καί κρίσιν, οὐ τήν παιδευτικήν καί οἷον κολαστικήν τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων, ἀλλά τήν σωστικήν καί ἀφοριστικήν τῶν ὄντων διανομήν, καθ᾿ ἥν τῶν γεγονότων ἕκαστα τοῖς καθ᾿ οὕς γεγένηται συνημμένα λόγοις ἀπαράβατον ἔχει τήν ἐν τῇ φυσικῇ ταυτότητι ἀναλλοίωτον νομιμότητα, καθώς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁ δημιουργός περί τοῦ εἶναι καί τί εἶναι καί πῶς καί ὁποῖον ἕκαστον ἔκρινέ τε καί ὑπεστήσατο· ἐπεί τοιγε ἡ ἄλλως λεγομένη πρόνοια καί κρίσις ταῖς ἡμῶν προαιρετικαῖς ὁρμαῖς παραπεπήγασι, τῶν μέν φαύλων πολυτρόπως ἀπείργουσαι, πρός δέ τά καλά σοφῶς ἐπιστρέφουσαι, καί τῷ διευθύνειν τά οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἐναντίως τοῖς ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν καί παροῦσαν καί μέλλουσαν καί παρελθοῦσαν κακίαν ἐκτέμνουσαι.
Οὐκ ἄλλην δέ καί ἄλλην πρόνοιαν διά τούτων εἶναι λέγω καί κρίσιν. Μίαν γάρ καί τήν αὐτήν οἶδα κατά τήν δύναμιν, διάφορον δέ ὡς πρός ἡμᾶς καί πολύτροπον τήν ἐνέργειαν ἔχουσαν. Τήν δέ κράσιν τῶν ὄντων ἤτοι σύνθεσιν τῆς ἡμετέρας γνώμης εἶναι σύμβολον. Κραθεῖσα γάρ αὕτη ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, καί ἑαυτῇ ταύτας κεράσασα, τόν κατά διάνοιαν θεοπρεπέστατον καί αὐτήν συνίστησι κόσμον. Τήν δέ θέσιν τοῦ κατά γνώμην ἤθους εἶναι διδάσκαλον, ὡς παγίως ἔχειν περί τό εὖ δόξαν τῷ ῥυθμίζειν ἀντιλόγῳ ὀφείλοντος, ἥκιστα τοῖς συμπίπτουσιν ἐκ τῆς κατά λόγον βάσεως ἀλλοίωσιν τήν οἱανοῦν δεχομένου.
and judgment—not the pedagogical and, so to speak, punitive judgment of those who sin, but the saving and distinguishing distribution of things, according to which each of the things that have come to be, joined to the principles according to which it came to be, possesses an inviolable and unalterable legitimacy in its natural identity, just as from the beginning the Creator judged and established concerning each thing: that it is, and what it is, and how, and of what sort. For indeed the so-called providence and judgment otherwise spoken of have been attached to our deliberate impulses, in many ways restraining the base and wisely turning us toward the good, and by directing the things not in our power in opposition to the things in our power, cutting off present, future, and past evil.
I do not say that providence and judgment are one thing and another through these. For I know them to be one and the same in power, but different in relation to us and having a manifold operation. And the blending of things, that is, the composition, is a symbol of our will. For this will, once blended with the virtues and having blended these with itself, constitutes the most God-befitting cosmos in the mind, and indeed itself. And the position is the teacher of the character according to the will, so that one may hold firmly concerning the good, since it ought to regulate the contrary argument, admitting no alteration whatsoever from the things that befall it, away from its rational foundation.
Συνάψαντες δέ πάλιν τῇ κινήσει τήν θέσιν, καί τήν κράσιν τῇ διαφορᾷ, εἰς οὐσίαν καί διαφοράν καί κίνησιν τήν τοῦ παντός ἀδιαιρέτως διέκριναν ὑπόστασιν, καί τῷ κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν λόγῳ τεχνικῶς ἐνθεωρεῖσθαι τοῖς αἰτιατοῖς διαφόρως τό αἴτιον κατανοήσαντες ( καί εἶναι καί σοφόν εἶναι καί ζῶν εἶναι εὐσεβῶς τοῦτο κατέλαβον. Καί τόν περί Πατρός καί Υἱοῦ καί ἁγίου Πνεύματος θεοτελῆ καί σωτήριον ἐντεῦθεν ἐδιδάχθησαν λόγον, καθ᾿ ὅν οὐ τόν τοῦ εἶναι μόνον ἁπλῶς τοῦ αἰτίου λόγον μυστικῶς ἐφωτίσθησαν, ἀλλά καί τόν τῆς ὑπάρξεως τρόπον εὐσεβῶς ἐμυήθησαν. Καί πάλιν κατά μόνην τήν θέσιν πᾶσαν τήν κτίσιν περιαθρήσαντες τούς εἰρημένους πέντε εἰς τρεῖς συνέστειλαν θεωρίας τρόπους, ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καί γῆς καί τῶν ἐν μέσῳ ἠθικῆς καί φυσικῆς καί θεολογικῆς φιλοσοφίας διδάσκαλον τήν κτίσιν εἶναι τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν λόγω ἐπεγνωκότες.
Πάλιν δέ ἐκ μόνης τῆς διαφορᾶς τήν κτίσιν θεωρήσαντες, τουτέστιν ἐν τῶν περιεχόντων καί περιεχομένων, λέγω δέ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καί τῶν ἐντός εἰς δύο τούς τρεῖς συνήγαγον τρόπους, σοφίαν φημί καί φιλοσοφίαν, τήν μέν ὡς περιεκτικήν καί πάντας θεοπρεπῶς τούς εὐσεβεῖς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς λεγομένους ἐπιδεχομένην τρόπους, καί τούς περί τῶν ἄλλων ἐντός ἐαυτῆς μυστικούς τε καί φυσικούς περικλείουσαν λόγους, τήν δέ ὡς ἤθους καί γνώμης, πράξεώς τε καί θεωρίας, καί ἀρετῆς καί γνώσεως συνεκτικήν, καί οἰκειότητι σχετικῇ πρός τήν σοφίαν ὡς αἰτίαν ἀναφερομένην.
Joining position again to motion, and mixture to difference, they distinguished without division the subsistence of the whole into substance, difference, and motion; and having understood that the cause is variously contemplated in its effects by the conceptual principle, in a manner befitting its art—that it is, and is wise, and is living—they grasped this piously. And from this they were taught the God-perfect and saving doctrine concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, according to which they were mystically enlightened not only in the principle of the cause's simple being, but were also piously initiated into the manner of its existence. And again, surveying all creation according to position alone, they reduced the five aforementioned modes to three contemplations, having recognized that creation is, by its own principle, a teacher of ethical, natural, and theological philosophy from heaven and earth and the things in between.
Again, contemplating creation from difference alone—that is, in the things that contain and the things that are contained, I mean heaven and the things within it—they brought the three modes together into two, I mean wisdom and philosophy: the one as comprehensive, receiving in a God-befitting way all the modes piously ascribed to it, and enclosing within itself the mystical and natural principles concerning other things; the other as cohesive of character and disposition, of action and contemplation, and of virtue and knowledge, and referred by a relational affinity to wisdom as its cause.
Καί πάλιν κατά μόνην τήν κράσιν ἤτοι τήν ἐναρμόνιον τοῦ παντός σύνθεσιν, τήν κτίσιν κατανοήσαντες, καί διά πάντων τῶν ἀλλήλοις ἀῤῥήτως εἰς ἑνός συμπλήρωσιν κόσμου συνδεδεμένων μόνον τόν συνδέοντα καί ἐπισφίγγοντα τῷ ὅλῳ τά μέρη καί ἀλλήλοις δημιουργόν ἐννοήσαντες λόγον τούς δύο εἰς ἕνα θεωρίας συνέκλεισαν τρόπον, καθ᾿ ὅν ἁπλῇ προσβολῇ διά τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι λόγων πρός τό αἴτιον νοῦν διαπορθεύσαντες, καί μόνῳ αὐτῷ ὡς συναγωγῷ τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ πάντων καί ἑλκτικῷ προδήσαντες, τοῖς καθ᾿ ἕκαστα τῶν ὅλων τῷ ὑπερβαθῆναι οὐκέτι διαχεόμενοι λόγοις, διά τοῦ πεπεῖσθαι σαφῶς μόνον τόν Θεόν κυρίως εἶναι λοιπόν ἐκ τῆς πρός τά ὄντα ἀκριβοῦς ἐνατενίσεως, καί οὐσίαν τῶν ὄντων καί κίνησιν καί τῶν διαφερόντων εὐκρίνειαν, καί συνοχήν ἀδιάλυτον τῶν ( κεκραμμένων, καί ἵδρυσιν ἀμετάθετον τῶν τεθειμένων, καί πάσης ἁπλῶς τῆς ὁπωσοῦν νοουμένης οὐσίας, καί κινήσεως καί διαφορᾶς, κράσεώς τε καί θέσεως αἴτιον, σοφῶς δι᾿ ἐμφεροῦς ὁμοιότητος τήν κατά τόν αἰσθητόν αἰῶνα μυστικήν θεωρίαν ἐπί τόν κατά διάνοιαν ἐν Πνεύματι διά τῶν ἀρετῶν συμπληρούμενον κόσμον μετήνεγκαν·
And again, having contemplated creation according to mixture alone, that is, the harmonious composition of the whole, and having understood in thought the one Word who binds and holds together the parts to the whole and to one another—the only Creator of all things that are bound together ineffably into the completion of one world—they closed the two into one mode of contemplation, according to which, by a single approach through the principles (logoi) in existing things, they were carried through to the causative Intellect, and having bound themselves beforehand to Him alone as the one who gathers and draws all things that come from Him, they were no longer dispersed among the individual principles of all things by having passed beyond them, because of their clear conviction that God alone is properly what remains, from the accurate gazing upon existing things—both the substance of existing things and their motion, and the distinctness of things that differ, and the indissoluble cohesion of things mixed, and the unchangeable stability of things established, and simply the cause of every substance, motion, and difference, mixture, and position however conceived—they wisely, through a fitting likeness, transferred the mystical contemplation in the sensible age to the world completed in the Spirit according to understanding through the virtues.
Καθ᾿ ἥν τούς εἰρημένους τρόπους εἰς ἕνα συναγαγόντες τόν διαφόροις ἀρετῶν εἴδεσι τήν τοῦ κατά διάνοιαν γνωμικοῦ κόσμου οὐσίαν ἐκπληροῦντα δι᾿ ὅλου λόγον μονιότατον ἑαυτοῖς, ὡς ἐφικτόν ἐναπωμόρξαντο, πάντας δηλαδή περάσαντες τούς τῶν ὄντων καί αὐτούς τούς τῶν ἀρετῶν λόγους, μᾶλλον δέ μετά τούτων πρός τόν ὑπέρ τούτους, καί εἰς ὅν οὗτοι καί ἐξ οὗ τό εἶναι τούτοις ἐστίν ὑπερούσιον καί ὑπεράγαθον Λόγον ἀγνώστως ἀναδραμόντες· καί ὅλοι ὅλῳ κατά τό ἐφικτόν τῆς ἐνούσης αὐτοῖς φυσικῆς δυνάμεως ἑνωθέντες τοσοῦτον ἐνδεχομένως ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐποιώθησαν, ὥστε καί ἀπό μόνου γνωρίζεσθαι, οἷον ἔσοπτρα διειδέστατα,
ὅλου τοῦ ἐνορῶντος Θεοῦ Λόγου τό εἶδος ἀπαραλείπτως διά τῶν θείων αὐτοῦ γνωρισμάτων φαινόμενον ἔχοντες, τῷ ἐλλειφθῆναι μηδένα τῶν παλαιῶν χαρακτήρων, οἱς μηνύεσθαι πέφυκε τό ἀνθρώπινον, πάντων εἰξάντων τοῖς ἀμείνοσιν, οἷον ἀήρ ἀφεγγής φωτί δι᾿ ὅλου μετεγκραθείς. ΚΔ (24). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΕΛΧΙΣΕΔΕΚ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μελχισεδέκ.
Through which, having gathered the aforementioned modes into one, they imprinted upon themselves as far as possible, most stably, the Word who fills the substance of the rational world of the soul's faculty with diverse forms of virtues, having passed through all the principles of beings and even the principles of the virtues themselves—or rather, together with these, having run up in unknowing to the Word who is beyond these, and to whom these owe their being and from whom they have it, the supersubstantial and supergood Word; and being wholly united wholly, as far as possible, by the natural power inherent in them, they were so qualified by him as is possible, that they are known from him alone, as most transparent mirrors, having the form of the whole Word of God who looks into them, appearing without omission through his divine marks, since no ancient character has been left behind by which the human is naturally made known, all having yielded to the better things, like lightless air wholly permeated by light. 24. CONTEMPLATION ON MELCHIZEDEK. Contemplation on Melchizedek.
Ὅπερ, οἶμαι, γνούς καί παθών ὁ θαυμαστός ἐκεῖνος καί μέγας Μελχισεδέκ, περί ὅν τά μεγάλα καί θαυμαστά παρά τῆ Γραφῇ ὁ θεῖος διεξέρχεται λόγος, χρόνου καί φύσεως ὑπεράνω γενέσθαι, καί ὁμοιωθῆναι τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ κατηξιώθη, τοιοῦτος ἕξει δηλαδή κατά τήν χάριν ὡς ἐφικτόν γενόμενος, οἷος αὐτός ὁ δοτήρ τῆς χάριτος κατά τήν οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων πιστεύεται. ( Τό γάρ Ἀπάτωρ καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος περί αὐτοῦ λεγόμενον, οὐκ ἄλλο μηνύειν ὑπονοῶ ἤ τήν ἐγγενομένην αὐτῷ ἐκ τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἀκροτάτης χάριτος τελείαν τῶν φυσικῶν γνωρισμάτων ἀπόθεσιν· τό δέ μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν, μήτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχειν, τήν χρόνου παντός καί αἰῶνος ἰδιότητα περιγράφουσα γνῶσιν, καί πάσης ὑλικῆς καί ἀΰλου οὐσίας τήν ὕπαρξιν ὑπερβαίνουσαν θεωρίαν μαρτυρεῖ· τό δέ Ἀφωμοιωμένος τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει εἰς τό διηνηκές ἱερεύς, τάχα μέχρι τέλους καθ᾿ ἕξιν ἄτρεπτον τῆς θεοειδεστάτης ἀρετῆς καί τῆς θείας καί πρός τόν Θεόν ἐνατενίσεως τό νοερόν ὄμμα ἀνεπίμυστον δυνηθῆναι φυλάξαι παραδηλοῖ. Τῇ φύσει γάρ ἡ ἀρετή μάχεσθαι πέφυκε, καί χρόνῳ καί αἰῶνι ἡ ἀληθής θεωρία, ἵνα ἡ μέν ἀδούλωτος μένοι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὅσα μετά Θεόν εἶναι πιστεύεται, καί ἀκράτητος, ὡς Θεόν μόνον εἰδυῖα γεννήτορα, ἡ δέ ἀπερίγραφος, οὐδενί τῶν ἀρχήν ἤ τέλος ἐχόντων ἐναπομένουσα, ὡς Θεόν δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς εἰκονίζουσα, τόν πάσης ἀρχῆς καί τέλους ὁριστικόν, καί πᾶσαν νόησιν τῶν νοούντων κατ᾿ ἔκστασιν ἄῤῤητον πρός ἑαυτόν ἕλκοντα.
Which, I think, that wonderful and great Melchizedek understood and suffered, concerning whom the divine word in Scripture recounts great and wonderful things, and he was deemed worthy to become above time and nature and to be likened to the Son of God, having become such by grace as is attainable, as he himself who is the giver of grace is believed to be in substance. For the saying about him, "without father and without mother and without genealogy," I suspect indicates nothing other than the perfect setting aside of natural distinguishing marks that came to be in him from the highest grace according to virtue; and "having neither beginning of days nor end of life" testifies to a knowledge that circumscribes the peculiarity of all time and age and a contemplation that surpasses the existence of every material and immaterial substance; and "likened to the Son of God, he remains a priest forever" perhaps hints that to the end he was able to keep the eye of the mind undefiled in an unchanging state of the most Godlike virtue and of divine contemplation directed toward God. For virtue is by nature at war with nature, and true contemplation with time and age, so that the one may remain unenslaved to all the other things believed to exist after God, and unconquered, as knowing God alone as begetter, and the other may remain uncircumscribed, not abiding in any of the things that have a beginning or an end, as imaging through itself God, who defines every beginning and end, and draws to himself all understanding of those who understand, ineffably, in ecstasy.
Ἐξ ὧν ἡ θεῖα ὁμοίωσις δείκνυται, γνώσεώς τέ φημι καί ἀρετῆς, καί δι' ὧν ἡ εἰς μόνον τόν Θεόν ἀκλόνητος ἀγάπη τοῖς ἀξίοις φυλάττεται, καθ᾿ ἥν τό τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἀξίωμα θεοπρεπῶς διδόμενον διηνεκῶς ἐντυγχάνειν Θεῷ καί παρεστάναι χαρίζεται, πρός δυσώπησιν αὐτήν τοῦ ἐντυγχάνοντος τήν θείαν ὁμοίωσιν παρεχόμενον. Ὅθεν εἰκότως ὑπολαμβάνω μή διά χρόνου καί φύσεως, ὑφ᾿ ἅ φυσικῶς ἐτέλει ὁ μέγας Μελχισεδέκ, βίῳ καί λόγῳ ὑπερβαθέντων ἤδη καί παντελῶς καταλελειμμένων προσαγορευθῆναι δεῖν, Ὁ θεῖος αὐτόν ἐδικαίωσε λόγος, ἀλλ᾿ ἐξ ὧν καί δι᾿ ὧν ἑαυτόν μετεποίησε γνωμικῶς, ἀρετῆς· λέγω καί γνώσεως, ὀνομασθῆναι. Ἐφ᾿ ὧν γάρ ἡ γνώμη γενναίως ( διά τῶν ἀρετῶν τόν δυσμαχώτατον τῆς φύσεως κατηγωνίσατο νόμον, καί τήν χρόνου καί αἰῶνος ἰδιότητα διά γνώσως ἀχράντως ἡ τοῦ νοῦ ὑπερίπταται κίνησις, τούτοις οὐκ ἔστιν ἐπιφημίσαι δίκαιον τῶν ἀπολειφθέντων ὡς γνώρισμα τήν ἰδιότητα, ἀλλά μᾶλλον τήν τῶν προσληφθέντων μεγαλοπρέπειαν, ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν οἷς μόνον εἰσί λοιπόν καί ἐπιγινώσκονται. Επεί καί ἡμεῖς φυσικῶς τοῖς ὁρατοῖς ἐπιβάλλοντες ἐκ τῶν χρωμάτων τά σώματα καί γνωρίζομεν καί ὀνομάζομεν, οἷον ὡς φῶς τόν πεφωτισμένον ἀέρα, καί πῦρ τήν οἱανοῦν πυρός ἐξημμένην ὕλην, καί λευκόν τό λευκασμένον σῶμα, καί ὅσα ἄλλα τοιουτότροπα.
From these things the divine likeness is shown—I mean of knowledge and virtue—and through which the unshakable love toward God alone is preserved for those who are worthy, according to which the dignity of adoption, given in a manner befitting God, grants to approach God continually and to stand before him, providing the divine likeness for the entreaty of the one who approaches. Whence I reasonably suppose that it is not by reason of time and nature, under which the great Melchizedek was naturally perfected, that he ought to be addressed—these having already been surpassed in life and reason and completely left behind—as the divine word justified him, but from the things and through the things by which he transformed himself by deliberate choice—I mean of virtue and knowledge—that he was named. For in the case of those where the deliberate choice courageously through the virtues has conquered the most hard-fought law of nature, and the movement of the intellect, through knowledge, flies above the peculiarity of time and age immaculately, it is not right to attach as a distinguishing mark the peculiarity of the things left behind, but rather the magnificence of the things taken up, from which and in which alone they now exist and are known. Since we too, naturally applying ourselves to visible things, recognize and name bodies from their colors—for example, light as the illuminated air, and fire as any matter kindled by fire, and white as the whitened body, and whatever else is of such a kind.
Εἰ τοίνυν γνωμικῶς τήν ἀρετήν τῆς φύσεως καί τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἁπάντων προετίμησε, διά τήν καλήν τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἀξιώματος αἵρεσιν, καί πάντα χρόνον καί αἰῶνα κατά τήν γνῶσιν ὑπερηκόντισε, πάντα ὅσα μετά Θεόν κατόπιν ἑαυτοῦ γνωστικῶς κατά τήν θεωρίαν ποιησάμενος, οὐδενί τῶν ὄντων ἐμμείνας ᾧ ἐπιθεωρεῖται τό οἱανοῦν πέρας ὁ θεῖος Μελχισεδέκ, πρός δέ τάς θείας καί ἀνάρχους
καί ἀθανάτους [οὐσίας] τοῦ Θεοῦ διά τοῦ Λόγου κατά χάριν ἐν Πνεύματι γεγέννηται, καί σῶαν καί ἀληθῆ ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρει τοῦ γεννήσαντος Θεοῦ τήν ὁμοίωσιν (ἐπεί καί πᾶσα γέννησις ταὐτόν τῷ γεννῶντι πέφυκεν ἀποτελεῖν τό γεννώμενον· Τό γάρ γεγεννημένον, φησίν, ἐκ τῆς σαρκός, σάρξ ἐστι, τό δέ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ Πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν), εἰκότως οὐκ ἐκ τῶν φυσικῶν καί χρονικῶν ἰδιωμάτων, οἶς πατήρ τε καί μήτηρ καί γενεαλογία, ἀρχή τε καί τέλος ἡμερῶν περιέχεται, ἅπερ φθάσας ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς ἐπελύσατο, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν θείων καί μακαρίων γνωρισμάτων, οἷς τό εἶδος ἑαυτῷ μετεποίησεν, ὠνομάσθη, ὧν οὐκ ἐφικνεῖται οὐ χρόνος, οὐ φύσις, οὐ λόγος, οὐ νοῦς, οὐδ᾿ ἄλλο τι κατά περιγραφήν φάναι τῶν ὄντων οὐδέν.
