης may be for μολυβδαίνης. ↩
Reading δείκνυσιν, as Forbes does (apparently from all the MSS. and agreeing with the earlier editt.). The Latin translation points to the reading δείκνυται. ↩
Reading ἐπιδιστάζουσα with several of Forbes’ MSS. ↩
“The holy men,” Joseph and Daniel, who were enabled, by the authority they obtained through their interpretation of dreams, to benefit the state. ↩
This is chapter XV in the Latin version and some Greek MSS. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin gives the title:—“That the mind is sometimes in servitude to the body, and of its three differences, vital, spiritual, and rational.” ↩
Otherwise chap. XVI. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin version gives the title:—“That the vital energy of the irrational creatures is not truly but equivocally called ‘soul,’ and of the unspeakable communion of body and soul.” ↩
τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς κλήσει συγκεκριμένη. The meaning is apparently something like that given; but if we might read συγκεχρημένη the sense of the passage would be much plainer. ↩
Cf. Genesis 9:3. The quotation, except the last few words, is not verbally from the Septuagint. ↩
It does not seem of much consequence whether we read περιλαμβάνεται with Forbes and the MSS., and treat it as of the middle voice, or περιλαμβάνει τι with the Paris Editt. The reading περιλαμβάνεται, taken passively, obscures the sense of the passage. ↩
Otherwise chap. XVII. The title in the Bodleian MS. of the Latin Version is:—“That the excellence of man does not consist in the fact that, according to philosophers, he is made after the image of the world, but in the fact that he is made in the image of God, and how he is made in the image of God.” ↩
Genesis 1:26. ↩
Genesis 1:27. ↩
Genesis 1:27. ↩
Cf. Galatians 3:28. ↩
Genesis 1:27. ↩
Genesis 1:27. ↩
Genesis 1:27. ↩
Cf. St. Matthew 22:20–21. ↩
Susanna 42. ↩
The punctuation followed by Forbes here does not seem to give a good sense, and also places St. Gregory in the position of formally stating that one passage of Genesis contradicts another. By substituting an interrogation after ἡ ἱστορία φησίν, the sense given is this:—we know from a later statement in Genesis that the name Adam was given “in the day that they were created” (Genesis 5:2), but here the name given is general, not particular. There must be a reason for this, and the reason is, that the race of man, and not the individual, is that spoken of as “created in the image of God.” With this view that all humanity is included in the first creation may be compared a passage near the end of the De Anima, where the first man is compared to a full ear of corn, afterwards “divided into a multitude of bare grain.” ↩
With this passage, again, may be compared the teaching of the De Anima on the subject of the Resurrection. ↩
The explanation of the reason, however, is deferred; see here. ↩
Otherwise Chap. XVIII. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin version has the title:—“Against those who say that sin was a useful introduction for the propagation of the human race; and that by sin it deserved animal generation.” ↩
St. Luke 20:35–36. ↩
Psalm 8:6. ↩
Psalm 49:13 (Septuagint). ↩
Otherwise Chap. XIX. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin version has the title:—“That our other passions also are common to us and to the irrational animals, and that by the restraint of them we are said to be like to God.” ↩
Reading with Forbes διαγλύφους. The reading διγλύφους of the earlier editt. gives a better sense, but is not supported by any of Forbes’ MSS. ↩
Colossians 3:2. ↩
Romans 14:17. ↩
St. Matthew 4:4. ↩
Otherwise Chap. XX. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin version has the title:—“How the food ought to be understood with which man was fed in Paradise and from which he was prohibited.” ↩
Proverbs 9:5. ↩
Cf. Isaiah 12:3. ↩
Amos 8:11. ↩
Genesis 2:16. ↩
Psalm 37:4. ↩
Proverbs 3:18. ↩
Otherwise Chap. XXI. The Bodleian MS. of the Latin version gives as the title:—“Why Scripture calls the tree, ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ ” ↩
The reference is to Genesis 2:9 (in Septuagint), where the tree is called,
