Letter 504

To Simplicius the Exceptor [exceptor: a shorthand clerk or notary]. That Christ was destined to be crowned by the Jews with a crown of thorns under compulsion, Solomon foretold: "Daughters of Jerusalem, come out and behold the crown with which his mother crowned him" [Song of Songs 3:11]. Since, then, the Lord took away the sins of all, and the thorn is a symbol of sin, for this reason he was bound about with a crown of thorns. And he was buried in the earth that had been condemned to bring forth thorns and thistles [Genesis 3:18], so that the cursed ground might be blessed. And since the first-formed pair, when they sinned, clothed themselves with fig leaves [Genesis 3:7], for this reason, concerning the Passion, he says to the fig tree: "Let no fruit come from you any longer" [Matthew 21:19] - which is to say: Let there no longer be transgression in paradise.

Ὅτι μέλλει Χριστὸς ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαίων σὺν ἀγωγῆς ἀκάνθαις στεφανοῦσθαι, προεῖρκε Σολομῶν · Θυγάτερες Ἰερουσαλήμ, ἐξέλθετε, καὶ ἴδετε τὸν στέφανον, ὃν ἐστεφάνωσεν αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ. Ἐπειδὴ οὖν πάντων τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἦρεν ὁ Κύριος, σύμβολον δὲ ἁμαρτίας ἡ ἄκανθα, διὰ τοῦτο ἀκάνθινον περιεδέθη στέφανον. Τέθαπται δὲ εἰς τὴν γῆν τὴν καταδικασθεῖσαν ἐκφέρειν ἀκάνθας καὶ τριβόλους, ἵν’ εὐλογηθῇ ἡ κεκατηραμένη. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ φύλλα συκῆς οἱ πρωτόπλαστοι ἁμαρτῶντες περιεβάλλοντο, διὰ τοῦτο περὶ τὸ πάθος λέγει πρὸς τὴν συκῆν · Μηκέτι ἐκ σοῦ καρπὸς γένηται · ἀντὶ τοῦ · Μὴ κέτι ἐν παραδείσῳ γενέσθω παράβασις.