If, then, he preferred virtue in his deliberate choice to nature and to all things according to nature, because of the noble choice of the dignity that is in our power, and surpassed every time and age in knowledge, having made all things that are after God to be behind himself cognitively in contemplation, and having remained in none of the things that exist in which any limit at all is observed—the divine Melchizedek—but has been born toward the divine and unoriginate and immortal [essences] of God through the Word by grace in the Spirit, and bears in himself the likeness of the God who begot him, whole and true (since every begetting naturally produces the begotten as the same as the begetter; for "that which has been begotten," he says, "of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been begotten of the Spirit is spirit"), reasonably he was named not from the natural and temporal peculiarities, by which father and mother and genealogy, beginning and end of days are comprised—which he, having anticipated, completely dissolved for himself—but from the divine and blessed marks of distinction, by which he transformed his form for himself, which neither time, nor nature, nor reason, nor mind, nor anything else at all of existing things, so to speak, attains by circumscription.
Ἀπάτωρ οὖν καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀνενεαλόγητος, μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν, μήτε τέλος ζωῆς ἔχων, ἀναγέγραπται ὁ μέγας Μελχισεδέκ, ὡς ὁ ἀληθής τῶν θεοφόρων ἀνδρῶν ( τά περί αὐτοῦ διεσάφησε λόγος, οὐ διά τήν φύσιν τήν κτιστήν καί ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, καθ᾿ ἥν τοῦ εἶναι ἤρξατό τε καί ἔληξεν, ἀλλά διά τήν χάριν τήν θείαν καί ἄκτιστον, καί ἀεί οὖσαν ὑπέρ πᾶσαν φύσιν καί πάντα χρόνον, ἐκ τοῦ ἀεί ὄντος Θεοῦ, καθ᾿ ἥν δι᾿ ὅλου μόνην ὅλος γνωμικῶς γεννηθείς ἐπιγινώσκεται. Μόνος δέ τοῦτο ὤν τῇ Γραφῇ τετήρηται, ὡς πρῶτος ἴσως ὑπέρ τήν ὕλην καί τό εἶδος κατά τήν ἀρετήν γενόμενος, ἅπερ διά τοῦ ἀπάτωρ καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος δηλοῦσθαι δύναται, καί ὡς πάντα τά ὑπό χρόνον καί αἰῶνα κατά τήν γνῶσιν παρελθών, ὧν τό εἶναι χρονικῶς τῆς γενέσεως ἤρξατο τό ποτέ εἶναι οὐκ ἠρνημένης, οὐδ᾿ ὁτιοῦν τῷ κατά διάνοιαν θείῳ δρόμῳ ἐνσκάσας ὅπερ σημαίνει τυχόν τό μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε τέλος ζωῆς ἔχειν· καί ὡς ἐξῃρημένως, κρυφίως τε καί σεσιγημένως, καί συνελόντα εἰπεῖν, ἀγνώστως, μετά πᾶσαν τῶν ὄντων πάντων ἀφαίρεσιν κατά νοῦν εἰς αὐτόν εἰσδύς τόν Θεόν, καί ὅλος ὅλῳ ποιωθείς τε καί μεταποιωθείς, ὅπερ τό, Ἀφωμοιωμένος δέ τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ μένει ἱερεύς εἰς τό διηνεκές ὑπεμφαίνειν δύναται. Πᾶς γάρ τις τῶν ἁγίων, οὗτινος κατ᾿ ἐξαίρετον ἀπήρξατο καλοῦ, κατ᾿ αὐτό καί τύπος εἶναι τοῦ δοτῆρος Θεοῦ ἀνηγόρευται.
Therefore Melchizedek the great is recorded as fatherless, motherless, and without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, as the true account of the God-bearing men made clear concerning him—not because of the created nature that came from non-being, according to which he both began to be and ceased, but because of the divine and uncreated grace, which always exists beyond all nature and every time, from the God who always is, according to which he is recognized as having been born wholly in his deliberative faculty to that grace alone. And he alone has been preserved in Scripture as having this, perhaps as the first to come to be beyond matter and form according to virtue—which things can be signified by "fatherless," "motherless," and "without genealogy"—and as having passed beyond all things under time and age in knowledge, things whose being began temporally with generation, the "once" of their being not being denied, nor having stumbled in any way in the divine course of thought, which perhaps signifies having neither beginning of days nor end of life; and as having entered, in an exceptional, hidden, and silent manner—and, to speak concisely, unknowably—after every abstraction of all beings, in mind into God himself, and having been wholly made and transformed wholly into the whole, which "having been made like to the Son of God, he remains a priest forever" can suggest. For every one of the saints, whatever good he began with in an exceptional way, is proclaimed in that very respect to be a type of God the giver.
Καθ᾿ ὅ σημαινόμενον καί οὗτος ὁ μέγας Μελχισεδέκ διά τήν ἐμποιηθεῖσαν αὐτῷ θείαν ἀρετήν εἰκών εἶναι κατηξίωται Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί τῶν ἀποῤῥήτων αὐτοῦ μυστηρίων, εἰς ὅν πάντες μέν οἱ ἅγιοι συνάγονται ὡς ἀρχέτυπον καί τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν τοῦ καλοῦ ἐμφάσεως αἴτιον, μάλιστα δέ οὗτος, ὡς τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων πλείους ἐν ἑαυτῷ φέρων τοῦ Χριστοῦ τάς ὑποτυπώσεις. ΚΕ (25). ΕΞΗΓΗΣΙΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΥΡΙΟΝ, ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΛΕΓΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΕΛΧΙΣΕΔΕΚ Ἐξήγησις εἰς τόν Κύριον, περί τῶν λεγομένων εἰς τόν Μελχισεδέκ. Μονώτατος γάρ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καί Θεός Ἰησοῦς Χριστός ( φύσει καί ἀληθείᾳ ἀπάτωρ ἐστί καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος, καί μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχων· ἀμήτωρ μέν διά τό ἄυλον καί ἀσώματον καί παντελῶς ἄγνωστον τῆς ἄνω ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός προαιωνίου γεννήσεως· ἀπάτωρ δέ κατά τήν κάτω καί χρονικήν ἐκ τῆς μητρός καί ἐνσώματον γέννησιν, ἧς κατά τήν σύλληψιν τό διά σπορᾶς εἶδος οὐ κατεστήσατο· ἀγενεαλόγητος δέ ὡς ἀμφοῖν αὐτοῦ τῶν γεννήσεων τόν τρόπον ἔχων καθόλου τοῖς πᾶσιν ἄβατον καί ἀκατάληπτον. Τό δέ μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν μήτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχων, ὡς ἄναρχος καί ἀτελεύτητος καί παντελῶς ἄπειρος, οἶα φύσει Θεός· μένει δέ ἱερεύς εἰς τόν αἰῶνα, ὡς μηδενί θανάτῳ κακίας ἤ φύσεως τοῦ εἶναι παυόμενος, ὅτι Θεός καί πάσης τῆς κατά φύσιν καί ἀρετήν ζωῆς χορηγός. Μή νόμιζε δέ ταύτης τινά ἀμοιρεῖν τῆς χάριτος, ἐπειδή περί μόνου τοῦ μεγάλου Μελχισεδέκ ὁ λόγος αὐτήν διωρίσατο. Πᾶσι γάρ ἴσως ὁ Θεός τήν πρός σωτηρίαν φυσικῶς ἐνέθηκε δύναμιν, ἵνα ἕκαστος βουλόμενος τῆς θείας μεταποιεῖσθαι χάριτος δύνηται·
In this sense this great Melchizedek too, because of the divine virtue implanted in him, has been deemed worthy to be an image of Christ God and of his ineffable mysteries, unto whom all the saints are gathered as to their archetype and the cause of the reflection of the good in each of them—and especially this man, since he bears in himself more prefigurations of Christ than all others. 25. An Interpretation concerning the Lord, on the Things Said about Melchizedek. For our Lord and God Jesus Christ alone is by nature and in truth fatherless, motherless, and without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. He is motherless because of the immaterial, incorporeal, and wholly unknowable character of his pre-eternal generation on high from the Father; and fatherless with respect to his lower, temporal, and bodily birth from his mother, at whose conception he did not establish the mode of generation through seed; and without genealogy, since he possesses the manner of both his births as altogether impassable and incomprehensible to all. And having neither beginning of days nor end of life, as being without beginning, without end, and wholly infinite, as being God by nature. And he remains a priest forever, as being ceased from existence by no death of vice or of nature, because he is God and the provider of all life according to nature and virtue. But do not suppose that anyone is deprived of this grace, because the account defined it in reference to the great Melchizedek alone. For God has implanted in all equally the natural power for salvation, so that each one, willing it, may be able to partake of the divine grace.
καί θέλων Μελχισεδέκ γενέσθαι, καί Ἀβραάμ, καί
Μωϋσῆς, καί ἁπλῶς πάντας μεταφέρειν εἰς ἑαυτόν τούς ἁγίους, μή κωλύηται, οὐκ ὀνόματα καί τόπους ἀμείβων, ἀλλά τρόπους καί πολιτείαν μιμούμενος. Κ (26). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΑΛΛΗ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΕΛΧΙΣΕΔΕΚ Θεωρία ἄλλη εἰς τόν Μελχισεδέκ.
Πᾶς τοιγαροῦν τά μέλη νεκρώσας τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καί ὅλον ἑαυτοῦ τῆς σαρκός ἀποσβέσας τό φρόνημα, καί τήν πρός αὐτήν δι᾿ ὅλου σχέσιν ἀποσεισάμενος, δι᾿ ἧς ἡ τῷ Θεῷ μόνῳ χρεωστουμένη παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀγάπη μερίζεται, καί ἀρνησάμενος πάντα ( τά τῆς σαρκός καί τοῦ κόσμου γνωρίσματα, τῆς θείας ἕνεκεν χάριτος, ὥστε καί λέγειν δύνασθαι μετά τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου τοῦ ἀποστόλου, Τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπό τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; καί τά ἑξῆς, ὁ τοιοῦτος ἀπάτωρ καί ἀμήτωρ καί ἀγενεαλόγητος κατά τόν μέγα Μελχισεδέκ γέγονεν, οὐκ ἔχων ὅπως ὑπό σαρκός κρατηθῇ καί φύσεως, διά τήν γεγενημένην πρός τό Πνεῦμα συνάφειαν. ΚΖ (27). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΜΗΤΕ ΑΡΧΗΝ ΗΜΕΡΩΝ ΕΧΕΙΝ, ΜΗΤΕ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΖΩΗΣ Θεωρία εἰς τό μήτε ἀρχήν ἡμερῶν ἔχειν, μήτε τέλος ζωῆς.
And wishing to become Melchizedek, and Abraham, and Moses, and simply to transfer all the saints into himself, let him not be hindered, not changing names and places, but imitating their ways and manner of life. K (26). ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION ON MELCHIZEDEK. Another contemplation on Melchizedek.
Therefore, everyone who has put to death the members that are upon the earth, and has extinguished the whole mind of his flesh, and has shaken off entirely the attachment to it, through which the love owed to God alone by us is divided, and has renounced all the marks of the flesh and the world for the sake of divine grace, so as even to be able to say with the blessed Paul the apostle, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" and the rest, such a one has become fatherless and motherless and without genealogy, like the great Melchizedek, having no way to be held by flesh and nature, because of the union that has come about with the Spirit. KZ (27). CONTEMPLATION ON HAVING NEITHER BEGINNING OF DAYS NOR END OF LIFE. A contemplation on having neither beginning of days nor end of life.
Εἰ δέ καί ἑαυτόν πρός τούτοις ἠρνήσατο, τήν ἰδίαν ἀπολέσας τήν ψυχήν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, εὑρήσει αὐτήν, τουτέστι τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν μετά τῶν αὐτῆς θελημάτων τῆς κρείττονος ἕνεκεν προϊέμενος ζῶντά τε ἐνεργοῦντα μονώτατον τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον κέκτηται, διϊκνούμενον κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς καί πνεύματος, καί μηδέν τό παράπαν τῆς αὐτοῦ παρουσίας ἄμοιρον ἔχει, γέγονε καί ἄναρχος καί ἀτελεύτητος, τήν χρονικήν μηκέτι φέρων ἐν ἑαυτῷ κινουμένην ζωήν, τήν ἀρχήν καί τέλος ἔχουσαν, καί πολλοῖς δονουμένην παθήμασι, μόνην δέ τήν θείαν τοῦ ἐνοικήσαντος Λόγου καί ἀΐδιον καί μηδενί θανάτῳ περατουμένην.
ΚΗ (28). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, «ΜΕΝΕΙ ΙΕΡΕΥΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΙΩΝΑ» Θεωρία εἰς τό, " Μένει ἱερεύς εἰς τόν αἰῶνα. " Εἰ δέ καί προσοχῇ πολλῇ τῷ ἰδίῳ ἐπαγρυπνεῖν οἶδε χαρίσματι, διά πράξεως καί θεωρίας τῶν ὑπέρ φύσιν καί χρόνον ἐπιμελόμενος ἀγαθῶν, γέγονε καί ἱερεύς διηνεκής καί αἰώνιος, νοερῶς ἀεί τῆς θείας ἀπολαύων ὁμιλίας, καί διά τό μιμεῖσθαι τῇ περί τό καλόν κατά τήν γνώμην ἀτρεψία τό κατά φύσιν ( ἄτρεπτον μή κωλυόμενος ἰουδαϊκῶς ἁμαρτίας θανάτῳ εἰς τό διηνεκές παραμένειν, καί θυσίαν προσφέρειν αἰνέσεως καί ἐξομολογήσεως, ἐνδόξως θεολογῶν ὡς δημιουργόν τῶν ἁπάντων, καί εὐγνωμόνως εὐχαριστῶν ὡς προνοητῇ καί κριτῇ τῶν ὅλων δικαίῳ, ἐν τῷ κατά διάνοιαν θείῳ θυσιαστηρίῳ, ἐξ οὗ φαγεῖν οὐκ ἔχουσιν ἐξουσίαν οἱ τῇ σκηνῇ λατρεύοντες.
But if he has also denied himself in addition to these things, having lost his own soul for my sake, he will find it—that is, by surrendering the present life together with its own wills for the sake of the better, he possesses the living and active Word of God alone, piercing through by virtue and knowledge even to the division of soul and spirit, and he has nothing at all that does not partake of his presence; he has become both without beginning and without end, no longer bearing within himself the temporal life that moves, which has a beginning and an end and is tossed by many passions, but only the divine and eternal life of the Word who has dwelt within him, bounded by no death.
K (28). Contemplation on "He remains a priest forever." Contemplation on "He remains a priest forever." But if with great attention he knows how to keep watch over his own gift, through practice and contemplation caring for the goods that surpass nature and time, he has become a perpetual and eternal priest, always spiritually enjoying divine converse, and because he imitates by the steadfastness of his judgment concerning the beautiful the naturally unchanging, not being hindered in the Jewish manner by the death of sin from remaining continually, and to offer a sacrifice of praise and confession, gloriously theologizing as the Creator of all things, and gratefully giving thanks as to the provident and righteous judge of all, on the divine altar of the mind, from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
Οὐ γάρ οἷόν τε μυστικῶν θείας γνώσεως ἄρτων καί κρατῆρος ζωτικοῦ σοφίας μεταλαχεῖν τούς μονοστοιχοῦντας τῷ γράμματι, καί ἀλόγων θυσίαις παθῶν πρός σωτηρίαν ἀρκουμένους, καί τόν μέν θάνατον τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, διά τῆς καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀργίας καταγγέλοντας, τήν δέ ἀνάστασιν αὐτοῦ, ὑπέρ ἧς καί δι᾿ ἥν ὁ θάνατος γέγονε, διά τῆς κατά νοῦν θεωρίας, τῆς ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ ἔργων ἀγαθῶν πεφωτισμένης, οὐχ ὁμολογοῦντας, καί τό μέν θανατωθῆναι σαρκί εὖ μάλα προθύμως ὁλομένους, τό δέ ζωοποιηθῆναι καί πνεύματι οὐδ᾿ ὁπωσοῦν ἀνασχομένους, ἔτι τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτούς σκηνῆς ἐχούσης στάσιν διά τό μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι αὐτοῖς τήν διά λόγου καί γνώσεως τῶν ἁγίων ὁδόν, ἥτις ἐστίν ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ ὁ εἰπών, Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδός, καί ἀπό τοῦ σάρκα Λόγον εἰδέναι διά
πρακτικῆς τόν Κύριον ἐπί τήν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρά Πατρός δόξαν, τήν πλήρη χάριτος καί ἀληθείας, διά θεωρίας ἐλθεῖν οὐκ ἐφιεμένους. ΚΘ (29). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΒΡΑΑΜ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Ἀβραάμ.
For it is not possible for those who are single-minded in the letter, and who are satisfied for salvation with the sacrifices of irrational passions, to partake of the mystical breads of divine knowledge and the life-giving cup of wisdom; nor for those who proclaim the death of Jesus through idleness in sin, but do not confess his resurrection—for which and through which death came to be—through the contemplation according to the mind, which is enlightened in the righteousness of good works; and who are very eagerly willing to be put to death in the flesh, but do not endure in any way to be made alive in the spirit, while the tabernacle according to them still has standing, because the way of the saints through reason and knowledge has not yet been made manifest to them—which is the Word of God who said, I am the way—and who do not desire to come, from knowing the Lord as Word in the flesh through the practical life, to the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, through contemplation. 29. Contemplation on Abraham. Contemplation on Abraham.
Ἀβραάμ πάλιν πνευματικός γίνεται τῆς γῆς καί τῆς συγγενείας καί τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός ἐξερχόμενος καί εἰς τήν ὑπό Θεοῦ δεικνυμένην ἐρχόμενος γῆν, ὁ τῆς σαρκός κατά διάθεσιν ἀποῤῥήξας, καί ἐκτός αὐτῆς γενόμενος τῷ χωρισμῷ τῶν παθῶν, καί τάς αἰσθήσεις ἀπολιπών, καί μηδεμίαν δι᾿ αὐτῶν ( ἁμαρτίας ἔτι παραδεχόμενος πλάνην, καί τά αἰσθητά πάντα παρελθών, ἐξ ὧν τῇ ψυχῇ διά τῶν αἰσθήσεων τό ἀπατᾶσθαι καί πταίειν προσγίνεται, καί μόνῳ τῷ νῷ παντός ὑλικοῦ ἐλευθέρῳ δεσμοῦ εἰς τήν θείαν καί μακαρίαν τῆς γνώσεως ἐρχόμενος γῆν, καί εἰς μῆκος καί πλάτος αὐτήν μυστικῶς διοδεύων, ἐν ᾗ τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν εὑρήσει καί Θεόν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τήν ἀγαθήν τῶν φοβουμένων αὐτόν κληρονομίαν, εἰς μῆκος μέν ἀνείκαστον δι᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑπό τῶν ἀξίων κατά τό ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώποις θεολογούμενον, δι᾿ ἡμᾶς δέ εἰς πλάτος δοξολογούμενον, διά τῆς συνεκτικῆς τοῦ παντός σοφωτάτης αὐτοῦ προνοίας, καί τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμῶν μάλιστα θαυμαστῆς καί ὑπεραῤῥήτου οἰκονομίας, καί μέτοχος τῶν οἷς γεραίρειν τόν Κύριον ἐξεπαιδεύθη τρόπων κατά πρᾶξιν τέως καί θεωρίαν γενόμενος, δι᾿ ὧν ἡ πρός Θεός βεβαίως κυροῦσθαι πέφυκε φιλία τε καί ἀφομοίωσις. Καί συντόμως περί τούτων εἰπεῖν, ὁ σάρκα καί αἴσθησιν καί κόσμον, περί ἅ τοῦ νοῦ ἡ πρός τά νοητά κατά τήν σχέσιν διάλυσις γίνεται, πρακτικῶς καταπαλαίσας, καί μόνῃ διανοίᾳ δι᾿ ἀγάπης Θεῷ γνωστικῶς προσχωρήσας, ὁ τοιοῦτος ἄλλος Ἀβραάμ ὑπάρχει, διά τῆς ἴσης χάριτος τόν αὐτόν τῷ πατριάρχῃ τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως ἔχων χαρακτῆρα δεικνύμενος. Λ (30). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΩΫΣΗΝ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν.
Again Abraham becomes spiritual by going out from the land and the kindred and his father's house, and coming to the land shown by God—he who has broken away from the flesh in disposition and has come to be outside it by the separation of the passions, and has left the senses behind and no longer accepts through them the deceit of any sin, and has passed beyond all sensible things, from which deception and stumbling accrue to the soul through the senses, and comes with the mind alone, free from every material bond, to the divine and blessed land of knowledge, and mystically traverses it in length and breadth, in which he will find our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the good inheritance of those who fear him—in length, indeed, incomparable, being theologized by himself by those who are worthy, as far as is attainable by humans; but for our sake, glorified in breadth, through his all-wise providence that holds all things together, and especially through the wondrous and ineffable economy on our behalf—and he becomes a partaker of the ways by which he was taught to honor the Lord, having become so for now in practice and contemplation, through which friendship with God and assimilation to him are by nature firmly established. And to speak briefly about these things: he who has practically wrestled down flesh and sense and the world—things in relation to which the mind's dissolution toward intelligible things takes place—and has drawn near to God knowably with the mind alone through love, such a one is another Abraham, shown to possess the same character of virtue and knowledge as the patriarch through equal grace. 30. CONTEMPLATION ON MOSES. A contemplation on Moses.
