The Two Evils and the Unclean Creature

The verse bringing it forward implies: 'Behold, thus shall a man be blessed who fears the Lord.'

For if anyone takes such things in a human way, many of the great saints, being most devout, would not have had the blessing, not having lived with women, nor having given birth at all. To provide certainty, it is enough to bring forward Elijah the great prophet and Elisha, his spiritual son according to godliness; text gap concerning John the Baptist; and others are more numerous who have practiced celibacy, so that they 'may care for the things of the Lord.'

For John saw in the Apocalypse many thousands of male virgins not defiled by a woman. Even if the things concerning the virgins who fulfill the number one hundred and forty-four are raised, yet because of a pure and sober conduct, it is not distressing to accept the word as it stands at hand.

Much is shown in the book of instruction inscribed to the Shepherd concerning women and virgins, whose virtues and blessings it shows, and also their evils and punishments, which one encountering will be struck by from the book.

Zechariah 5:9-11: 'And I lifted up my eyes and saw; and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit in their wings; and these had wings like the wings of an ephah; and they took up the measuring line in the middle of the earth and in the middle of the heaven. And I said to the angel speaking in me, "Where are these carrying the line?" And he said to me, "To build him a house in the land of Babylon, and to prepare it, and they will set him there upon his preparation."'

And now, lifting up the eyes of the inner man as in the previous visions, he saw two women coming forth, winged, and a spirit was in their wings. And their wings were like the wings of a bird called an ephah. These women coming forth thus took up the measuring line, in the middle of which the woman called iniquity was found, and they took it up in the middle of the earth and of the heaven. Having seen these things thus, I desired to ask the angel speaking in me, 'Where are these carrying the line?' And he said to me, 'To build him a house in the land of Babylon, and to prepare it, and they will set him there...'

Regarding his preparation. One must examine what two kinds of women these are. See if the two evils are the moral evil of the habitual transgression of the divine commands, or the false glory concerning those who are prudent and the evil powers working through them.

They appeared having wings, filled with spirit, that of which the Apostle writes: 'In whichs also you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the authority of the air, the spirit of the one now working in the sons of disobedience' (Ephesians 2:2). It is perhaps related, though the thing in the lying wings is trivial, to the unclean spirit cast out by Jesus from the man, which having been cast out by Jesus, if returning it finds it idling and having swept the place where it was cast out, having an empty hand and having swept, having all the good things it had been cast away, it takes other seven spirits more evil than itself, enters and 'dwells,' and the last things of that man become worse than the first (Matthew 12:44).

To represent that the wings are seven, the wings of the women were compared and made like the wings of the epic. But this creature is unclean, being a friend of the dead and of human refuse; indeed, it feeds in the tombs and makes a nest for itself out of human filth, so that having settled in the diseased cauldron, it may boil and make new ones like itself.

It had this designation from overseeing and looking upon human things. The women use it having been led into bad inclinations, namely those receiving them into... gap and envy, or the leading into an unrestrained and erotic potion.

One must observe what this creature must take by way of ascent, and see if it is possible. It either signifies the devil, or the antichrist. And each of the heterodox must not be unknown. The devil rejoices, and the anti-god antichrist, and the word of the heresies is to feed on tombs, the same being for the graves according to allegory, 'they are covered without, but within they are full of all unchastity,' and of the adjacent thoughts separating from God because they are crooked. For it is said in the most perfect Wisdom of Solomon: 'Crooked...'