"which turns."
Book II 95
So then, he was sent away from the paradise ofdelight to work the earth from which he had been taken, that is, to toil in this body and there if he could to save up merit and earn the right to return. He lingered, though, over against Paradise in misery, which is of course "over against" the blessed life of bliss. In my opinion, you see, the blessed life of bliss is signified by the word "paradise."
The Cherubim and theflaming sword
23, 35. Now God set the Cherubim and theflaming sword which turns, or, in one word, the flaming "whirling"49 sword, to guard the way to the tree of life (Gn 3:24). According to those who have given us translations of the Hebrew words in the scriptures, "Cherubim" means "Fullness of knowledge."50 By the flaming, whirling sword, on the other hand, are to be understood temporal punishments and pains, since time goes whirling and spinning along. The reason it is also said to be flaming is that all tribulation burns us up in one way or another. But being burned up to be got rid of is one thing, being burned up to be purified another. Even the apostle says, after all: Who is being tripped up, and l am not being burned up? (2 Cor 11:29). But this painful feeling was purifying rather than destroying him, because it was coming from charity. And the trials and tribula tions which are suffered by the just belong to this flaming sword, since gold and silver is tested byfire, and acceptable men in thefurnace ofhumiliation (Sir 2:5). And again: The potter's vessels are tested by the kiln, andjust men by the trial of tribulation (Sir 27:5). So then, since whom God loves he disciplines, and gives every son whom he receives a beating (Heb 1 2:6), we know, as the apostle says, that tribulation produces patience, patience through testing (Rom 5:3-4). Thus we both read and hear, and must certainly believe, that the tree of life is being guarded by fullness ofknowledge and the flaming sword. Nobody therefore can get to the tree of life except through these two, that is, through putting up with troubles and having the fullness of knowledge.
36. Yes, but putting up with troubles is something that practically everyone who is stretching out to the tree of life has to undergo in this life, while the fullness of knowledge seems to fall to the lot of far fewer people. So it' s as if by no means all who reach the tree of life get there through fullness of knowledge, though all know what it is to put up with troubles, that is the flaming, whirling sword. But let us pay attention to what the apostle says: But thefulness of the law
49. Versatilis, which of course derives immediately from the verb in the phrase quae versatur, "which turns." 50. The same interpretation of the word is given by Augustine in his Expositions of the Psalms, on Ps 7 1 (72), and on Ps 98(99); also in his Questions on Exodus, 11, q. 1 05. 1t would seem to have been a commonplace among his "learned" contemporaries. There is not the slightest warrant for it in the Hebrew word, on the origin and etymology ofwhich the scholars are not agreed.