Καί Μωϋσῆς πάλιν ἄλλος ἐκφαίνεται, ὁ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν παθῶν δυναστείας, ὁπηνίκα τοῦ διαβόλου τοῦ νοητοῦ Φαραώ τυραννοῦντος τό χεῖρον ἐπικρατεῖν τοῦ ἀμείνονος, καί τοῦ πνευματικοῦ τό σαρκικόν ἐπανίστασθαι, καί πᾶς εὐσεβής ἀναιρεῖσθαι πέφυκε λογισμός, κατά Θεόν γνωμικῶς γεννώμενος, καί θήκῃ ἀσκήσεως ἀληθοῦς ἐμβληθείς, ἠθικοῖς ἔξωθεν κατά σάρκα τρόποις καί ἔσωθεν κατά ψυχῆς θείοις ἠσφαλισμένος νοήμασι, καί μέχρι νόμου τῆς ἀναλήψεως τῶν φυσικῶν θεωρημάτων ἀνεχόμενος εἶναι ὑπό τήν αἴσθησιν, τήν τοῦ νοητοῦ ( Φαραώ θυγατέρα, ζήλῳ δέ γνησίῳ τῶν θείων ἀγαθῶν τό αἰγυπτιάζον τῆς σαρκός ἀποκτείνας φρόνημα, καί ὑπό τήν ψάμμον, τήν τῶν κακῶν ἄγονον ἕξιν φημί, καταθέμενος, ἐν ᾗ κἄν ὑπό τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σπαρῇ τό τῆς κακίας ζιζάνιον, οὐ πέφυκε φύεσθαι διά τήν ἑνοῦσαν ἐνδιαθέτως πτωχείαν τοῦ πνεύματος, τήν τό ἀπαθές γεννῶσάν τε καί φυλάττουσαν καί θείῳ προστάγματι τήν ἀγριουμένην τοῖς πνεύμασι τῆς πονηρίας καί τοῖς ἀλλεπαλλήλοις τῶν πειρασμῶν κύμασι δενδρουμένην, τῆς πικρᾶς καί ὄντως ἁλμώδους κακίας ὁρίζουσαν θάλασσαν, καθώς γέγραπται, Ὁ τιθείς ἄμμον ὅριον τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καί λέγων αὐτῇ, Μέχρι τούτου διελεύσῃ, καί οὐχ ὑπερβήσῃ, καί ἐν σοί συντριβήσονταί σου τά κύματα· τούς δέ εἰς γῆν ἔτι κατανεύνοντας λογισμούς καί τήν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐπιζητοῦντας ἀπόλαυσιν, ὑπέρ ἧς τό θυμικόν διαμάχεσθαι καί τόν διαγνωστικόν τυραννεῖν καί ἀπωθεῖσθαι πέφυκε λόγον, προβάτων δίκην διά τῆς ἐρήμου παθῶν καί ὑλῶν ἐστερημένης καί ἡδονῶν
And Moses appears again as another—the one in the time of the dominion of the passions, when the noetic Pharaoh, the devil, tyrannizes so that the worse prevails over the better, and the fleshly rises up against the spiritual, and every pious reasoning is by nature slain, being begotten according to God by choice, and cast into the chest of true ascetic practice, safeguarded from without by ethical modes according to the flesh and from within by divine thoughts according to the soul, and until the law of the taking up of natural contemplations he endures being under perception, the daughter of the noetic Pharaoh, but by genuine zeal for divine goods he kills the Egypt-aping mindset of the flesh, and deposits it under the sand—I mean the barren condition of evils—in which, even if the tares of wickedness be sown by the enemy, they are not by nature able to grow, because of the poverty of the spirit that is present within him dispositionally, which begets and guards impassibility and by divine command sets a boundary to the sea of bitter and truly briny wickedness that is raging with the spirits of evil and swelling with the successive waves of temptations, as it is written: He who set sand as a boundary to the sea, and said to it, Thus far shall you pass, and you shall not go beyond, and in you shall your waves be broken; but the reasonings that still nod down toward the earth and seek enjoyment from it—for the sake of which the irascible part is by nature set to fight and the discerning word to tyrannize and thrust away—like sheep through the desert that is deprived of passions and matters and pleasures
καταστάσεως ἄγων ὡς ἐπιστήμων ποιμήν πρός τό ὄρος τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ τό ἐν τῷ ὕψει τῆς διανοίας ὀρώμενον.
Ὧ φιλοπόνως ἐνδιατρίβων διά τῶν προσφυῶν κατά πνεῦμα θεωρημάτων μετά τήν ἀπόλειψιν τῆς κατά νοῦν πρός τά αἰσθητά σχέσεως (τοῦτο γάρ οἶμαι δηλοῦν τήν τοῦ τεσσαρακονταετοῦς χρόνου πάροδον,) καί τοῦ ἀῤῥήτου καί ὑπερφυοῦς ὥσπερ θάμνῳ τῇ οὐσίᾳ τῶν ὄντων ἐνυπάρχοντος θείου πυρός κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν θεατής γενέσθαι καί ἀκροατής ἀξιωθήσεται, τοῦ ἐκ τῆς βάτου τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου φημί ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐκλάμψαντος καί διά σαρκός ἡμῖν ὁμιλήσαντος Θεοῦ Λόγου, γυμνόν τό τῆς διανοίας ἴχνος τῷ τοιούτῳ μυστηρίῳ προσάγων, καί λογισμῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ὡς νεκρῶν ὑποδημάτων παντελῶς ἐλεύθερον, καί πρός μέν ζήτησιν, ὥσπερ πρόσωπον, τό τῆς διανοίας ὀπτικόν ἀποστρέφων, πίστει δέ μόνῃ πρός ὑποδοχήν ( τοῦ μυστηρίου, ἀκοῆς τρόπον, τό τῆς ψυχῆς εὐπειθές διανοίγων, παρ᾿ οὗ τήν ἰσχυράν καί ἀήττητον κατά τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων κομίσαντος δύναμιν τῶν παρά φύσιν τά κατά φύσιν, καί τῶν σαρκικῶν τά ψυχικά, καί τῶν ὑλικῶν τε καί αἰσθητῶν τά νοητά καί ἄϋλα κατά πολλήν ἀφορίζει ἐξουσίαν, τῆς δοῦλον ποιεῖν τό ἐλεύθερον πειρωμένης πολύ ὑπερέχων δυνάμεως.
leading them as a skilled shepherd to the mountain of the knowledge of God, which is seen in the height of the understanding.
Dwelling diligently in this through the contemplations that are naturally akin in the Spirit, after the abandonment of the mind's relation to sensible things (for this, I think, is what the passing of the forty years signifies), he will also be deemed worthy to become a beholder and hearer, in thought, of the ineffable and transcendent divine fire that exists in the very substance of beings as in a bush—I mean the fire that shone forth from the holy bush, the holy Virgin, in the last times, and that is God the Word, who spoke to us through flesh—bringing the bare trace of his understanding to such a mystery, and wholly free from human reasonings as from dead sandals; and turning the eye of his understanding away from inquiry, as it were from a face, but opening the soul's readiness to obey, in the manner of hearing, by faith alone to the reception of the mystery; from which, having received the strong and invincible power against the evil powers—separating by great authority the things of nature from those contrary to nature, and the things of the soul from the fleshly, and the intelligible and immaterial from the material and sensible—he is far superior in power to that which attempts to make the free a slave.
ΛΑ (31). ΑΛΛΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΣ Ἄλλη θεωρία εἰς τόν αὐτόν σύντομος.
31. Another brief contemplation on the same passage.
Καί ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, ὁ μή ὑπελθών τόν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ζυγόν, μήτε τῷ θολερῷ τῶν παθῶν ῥεύματι διά τῆς κακῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἑαυτόν ἐμπνίξας, καί αἰσθήσει τρέφεσθαι τῇ πηγῇ τῶν ἡδονῶν ἀνασχόμενος, ἀποκτείνας δέ μᾶλλον τό φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός, τό τυραννοῦν τῆς ψυχῆς τήν εὐγένειαν, καί πάντων τῶν φθειρομένων ὑπεράνων γενόμενος τόν πλάνον τοῦτον κόσμον ὥσπερ Αἴγυπτόν τινα φυγών, τόν ἐκθλίβοντα ταῖς σωματικαῖς φροντίσι τόν διορατικώτατον νοῦν, καί καθ᾿ ἡσυχίαν ἑαυτῷ συγγενόμενος καί φιλοπόνῳ σχολῇ τῆς διεπούσης θείως τό πᾶν θείας προνοίας τήν σοφήν οἰκονομίαν διά τῆς ἐπιστημονικῆς τῶν ὄντων θεωρίας ἀῤῥήτως διδαχθείς, κἀντεῦθεν διά μυστικῆς θεολογίας, ἥν κατ᾿ ἔκστασιν ἄῤῥητον νοῦς καθαρός διά προσευχῆς πιστεύεται μόνος, ὡς ἐν γνόφῳ τῇ ἀγνωσίᾳ ἀφθέγκτως Θεῷ συγγενόμενος, καί ἑαυτόν ἔσωθεν κατά νοῦν εὐσεβείας δόγμασι καί ἔξωθεν, ὡς τάς πλάκας ὁ Μωϋσῆς, ἀρετῶν χάρισι δακτύλῳ Θεοῦ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι ἐγχαράξας, ἤ γραφικῶς εἰπεῖν, ὁ ἑλόμενος συγκακουχεῖσθαι τῷ λαῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ μᾶλλον ἤ πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν, καί τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ θησαυρῶν τόν ὀνειδισμόν τοῦ Χριστοῦ τιμιώτερον κρίνας, τουτέστι πλούτου καί δόξης, τῶν προσκαίρων καί φθειρομένων, ( τούς ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς ἑκουσίως ἀνθαιρούμενος πόνους, οὗτος Μωϋσῆς πνευματικός γέγονεν, οὐχ ὀρατῷ διαλεγόμενος Φαραώ, ἀλλά ἀοράτῳ τυράννῳ ψυχῶν φονευτῇ καί κακίας ἀρχηγῷ τῷ διαβόλῳ καί ταῖς ἀμφ᾿ αὐτόν πονηραῖς δυνάμεσι μεθ᾿ ἧς διά χειρός ἐπιφέρεται ῥάβδου, τῆς κατά τό πρακτικόν φημι τοῦ λόγου δυνάμεως, νοητῶς παρατασσόμενος. ΛΒ (32).
And to speak concisely: the one who has not submitted to the yoke of sin, nor drowned himself in the turbid stream of the passions through evil desire, nor endured to be nourished by sensation at the fountain of pleasures, but has rather put to death the mind of the flesh, which tyrannizes over the nobility of the soul, and has become superior to all corruptible things, and has fled this deceitful world as though it were some Egypt, which by bodily cares oppresses the most discerning mind, and has kept company with himself in stillness, and by diligent study has been taught ineffably the wise economy of divine providence that divinely governs all things, through the scientific contemplation of existing things, and thence through mystical theology, which a pure mind alone is believed to attain ineffably in ecstasy through prayer, as in the darkness of unknowing, speaking not, united to God, and has inscribed himself inwardly in the mind with the doctrines of piety and outwardly, like Moses with the tablets, with the graces of the virtues by the finger of God, the Holy Spirit—or, to speak scripturally, the one who chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to have the temporary enjoyment of sin, and judged the reproach of Christ more precious than the treasures in Egypt, that is, than wealth and glory, the temporary and corruptible things, choosing instead the labors willingly undertaken for the sake of virtue—this one has become a spiritual Moses, not conversing with the visible Pharaoh, but arrayed in the mind against the invisible tyrant, the murderer of souls and the author of evil, the devil and the evil powers around him, with the rod he bears in his hand, I mean the practical power of the word. 32.
ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ, ΠΩΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΠΡΟ ΝΟΜΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΤΑ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΑΓΙΟΥΣ... Θεωρία περί τοῦ, Πῶς τούς πρό νόμου καί μετά νόμον ἁγίους τις μιμήσασθαι δύναται, καί τίς ἡ τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου καί τοῦ γραπτοῦ κατά τήν εἰς ἀλλήλους μεταχώρησιν ταυτότης.
Ὡσαύτως δέ καί πάντας τούς ἁγίους ἕκαστος ἡμῶν θέλων εἰς ἑαυτόν μεταθεῖναι δύναται, πρός ἕκαστον πνευματικῶς ἐκ τῶν περί αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν
A contemplation on how one can imitate the saints before the law and after the law, and what is the identity of the natural law and the written law in their transition into one another.
In the same way, each of us who wishes can transfer all the saints to himself, spiritually in relation to each one from the things concerning him according to history
τυπικῶς γεγραμμένων μορφούμενος (Συνέβαινε γάρ ἐκείνοις τυπικῶς, φησίν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ἐγράφη δέ πρός νουθεσίαν ἡμῶν, εἰς οὕς τά τέλη τῶν αἰώνων κατήντησε), πρός μέν τούς πάλαι πρό νόμου ἁγίους, ἀπό μέν κτίσεως κόσμου τήν περί Θεοῦ γνῶσιν εὐσεβῶς ποριζόμενος, ἀπό δέ τῆς τό πᾶν σοφῶς διοικούσης Προνοίας τάς ἀρετάς κατορθοῦν διδασκόμενος, κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους τούς πρό τοῦ νόμου ἁγίους, οἵ διά πάντων φυσικῶς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τόν γραπτόν ἐν πνεύματι προχαράξαντες νόμον εὐσεβείας καί ἀρετῆς τοῖς κατά νόμον εἰκότως προεβλήθησαν ἐξεμπλάριον (Ἐμβλέψατε γάρ, φησί, πρός Ἀβραάμ τόν πατέρα ὑμῶν, καί Σάῤῥαν τήν ὠδίνουσαν ὑμᾶς) πρός δέ τούς κατά νόμον διά τῶν ἐντολῶν εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ ἐν αὐταῖς ὑπηγορευμένου Θεοῦ δι᾿ εὐσεβοῦς ἐννοίας ἀναγόμενος, καί τοῖς καθήκουσι τῶν ἀρετῶν τρόποις δι᾿ εὐγενοῦς πράξεως καλλωπιζόμενος, καί ταὐτόν τῷ γραπτῷ νόμῳ τόν φυσικόν ὄντα παιδευόμενος, ὅταν σοφῶς διά συμβόλων κατά τήν πρᾶξιν ποικίλληται, καί ἔμπαλιν τῷ ( φυσικῷ τόν γραπτόν, ὅταν ἑνοειδής καί ἁπλοῦς καί συμβόλων ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τε καί γνῶσιν διά λόγου καί θεωρίας ἐλεύθερος γένηται, κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνους τούς ἐν νόμῳ ἁγίους, οἵ τό γράμμα ὥσπερ κάλυμμα περιελόντος τοῦ Πνεύματος τόν φυσικόν νόμον ἔχοντος πνευματικῶς διεδείχθησαν.
Being formed by what was written in a typological manner (for "these things happened to them," says the divine Apostle, "typologically, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come"), with respect to the saints of old before the law, he piously acquires the knowledge of God from the creation of the world, and is taught to accomplish the virtues from the Providence that wisely governs all things, in imitation of those very saints before the law, who, having naturally pre-traced within themselves through all things the law written in the spirit of piety and virtue, were reasonably set forth as an example to those under the law (for "Look," it says, "to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who travailed with you"); and with respect to those under the law, he is led through the commandments to the knowledge of the God who is indicated in them, by pious understanding, and is adorned with the fitting modes of the virtues through noble action, and is taught that the natural law is the same as the written law, whenever it is wisely varied in practice through symbols, and conversely that the written law is the same as the natural law, whenever it becomes unified and simple and free of symbols in those who are worthy in virtue and knowledge through reason and contemplation, in imitation of those very saints under the law, who, when the Spirit removed the letter as a veil, were shown to possess the natural law spiritually.
ΛΓ (33). ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΑΓΙΟΙ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΩΣ ΤΟΝ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΕΚΔΕΧΟΜΕΝΟΙ...
Ὅτι καί οἱ κατά νόμον ἅγιοι πνευματικῶς τόν νόμον ἐκδεχόμενοι τήν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ μηνυομένην χάριν προέβλεπον.
Πάντες γάρ διαῤῥήδην ἑτέραν παρά τήν νομικήν ἔσεσθαι λατρείαν προθεωρήσαντες τό κατ᾿ αὐτήν φανησόμενον τῆς θεοπρεπεστάτης ζωῆς τέλειον προεκήρυξαν, καί τῇ φύσει πρόσφορόν τε καί οἰκειότατον, ὡς μηδενός τῶν ἐκτός πρός τελείωσιν ἐπιδεόμενοι, καθώς πᾶσι δῆλον καθέστηκε τοῖς μή ἀγνοοῦσι τά διά τοῦ νόμου καί τῶν προφητῶν θεῖα θεσπίσματα. Ὅπερ μάλιστα Δαβίδ καί Ἐζεκίας καί τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν πρός τοῖς ἄλλοις ἑκάτερος δράματι παρῃνίττετο, ὁ μέν ὑπέρ τῆς ἁμαρτίας νομικῶς τόν Θεόν ἐξιλεούμενος, ὁ δέ προσθήκῃ ζωῆς ἑτέρῳ παρά τόν νόμον θεσμῷ παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ σεμνυνόμενος.
ΛΔ (34). ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΟΝ ΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΟΝ ΦΥΣΙΚΟΝ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΓΙΝΕΤΑΙ Ο ΤΩ ΧΡΙΣΤΩ...
Ὅτι καί ὑπέρ τόν γραπτόν καί ὑπέρ τόν φυσικόν νόμον γίνεται ὁ τῷ Χριστῷ γνησίως διά τῶν ἀρετῶν κατά διάθεσιν ἀκολουθῶν.
33. That the saints under the law also, receiving the law spiritually, foresaw the grace made known through it.
For all, having clearly foreseen beforehand that there would be another worship besides the legal one, proclaimed in advance the perfect life most befitting God that would appear under it, and that it is suited and most proper to nature, as needing nothing external for perfection, as is evident to all who are not ignorant of the divine ordinances given through the law and the prophets. This especially David and Hezekiah each in his own way, among other things, hinted at by their own deed—the one propitiating God legally for sin, the other being honored by God with an addition of life by another ordinance besides the law.
34. That the one who genuinely follows Christ through the virtues by disposition becomes beyond both the written and the natural law.
Οὐδέν δέ τό κωλύον, ὡς οἶμαι, ἐστί τόν ἐν τούτοις προπαιδευθέντα τοῖς νόμοις, τῷ φυσικῷ τέ φημι καί τῷ γραπτῷ, θεοφιλῶς, ἥπερ τούτοις γενέσθαι θεοπρεπῶς, καί τούτων χωρίς δι᾿ εἰλικρινοῦς πίστεως μόνῳ τῷ ἐπί τό ἀκρότατον ἀγαθόν ( ἄγοντι λόγῳ γνησίως ἀκολουθήσαντα, καί μηδενός κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν τό παράπαν ἁπτόμενον πράγματος ἤ λογισμοῦ ἤ νοήματος οἷς ἡ ὁπωσοῦν οὖσα παντός τοῦ ὁπωσοῦν νοουμένου τε καί ὄντος φύσις τε καί γνῶσις ὑποπίπτει καί ἐμφαίνεται, ὥσπερ εἰκός τόν ἕπεσθαι γνησίως προθέμενον τῷ διεληλυθότι τούς οὐρανούς Ἰησοῦ, καί τῇ παραδείξει τοῦ θείου φωτός δυνηθῆναι τήν ἀληθῆ τῶν ὄντων, ὡς ἔστιν ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν, συνεκδοχικῶς ὑποδέξασθαι γνῶσιν.
ΛΕ (35). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΘ’ ΟΝ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΟΝ ΦΥΣΙΚΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΝ ΓΡΑΠΤΟΝ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΓΙΝΕΤΑΙ… Θεωρία τοῦ τρόπου καθ᾿ ὅν ὑπέρ τόν φυσικόν καί τόν γραπτόν νόμον γίνεται ὁ διά πάντων τῷ Θεῷ γενόμενος εὐπειθής.
Nothing, as I think, prevents the one who has been instructed beforehand in these laws—I mean the natural and the written—from becoming, in a God-loving manner, what these laws are in a God-befitting way, and apart from them, through pure faith, genuinely following the Word alone who leads to the highest good, and touching in thought absolutely no thing or reasoning or concept at all, into which the nature and knowledge of everything that is in any way conceived and exists in any way falls and is manifested—as is fitting for one who has genuinely set before himself to follow Jesus who has passed through the heavens, and by the showing of the divine light to be able to receive, in a comprehensive way, the true knowledge of things that exist, as far as is possible for a human being.
LE (35). CONTEMPLATION OF THE MANNER IN WHICH ONE BECOMES BEYOND THE NATURAL AND THE WRITTEN LAW… Contemplation of the manner in which the one who has become obedient to God through all things becomes beyond the natural and the written law.
