Perishing And Progress

Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔστιν κεκαλυμμένον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν, ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις ἐστὶν κεκαλυμμένον, ἐν οἷς ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἐτύφλωσεν τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων.  Θεὸν τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τὸν διάβολον εἶναί φησιν, ὡς καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια τῶν ἐθνῶν θεοί, καὶ ἡ κοιλία τῶν γαστριμάργων. στίζουσι δέ τινες εἰς τὸ ἐν οἷς ὁ θεός, ἑξῆς ἀναγινώσκοντες ἀπ' ἰδίας ἀρχῆς· τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἐτύφλωσε τὰ νοήματα τῶν ἀπίστων. ἀμέλει γοῦν καὶ εὐέλεγκτα λέγουσιν· εἰ γὰρ ἄπιστοί τινές εἰσι τούτου τοῦ αἰῶνος, εὑρεθεῖεν ἕτεροι ἄπιστοι οὐκ ὄντες αὐτοῦ. πᾶς γὰρ ἄπιστός ἐστι τούτου τοῦ αἰῶνος· οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὑπερβὰς αὐτὸν καὶ καταξιωθεὶς τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, τετύφλωται ἐν νοήμασιν, ἀλλ' ἔχει πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς. ἔγνων τινὰς σαφηνίζοντας τὴν προκειμένην λέξιν, φάσκοντας κεκαλυμμένον εἶναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον οὐ τοῖς πάντη ἀπίστοις· οὐδὲ γὰρ κεκαλυμμένου αὐτοῦ ἢ γυμνοῦ πεῖραν ἔχουσιν. ἔλεγον δὲ οὗτοι ἀπολλυμένους εἶναι ἐν οἷς κεκάλυπται τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, τοὺς παραδεξαμένους μὲν αὐτό, μὴ μὴν ἄνευ καλύμματος προσβαλόντας αὐτῷ. οἷοι ἐτύγχανον οἱ ἐν παραβολαῖς ἀκούοντες τῶν Ἰησοῦ λόγων, τοῦ ἀπολλύμενοι ἐπ' αὐτῶν κειμένου ἐπὶ δηλώσει τοῦ κατ' ἀλλοίωσιν μεταβαλεῖν· οἱ γὰρ προκόπτοντές εἰσι τοιοῦτοι, ἀεὶ ἐξ ἑτέρων ἕτεροι γινόμενοι. ὅθεν οὐκ ἐπὶ ψόγου ἔλεγον κεῖσθαι τὸ ἀπολλύμενοι, ἀλλ' ὡσαύτως τῷ οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἀπολοῦνται, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀπολλύμενοι τὸν αἰῶνα· αἱ γὰρ λέξεις αὗται ἀπόλλυσθαι τίθενται τοῦ ἐν προκοπῇ ἐκ ποιότητος εἰς ποιότητα μεταβαίνοντος. . Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εἰς Τὴν Δευτέραν Ἐπιστολήν Παύλου Πρὸς Κορινθίους Source:  Migne PG 39.1698b-d

And if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the faithless. 1  The God of this world they name the devil, as indeed the gods of the Gentiles are demons, 2 and the stomach, and gluttony. 3 But some make a punctuation after 'in whom the god,' and as if from a new beginning, so then have it read: 'He has blinded the minds of the faithless of this world.' But what they propose with this is easily refuted: for if some are the unfaithful of this world, thus are found other unfaithful ones who are not of this world. But whoever is unfaithful is of this world, for no one who has advanced beyond it and has been made worthy of the future is blinded in his mind, but rather he has had his eyes enlightened. I know that some have before explained this passage, saying that it is the veiling of the Gospel to all those unfaithful, those who have no experience of it unveiled. And they say they who are perishing are those to whom the Gospel is veiled, and yet the Gospel is never received without a veil for the sake of the advancement of man. As it happened with those who heard the parables of Jesus: for he who is unmoved by them is perishing, and those who are changed advance, for those who advance in such a way, always change from one thing to another. 4 Whence they do not speak in censure of the stable perishing, but just as the heavens pass away for God, 5 so we perish amid the world, 6 for these passages that speak of the fixed perishing concern progress, which is a transference for one state to another. Didymus the Blind, On The Second Letter of Paul to The Corinthians, Fragment 1 2 Cor 4.3-4 2 Ps 95.5 3 Phillip 3.19 4 2 Cor 3.18 5 Ps 101.27 6 Baruch 3.3