DE CODICIBUS LIBRI GRADUUM.

1 Ezek. iv, 10. — 2 Var. tears [b-dem'a].

according to the similarity, by which Ezekiel ate and drank with weight and measure, and was not satisfied Ezek. iv, 10, that one might be worn down by prayer and spiritual knowledge: these are the scourges and the death of the body.

The excerpt of Eusebius only partially agrees with the text of the Book of Steps, for its beginning and end are not found in the Book of Steps. But the excerpt of Eusebius cannot be confused with the Book of Steps for the very reason that the goal it pursues is far different. Eusebius, surely, in order to explain the words of St. Paul I Cor. v, 5 and I Tim. i, 20, uses the Book of Steps quite ineptly. For, in order to demonstrate that the sentence: I have delivered him (them) to Satan is the same as: "I have delivered them to tribulations and voluntary mortifications, so that they might be saved in spirit," he uses words of the Book of Steps in which the sense of the Epistle to the Romans xii, 1 is explained concerning a living sacrifice, which is our flesh worn down by mortification. But since the exposition of the Book of Steps revolves around Rom. xii, 1 and in no way coheres with I Cor. v, 4, Eusebius, clinging to the words that the spirit might be saved original: "hina to pneuma sothe", by means of an inept paraphrase of the words: a living sacrifice, paves the way for himself to cite the exposition of its phrasing found in the Book of Steps, from which he was again to prove that living sacrifice denotes the mortification of the flesh. This connection of thoughts is so artificial that the priority of the passage cited from the Book of Steps is immediately perceived Tertullian, De pudicitia, cap. xiii, attributes a similar interpretation of I Cor. v, 4 to the followers of Callistus.. Eusebius the monk seems to have been a Syrian by nationality; for his exegetical method rests upon the parallelism between the words netparas to be destroyed/delivered (I Tim. i, 20) and netparas (I Cor. v, 5) and netchayyal to be empowered/to be a sacrifice (Rom. xii, 1), for to the Syrians the notions of salvation and life do not differ; indeed, the entire exegesis of Eusebius rests on this confusion. Nothing certain can be elicited about his person from the fragment itself; the excerpt preaches the same severe asceticism that is also commended in the Book of Steps. Agapius mentions a certain Eusebius, a teacher of Adelphius, Sabas, Dados, and Hermes—who are known to have stirred up the heresy of the Messalians—in his Universal History, and Michael the Great in his Chronicle and Gregory Barhebraeus followed him; but we will speak of this matter at the end of the Preface. Therefore, we have found nothing from the codices regarding the author of the Book; indeed, considering the antiquity of A and C, in which parts of the Work were sold under the names of other authors, it must be judged that the Syrians by the 6th century had no certain tradition at all regarding the author of the Book of Steps.

5. Although the very multitude of the codices of the Book suggests that the Syrian monks read the Book of Steps diligently, it is singular that men who applied themselves to literary matters among the Syrians...

A Syriac text block in Serto script presents the original ascetic teaching regarding the "living sacrifice" of the body through fasting, prayer, and poverty, equating the "scourges of the flesh" with the "Satan" mentioned by Paul.

Syriac text: "Men sebyaneh de-benaynasha pagreh metkattash men mahwata hashata..." From the will of man, his body is crushed by painful strokes and by the struggle of fasting and of prayer and of poverty. And that he may be a living and pure sacrifice. As it is written: a sacrifice to God is a humble spirit. And as he said: present your bodies as a living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice. And you see that for the living he said: slay your bodies, in fasting and in prayer and in poverty. That for the living they may die and become a living and pure sacrifice. And as your slaying shall stand on the day of our Lord. For that which is slain is called a sacrifice. And we, who are alive and are slain, are called a living sacrifice. The tribulation of hunger and of thirst, as one eats bread and salt with a balance and drinks water with a measure and is crucified before water and bread and is not satisfied, as Ezekiel ate and drank with balance and measure and was not satisfied, that he may be crushed, present your prayers and the intelligence of the spirit. These are the scourges and the death of the body. And to these tribulations Paul delivered them to Satan, that they might live in the spirit. He delivered them to death that they might live in the spirit. And he called tribulations Satan. Because if a man is delivered to Satan, he devours him, as Paul said: If a man has adversaries, whoever labors in sin, Satan devours him. But how does he devour the living? Paul delivered them so that they might live in the spirit. Far from it. But he called the tribulation of the body Satan. That if a man is crushed in his body by fasting and by many prayers, he shall live in the spirit and be justified.

Of Eusebius the monk. From the Book, which he composed, of the Steps. What is that which Paul wrote about him who committed fornication in Corinth: Deliver him to Satan for the destruction of his body, that he may live in the spirit on the day of the Lord? He shows, however, who is the Satan to whom he said he must be delivered.

Whoever, therefore, has mortified his flesh from evil thoughts and shameful desires of error, will become a living sacrifice, as it is written: Let us strive to become a living host. You see how he said: kill your bodies, while you live, by fasting and prayer and abnegation, and do not spare, he says, your bodies, but deliver them to straits and lashes, so that while you live they may die and you may become a living and chaste sacrifice, so that your slain self may rise on the day of the Lord. For that which is slain is called a sacrifice; we, however, living, because we are slain, are called a living sacrifice. For the tribulation of hunger and thirst, and that one should eat bread and salt with weight and drink water with measure and not be satisfied, according to the similarity by which Ezekiel ate and drank with measure and weight and was afflicted with hunger and water and was not satisfied, and that he be worn down by humility and spiritual knowledge: for these are the scourges of the flesh, and to these tribulations Paul delivered carnal men, saying: I delivered them to Satan; that is, he delivered them to the death of tribulation, so that they might live in the spirit; and these tribulations Paul calls Satan. Otherwise, if one is delivered to Satan, he devours him, as Paul said: If one has enemies, who labors in sin, Satan devours him. Therefore, how did Paul deliver men to him who devours living men, so that they might live in the spirit? Far from it, but he calls the tribulation of the flesh Satan, so that if a man has afflicted himself in the body with much fasting and many prayers, he might live in the spirit and be justified.