Εἰ γάρ πᾶσα ἡ τῶν ὄντων φύσις εἰς τά νοητά καί τά αἰσθητά διῄρηται, καί τά μέν λέγεται καί ἔστιν αἰώνια, ὡς ἐν αἰῶνι τοῦ εἶναι λαβόντων ἀρχήν, τά δέ χρονικά, ὡς ἐν χρόνῳ πεποιημένα, καί τά μέν ὑποπίπτει νοήσει, τά δέ αἰσθήσει, διά τήν ταῦτα ἀλλήλοις ἐπισφίγγουσαν τοῦ κατά φύσιν σχετικοῦ ἰδιώματος ἄλυτον δύναμιν (πολλή γάρ ἡ πρός τά νοούμενα τῶν νοούντων καί πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθανομένων ἡ σχέσις, ὁ δέ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος τυγχάνων αἰσθητικοῦ διά τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπαλλαγήν πρός ἑκάτερα τά τῆς κτίσεως τμήματα φυσικῆς σχέσεώς τε καί ἰδιότητος καί περιγράφεται καί περιγράφει, τό μέν τῇ οὐσίᾳ, τό δέ τῇ δυνάμει, ὡς τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ πρός ταῦτα διαιρούμενος μέρεσι, καί ταῦτα διά τῶν οἰκείων μερῶν ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἐπισπώμενος· περιγράφεσθαι γάρ τοῖς νοητοῖς καί αἰσθητοῖς, ὡς ψυχή τυγχάνων καί σῶμα, καί περιγράφειν ταῦτα κατά δύναμιν πέφυκεν, ὡς νοῶν καί αἰσθανόμενος·
For if the whole nature of beings is divided into things intelligible and things sensible, and the one is said to be and is eternal, as having received the beginning of its being in an age, while the other is temporal, as made in time, and the one falls under intellection, the other under sense perception, because of the unbreakable power of the relational property according to nature that binds these to each other (for great is the relation of those who understand to things understood, and of those who perceive to things perceived, and man, being soul and body, by his natural relation and property toward both divisions of creation through interweaving, is both circumscribed and circumscribes, the one in essence, the other in power, as dividing himself by his own parts toward these things, and drawing these to himself through his own parts in union; for he is naturally both circumscribed by things intelligible and sensible, as being soul and body, and circumscribes them according to power, as understanding and perceiving;
Ὁ δέ Θεός ἁπλῶς καί ἀορίστως ὑπέρ πάντα τά ὄντα ἐστί, τά περιέχοντά τε καί περιεχόμενα καί τήν, ὧν οὐκ ἄνευ ταῦτα, χρόνου φημί καί αἰῶνος καί τόπου φύσιν, οἷς τό πᾶν περικλείεται, ( ὡς πᾶσι παντελῶς ἄσχετος ὤν), ἄρα σωφρόνως ὁ διαγνούς πῶς ἐρᾷν τοῦ Θεοῦ δεῖ, τοῦ ὑπέρ λόγον καί γνῶσιν καί πάσης ἁπλῶς τῆς οἱασδήποτε παντάπασι σχέσεως, ἐξῃρημένου καί φύσεως, πάντα τά αἰσθητά καί νοητά καί πάντα χρόνον καί αἰῶνα καί τόπον ἀσχέτως παρελεύσεται, καί πάσης τελευταῖον ὅλης τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν καί λόγον καί νοῦν ἐνεργείας ἑαυτόν ὑπερφυῶς ἀπογυμνώσας ἀῤῥήτως τε καί ἀγνώστως τῆς ὑπέρ λόγον καί νοῦν θείας τερπνότητος ἐπιτεύξεται, καθ᾿ ὅν οἶδε τρόπον τε καί λόγον ὁ τήν τοιαύτην δωρούμενος χάριν Θεός καί οἱ ταύτην παρά Θεοῦ λαβεῖν ἀξιωθέντες, οὐκέτι οὐδέν φυσικόν ἤ γραπτόν ἑαυτῷ συνεπικομιζόμενος, πάντων αὐτῷ τῶν λεχθῆναι ἤ γνωσθῆναι δυναμένων παντελῶς ὑπερβαθένων καί κατασιγασθέντων.
Λ (36). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΕΜΠΕΣΟΝΤΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΛΗΣΤΑΣ ΡΗΤΟΝ ΤΟΥ ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΥ Θεωρία εἰς τό περί τοῦ ἐμπεσόντος εἰς τούς λῃστάς ῥητόν τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου.
God is simply and without definition beyond all beings, and beyond the natures of things that contain and things contained, and of those without which these things cannot be—I mean time and age and place, by which the whole is enclosed (as being altogether unrelated to all things). Therefore, one who has wisely discerned how one must love God, who is beyond reason and knowledge and simply beyond every relation of any kind whatsoever, and beyond nature—such a person will pass beyond all sensible and intelligible things and all time and age and place without relation, and finally, having stripped himself supernaturally of every activity according to sense and reason and intellect, he will attain ineffably and unknowably to the divine delight that is beyond reason and intellect, in the manner and principle known to God who grants such grace, and to those deemed worthy to receive it from God, no longer carrying along with himself anything natural or written, since all things that can be spoken or known have been wholly transcended and silenced for him.
36. Contemplation on the passage of the Gospel about the man who fell among robbers.
Καί τάχα τοῦτό ἐστι τό τοῖς δοθεῖσιν ἐπί θεραπείᾳ τοῦ λησταῖς περιπεσόντος δυσί δηναρίοις ἐν τῷ πανδοχείῳ παρά τοῦ Κυρίου τῷ ἐπιμελεῖσθαι κελευομένῳ προσδαπανώμενον, ὅπερ καί φιλοτίμως ἐπανερχόμενος ὁ Κύριος δώσειν ὑπέσχετο, ἡ διά πίστεως γινομένη παντελής τῶν ὄντων ἐν τοῖς τελείοις ἀφαίρεσις (φησί γάρ ὁ Κύριος Ὅστις οὐκ ἀποτάσσεται πᾶσι τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν αὐτοῦ, οὐ δύναταί μου εἶναι μαθητής), καθ᾿ ἥν πάνθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ ἤ ἑαυτόν πάντων ἀφαιρούμενος εἰπεῖν οἰκειότερον, ὁ τῆς σοφίας ἑαυτόν ἐραστήν καταστήσας μόνῳ Θεῷ συνεῖναι καταξιοῦται, τήν εὐαγγελικῶς ὑποδειχθεῖσαν υἱοθεσίαν δεξάμενος, κατά τούς ἁγίους καί μακαρίους ἀποστόλους, οἱ τό πᾶν ἑαυτῶν ὁλοσχερῶς περιελόμενοι καί μόνῳ δι᾿ ὅλου ( τῷ Θεῷ καί Λόγῳ προσφύντες, Ἰδού πάντα, ἔφασαν, ἀφήκαμεν καί ἠκολουθήσαμέν σοι, τῷ καί τῆς φύσεως Ποιητῇ καί δοτῆρι τῆς κατά νόμον βοηθείας, καί ὅν, Κύριον δηλονότι, ὥσπερ ἀληθείας φῶς μονώτατον κτησάμενοι ἀντί νόμου καί φύσεως πάντων εἰκότως τῶν μετά Θεόν ἄπταιστον τήν γνῶσιν παρέλαβον. Αὐτῷ γάρ πέφυκε συνεκφαίνεσθαι κυρίως ἡ τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων γνῶσις.
And perhaps this is what is spent in addition, in the inn, by the one commanded by the Lord to take care—the two denarii given for the care of the man who fell among robbers; which the Lord also promised generously that he would give when he returned. This is the complete removal, through faith, of all things that exist, in those who are perfect (for the Lord says: Whoever does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple), by which one who has made himself a lover of wisdom, removing all things from himself or himself from all things—to speak more fittingly—is deemed worthy to be with God alone, having received the adoption as sons shown forth in the Gospel, in accordance with the holy and blessed apostles, who, having wholly taken away everything of their own and having clung entirely to God and the Word alone, said: Behold, we have left all things and have followed you—to him who is both the Maker of nature and the giver of the help that comes by law, and whom, clearly the Lord, having acquired as the single most true light of truth in place of law and nature, they rightly received the unerring knowledge of all things after God. For the knowledge of the things that have come to be by him is by nature manifested together with him, in the proper sense.
Ὥς γάρ τῷ αἰσθητῷ ἡλίῳ ἀνατέλλοντι πάντα καθαρῶς συνεκφαίνονται τά σώματα, οὕτω καί Θεός ὁ νοητός τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος ἀνατέλλων τῷ νῷ, καθώς χωρεῖσθαι ὑπό τῆς κτίσεως οἶδεν αὐτός, πάντων ἑαυτῷ νοητῶν τε καί αἰσθητῶν τούς ἀληθεῖς βούλεται συνεκφανίζεσθαι λόγους. Καί δηλοῖ τοῦτο τῆς ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους Μεταμορφώσεως τοῦ Κυρίου ἡ λαμπρά τῶν ἐσθημάτων τῷ φωτί τοῦ προσώπου αὐτοῦ γενομένη συνένδειξις, τῷ Θεῷ τήν τῶν μετ᾿ αὐτόν, ὡς οἶμαι, καί περί αὐτόν συνάγουσα γνῶσιν. Οὔτε γάρ δίχα φωτός τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὀφθαλμός ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι δύναται, οὔτε νοῦς χωρίς γνώσεως Θεοῦ θεωρίαν δέξασθαι πνευματικήν. Ἐκεῖ τε γάρ τῇ ὄψει τό φῶς τῶν ὁρατῶν τήν ἀντίληψιν δίδωσι, καί ἐνταῦθα τῷ νῷ τήν γνῶσιν τῶν νοητῶν ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιστήμη χαρίζεται. ΛΖ (37). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΡΟΠΟΥ ΚΑΘ' ΟΝ ΓΕΓΟΝΕΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΔΑΜ ΠΑΡΑΒΑΣΙΣ Θεωρία τοῦ τρόπου καθ᾿ ὅν γέγονεν τοῦ Ἀδάμ παράβασις. Ἀμέλει τούτῳ μή ἐπερείσας τῷ Θεῷ φωτί τόν τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμόν ὁ προπάτωρ Ἀδάμ τυφλοῦ δίκην εἰκότως ἐν σκότει τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἄμφω τώ χεῖρε τόν τῆς ὕλης φορυτόν ἑκουσίως ἀφάσσων μόνῃ αἰσθήσει ἑαυτόν ὅλον ἐπικλίνας ἐκδέδωκε, δι᾿ ἧς τοῦ πικροτάτου θηρός τόν φθαρτικόν ἰόν εἰσδεξάμενος οὐδ᾿ αὐτῆς, ὡς ἠβουλήθη, ἀπήλαυσε τῆς αἰσθήσεως, δίχα Θεοῦ, καί πρό Θεοῦ, καί οὐ κατά Θεόν, ὡς οὐκ ἔδει, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, τά τοῦ Θεοῦ ἔχειν ἐπιτηδεύσας.
For just as, when the perceptible sun rises, all bodies are clearly revealed together with it, so too God, the intelligible sun of righteousness, rising upon the mind—insofar as he himself knows he can be contained by creation—wills that the true principles of all things, both intelligible and perceptible, be revealed together with himself. And the brilliant concurrence of his garments with the light of his face at the Transfiguration of the Lord on the mountain makes this clear, gathering together, as I think, the knowledge of those after him and around him for God. For neither can the eye of the senses apprehend perceptible things without light, nor can the mind receive spiritual contemplation without the knowledge of God. For there, light gives to sight the apprehension of visible things, and here, the knowledge of God bestows on the mind the knowledge of intelligible things. 37. CONTEMPLATION OF THE MANNER IN WHICH ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION OCCURRED. Contemplation of the manner in which Adam's transgression occurred. Indeed, because our forefather Adam did not fix the eye of his soul upon this light, God, like a blind man he reasonably groped with both hands in the darkness of ignorance for the refuse of matter, willingly surrendering himself wholly to sense perception alone, through which, having received the destructive venom of the most bitter beast, he did not even enjoy sense perception itself as he wished—having, apart from God, and before God, and not according to God, as was not right, devoted himself to possessing the things of God, which was impossible.
Τήν γάρ σύμβουλον παραδεξαμένην ( τόν ὄφιν Θεοῦ πλέον παραδεξάμενος αἴσθησιν καί τοῦ ἀπηγορευμένου ξύλου, ᾧ καί θάνατον συνεῖναι προεδιδάχθην τόν καρπόν ὀρέγουσαν, βρώσεως ἀπαρχήν ποιησάμενος πρόσφορον τῷ καρπῷ τήν ζωήν μετηλλάξατο, ζῶντα τόν θάνατον ἑαυτῷ κατά πάντα τόν χρόνον τοῦ παρόντος καιροῦ δημιουργήσας.
Εἰ γάρ φθορά γενέσεως ὑπάρχει ὁ θάνατος, ἀεί δέ τό δι᾿ ἐπιῤῥοῆς τροφῶν γινόμενον φυσικῶς φθείρεται σῶμα τῇ ῥοῇ διαπνεόμενον, ἀεί ἄρα δι᾿ ὧν εἶναι τήν ζωήν ἐπίστευσεν ἀκμάζοντα ἑαυτῷ τε καί ἡμῖν τόν θάνατον ὁ Ἀδάμ συνετήρησεν. Ὡς εἴγε τῷ Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἤ τῇ συνοίκῳ πεισθείς τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς ζωῆς διετράφη, οὐκ ἄν τήν δοθεῖσαν ἀπέθετο ἀθανασίαν ἀεί συντηρουμένην τῇ μετοχῇ τῆς ζωῆς, ἐπειδή πᾶσα ζωή οἰκεία τε και καταλλήλῳ πέφυκε συντηρεῖσθαι τροφῇ. Τροφή δέ τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης ζωῆς ἐστιν ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς καί ζωήν διδούς τῷ κόσμῳ, καθώς αὐτός περί ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις ὁ ἀψευδής ἀπεφήνατο Λόγος, ᾧ διατραφῆναι μή βουληθείς ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος τῆς μέν θείας εἰκότως ἀπεγένετο ζωῆς, ἄλλης δέ θανάτου γεννήτορος ἐπελάβετο, καθ᾿ ἥν τήν μέν ἄλογον ἑαυτῷ μορφήν ἐπιθέμενος, τῆς θείας δέ τό ἀμήχανον ἀμαυρώσας κάλλος, βοράν τῷ θανάτῳ τήν ἅπασαν φύσιν παρέδωκε. Δι᾿ ἧς ὁ μέν θάνατος ζῇ δι᾿ ὅλου τοῦ χρονικοῦ τούτου διαστήματος, ἡμᾶς βρῶσιν ποιούμενος, ἡμεῖς δέ ζῶμεν οὐδέποτε, ἀεί διά φθορᾶς ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κατεσθιόμενοι.
For having accepted the counsellor—having accepted the serpent more than God—by the perception of the forbidden tree, whose fruit I was also taught beforehand to associate with death, he made it the first-fruits of eating, and exchanged life for what was suited to the fruit, creating for himself a living death throughout all the time of the present age.
For if death is the corruption of generation, and the body that comes to be through the influx of foods is always naturally corrupted, being permeated by the flow, then Adam always preserved death flourishing for himself and for us through the very things by which he believed life existed. For if he had been persuaded by God rather than by his wife and had been nourished by the tree of life, he would not have laid aside the immortality given to him, which is always preserved by participation in life, since all life is naturally preserved by its own and appropriate nourishment. And the nourishment of that blessed life is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, as the truthful Word himself declared concerning himself in the Gospels. Not wishing to be nourished by it, the first man reasonably fell away from the divine life, and laid hold of another life, the begetter of death, according to which, having put upon himself the irrational form and having dimmed the ineffable beauty of the divine, he handed over the whole of nature as food to death. Through this, death lives throughout this whole span of time, making us its food, while we never live, always being devoured by it through corruption.
ΛΗ (38). ΟΤΙ ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΣΤΑΤΟΥ ΠΕΡΙΦΟΡΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΡΟΥΣΗΣ ΖΩΗΣ ΑΛΛΗΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΑΛΗΘΗ...
Ὅτι ἐκ τῆς ἀστάτου περιφορᾶς τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἄλλην εἶναι τήν ἀληθῆ καί θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν ζωήν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οἱ ἅγιοι. Ἧς τό ἀδρανές καί ἀλλεπάλληλον σοφῶς κατανοήσαντες ( οἱ ἅγιοι τήν ἀνθρώποις προηγουμένως ἐκ Θεοῦ δεδωρημένην ταύτην μή εἶναι τήν ζωήν, ὡς εἰκός, ἐπαιδεύθησαν, ἄλλην δέ θείαν καί ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν, ἥν μάλιστα δεῖν ὑπέλαβον ἑαυτῷ πρεπόντως ἀγαθόν ὄντα τόν Θεόν προηγουμένως δημιουργῆσαι,
μυστικῶς ἐδιδάχθησαν, πρός ἧν διά σοφίας κατά τήν χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ὡς ἐφικτόν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς ὑπό θάνατον, τό ὄμμα τῆς ψυχῆς ἀνανεύσαντες, καί ἐνδιαθέτως τόν αὐτῆς θεῶν ὑποδεξάμενοι πόθον, ἀποθέσθαι δεῖν ταύτην τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν εἰκότως ᾠήθησαν, εἰ μέλλοιεν καθαρῶς ἐκείνης κατά τόν δέοντα λόγον ἐπιλήψεσθαι. Καί ἐπειδή ζωῆς ἀπόθεσις θανάτου χωρίς οὐ γίνεται, θάνατον αὐτῆς ἐπενόησαν τήν ἀποβολήν τῆς κατά σάρκα στοργῆς, δι᾿ ἧς εἰς τόν βίον ἡ τοῦ θανάτου γέγονεν εἴσοδος, ἵνα θανάτῳ θάνατον ἐπινοήσαντες τοῦ ζῆν τῷ θανάτῳ παύσωνται, τόν τίμιον ἐναντίον Κυρίου θάνατον ἀποθανόντες, τόν ὄντως θανάτου θάνατον, τόν τήν φθοράν μέν φθείρειν δυνάμενον, τῇ δέ μακαρίᾳ ζωῇ καί ἀφθαρσίᾳ παρεχόμενον ἐν τοῖς ἀξίοις εἴσοδον.
That from the unstable circuit of the present life the true and divine life, which is likewise unchanging, is another life, the saints were taught. Understanding wisely its inertness and its ceaseless succession (the saints were taught, as is likely, that this life, which was given to men from God in the beginning, is not the true life, but another, divine and likewise unchanging, which they supposed God, being good, ought especially to have created for himself in the beginning in a manner befitting,
they were mystically taught, toward which, through wisdom according to the grace of the Spirit, as far as is attainable for men who are under death, having lifted up the eye of the soul and having received within themselves the divine longing for it, they reasonably thought that this present life ought to be set aside, if they were to grasp that life purely according to the fitting reason. And since the setting aside of life does not come about without death, they devised as its death the casting off of affection according to the flesh, through which the entrance of death into life came to be, so that, having devised death by death, they might cease from living by death, having died the death that is precious before the Lord, the death that is truly the death of death, the death able to destroy corruption, and granting entrance into the blessed life and incorruption among those who are worthy.
Τό γάρ πέρας τῆς παρούσης ταύτης ζωῆς οὐδέ θάνατον οἶμαι δίκαιον ὀνομάζειν, ἀλλά θανάτου ἀπαλλαγήν, καί φθορᾶς χωρισμόν, καί δουλείας ἐλευθερίαν, καί ταραχῆς παύλαν, καί πολέμων ἀναίρεσειν, καί συγχύσεως πάροδον, καί σκότους ὑποχώρησιν, καί πόνων ἄνεσιν, καί βομβήσεως ἀσήμου σιγήν, καί βράσματος ἡρεμίαν, καί αἰσχύνης συγκάλυμμα, καί παθῶν ἀποφυγήν, καί ἁμαρτίας ἀφανισμόν, καί πάντων, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, τῶν κακῶν περιγραφήν· ἅπερ δι᾿ ἑκουσίου νεκρώσεως οἱ ἅγιοι κατορθώσαντες ξένους ἑαυτούς τοῦ βίου καί παρεπιδήμους παρέστησαν. Κόσμῳ τε γάρ καί σώματι καί ταῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπαναστάσεσι γενναίως μαχόμενοι, καί τήν ἐξ ἀμφοῖν κατά τήν τῶν αἰσθήσεων πρός τά αἰσθητά συμπλοκήν παραγεγομένην ἀπάτην ἀποπνίξαντες, ἀδούλωτον ἑαυτοῖς ἐφύλαξαν τῆς ψυχῆς τό ἀξίωμα· μάλα γε εἰκότως, ἔννομον κρίναντες εἶναι καί δίκαιον τό ἧττον ἄγεσθαι μᾶλλον τῷ κρείττονι, ἤ ( τό κρεῖττον τῷ χείρονι συμποδίζεσθαι. Ὅσπερ δή νόμος θεῖος καί τοῖς προαιρουμένοις τήν λογικοῖς προηγουμένως πρέπουσαν ἀσπάζεσθαι ζωήν ἐμπεφυκώς, τήν ἐμφερῶς δι' ὀλιγαρκείας τό ἀπροσδεές τῶν ἀγγέλων μιμουμένην καί ἄνετον. ΛΘ (39). ΟΤΙ ΜΗ ΚΑΘ' ΗΜΑΣ Ή ΤΗΝ ΦΥΣΙΚΗΝ ΘΕΩΡΙΑΝ, Ή ΤΗΝ ΓΡΑΦΙΚΗΝ ΜΥΣΤΑΓΩΓΙΑΝ...
For the end of this present life I do not think it right even to call death, but a release from death, and a separation from corruption, and a freedom from slavery, and a cessation of turmoil, and an abolition of wars, and a passage through confusion, and a retreat of darkness, and a relief from toils, and a silence of unmarked clamor, and a calm of seething, and a covering of shame, and an escape from passions, and an obliteration of sin, and—to sum it all up in a word—a circumscription of all evils. These things the saints, having accomplished them through voluntary mortification, presented themselves as strangers and sojourners to the world. For fighting nobly against the world and the body and the assaults that arise from them, and having stifled the deception that came from both through the entanglement of the senses with sensible things, they kept for themselves the dignity of the soul unenslaved—very reasonably indeed, since they judged it to be lawful and just that the lesser be led rather than the better, or that the better be entangled with the worse. This, indeed, is a divine law, implanted in those who choose to embrace the life that is primarily fitting for rational beings, the life that in like manner, through frugality, imitates the freedom from want of the angels and their freedom from care. 39. That it is not in our power either to attain natural contemplation or the mystical guidance of Scripture...
Ὅτι μή καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἤ τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν, ἤ τήν γραφικήν μυσταγωγίαν ἐποίουν οἱ ἅγιοι.
Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπανελθόντες καθ᾿ εἱρμόν τά λείποντα τῆς Μεταμορφώσεως τοῖς προθεωρηθεῖσι κατά δύναμιν διασκοπήσαντες προσαρμόσωμεν, ἵνα θεωρηθῇ τῶν ἁγίων ἡ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀκρότης καί ἡ γνησία πρός τήν σάρκα καί τήν ὕλην ἀποδιάθεσις, καί ὅτι μή καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς καί αὐτοί ἤ τήν κτίσιν ἤ τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν ὑλικῶς τε καί χαμερπῶς ἐθεώρουν, αἰσθήσει μόνον καί ἐπιφανείαις καί σχήμασι πρός ἀνάληψιν τῆς μακαρίας γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, γράμμασί τε καί συλλαβαῖς χρώμενοι, ἐξ ὧν τό πταίειν ἔστι περί τήν κρίσιν τῆς ἀληθείας καί σφάλλεσθαι, ἀλλά νῷ μόνῳ καθαρωτάτῳ καί πάσης ὑλικῆς ἀπηλλαγμένῳ ἀχλύος. Εἴπερ οὖν εὐσεβῶς κρίνειν βουλόμεθα τούς τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοητῶς διασκοποῦντες λόγους, εἰς τήν περί Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων αὐτούς ἄπταιστον γνῶσιν ὀρθῶς δι' εὐθείας τρίβου βαίνοντας κατίδοιμεν.
Μ (40). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΑΜΟΡΦΩΣΙΝ ΠΛΑΤΥΤΕΡΑ Θεωρία εἰς τήν Μεταμόρφωσιν πλατυτέρα.
That the saints did not act according to us, either in natural contemplation or in the mystical guidance of Scripture.
But returning in order, let us fit what remains of the Transfiguration to what has been contemplated beforehand as far as we are able, having examined it, so that the preeminence of the saints in all things may be contemplated, and their genuine detachment from the flesh and from matter, and that they themselves did not contemplate creation or Holy Scripture according to us, materially and in a lowly manner, using only sense and appearances and shapes for the reception of the blessed knowledge of God, and letters and syllables, from which it is possible to err concerning the judgment of truth and to stumble, but with the mind alone, most pure and freed from all material mist. If, then, we wish to judge piously, examining the reasons of sensible things intelligibly, we would see them walking rightly on a straight path to the unerring knowledge of God and of His divine things.
M (40). A WIDER CONTEMPLATION OF THE TRANSFIGURATION. A wider contemplation of the Transfiguration.
Εἴρηται τοίνυν ἀνωτέρω ὅτι διά μέν τῆς γενομένης ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ προσώπου τοῦ Κυρίου φωτοειδοῦς λαμπρότητος πρός τήν πᾶσι καθόλου τοῖς οὖσιν ἄληπτον τοῦ Θεοῦ μυστικῶς οἱ τρισμακάριοι ἀπόστολοι κατά τό ἄῤῥητόν τε καί
ἄγνωστον ( ἐχειραγωγοῦντο δύναμίν τε καί δόξαν, τῆς ἀφανοῦς κρυφιότητος τό φανέν αὐτοῖς πρός τήν αἴσθησιν φῶς σύμβολον εἶναι μανθάνοντες. Ὡς γάρ ἐνταῦθα τοῦ γενομένου φωτός τήν τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν νικᾷ ἐνέργειαν ἡ ἀκτίς, ἀχώρητος αὐτοῖς διαμένουσα, οὕτω κἀκεῖ Θεός πᾶσαν νοός δύναμιν ὑπερβαίνει καί ἐνέργειαν, οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἐν τῷ νοεῖσθαι τῷ νοεῖν πειρωμένῳ τόν οἱονοῦν τύπον ἀφείς. Διά δέ τῶν λευκῶν ἱματίων τήν τε ἐν τοῖς κτίσμασιν ἀναλόγως τοῖς καθ᾿ οὕς γεγένηνται λόγοις μεγαλουργίαν καί τήν ἐν τοῖς ῥήμασι τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς κατά τό νοούμενον μυσταγωγίαν ἐν ταὐτῷ καί ἅμα θεοπρεπῶς ἐδιδάσκοντο, οἷα τῇ ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ Θεοῦ συναναφαινομένης τῆς τε γραφικῆς κατά τό πνεῦμα δυνάμεως καί τῆς ἐν τοῖς κτίσμασι κατ᾿ αὐτό σοφίας καί γνώσεως, δι᾿ ὧν πάλιν αὐτός ἀναλόγως ἐκφαίνεται. Διά δέ Μωϋσέως καί Ἠλίου τῶν ἑκατέρωθεν αὐτῷ συνόντων (τοῦτο γάρ εἰς τήν ἐξέτασιν τῆς θεωρίας λείπεται), πολλούς κατά πολλάς ἐπινοίας, ὧν τύποι προεβέβληντο μυστηρίων δι᾿ ἀληθοῦς θεωρίας γνωστικούς ὑπεδέχοντο τρόπους.
It has therefore been said above that through the light-like brightness of the Lord's face that came to be on the mountain, the thrice-blessed apostles were mystically led in an ineffable and unknowable manner toward the power and glory of God that is wholly incomprehensible to all beings, learning that the light which appeared to them for perception is a symbol of the hidden secrecy of the unseen. For just as here the ray of the light that came to be surpasses the activity of the eyes, remaining uncontainable by them, so also there God surpasses every power and activity of the mind, leaving no form whatsoever in the act of being thought to the one who attempts to think him. And through the white garments they were taught in a God-befitting manner, at one and the same time, both the magnificence in created things according to the principles proportioned to those for whom they came to be, and the mystical guidance in the words of Holy Scripture according to the meaning understood—since with the knowledge of God there shine forth together both the scriptural power according to the Spirit and the wisdom and knowledge in created things according to himself, through which he himself again is revealed proportionally. And through Moses and Elijah, who were with him on either side (for this remains for the examination of the contemplation), they received, as those who are knowledgeable through true contemplation, many modes according to many conceptions, of which mysteries types had been set forth beforehand.
ΜΑ (41). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΩΫΣΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΝ ΗΛΙΑΝ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν καί τόν Ἠλίαν. Α´. Καί πρῶτον μέν τήν περί τοῦ δεῖν πάντως συνεῖναι τῷ Λόγῳ καί Θεῷ τόν τε νομικόν καί τόν προφητικόν λόγον διά Μωϋσέως καί Ἠλίου εὐσεβεστάτην ἐλάμβανον ἔννοιαν, ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ καί περί αὐτοῦ καί ὄντας καί ἀπαγγέλοντας, καί περί αὐτόν ἱδρυμένους.
Β´. Εἶτα σοφίαν καί χρηστότητα συνοῦσαν αὐτῷ διά τῶν αὐτῶν ἐπαιδεύοντο, τήν μέν ὅτι κατ᾿ αὐτήν διαγορευτικός ἐστι τῶν ποιητέων ὁ λόγος, καί ἀπαγορευτικός τῶν οὐ ποιητέων, ἧς τύπος ὑπῆρχε Μωϋσῆς (σοφίας γάρ τήν τῆς νομοθεσίας εἶναι πιστεύομεν χάριν), τήν δέ ὅτι κατ᾿ αὐτήν προτρεπτικός ἐστι καί ἐπιστρεπτικός πρός τήν θείαν ζωήν τῶν αὐτῆς ἀπολισθησάντων, ( ἧς τύπος ὑπῆρχεν Ἠλίας, δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ ὅλον τό προφητικόν δηλῶν χάρισμα. Χρηστότητος γάρ θείας ἴδιον γνώρισμα, τῶν πεπλανημένων ἡ μετά φιλανθρωπίας ἐπιστροφή, ἧς κήρυκας τούς προφήτας γινώσκομεν.
Γ´. Ἤ γνῶσιν καί παιδείαν, τήν μέν ὅτι καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ τῆς εἰδήσεως τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὑπάρχει παρεκτικός. Δέδωκα γάρ, φησί, πρό προσώπου σου τήν ζωήν καί τόν θάνατον, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τήν μέν ἑλεῖν αἱρεῖσθαι, τόν δέ φυγεῖν, καί μή ὡς καλῷ περιπεσεῖν ἐξ ἀγνοίας τῷ χείρονι, ὅπερ Μωϋσῆς πεπραχώς ἀνηγόρευται, προτυπῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῆς ἀληθείας τά σύμβολα· τήν δέ ὅτι τῶν τοῖς ἐναντίοις ἀνέδην χρωμένων κατά τόν Ἰσραήλ, οὗ παιδευτήν Ἠλίας ὁ μέγας ἐγένετο, καί μιγνύντων ἀδιακρίτως τά ἄμικτα, τῆς ἀδιαφορίας ἐστί κολαστικός, καί τῶν παντελῶς τῷ κακῷ προστεθειμένων τήν ἄνοιαν καί τήν πώρωσιν εἰς ἔννοιαν ἄγων, ὡς λόγος, καί αἴσθησιν.
MA (41). CONTEMPLATION CONCERNING MOSES AND ELIJAH. Contemplation concerning Moses and Elijah. 1. And first, they received the most pious understanding concerning the necessity that both the legal and the prophetic word be wholly with the Word and God through Moses and Elijah, as being both from him and about him and declaring him, and established around him.
2. Then through these same men they were taught the wisdom and goodness that are with him — the one, that according to it the Word is declarative of things to be done and prohibitive of things not to be done, of which Moses was the type (for we believe that the grace of lawgiving belongs to wisdom); the other, that according to it he is exhortative and converting toward the divine life of those who have slipped away from it (of which Elijah was the type, showing through himself the whole prophetic grace. For it is a distinctive mark of divine goodness, the conversion with love for humanity of those who have gone astray, of which we know the prophets to be heralds).
3. Or knowledge and instruction — the one, that he is a bestower to human beings of the awareness of good and evil. For he says, I have set before your face life and death, so as to choose to take the one and to flee the other, and not, as though it were good, to fall into the worse from ignorance — which Moses is declared to have done, prefiguring in himself the symbols of the truth; the other, that he is the punisher of indifference in those who shamelessly use things contrary, after the manner of Israel, whose instructor the great Elijah became, and who mix without distinction things that cannot be mixed, bringing their mindlessness and their hardness, as the account says, to understanding and perception.
Δ´. Ἤ πρᾶξιν καί θεωρίαν, τήν μέν ὡς κακίας ἀναιρετικήν, καί κόσμου δι᾿ ἐπιδείξεως ἀρετῶν τούς δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἀγομένους παντελῶς κατά διάθεσιν τέμνουσαν, ὡς Μωϋσῆς τῆς Αἰγύπτου τόν Ἰσραήλ, καί θείοις νόμοις τοῦ Πνεύματος εὐπειθῶς παιδεύουσαν ἄγεσθαι· τήν δέ ὡς ὕλης καί εἴδους ἁρπάζουσαν, ὡς τόν Ἠλίαν τό ἐκ πυρός ἅρμα, καί Θεῷ διά γνώσεως προσάγουσάν τε καί συνάπτουσαν ὑπό σαρκός μηδ᾿ ὁτιοῦν βαρουμένους, διά τήν τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν νόμου ἀθέτησιν, ἤ ἐπάρσει καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν ἐπί τοῖς κατορθώμασι φλεγομένους, διά τήν συνημμένην ταῖς ὄντως ἀρεταῖς δρόσον τῆς πτωχείας τοῦ πνεύματος.
Ε´. Ἤ πάλιν τά κατά τόν γάμον καί τήν ἀγαμίαν μυστήρια παρά τῷ Λόγῳ εἶναι μανθάνοντες διά Μωϋσέως, τοῦ διά τόν γάμον τῆς θείας ἐραστοῦ γενέσθαι
δόξης μή κωλυθέντος, καί διά ( Ἠλίου, τοῦ παντελῶς γαμικῆς συναφείας καθαροῦ διαμείναντος, οἷα τοῦ Λόγου καί Θεοῦ τούς λόγῳ ταῦτα ἰθύνοντας, κατά τούς θειωδῶς περί αὐτῶν κειμένους νόμους, ἑαυτῷ μυστικῶς εἰσποιεῖσθαι κηρύττοντος.
4. Or [it is] action and contemplation, the one as destructive of vice and, by the display of virtues, wholly severing in disposition those who are led by it from the world, as Moses [led] Israel from Egypt, and obediently training them to be led by the divine laws of the Spirit; the other as snatching away from matter and form, as the chariot of fire [snatched] Elijah, and bringing and joining [them] to God through knowledge, weighed down not in the least by the flesh, because of the setting aside of the law that is according to it, or set aflame by any elation over achievements, because of the dew of the poverty of the spirit that is joined to the truly [existing] virtues.
5. Or again, learning that the mysteries concerning marriage and virginity are with the Word through Moses, who because of marriage was not prevented from becoming a lover of divine glory, and through Elijah, who remained wholly pure of marital union, as the Word and God proclaims that those who direct these things by reason, according to the laws divinely laid down concerning them, are mystically brought into his own household.
´. Ἤ ζωῆς καί θανάτου διά τῶν αὐτῶν κύριον πιστῶς ὄντα τόν Λόγον πληροφορούμενοι.
Ζ´. Ἤ καί τό πάντας ζῇν τῷ Θεῷ καί μηδένα παντελῶς παρ᾿ αὐτῷ νεκρόν εἶναι διά τῶν αὐτῶν μανθάνοντες, πλήν τοῦ ἑαυτόν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ νεκρώσαντος, καί τῇ ἑκουσίῳ πρός τά πάθη ῥοπῇ τοῦ Λόγου ἑαυτόν ἀποκόψαντος. Η´. Ἤ πάλιν τόν Λόγον ὡς ἀλήθειαν ὄντα κατ᾿ ἀναφοράν εἶναί τε καί ὑπάρχειν τούς τύπους τῶν μυστηρίων, καί εἰς αὐτόν συνάγεσθαι, τῆς τε νομικῆς καί τῆς προφητικῆς πραγματείας ὡς ἀρχήν καί τέλος, ἐφωταγωγοῦντο. Θ´. Ἤ τά μετά Θεόν πάντα καί ἐκ Θεοῦ γεγονότα, τουτέστι τήν φύσιν τῶν ὄντων καί τόν χρόνον, παρά τῷ Θεῷ ὄντα συνεκφαίνεσθαι ἀληθῶς φαινομένῳ, κατά τό ἐφικτόν, ὡς αἰτίῳ καί ποιητῇ. Ὧν τοῦ μέν χρόνου τύπος ἄν εἴη Μωϋσῆς, οὐ μόνον ὡς χρόνου καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀριθμοῦ διάσκαλος (οὗτος γάρ πρῶτος τόν κατά τήν γένεσιν τοῦ κόσμου χρόνον ἠρίθμησε), καί ὡς χρονικῆς γενόμενος λατρείας καθηγητής, ἀλλά καί ὡς μή συνεισερχόμενος ἐκείνοις σωματικῶς εἰς τήν κατάπαυσιν ὧν πρός τῆς θείας καθηγήσατο εὐαγγελίας· τοιοῦτον γάρ ἔχει ὁ χρόνος, οὐ φθάνων ἤ συνερχόμενος κατά τήν κίνησιν ἐκείνοις οὕς πρός τήν θείαν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος ζωήν πέφυκε παραπέμπειν. Ἰησοῦν γάρ ἔχει τόν παντός ὄντα καί χρόνου καί αἰῶνος διάδοχον· κἄν εἰ ἄλλως οἱ λόγοι τοῦ χρόνου ἐν τῷ Θεῷ διαμένωσιν, ὡς δηλοῖ μυστικῶς ἡ τοῦ ἐν ἐρήμῳ δοθέντος νόμου διά Μωϋσέως τοῖς τήν γῆς λαβοῦσι τῆς κατασχέσεως συνείσοδος.
5. Or, being fully assured by faith through the same things that the Word is Lord of life and death.
6. Or learning through the same things that all live to God and none at all is dead before him, except the one who has put himself to death by sin and has cut himself off from the Word by his voluntary inclination toward the passions.
7. Or again, being illumined, [they learned] that the Word, being truth, is and exists as the referent of the types of the mysteries, and that both the legal and the prophetic enterprise are gathered into him as beginning and end.
8. Or that all things after God and made from God—that is, the nature of beings and time—being in God, are truly manifested together with God when he appears, insofar as is attainable, as cause and maker. Of these, Moses would be the type of time, not only as teacher of time and of the number according to it (for he first numbered the time according to the genesis of the world), and as having become the guide of temporal worship, but also as not entering in bodily with those into the rest of whom he had led them by divine proclamation; for such is the nature of time, not reaching or coming together in its movement with those whom it is naturally suited to send on to the divine life of the age to come. For it has Jesus as the successor of all time and age; even if in another way the principles of time remain in God, as the entry, together with those who received the possession of the land, of the law given in the wilderness through Moses mystically indicates.
( Αἰών γάρ ἐστιν ὁ χρόνος, ὅταν στῇ τῆς κινήσεως, καί χρόνος ἐστίν ὁ αἰών, ὅταν μετρῆται κινήσει φερόμενος, ὡς εἶναι τόν μέν αἰῶνα, ἵνα ὡς ἐν ὅρῳ περιλαβών εἴπω, χρόνον ἐστερημένου κινήσεως, τόν δέ χρόνον αἰῶνα κινήσει μετρούμενον. Τῆς δέ φύσεως Ἠλίας, οὐ μόνον ὡς τούς καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἀλωβήτους φυλάξας λόγους, καί τό ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά γνώμην φρόνημα τροπῆς τῆς ἐκ πάθους ἐλεύθερον, ἀλλά καί ὡς ἐν κρίσει παιδεύων, οἷόν τις φυσικός νόμος, τούς παρά φύσιν τῇ φύσει χρωμένους. Τοιοῦτον γάρ καί ἡ φύσις, τούς αὐτήν παραφθείρειν ἐπιχειροῦντας τοσοῦτον κολάζουσα, ὅσον τοῦ παρά φύσιν ζῇν ἐπιτηδεύουσι, τῷ μή ὅλην αὐτῆς φυσικῶς ἔτι κεκτῆσθαι τῆς φύσεως τήν δύναμιν, μειωθέντας ἤδη τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀρτιότητος καί διά τοῦτο κολαζομένους, ὡς ἐαυτοῖς ἀβούλως τε καί ἀφρόνως διά τῆς πρός τό μή ὄν νεύσεως τοῦ εἶναι παρεχομενους τήν ἔλλειψιν. Ι´. Ἴσως δέ καί τήν νοητήν καί τήν αἰσθητήν κτίσιν ἔχεσθαι τοῦ Δημιουργοῦ Λόγου τις εἰπών διά τοῦ Μωϋσέως καί Ἠλίου, τῆς ἀληθείας οὐ διαμαρτάνει. Ὧν τῆς μέν αἰσθητῆς Μωϋσῆς λόγον ἐπέχει, ὡς ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν γενόμενος, καθώς ἡ περί αὐτοῦ ἱστορία δηλοῖ, τήν γένεσιν καί τόν θάνατον αὐτοῦ καταγγέλλουσα. Τοιοῦτον γάρ καί αἰσθητή κτίσις, ἀρχήν ἐγνωσμένην γενέσεως ἔχουσα καί διαφθορᾶς ὡρισμένον τέλος ἐλπίζουσα. Τῆς δέ νοητῆς Ἠλίας, ὡς οὔτε γένεσιν αὐτοῦ τῆς περί αὐτοῦ μηνυούσης ἱστορίας, κἄν εἰ γεγέννηται, οὔτε μήν τήν διά θανάτου φθοράν ἐλπίζεσθαι ὁριζομένης, κἄν εἰ τεθνήξεται.
For an age is time whenever it stands still from movement, and time is an age whenever it is measured as carried along by movement, so that the age is, to put it in a definition, time deprived of movement, and time is an age measured by movement. But the nature of Elijah, not only as one who kept the principles in himself unblemished, and the disposition according to his judgment concerning them free from change that comes from passion, but also as one who disciplines in judgment, like a kind of natural law, those who use nature contrary to nature. For such is nature also, punishing those who attempt to corrupt it as much as they practice living contrary to nature, by their no longer possessing the whole power of nature naturally, having already been diminished from the integrity according to it and for this reason being punished, inasmuch as they unwillingly and foolishly, through their inclination toward non-being, procure for themselves the lack of being. 10. Perhaps someone who says that both the intelligible and the sensible creation cling to the Creator Word through Moses and Elijah does not miss the truth. Of these, Moses holds the place of the sensible creation, as one who came under generation and corruption, just as the history concerning him makes clear, proclaiming his generation and his death. For such is the sensible creation also, having a known beginning of generation and hoping for a defined end of corruption. And Elijah holds the place of the intelligible creation, since the history concerning him does not disclose his generation, even if he was born, nor indeed does it define that corruption through death is to be hoped for, even if he will die.
Τοιοῦτον γάρ καί ἡ νοητή κτίσις, οὔτε ἀρχήν γενέσεως ἀνθρώποις κατάδηλον ἔχουσα, κἄν εἰ γεγένηται καί ἦρκται καί ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος εἰς τό εἶναι παρῆκται, οὔτε τέλος τοῦ εἶναι διά φθορᾶς ὡρισμένον ἐκδέχεται. Τό γάρ ἀνώλεθρον φυσικῶς ἔχει λαβοῦσα παρά Θεοῦ, τοῦ οὕτως αὐτήν δημιουργῆσαι θελήσαντος.
ΜΒ (42). ΑΛΛΗ ΣΥΝΕΚΤΙΚΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΑΜΟΡΦΩΣΙΝ ( Ἄλλη συνεκτική θεωρία εἰς τήν Μεταμόρφωσιν. Εἰ δέ τῷ μή περιεργότερος τοῦ δέοντος εἶναι δοκῶ, καί ἕτερον μέγα τε καί θεῖον, ὡς οἶμαι, ἐκ τῆς θείας Μεταμορφώσεως μυστήριον ἡμῖν ἀναφαίνεται, καί τῶν εἰρημένων λαμπρότερον. Οἶμαι γάρ τούς καθόλου δύο τῆς θεολογίας τρόπους μυστικῶς ὑφηγεῖσθαι τά ἐπί τοῦ ὄρους κατά τήν Μεταμόρφωσιν, θεοπρεπῆ δραματουργήματα, τόν τε προηγούμενόν φημι καί καί ἁπλοῦν καί ἀναίτιον, καί διά μόνης καί παντελοῦς ἀποφάσεως τό θεῖον ὡς ἀληθῶς καταφάσκοντα, καί τήν ὑπεροχήν αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἀφασίας δεόντως σεμνύνοντα, καί τόν ἑπόμενον τούτῳ καί σύνθετον, διά καταφάσεως μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἐκ τῶν αἰτιατῶν ὑπογράφοντα· οἷς, κατά τό δυνατόν ἀνθρώπους εἰδέναι, ἡ περί Θεοῦ τε καί τῶν θείων ἐπαιωρουμένη γνῶσις διά τῶν προσφυῶν ἡμῖν συμβόλων πρός ἀμφοτέρους ἡμᾶς ἄγει τούς τρόπους, δι᾿ εὐσεβοῦς τῶν ὄντων κατανοήσεως ἀμφοτέρων ἡμῖν ἐφιστῶσα τούς λόγους, καί τοῦ μέν προτέρου πᾶν τό ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν σύμβολον εἶναι διδάσκουσα, τοῦ δέ δευτέρου τά κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἀθροιστικά εἶναι παιδεύοντα μεγαλουργήματα.
For such is the intelligible creation: it has no beginning of generation manifest to humans, even if it has indeed come to be and has begun and has been brought from non-being into being, nor does it await a limit of its being defined by corruption. For it possesses incorruptibility by nature, having received it from God, who willed to create it thus.
MB (42). Another connective contemplation on the Transfiguration. If I do not seem to be more curious than is fitting, another great and divine mystery, as I think, is revealed to us from the divine Transfiguration, and one brighter than what has been said. For I think that the two general modes of theology are mystically set forth in the things on the mountain at the Transfiguration—the God-fitting dramatic actions—I mean the preceding one, both simple and uncaused, which truly affirms the divine through negation alone and complete, and duly venerates its transcendence through speechlessness, and the one that follows this and is composite, which magnificently delineates it through affirmation from the effects. To these, as far as it is possible for humans to know, the knowledge of God and divine things that hovers above leads us through symbols suited to us to both modes, setting before us the principles of both through pious understanding of beings, and teaching that every symbol beyond sense perception belongs to the former, while the things of sense perception are aggregative great works belonging to the second.
Ἐκ γάρ τῶν ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν συμβόλων τήν ὑπέρ λόγον καί νοῦν ἀλήθειαν εἶναι μόνον πιστεύομεν, περί τοῦ τί καί πῶς καί ὁποίαν εἶναι καί ποῦ καί πότε μηδ᾿ ὅλως τολμῶντες σκοπεῖν ἤ ἐννοεῖν ἐνεχόμενοι, τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως τό ἀσεβές παραιτούμενοι· ἐκ δέ τῶν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν, ὡς ἡμῖν ἐστι δυνατόν, κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν μόνον ἰσχνῶς τῆς περί Θεοῦ γνώσεως τάς εἰκασίας λαμβάνοντες πάντα αὐτόν εἶναί φαμεν ὅσα ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων ὡς αἴτιον ἐγνωρίσαμεν.
ΜΓ (43). ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ ΤΥΠΟΣ Ο ΚΥΡΙΟΣ ΓΕΓΟΝΕΝ... Ὅτι καί ἑαυτοῦ τύπος ὁ Κύριος γέγονεν κατά τήν ἑαυτοῦ διά σαρκός οἰκονομίαν.
Σκοπήσωμεν δέ εἰ μή καλῶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰρημένων ( τρόπων κατά τήν θείαν ἐκείνην τοῦ Κυρίου Μεταμόρφωσιν καί σοφῶς ἐνυπάρχει τό σύμβολον. Εἴδει γάρ αὐτόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀτρέπτως κτισθῆναι δι᾿ ἄμετρον φιλανθρωπίαν καταδεξάμενον ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι τύπον καί σύμβολον, καί παραδεῖξαι ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ συμβολικῶς ἑαυτόν, καί δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ φαινομένου πρός ἑαυτόν ἀφανῶς πάντη κρυπτόμενον χειραγωγῆσαι τήν ἅπασαν κτίσιν καί τῆς ἀφανοῦς καί πάντων ἐπέκεινα κρυφιομύστου καί ὑπ᾿ οὐδενός τῶν ὄντων οὐδενί τό σύνολον τρόπῳ νοηθῆναι ἤ λεχθῆναι δυναμένης ἀπειρίας τάς ἐκφανεῖς διά σαρκός θεουργίας ἀνθρώποις παρέχειν φιλανθρώπως μηνύματα. ΜΔ (44). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΣΤΡΑΨΑΝΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ Θεωρία τοῦ ἀστράψαντος προσώπου τοῦ Κυρίου.
For from the symbols beyond sense perception we believe only that the truth is beyond reason and mind, not at all daring to examine or conceive what it is, how, and of what sort, where and when, since we shrink from the impiety of such an undertaking; but from things perceived by the senses, as is possible for us, we receive in thought alone faint likenesses of the knowledge of God, and we say that He is all things whatsoever we have come to know from His works as their Cause.
43. That the Lord has also become a type of Himself... That the Lord has also become a type of Himself in accordance with His own economy through the flesh.
Let us consider whether the symbol does not rightly and wisely belong to each of the modes just mentioned, in accordance with that divine Transfiguration of the Lord. For He deigned without change to be created in form like us, through His boundless love for humanity, and to become a type and symbol of Himself, and to reveal Himself symbolically from Himself, and through Himself, who is visible, to lead the whole creation by the hand to Himself, who is entirely and invisibly hidden, and to provide to humans, in His love for humanity, the manifest divine works done through the flesh as tokens of that invisible infinity which is beyond all things, mystically hidden, and which cannot be understood or spoken of by any being in any way at all. 44. Contemplation of the radiant face of the Lord. Contemplation of the radiant face of the Lord.
Τό τοίνυν φῶς τοῦ προσώπου τοῦ Κυρίου τό νικῆσαν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης μακαρίας ἀποστόλοις τῆς κατ᾿ ἀπόφασιν μυστικῆς θεολογίας, καθ᾿ ὅ ἡ μακαρία καί ἁγία θεότης κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν ὑπεράῤῥητος καί ὑπεράγνωστος καί πάσης ἀπειρίας ἀπειράκις ἐξῃρημένη, οὐδ᾿ ἴχνος ὅλως καταλήψεως κἄν ψιλόν τοῖς μετ᾿ αὐτήν καταλείψασα, οὐδέ τήν πῶς κἄν πόσως ἡ αὐτή καί μονάς ἐστι καί τριάς ἔννοιαν ἐφιεῖσά τινι τῶν ὄντων, ἐπειδή μηδέ χωρεῖσθαι κτίσει τό ἄκτιστον πέφυκε, μηδέ περινοεῖσθαι τοῖς πεπερασμένοις τό ἄπειρον.
ΜΕ (45). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΦΑΝΑ ΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ ΕΝΔΥΜΑΤΑ Θεωρία εἰς τά φανά τοῦ Κυρίου ἐνδύματα.
Τόν δέ καταφατικόν τρόπον εἴς τε τόν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν πρόνοιάν τε καί κρίσιν διαιρούμενον· τόν μέν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν, τόν ἐκ καλλονῆς καί μεγέθους τῶν κτισμάτων τήν περί ( τοῦ δημιουργόν εἶναι τῶν ὅλων τόν Θεόν εἰσηγούμενον δήλωσιν, διά τῶν λαμπρῶν ἐσθημάτων τοῦ Κυρίου δηλοῦσθαι, ἅπερ εἰς τά φαινόμενα κτίσματα προεκλαβών ὁ Λόγος ἀπέδειξεν. Μ (46). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΑΛΛΗ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΩΫΣΗΝ Θεωρία ἄλλη εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν.
That light, then, of the face of the Lord which overcame the blessed human nature of the apostles by the mystical theology according to negation, according to which the blessed and holy Godhead is in essence beyond speech and beyond knowledge and removed beyond all infinity infinitely, leaving not even the faintest trace of comprehension to those after it, nor granting to any of existing things the notion of how or in what measure it is itself both monad and triad, since the uncreated is by nature not contained by creation, nor is the infinite comprehended by the finite.
45. CONTEMPLATION OF THE BRIGHT GARMENTS OF THE LORD. A contemplation of the bright garments of the Lord.
And the affirmative mode, divided into providence and judgment according to activity; the one according to activity, the declaration concerning God being the creator of all things, derived from the beauty and greatness of the created things, is signified through the bright garments of the Lord, which the Word, taking them beforehand into the visible created things, displayed. 46. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION CONCERNING MOSES. Another contemplation concerning Moses.
Τόν δέ κατά πρόνοιαν τρόπον διά τοῦ Μωϋσέως σημαίνεσθαι, ὡς πλάνης φιλανθρώπως ἐξαιρουμένην τούς κακίᾳ συνειλημμένους, καί τούς τρόπους σοφῶς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διαποικίλλουσαν τῆς πρός τά θεῖα καί ἄϋλα καί ἀσώματα ἀπό τῶν ὑλικῶν καί φθαρτῶν καί σωματικῶν ἐκδημίας, καί τοῖς θείοις νόμοις ἐπιστημόνως ἐρείδουσα.
ΜΖ (47). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΑΛΛΗ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΗΛΙΑΝ Θεωρία ἄλλη εἰς τόν Ἠλίαν.
Τόν δέ τῆς κρίσεως τρόπον διά τοῦ Ἠλίου μηνύεσθαι, ὡς λόγῳ τε καί ἔργῳ τούς μέν κατ᾿ ἀξίαν τιμωρουμένης, τούς δέ περιεπούσης διά τοῦ κατά τήν ὑποκειμένην ὕλην τε καί ποιότητα τῆς ἀρετῆς ἤ τῆς κακίας ἑκάστῳ προσφόρως αὐτήν ἁρμόζεσθαι. Ταῦτα γάρ πάντα τά προθεωρηθέντα κατά τόν παρόντα τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς τόπον Μωϋσῆς τε καί Ἠλίας, ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα τούς τά θεῖα τυπικῶς δι᾿ ἑαυτῶν ὑπογράφοντας πράγματα, ἐν τοῖς καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἑκάτερος χρόνοις καθ᾿ ἱστορίαν εἰργάσαντο, ἐμφερῶς ἔχοντα πρός τά εἰρημένα κατά τόν τῆς θεωρίας τρόπον.
ΜΗ (48). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΥΡΙΟΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ ΜΕΤΑΜΟΡΦΩΣΙΝ ΔΙΑΛΕΞΕΩΣ...
The mode of providence is signified through Moses, as humanely rescuing from error those caught in evil, and wisely diversifying for human beings the ways of their departure from things material, corruptible, and bodily toward things divine, immaterial, and incorporeal, and knowledgeably establishing them in the divine laws.
MZ (47). Another contemplation concerning Elijah. Another contemplation concerning Elijah.
The mode of judgment is indicated through Elijah, as punishing some according to desert by word and deed, and caring for others, by adapting itself suitably to each through the quality of virtue or vice in the underlying matter. For all these things previously contemplated in the present passage of Holy Scripture, both Moses and Elijah—as those who typologically trace out divine realities through themselves, as far as possible—each in his own times accomplished according to history, having a resemblance to what has been said according to the mode of contemplation.
MH (48). A contemplation concerning the discourse with the Lord at the Transfiguration...
Θεωρία περί τῆς πρός τόν Κύριον κατά τήν Μεταμόρφωσιν διαλέξεως Μωϋσέως καί Ἠλίου.
Ἐκ δέ τοῦ συλλαλεῖν αὐτούς τῷ Κυρίῳ, καί τήν ἔξοδον λέγειν ἥν ἔμελλε πληροῦν ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, οὐ μόνον τήν ἐπ᾿ ( αὐτῷ διά νόμου καί προφητῶν προκεκηρυγμένην τῶν μυστηρίων ἔκβασιν ἐδιδάσκοντο, ἀλλ᾿ ἴσως καί τό μή ληπτόν εἶναι μηδενί καθόλου τῶν ὄντων τό πέρας τῆς ἀῤῥήτου περί τό πᾶν βουλῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ θείων οἰκονομιῶν, πλήν τῆς μεγάλης αὐτοῦ προνοίας καί κρίσεως, δι᾿ ὧν εἰς τό μόνῳ τῷ Θεῷ προεγνωσμένον τέλος τό πᾶν εὐτάκτως ἐπείγεται, ὅπερ πάντες μέν ὁμοίως ἠγνόησαν κατά τό τί ποτε εἶναι καί πῶς καί ποῖον καί πότε, μόνοι δέ ἀληθῶς μόνον ἐπέγνωσαν ἔσεσθαι οἱ τήν ψυχήν ἀρεταῖς ἐκκαθάραντες ἅγιοι, καί πρός τά θεῖα τήν ῥοπήν αὐτῆς ὅλην τήν νοεράν ὁλικῶς μετεγκλίναντες, αὐτῆς, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τῆς καθόλου τῶν ὁρατῶν φύσεως, δι᾿ ὧν συνίστασθαι πέφυκε τρόπων, τό τέλος τῆς παρούσης αὐτῆς εὐκοσμίας, μονονουχί διαῤῥήδην βοώσης, ἀκούσαντες.
Contemplation concerning Moses' and Elijah's conversation with the Lord at the Transfiguration.
From their conversing with the Lord and speaking of the exodus which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem, they were taught not only the fulfillment of the mysteries foretold concerning him through the law and the prophets, but perhaps also that the limit of God's ineffable counsel concerning the universe, and of the divine economies that pertain to it, is graspable by no being whatsoever—except through his great providence and judgment, by which the whole is orderly hastened toward the end foreknown by God alone. This end all alike were ignorant of—what it ever is, and how, and of what sort, and when—but only the saints, who have purified their soul by the virtues and wholly turned its entire intellectual inclination toward things divine, truly knew that it will be; they heard, one might almost say, the very nature of things visible, plainly crying out, through the modes by which it naturally consists, the end of its present good order.
ΜΘ (49). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΞ ΑΝΑΓΚΗΣ ΕΧΕΙΝ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ Θεωρία φυσική περί τοῦ τέλος ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχειν τόν κόσμον. Περιαθρήσαντες γάρ, ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα, ἐπιστημόνως τόν παρόντα κόσμον, καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ ποικίλως ἀλλήλοις συνηρμοσμένων σωμάτων, τόν συνεπτυγμένον κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν σοφῶς ἐξαπλώσαντες λόγον εὗρον τά μέν αὐτῶν αἰσθητά καί ἀντιληπτικά καί καθολικά, πάντα δέ πᾶσι περιεχόμενά τε καί περιτρεπόμενα τῇ ἐπαλλαγῇ τῆς περί ἕκαστον ποιᾶς ἰδιότητος. Τοῖς μέν γάρ αἰσθητοῖς περιέχεται κατά φύσιν τά αἰσθητικά, τά δέ αἰσθητά τοῖς αἰσθητικοῖς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν, ὡς ἀντιληπτά. Καί πάλιν τά μέν καθόλου τοῖς μερικοῖς κατά ἀλλοίωσιν, τά δέ μερικά τοῖς καθόλου κατά ἀνάλυσιν περιτρεπόμενα φθείρεται. Καί τῶν μέν διά τῆς τῶν ἄλλων γενέσεως ἡ φθορά ἐπιγίνεται. Τῶν γάρ καθόλου ἡ πρός ἄλληλα σύνοδος τῶν μερικῶν ποιουμένη τήν γένεσιν ἀλλήλων τῇ ἀλλοιώσει ἐστί φθορά, καί τῶν αὖ μερικῶν ἡ κατά διάλυσιν ( τῆς συνδέσεως πρός τά καθόλου ἀνάλυσις τήν φθοράν ἐπεισάγουσα τῶν καθόλου ἐστί διαμονή καί γένεσις.
49. Natural contemplation concerning the world's necessarily having an end. Having surveyed the present world as scientifically as possible, and wisely unfolding the principle compacted in thought, we found that some of the bodies in it are variously fitted together with one another: some of them are perceptible, apprehensible, and universal, while all things are contained by all things and are overturned by the interweaving of the particular quality pertaining to each. For by perceptible things, perceptible things are contained according to nature, and perceptible things are contained by perceptible things according to perception, as being apprehensible. And again, universal things are overturned by particular things through alteration, and particular things by universal things through dissolution, and so are destroyed. And for some, destruction comes about through the generation of others. For the coming-together of particular things with one another, which produces the generation of universal things, is by alteration the destruction of one another; and again, the dissolution of particular things, the resolution of their connection to universal things, which introduces destruction, is the persistence and generation of universal things.
Καί ταύτην εἶναι μαθόντες τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου τήν σύστασιν, τήν εἰς ἄλληλα τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ σωμάτων ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν οἷς ὑφέστηκε δι᾿ ἀλλήλων φθοράν καί ἀλλοίωσιν, ἀκολούθως διά τῆς κατά φύσιν ἀστάτου καί ἀλλοιωτῆς καί ἄλλοτε ἄλλως φερομένης τε καί περιτρεπομένης καθόλου τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε σωμάτων ἰδιότητος τήν ἐξ ἀνάγκης καθ᾿ εἱρμόν γενησομένην αὐτοῦ συντέλειαν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οὐκ εἶναι δυνατόν, οὔτε μήν λογικῆς συνέσεως ἀΐδιον φάναι τό μή ὡσαύτως ἔχον ἀεί, δίχα τροπῆς καί τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως, ἀλλά μυρίοις σκεδαννύμενον τρόποις καί περιτρεπόμενον, ὀρθῶς λογισάμενοι.
Ν (50). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΛΛΟΝΤΟΣ, ΑΙΩΝΟΣ, ΚΑΙ ΤΙ ΤΟ ΧΑΣΜΑ... Θεωρία σύντομος περί τοῦ μέλλοντος, αἰῶνος, καί τί τό χάσμα ἐστί τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων, καί τί ὁ Λάζαρος καί ὁ κόλπος τοῦ πατριάρχου. Ἐντεῦθεν τῶν ὁρωμένων ὑπεράνω γενόμενοι μεγαλοφυῶς τοῦ πάντως ἐσομένου τῶν ὅλων κατεστοχάσαντο πέρατος, ἐν ᾧ τι τῶν ὄντων οὐκέτι φέρον ἐστί καί φερόμενον, οὐδέ τις οὐδενός τό σύνολον κίνησις παγιότητος ἀῤῥήτου, τήν τῶν φερομένων τε καί κινουμένων φοράν τε ὁρισαμένης και κίνησιν. Πρός ὅ γενέσθαι κατά νοῦν ἐπιθυμήσαντες, ἔτι τήν ὑπό φθοράν περικείμενοι σάρκα ἐμφρόνως τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων χάσμα διέβησαν, σαρκός καί κόσμου κατά τήν σχέσιν ἑκουσίως ἀπογενόμενοι. Χάσμα γάρ ὡς ἀληθῶς φοβερόν τε καί μέγα μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν ἡ πρός τό σῶμα καί τόν κόσμον τοῦτον στοργή καί διάθεσις.
Having learned that this is the constitution of the sensible world—the mutual destruction and alteration of the bodies in it, from which and in which it subsists, through one another—they were taught, in consequence, by the universally unstable, alterable, and variously borne and turned nature of the bodies from which it is composed, that its necessary consummation, coming to be in due sequence, cannot but be; nor, indeed, can reason say that what does not remain always the same, without change or any alteration whatsoever, but is scattered and turned about in countless ways, is eternal—so they rightly reasoned.
50. A brief contemplation concerning the future, the age, and what the chasm is. A brief contemplation concerning the future, the age, and what the chasm is that lies between God and men, and what Lazarus is and the bosom of the patriarch. From here, having risen above things seen, they nobly surmised the end of all things that will certainly come to be, in which nothing that exists is any longer borne and bearing, nor is there any movement at all of anything, an ineffable fixity having defined the motion and movement of things borne and moved. Desiring to come to this in mind, while still clothed in flesh subject to corruption, they intelligently crossed the chasm between God and men, willingly dying to flesh and world in their relation to them. For truly the fearful and great chasm between God and men is the affection and disposition toward the body and this world.
Ὧν γενναίως τήν στέρησιν χαίρων στέρξας ὁ Λάζαρος (ὡς δηλοῖ ἤ τε νόσος καί ἡ πενία, ἡ μέν τήν πρός τόν κόσμον, ἡ δέ τήν πρός τό σῶμα ποιουμένη αὐτῷ ἀλλοτρίωσιν) ( τήν ἐν κόλποις Ἀβράαμ κατηξιώθη λαβεῖν ἀνάπαυσιν, τόν τούτοις προστετηκότα πλούσιον ἔξω ἀφείς τῆς ἀνέσεως, μηδέν ἄλλο τῆς διά σαρκός ὠφεληθέντα ζωῆς, πλήν τοῦ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ ἀπεράντως κολάζεσθαι, ὡς οὔτε τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν ἔχοντα, ἥν ποθήσας μόνην ἠσπάζετο, ἀκράτητον φύσει κατά τήν ῥεῦσιν ὑπάρχουσαν, οὔτε τῆς μελλούσης μεταλαχεῖν δυνάμενον, πρός ἥν ἀργός παντάπασι διέμεινε καί ἀνέραστος, μόνοις ἐκείνοις συμφύεσθαι τοῖς αὐτήν ὁλοσχερῶς ἀγαπήσασι πεφυκυίας, καί τοῦ πρός αὐτήν εἴνεκα πόθου πάντα τά ἀλγεινά προθύμως μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ὑπομείνασι.
Κόλπους δέ Ἀβράαμ ἀκούοντας τόν ἐκ σπέρματος Ἀβράαμ τόν κατά σάρκα ἡμῖν ἐπιφανέντα νοήσομεν Θεόν, τόν ὄντως πάντων χορηγικόν καί πᾶσι τοῖς ἀξίοις τῆς χάριτος ἀναλόγως τῇ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ἑκάστου ποιότητί τε καί ποσότητι, οἷόν τινας
Lazarus, having joyfully embraced with courage the deprivation of these things—as both his sickness and his poverty make clear, the one effecting his alienation from the world and the other his alienation from the body—was deemed worthy to receive rest in the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man who clung to these things was left outside that repose, having gained nothing else from the life of the flesh except to be punished endlessly on its account, since he neither possessed the present life—which, desiring it alone, he embraced, though it is by nature unstable in its flux—nor was able to partake of the life to come, toward which he remained entirely idle and without love; for that life is naturally joined only to those who have wholly loved it and who, for the sake of longing toward it, have willingly endured all painful things with pleasure.
By the bosom of Abraham, hearing of the God who appeared to us in the flesh from the seed of Abraham, we shall understand Him who is truly the provider of all things and who grants to all who are worthy of grace in proportion to each one's quality and quantity of virtue, as it were certain
διαφόρως νομάς ἀμερῶς ἑαυτόν ἐπιμερίζοντα καί τοῖς μετέχουσιν οὐδ᾿ ὁπωσοῦν συνδιατεμνόμενον, διά τήν κατά φύσιν ἄτμητον ὀντότητα τῆς ἑνότητος, κἄμπαλιν διά τήν διάφορον ἀξίαν τῶν μετεχόντων ταῖς μετοχαῖς παραδόξως καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἄῤῥητον ἀφοριστικῶς ἐπιφαινόμενον (οἶδεν ὁ λόγος), πρός ὅν οὐδείς διαβῆναι δυνήσεται θρύψει χαίρων σαρκός, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ μακαρίας δόξης τῇ τοῦ κόσμου ἀπάτῃ πλέον ἡδόμενος, οὐδέ στήσεται μετά τοῦ τόν κόσμον νικήσαντος ὁ τῷ κόσμῳ ἡττηθείς καί ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ κακῶς εἰδώς ἀγαλλόμενος. Οὐκ εἶναι γάρ ἄξιον ἔκρινεν ἡ θεία δικαιοσύνη, τούς τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ τά κατά τόν ἄνθρωπον περιγράφοντας, καί πλούτῳ καί ὑγείᾳ σώματος καί τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀξιώμασιν ἁβρυνομένους, καί τοῦτο μόνον μακάριον κρίνοντας, τά δέ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀγαθά παρ᾿ οὐδέν τιθεμένους, τῶν θείων καί αἰωνίων μεταλαχεῖν ἀγαθῶν, ὧν οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἐφρόντισαν, διά τήν πολλήν περί τά ὑλικά σπουδήν ἀγνοήσαντας ( ὅσον πλούτου καί ὑγείας καί τῶν ἄλλων προσκαίρων ἀγαθῶν αἱ ἀρεταί ὑπερέχουσιν.
distributing itself indivisibly in different distributions and in no way being divided together with those who partake, because of the naturally indivisible oneness of its unity, and again, because of the different worth of those who partake, appearing paradoxically in the participations in an ineffable union by way of separation (the word knows this), toward whom no one will be able to cross over, rejoicing in the crushing of the flesh and taking more pleasure in the deception of the world than in his blessed glory, nor will the one defeated by the world stand with the one who conquered the world, exulting evilly in it. For divine justice judged it unworthy that those who circumscribe the things of man by this life, and who luxuriate in wealth and bodily health and the other dignities, and who judge this alone to be blessed, and who count the goods of the soul as nothing, should partake of the divine and eternal goods, which they did not care about at all, having been ignorant of them because of their great zeal for material things (how much the virtues surpass wealth and health and the other temporary goods.
ΝΑ (51). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΡΕΤΩΝ Θεωρία περί ἀρετῶν.
Μόναι γάρ καί σύν τοῖς ἄλλοις αἱ ἀρεταί μακάριον ποιοῦσιν τόν ἄνθρωπον. Μετά μέν τῶν ἄλλων, κατά πλάτος, ὥς τις ἔφη τῶν τά θεῖα σοφῶν, μόναι δέ καί καθ' ἑαυτάς, κατά περιγραφήν νοεῖται, ὡς δίπηχυ, τά δέ κατά πλάτος, ὡς σωρός. Σωροῦ γάρ κἄν δύο μεδίμνους ἀφέλῃς, τό λειπόμενον μένει σωρός· καί τῆς δέ κατά πλάτος μακαριότητος ἄν ἀφέλῃς τά τοῦ σώματος καί τῶν ἐκτός ἀγαθά, καταλίπῃς δέ μόνας τάς ἀρετάς, μένει καί οὕτως ἀνελλιπές τό μακάριον. Αὐτάρκης γάρ καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν τῷ ἔχοντι πρός εὐδαιμονίαν ἡ ἀρετή. Πᾶς οὖν κακός ἄθλιος, κἄν πάντα συλήβδην ἔχῃ τά λεγόμενα τῆς γῆς ἀγαθά, τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐστερημένος· καί πᾶς ἀγαθός μακάριος, κἄν πάντων ἐστέρηται τῶν ἐπί γῆς ἀγαθῶν, ἔχων τῆς ἀρετῆς τήν λαμπρότητα, μεθ᾿ ἧς Λάζαρος τήν ἐν κόλποις Ἀβράαμ ἀνάπαυσιν ἔχων ἀγάλλεται. ΝΒ (52). ΑΛΛΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, «ΕΑΝ ΣΤΑΥΡΩΘΗΣ ΩΣ ΛΗΣΤΗΣ» Ἄλλη θεωρία εἰς τό, "Ἐάν σταυρωθῇς ὡς λῃστής».
51. Contemplation on the Virtues
For the virtues alone, even along with other things, make a person blessed. With other things, in breadth, as one of the divine wise men said, but alone and by themselves, in circumscription, it is understood as two cubits, while things in breadth are as a heap. For even if you take two medimni from a heap, what remains remains a heap; and if from the breadth of blessedness you take away the goods of the body and of external things, and leave only the virtues, blessedness remains even so without deficiency. For virtue is sufficient by itself for the one who possesses it, for happiness. Therefore every evil person is wretched, even if he has all the so-called goods of the earth gathered together, being deprived of the virtues; and every good person is blessed, even if he is deprived of all the goods on earth, having the splendor of virtue, with which Lazarus, having rest in the bosom of Abraham, rejoices.
52. Another contemplation on the text, "If you are crucified as a thief
Κἄν αὖθις λῃστής ἐστιν εὐγνώμων ὁ καταξιωθείς συσταυρωθῆναι Χριστῷ διά τῆς παντελοῦς καί ὁλοκλήρου τῶν παθῶν ἐκκρούσεως, καί δεξιῶς αὐτῷ συσταυρούμενος, τουτέστι μετά λόγου καί γνώσεως πᾶσαν διεξιών ἀρετήν, καί ἀπρόσκοπον πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις τόν βίον διατηρῶν, καί μηδεμίαν ἔχων τό παράπαν τῆς τοῦ λόγου πραότητος ἀπᾴδουσαν δι᾿αὐστηρότητα κίνησιν, ἀγνώμων δέ λῃστής ἐστιν ὁ δόξης ἕνεκεν ἤ λημμάτων ( ἁδροτέρων τοῖς φαινομένοις τρόποις ὑπούλως τόν κατ' ἀρετήν βίον ὑποκρινόμενος, καί ἕνα καί μόνον πρός τούς ἔξω τόν κόλακα λόγον ἀντί πάσης ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως μετερχόμενος, πρός δέ τούς συνήθεις σκολιός τις τήν γνώμην τῶν παντάπασιν ὤν καί δυσάντητος, ὅν δεῖ μάλα γε τήν ὁδόν τοῦ Θεοῦ βλασφημοῦντα μετά συνέσεως ἐπιστομίζειν. Ἴσως γάρ παύσεται τοῦ διαβάλλειν διά τῆς οἰκείας ἀναστροφῆς τόν λόγον, τῇ παραινέσει τοῦ ἐπιπλήσσοντος, ὥσπερ ἐπί τοῦ σταυροῦ πέπονθεν ὁ τήν βλασφημίαν ἀδεῶς προσενέγκας λῃστής. Τό γάρ μή ἀντιφθέγξασθαι τῷ ἐπιπλήξαντι σημεῖον ἔχει τῆς τοῦ ῥηθέντος ἀποδοχῆς λόγου τήν σιωπήν. Καθ᾿ ἥντινα γοῦν τῶν εἰρημένων τῷ Χριστῷ συσταυρούμεθα, σπουδάσωμεν, ὥς ἐσμεν ἐνταῦθα, τόν συσταυρούμενον ἡμῖν ἰλεώσασθαι Λόγον, καί τήν ἀψευδῆ δέξασθαι κατά συνείδησιν καταρθεῖσαν τῶν πλησσόντων αὐτήν νοημάτων τῆς ἀναπαύσεως ἐπαγγελίαν, εἴπερ ἡ σήμερον τήν ἐνεστῶσαν τούτου τοῦ αἰῶνος ἡμέραν ἐνδείκνυται (Σήμερον γάρ, φησίν, ἔσῃ μετ᾿
And again, the grateful thief is the one who has been deemed worthy to be crucified together with Christ through the complete and entire expulsion of the passions, and who is crucified together with him on the right, that is, who traverses every virtue with reason and knowledge, and keeps his life blameless before all people, and has no movement at all of harshness discordant with the gentleness of the Word; while the ungrateful thief is the one who, for the sake of glory or of gain, secretly and under plausible manners hypocritically counterfeits the life according to virtue, and pursues one single flattering word toward outsiders in place of all virtue and knowledge, but toward those who are familiar with him is crooked in his disposition and altogether hard to encounter, whom one must certainly, with understanding, silence as he blasphemes the way of God. For perhaps he will cease from slandering the Word through his own manner of life, by the admonition of the one who rebukes him, just as happened on the cross to the thief who boldly offered the blasphemy. For not to answer back to the one who rebuked him has as a sign of the acceptance of the word spoken the silence. In whichever of the things said we are crucified together with Christ, let us strive, as we are here, to propitiate the Word who is crucified together with us, and to receive the unlying promise of rest, according to the conscience that has been cleansed of the thoughts that strike it, if indeed the today indicates the present day of this age (For today, he says, you shall be with
ἐμοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ), ἡ δέ αὔριον τήν τοῦ μέλλοντος, καθ᾿ ἥν οὐδεμίαν μέν ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐκδέχεσθαι χρή μόνην δέ τῆς ἑκάστῳ πρεπούσης κατ᾿ ἀξίαν ἀμοιβῆς τῶν βεβιωμένων ἀντίδοσιν.
ΝΓ (53). ΑΛΛΗ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΑΠΟΡΟΥΝΤΑΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ... «ΥΨΗΛΗΣ ΥΨΗΛΟΤΕΡΑ, ΚΑΙ..».
Ἄλλη θεωρία πρός τούς ἀποροῦντας περί τοῦ ῥητοῦ τοῦ ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῶν Ἐγκαινίων τοῦ λέγοντος, «Ὑψηλῆς ὑψηλοτέρα, καί θαυμασίας θαυμασιωτέρα». Καί αὖθις τήν μέν πρώτην Κυριακήν τῆς μελλούσης φυσικῆς ἀναστάσεως καί ἀφθαρσίας εἶναι σύμβολον, τήν δέ δευτέραν τῆς κατά χάριν μελλούσης θεώσεως φέρειν εἰκόνα. Εἰ τοίνυν ( τῆς μέν καθαρευούσης κακῶν ἕξεως ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀπόλαυσίς ἐστι τιμιωτέρα, τῆς δέ κατ᾿ ἀρετήν ὑγιοῦς προαιρέσεως ἡ ἕξις τῆς κατά τήν ἀληθῆ γνῶσιν τελειότητος, καί τῆς φυσικῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἡ ἐν χάριτι πρός τόν Θεόν κατά τήν θέωσιν μεταποίησις, ὧν ἡ μέν πρώτη Κυρικάη φέρει τύπον, ἡ δέ δευτέρα τυγχάνει σύμβολον, εἰκότως ὑψηλῆς ὑψηλοτέραν ἀγόμενος Πνεύματι τήν καινήν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἔφη Κυριακήν.
of me in paradise), and the other the day of the coming age, according to which one must expect no forgiveness of sins, but only the requital of the recompense befitting each according to worth for the life that has been lived.
53. Another contemplation, addressed to those who are perplexed about the saying in the discourse of the Encaenia that says, "Higher than the high, and more wonderful than the wonderful."
Another contemplation, addressed to those who are perplexed about the saying in the discourse of the Encaenia that says, "Higher than the high, and more wonderful than the wonderful." And again, the first Lord's Day is a symbol of the coming natural resurrection and incorruption, while the second bears the image of the coming deification according to grace. If, then, the enjoyment of good things is more honorable than a state purified of evils, and the possession of perfection according to true knowledge is more honorable than a sound disposition according to virtue, and the transformation in grace toward God according to deification is more honorable than natural incorruption—of which the first Lord's Day bears the type, while the second happens to be the symbol—with good reason the teacher, being led by the Spirit, called the new Lord's Day "higher than the high.
ΝΔ (54). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ, ΔΙ' ΗΣ ΤΟΝ ΘΕΟΝ ΕΚ ΤΩΝ ΚΤΙΣΜΑΤΩΝ ΟΙ ΑΓΙΟΙ ΕΔΙΔΑΣΚΟΝΤΟ Θεωρία φυσική, δι᾿ ἧς τόν Θεόν ἐκ τῶν κτισμάτων οἱ ἅγιοι ἐδιδάσκοντο. Οὕτω μέν οὖν τήν κτίσιν κατανοήσαντες θεωρία οἱ ἅγιοι, καί τήν εὐκοσμίαν αὐτῆς καί τήν ἀναλογίαν καί τήν χρείαν, ἥν ἕκαστον παρέχεται τῷ παντί, καί ὡς τέλεια πάντα σοφῶς τε καί προνοητικῶς καθ᾿ ὅν δεδημιούργηνται λόγον δεδημιουργημένα, καί ὡς οὐχ οἷόντε ἄλλως γε καλῶς ἔχειν τά γενόμενα παρ᾿ ὅ νῦν ἔχει, προσθήκης ἤ ἀφαιρέσεως πρός τό καλῶς ἄλλως ἔχειν μή δεόμενα τόν Δημιουργόν ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων ἐδιδάχθησαν· οὕτω δέ τήν διαμονήν, τήν τε τάξιν καί τήν θέσιν τῶν γεγονότων, καί τήν διεξαγωγήν, καθ᾿ ἥν πάντα κατά τό οἰκεῖον ἕκαστα εἶδος ἔστηκεν ἀσύγχυτα καί παντός ἐλεύθερα φυρμοῦ, τήν τε τῶν ἄστρων φοράν κατά τόν αὐτόν τρόπον γινομένην, μηδέν μηδέποτε διαλλάττουσαν, καί τόν κύκλον τοῦ ἑνιαυτοῦ κατά τήν τῶν αὐτῶν ἀπό τοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τόν αὐτόν τόπον ἀποκατάστασιν εὐτάκτως γινόμενον, τῶν τε νυκτῶν καί τῶν ἡμερῶν τήν κατ᾿ ἔτος ἰσότητα, παρά μέρος ἑκατέρας αὐξανομένης τε καί μειουμένης, οὔτε πλείονι οὔτε ἐλάττονι μέτρῳ τῆς αὐξήσεως αὐταῖς ἤ τῆς μειώσεως ἐπιγινομένης, προνοητήν ἠπίστησαν εἶναι τῶν ὄντων, ὅν καί Θεόν καί Δημιουργόν τῶν ὅλων ἐπέγνωσαν. ΝΕ (55). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΦΥΣΙΚΗ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΑΡΧΗΝ ΕΧΕΙΝ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΓΕΝΕΣΙΝ... ( Θεωρία φυσική περί τοῦ ἀρχήν ἔχειν τόν κόσμον καί γένεσιν, καί πᾶν ἄλλο μετά Θεόν.
54. NATURAL CONTEMPLATION, THROUGH WHICH THE SAINTS WERE TAUGHT GOD FROM THE CREATURES. Natural contemplation, through which the saints were taught God from the creatures. Having thus understood creation in contemplation, the saints—both its good order and its proportion and the service that each thing provides to the whole, and that all things have been created perfectly, wisely and providentially, according to the reason on account of which they were created, and that the things that have come to be could not be otherwise well-ordered than they now are, needing neither addition nor subtraction in order to be otherwise well-ordered—were taught the Creator from his own works. And in this way, having understood the permanence, the order and the position of the things that have come to be, and the orderly progression according to which all things stand, each according to its own kind, unconfused and free from all mixture, and the motion of the stars occurring in the same manner, never varying in anything, and the cycle of the year occurring in good order according to the return of the same stars from the same place to the same place, and the yearly equality of nights and days, each in turn increasing and decreasing, with neither a greater nor a lesser measure of increase or decrease coming upon them—they believed that the one who provides for beings is the one whom they also recognized as God and Creator of all things. 55. NATURAL CONTEMPLATION CONCERNING THE WORLD HAVING A BEGINNING AND COMING TO BE... Natural contemplation concerning the world having a beginning and coming to be, and everything else after God.
Τίς γάρ τό κάλλος καί τό μέγεθος τῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ κτισμάτων θεώμενος οὐκ εὐθύς αὐτόν γενεσιουργόν ἐννοήσει, ὡς ἀρχήν καί αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων καί Ποιητήν, καί πρός αὐτόν μόνον ἀναδραμεῖται τῇ διανοίᾳ, ταῦτα ἀφείς κάτω, ὅτι μηδέ πέφυκε τῆς διανοίας χωρεῖν τόν ὅλην διάβασιν, λαβεῖν παθῶν ἀμέσως ὅν διά μέσων τῶν ἔργων ἐγνώρισε, καί τήν περί τοῦ ἄναρχον εἶναι τόν κόσμον ἑαυτοῦ πλάνην ἑτοίμως ἀπώσεται, λογιζόμενος ἀληθῶς ὅτι πᾶν κινούμενον πάντως καί ἤρξατο τῆς κινήσεως. Πᾶσα δέ κίνησις οὐκ ἄναρχος, ἐπειδή οὐδέ ἀναίτιος. Ἀρχήν
γάρ ἔχει τό κινοῦν, καί αἰτίαν ἔχει τό καλοῦν τε καί ἕλκον πρός ὅ καί κινεῖται τέλος. Εἰ δέ πάσης κινήσεως παντός κινουμένου τό κινοῦν ἐστιν ἀρχή, καί τέλος ἡ πρός ἥν φέρεται τό κινούμενον αἰτία (οὐδέν γάρ ἀναιτίως κινεῖται), οὐδέν δέ τῶν ὄντων ἀκίνητον, εἰ μή τό πρώτως κινοῦν (τό γάρ πρώτως κινοῦν πάντως ἀκίνητον, ὅτι καί ἄναρχον), οὐδέν ἄρα τῶν ὄντων ἐστίν ἄναρχον, ὅτι μή καί ἀκίνητον. Πάντα γάρ κινεῖται τά ὁπωσοῦν ὄντα, δίχα τῆς μόνης καί ἀκινήτου καί ὑπέρ πάντα αἰτίας, τά μέν νοερά τε καί λογικά, γνωστικῶς τε καί ἐπιστημονικῶς, ὅτι μή αὐτογνῶσις ἤ αὐτοεπιστήμη ἐστίν. Οὔτε γάρ οὐσία αὐτῶν ἡ γνῶσις αὐτῶν ἐστι καί ἡ ἐπιστήμη, ἀλλ᾿ ἕξεις τῇ αὐτῶν οὐσίᾳ ἐπιθεωρούμεναι, ἐκ τῆς κατά νοῦν καί λόγον (τάς συστατικάς αὐτῶν λέγω δυνάμεις) ὀρθῆς κρίσεως ἐπιγενόμεναι. Ν (56). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΣΥΣΤΟΛΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑΣΤΟΛΗΣ ΟΥΣΙΑΣ, ΠΟΙΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΣΟΤΗΤΟΣ...
For who, contemplating the beauty and magnitude of God's creatures, will not immediately conceive of him as the Creator, as the beginning and cause of beings and Maker, and run back in thought to him alone, leaving these things below—since it is not even natural for the mind to traverse the whole passage, to grasp without passions him whom it has known through the medium of his works—and readily thrust away his own error that the world is without beginning, reasoning truly that everything moved has certainly also begun its movement? And every movement is not without beginning, since it is not without cause. For it has as its beginning the mover, and it has as its cause the one calling and drawing it toward the end to which it is also moved. But if the mover is the beginning of every movement of everything moved, and the end is the cause toward which the moved thing is borne (for nothing is moved without cause), and nothing among beings is unmoved except the first mover (for the first mover is certainly unmoved, since it is also without beginning), then nothing among beings is without beginning, except what is also unmoved. For all things that exist in any way are moved, apart from the one and only unmoved and supra-all cause—those that are intellectual and rational moved cognitively and scientifically, because they are not self-knowledge or self-science. For neither is their knowledge and science their substance, but habits contemplated upon their substance, arising from right judgment according to mind and reason (I mean the powers that constitute them). N (56). CONTEMPLATION CONCERNING CONTRACTION AND EXPANSION OF SUBSTANCE, AND OF QUALITY AND QUANTITY...
Θεωρία περί συστολῆς καί διαστολῆς οὐσίας, ποιότητός ( τε καί ποσότητος, καθ᾿ ἥν ἄναρχοι εἶναι οὐ δύνανται. Ἀλλά καί αὐτή ἡ ἁπλῶς λεγομένη οὐσία οὐ μόνον ἡ τῶν ἐν γενέσει καί φθορᾷ κατά γένεσιν κινεῖται καί φθοράν, ἀλλά καί ἡ τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων καί κεκίνηται καί κινεῖται τῷ κατά διαστολήν καί συστολήν λόγῳ τε καί τρόπῳ. Κινεῖται γάρ ἀπό τοῦ γενικωτάτου γένους διά τῶν γενικωτέρων γενῶν εἰς τά εἴδη δι᾿ ὧν καί εἰς ἅ διαιρεῖσθαι πέφυκε, προϊοῦσα μέχρι τῶν εἰδικωτάτων εἰδῶν οἷς περατοῦται ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν διαστολή, τό εἶναι αὐτῆς πρός τά κάτω περιγράφουσα, καί συνάγεται πάλιν ἀπό τῶν εἰδικωτάτων εἰδῶν διά τῶν γενικωτέρων ἀναποδίζουσα μέχρι τοῦ γενικωτάτου γένους, ᾧ περατοῦται ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν συστολή, πρός τό ἄνω τό εἶναι αὐτῆς ὁρίζουσα, καί λοιπόν διχόθεν περιγραφομένη, ἄνωθέν τε λέγω καί κάτωθεν, ἀρχήν καί τέλος ἔχουσα δείκνυται, τόν τῆς ἀπειρίας οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἐπιδέξασθαι δυναμένη λόγον.
Ὡσαύτως δέ καί ἡ ποσότης, οὐ μόνον ἡ τῶν ἐν γενέσει καί φθορᾷ παντί τρόπῳ ᾧ πέφυκε θεωρεῖσθαι κατ᾿ αὔξησιν κινεῖται καί μείωσιν, ἀλλά καί ἡ πᾶσα καί πάντων τῷ κατ' ἄνεσιν καί ἐπίτασιν λόγῳ κινουμένη καί ταῖς κατά μέρος διαφοραῖς κατά διαστολήν εἰδοποιουμένη περιγράφεται, τό ἄπειρον χεῖσθαι οὐκ ἔχουσα, καί συνάγεται πάλιν ἀναποδίζουσα, τό κατ' αὐτάς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τό συμφυές εἶδος ἀπολύουσα. Ὁμοίως δέ καί ἡ ποιότης, οὐ μόνον ἡ τῶν ἐν γενέσει καί φθορᾷ κινεῖται κατ᾿ ἀλλοίωσιν, ἀλλά καί ἡ πᾶσα καί πάντων, τῷ τρεπτῷ τε καί σκεδαστῷ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν διαφορᾶς κινουμένη, διαστολήν καί συστολήν ἐπιδέχεται.
A contemplation concerning the contraction and expansion of essence, and of quality and quantity, according to which they cannot be without beginning. But even the essence spoken of simply, not only that of things in generation and corruption, is moved according to generation and corruption, but also that of all beings both has been moved and is moved by the principle and mode of expansion and contraction. For it is moved from the most general genus through the more general genera into the species, through which and into which it is naturally divided, proceeding as far as the most specific species, by which the expansion according to it is bounded, circumscribing its being toward things below; and it is gathered again from the most specific species, returning back through the more general genera as far as the most general genus, by which the contraction according to it is bounded, defining its being toward things above; and henceforth being circumscribed from both sides, I mean from above and from below, it is shown to have a beginning and an end, being wholly unable to admit the principle of infinity.
Likewise also quantity, not only that of things in generation and corruption, is moved in every mode in which it is naturally contemplated, according to increase and decrease, but also the whole quantity of all things, moved by the principle of remission and intensity and specified in its partial differences by expansion, is circumscribed, having no share in the infinite; and it is gathered again, returning back, releasing the form according to them, but not the connatural form. Similarly also quality, not only that of things in generation and corruption, is moved according to alteration, but also the whole quality of all things, moved by the changeable and dispersible character of the difference according to it, admits expansion and contraction.
Οὐδείς δέ τό πεφυκός σκεδάννυσθαί τε καί συνάγεσθαι λόγῳ ἤ ἐνεργείᾳ εἴποι ἄν εὐφρονῶν ἀκίνητον εἶναι παντάπασιν. Εἰ δέ μή ἀκίνητον, οὐδέ ἄναρχον· εἰ δέ μή ἄναρχον, οὐδέ ἀγένητον δηλονότι, ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ οἶδεν ἠργμένον κινήσεως τό κινούμενον, οὕτως καί τῆς πρός τό εἶναι γενέσεως ( ἦρχθαι τό γεγενημένον ἐπίσταται, καί ἐκ τοῦ μόνου καί ἑνός ἀγενήτου τε καί ἀκινήτου τό εἶναί τε καί τό κινεῖσθαι λαβόν. Τό δέ κατά τήν τοῦ εἶναι γένεσιν ἠργμένον οὐδαμῶς ἄναρχον εἶναι δύναται. ΝΖ (57). ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΙΣ ΤΟΥ, «ΠΑΝ ΟΤΙΟΥΝ ΑΝΕΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΠΑΝΤΩΣ ΕΝ ΤΟΠΩ, ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΤΟ..».
Ἀπόδειξις τοῦ, Πᾶν ὁτιοῦν ἄνευ Θεοῦ πάντως ἐν τόπῳ, καί διά τοῦτο ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί ἐν χρόνῳ, καί ὅτι τό ἐν τόπῳ πάντως κατά χρόνον καί ἦρκται τοῦ εἶναι. Ἵνα δέ ἐάσω λέγειν ὅτι καί αὐτό τό εἶναι τῶν ὄντων, τό πῶς εἶναι ἔχον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ὅπερ ἐστί πρῶτον εἶδος περιγραφῆς, ἰσχυρόν τε καί μέγα πρός ἀπόδειξιν
τοῦ ἦρχθαι κατ᾿ οὐσίαν καί γένεσιν τά ὄντα, τίς ἀγνοεῖ ὅτι παντός τοῦ ὁπωσοῦν ὄντος, πλήν τοῦ θείου καί μόνου, τοῦ καί ὑπέρ αὐτό τό εἶναι κυρίως ὑπάρχοντος, προεπινοεῖται τό ποῦ, ᾧ πάντη τε καί πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης συνεπινοεῖται τό πότε. Οὐ γάρ τοῦ ποτέ διωρισμένον κατά στέρησιν δυνατόν ἐστιν ἐπινοῆσαι τό ποῦ (τῶν γάρ ἅμα ταῦτά ἐστιν, ἐπειδή καί τῶν οὐκ ἄνευ τυγχάνουσιν) ἤ δέ τοῦ ποῦ τό ποτέ, ᾧ συνεπινοεῖσθαι πέφυκεν, οὐδαμῶς διώρισται κατά στέρησιν. Ὑπό τό ποῦ δέ πάντα, ὡς ἐν τόπῳ ὄντα, δείκνυται.
No one of sound mind would say that a nature capable of being dispersed and gathered, whether in principle or in activity, is altogether motionless. And if not motionless, neither is it without beginning; and if not without beginning, then clearly neither is it unbegotten. But just as the moved thing knows that it has begun to move, so too the thing that has come to be knows that it has begun to come into being, and has received both its being and its motion from the one and only unbegotten and motionless source. That which has begun in respect of the generation of its being can in no way be without beginning.
PROOF OF THE STATEMENT, "EVERYTHING WHATSOEVER WITHOUT GOD IS ENTIRELY IN PLACE, AND FOR THIS REASON..."
A proof of the statement that everything whatsoever without God is entirely in place, and for this reason necessarily also in time, and that what is in place has necessarily also begun to be in time. But to pass over saying that even the very being of things that exist—the how of their being, not being simply—which is the first form of circumscription, is strong and great for the proof that existing things have begun in respect of essence and generation—who does not know that for everything that exists in any way at all, except the divine and alone, which properly exists even beyond being itself, the "where" is conceived beforehand, and with it the "when" is necessarily and in every way co-conceived? For it is not possible to conceive the "where" as separated from the "when" by way of privation (for these belong to the same things, since they are among things that are not without each other), nor is the "when" in any way separated by privation from the "where," with which it is naturally co-conceived. And all things are shown to be under the "where," as existing in place.
Οὐ γάρ ὑπέρ τό πᾶν αὐτό τό πᾶν τοῦ παντός (τοῦτο γάρ πως καί ἄλογον καί ἀδύνατον αὐτό τό πᾶν ὑπέρ τό ἑαυτοῦ πᾶν θεσπίζειν), ἀλλ᾿ ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν περιγραφήν ἔχον, μετά τήν πάντα περιγράφουσαν τοῦ παναιτίου ἄπειρον δύναμιν, αὐτό τό πέρας ἑαυτοῦ τό ἐξώτερον. Ὅπερ καί τόπος ἐστί τοῦ παντός, καθώς καί ὁρίζονταί τινες τόν τόπον λέγοντες, Τόπος ἐστίν ἡ ἔξω τοῦ παντός περιφέρεια, ἤ ἡ ἔξω τοῦ παντός ( θέσις, ἤ τό πέρας τοῦ περιέχοντος ἐν ᾧ περιέχεται τό περιεχόμενον.
Καί ὑπό τό ποτέ, ὡς ἐν χρόνῳ πάντως ὄντα, συναποδειχθήσεται, ἐπειδή μή ἁπλῶς, ἀλλά πῶς τό εἶναι ἔχουσι, πάντα ὅσα μετά Θεόν τό εἶναι ἔχει. Καί διά τοῦτο οὐκ ἄναρχα. Πᾶν γάρ ὅπερ καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν τόν τοῦ πῶς ἐπιδέχεται λόγον, κἄν εἰ ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἦν. Ὅθεν τό Θεῖον εἶναι λέγοντες οὐ τό πῶς εἶναι λέγομεν· καί διά τοῦτο καί τό " Ἔστι" καί τό " Ἦν" ἁπλῶς καί ἀορίστως καί ἀπολελυμένως ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λέγομεν. Ἀνεπίδεκτον γάρ παντός λόγου καί νοήματος τό Θεῖόν ἐστι, καθ᾿ ὅ οὔτε κατηγοροῦντες αὐτοῦ τό εἶναι λέγομεν αὐτό εἶναι. Ἐξ αὐτοῦ γάρ τό εἶναι, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτό τό εἶναι. Ὑπέρ γάρ ἐστι καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ εἶναι, τοῦ τε πῶς καί ἁπλῶς λεγομένου τε καί νοουμένου. Εἰ δέ πῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἔχει τά ὄντα τό εἶναι, ὥσπερ ὑπό τοῦ ποῦ εἶναι διά τήν θέσιν καί τό πέρας τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς κατά φύσιν λόγων, καί ὑπό τό ποτέ πάντως εἶναι διά τήν ἀρχήν ἐπιδέξεται. ΝΗ (58). ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΜΗ ΔΥΝΑΣΘΑΙ ΑΠΕΙΡΟΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ, ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΟΥΤΕ ΑΝΑΡΧΟΝ ΠΑΝ...
For the whole is not beyond the whole of itself (for this is in some way both irrational and impossible, that the whole itself should decree itself to be beyond its own whole), but having its boundary from itself in itself, after the infinite power of the Cause of all that encompasses all things, it is itself the outer limit of itself. And this is also the place of the whole, just as some define it, saying that place is the outer circumference of the whole, or the outer position of the whole, or the limit of that which contains, in which the contained is contained.
And it will be demonstrated together with the "once," as being altogether in time, since all things that have their being after God have their being not simply but in some way. And for this reason they are not without beginning. For everything that admits the principle of the "how" in any respect, even if it is, nevertheless it was not. Hence, when we say that God is, we do not say how he is; and for this reason we say both "is" and "was" of him simply and indefinitely and absolutely. For the Divine is incapable of receiving any principle or thought, inasmuch as, when we predicate being of it, we do not say that it is being. For from it comes being, but it is not being itself. For it is beyond even being itself, whether being is spoken and thought of as "how" or simply. But if existing things have their being in some way and not simply, just as they are under the "where" because of position and the limit of the principles in them according to nature, they will also altogether admit the "once" because of their beginning. NH (58). PROOF THAT IT CANNOT BE INFINITE, AND FOR THIS REASON NEITHER WITHOUT BEGINNING, THE WHOLE...
Ἀπόδειξις τοῦ μή δύνασθαι ἄπειρον εἶναι, καί διά τοῦτο οὔτε ἄναρχον πᾶν, εἴ τι κατά τήν ἐν πλήθει ποσότητα ἔχει τό εἶναι. Καί πάλιν εἰ ἡ πάντων οὐσία πολλῶν ὄντων τῶν πάντως ἄπειρος εἶναι οὐ δύναται (πέρας γάρ ἔχει αὐτῶν τῶν πολλῶν ὄντων τήν ἐν πλήθει ποσότητα, περιγράφουσαν αὐτῆς τόν τε τοῦ εἶναι καί τοῦ πῶς εἶναι λόγον, οὐ γάρ ἄφετος ἡ πάντων οὐσία), οὐδέ ἡ τοῦ καθ᾿ ἕκαστον δῆλον ὑπόστασις ἔσται δίχα περιγραφῆς, ( ἀλλήλαις τῷ ἀριθμῷ καί τῇ οὐσίᾳ κατά λόγον περιγεγραμμέναι. Εἰ δέ περιγραφῆς οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων ἐλεύθερον, πάντα τά ὄντα δηλονότι ἀναλόγως ἑαυτοῖς καί τό ποτέ εἶναι καί τό "ποῦ εἶναι" εἴληφε. Τούτων γάρ ἄνευ τό παράπαν οὐδέν εἶναι δυνήσεται, οὐκ οὐσία, οὐ ποσότης, οὐ ποιότης, οὐ σχέσις, οὐ ποίησις, οὐ πάθος, οὐ κίνησις, οὐχ ἕξις, οὐχ ἕτερόν τι τῶν οἷς τό πᾶν περικλείουσιν οἱ περί ταῦτα δεινοί. Οὐδέν οὖν τῶν ὄντων ἄναρχον, ᾧ τι ἕτερον προεπινοεῖσθαι, οὐδέ ἀπερίγραφον ᾧ τι ἕτερον συνεπινοεῖσθαι δύναται. Εἰ δέ τῶν ὄντων οὐδέν ἄναρχον ἤ ἀπερίγραφον, ὡς ἔδειξε ἀκολούθως τῇ φύσει τῶν ὄντων ἑπόμενος ὁ λόγος, ἦν πάντως ποτέ ὅτε τι τῶν ὄντων οὐκ ἦν· εἰ δέ οὐκ ἦν, πάντως γέγονεν, εἴπερ οὐκ ἦν. Οὐ γάρ ἄμφω ἐνδέχεται καί εἶναι καί γίνεσθαι χωρίς τροπῆς καί ἀλλοιώσεως. Εἰ γάρ ἦν καί γέγονεν, ἐτράπη, εἰς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν μεταχωρῆσαν κατά τήν γένεσιν, ἤ ἠλλοιώθη, προσθήκην οὖ ἐστέρητο κάλλους ἐπιδεξάμενον. Πᾶν δέ τρεπόμενον, ἤ ἀλλοιούμενον, ἤ ἐλλιπές εἴδους, αὐτοτελές εἶναι οὐ δύναται.
A demonstration that it is impossible for anything to be infinite, and for this reason neither is the whole without beginning, if it has its being in quantity in plurality. And again, if the essence of all things, since the things that exist are many, cannot be altogether infinite (for it has a limit—the quantity in plurality of the many things that exist, which circumscribes the principle of its being and of how it is; for the essence of all things is not unbounded), then clearly neither will the subsistence of each individual thing be without circumscription, but they are circumscribed by one another in number and in essence according to principle. But if nothing among existing things is free from circumscription, then all existing things have evidently received, in a manner analogous to themselves, both the "when" of their being and the "where" of their being. For without these nothing at all will be able to exist—not essence, not quantity, not quality, not relation, not action, not passion, not motion, not state, nor anything else of the things by which those skilled in these matters encompass the whole. Nothing, then, among existing things is without beginning, such that something else could be conceived before it, nor is anything uncircumscribed, such that something else could be conceived together with it. But if nothing among existing things is without beginning or uncircumscribed, as the argument, following consistently the nature of existing things, has shown, then there certainly was once a time when something among existing things did not exist; and if it did not exist, it has certainly come to be, if indeed it did not exist. For it is not possible for both to be and to come to be at once without turning and alteration. For if it was and has come to be, it was turned, having passed over in generation into what it was not, or it was altered, having received an addition of beauty of which it had been deprived. But everything that is turned or altered or lacking in form cannot be self-perfect.
Τό δέ μή ὄν αὐτοτελές, ἑτέρου πάντως προσδεηθήσεται, τοῦ παρέχοντος αὐτῷ τήν τελειότητα, καί ἔστι τέλειον μέν τό τοιοῦτον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτοτελές, διά τό μή φύσει, μεθέξει δέ τό τέλειον
ἔχειν. Τό δέ ἑτέρου προσδεόμενον πρός τελείωσιν καί πρός αὐτό τό εἶναι πολλῷ μᾶλλον προσδεηθήσεται.
Εἰ γάρ εἴδους κρείττων, ὥς φασιν, ἡ οὐσία καθέστηκε, ταύτην δέ ἑαυτῷ παρασχεῖν ἤ ἁπλῶς ἔχειν δεδύνηται ἐκεῖνο τό ὄν, ὅπερ αὐτοί φάναι βούλονται, πῶς πρός τό ἔχειν ἁπλῶς ἤ παρασχεῖν ἑαυτῷ τό ἦττον, φημί δέ τό εἶδος, οὐκ ἐπήρκεσε; Εἰ δέ πρός τό παρασχεῖν ἑαυτῷ τό ἦττον, ἤ ἁπλῶς ἔχειν ἐκεῖνο τό ὄν, ὅπερ εἴ τε οὐσίαν, εἴ τε ὕλην καλεῖν βούλονται οἱ τό ἄναρχον τοῖς μετά Θεόν καί ἐκ Θεοῦ προσάπτειν τολμῶντες (οὐ γάρ περί τούτου διαφερόμεθα ) οὐκ ἐπήρκεσε, πῶς τό κρεῖττον, αὐτό τό εἶναί ( φημι, ἤ ἁπλῶς ἤ παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ ἔχειν δεδύνηται, τό πρός τό ἔχειν τό ἦττον ἀδυνατῆσαν; Εἰ δέ παρ᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἤ ἁπλῶς ἔχειν τό ἦττον οὐδαμῶς ἡ ὕλη δεδύνηται, πολλῷ μᾶλλον αὐτό τό εἶναι ἁπλῶς, ἤ πῶς παρ᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἔχειν οὐ δυνηθήσεται. Ἅρ᾿ οὖν ἡ πρός τό ἔχειν, ὡς δέδεικται, τό ἦττον, λέγω δέ τό εἶδος, ἀτονήσασα οὐδέ τό κρεῖττον, αὐτό τό εἶναί φημι, κἄν ὁπωσοῦν ἔχειν δυνηθείη ποτέ. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο, πάντως ἐκ Θεοῦ τό εἶναι τοῖς οὖσι καί τό εἶδος δεδώρηται, ἐπείπερ εἰσίν· εἰ δέ ἐκ Θεοῦ πᾶσα οὐσία, καί ὕλη καί εἶδος ἅπαν ἐστίν, οὐδείς ἄν μή πάντη σώφρονος λογισμοῦ ἐστερημένος εἰπεῖν ἀνάσχοιτο ἄναρχον ἤ ἀγένητον τήν ὕλην, Θεόν εἰδώς τῶν ὄντων ποιητήν καί δημιουργόν. ΝΘ (59). ΑΠΟΔΕΙΞΙΣ ΟΤΙ ΠΑΝ ΚΙΝΟΥΜΕΝΟΝ... ΑΠΕΙΡΟΝ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΟΥ ΔΥΝΑΤΑΙ...
What is not self-complete will altogether need another, one that provides it with perfection; and such a thing is indeed perfect, but not self-complete, because it has its perfection not by nature but by participation. And what needs another for perfection will much more need it for its very being.
For if, as they say, substance is superior to form, and that being which they wish to call it has been able to provide this to itself or simply to possess it, how did it not suffice for possessing simply or providing to itself the lesser, I mean form? But if it did not suffice to provide to itself the lesser, or simply to possess that being which they wish to call either substance or matter—those who dare to ascribe the without-beginning to things after God and from God (for we are not at variance about this)—how has it been able to possess the superior, being itself (I mean, either simply or from itself), when it was unable to possess the lesser? But if matter has in no way been able to possess the lesser from itself or simply, much more will it not be able to possess being itself simply, or from itself. Therefore, having been powerless, as has been shown, to possess the lesser, I mean form, could it ever possess the superior, I mean being itself, in any way whatever? But if this is so, then being and form have been altogether granted to existing things by God, since they exist; but if every substance is from God, and matter and form are wholly from him, no one who is not entirely deprived of sound reasoning would endure to say that matter is without beginning or ungenerated, knowing God to be the maker and craftsman of existing things. 59. Demonstration that everything that is moved... cannot be infinite...
Ἀπόδειξις ὅτι πᾶν κινούμενον, ἤ ἄλλῳ διαφόρῳ κατά τήν οὐσίαν ἐξ ἀϊδίου συνθεωρούμενον, ἄπειρον εἶναι οὐ δύναται, καί ὅτι ἡ δυάς οὔτε ἀρχή ἐστιν, οὔτε ἄναρχος, καί ὅτι ἡ μονάς μόνη κυρίως ἀρχή καί ἄναρχος. Καί πάλιν, εἰ ἦν, ὥς τινές φασιν, ἡ ὕλη, οὐ γέγονε δηλονότι, εἰ δέ μή γέγονεν, οὐδέ κινεῖται, εἰ δέ μή κινεῖται, οὔτε τοῦ εἶναι ἤρξατο, εἰ δέ τοῦ εἶναι μή ἤρξατο, πάντως ἄναρχον, εἰ δέ ἄναρχον, καί ἄπειρον, εἰ δέ ἄπειρον, πάντως καί ἀκίνητον (ἀκίνητον γάρ πάντως τό ἄπειρον, οὐ γάρ ἔχει ποῦ κινηθῆναι τό μή ὁριζόμενον), εἰ δέ τοῦτο, δύο πάντως τά ἄπειρα καί ἄναρχα καί ἀκίνητα, Θεός καί ὕλη, ὅπερ εἶναι ἀμήχανον. Δυάς γάρ οὔτε ἄπειρος, οὔτε ἄναρχος, οὔτε ἀκίνητος, οὔτε μή ἀρχή καθόλου τινός εἶναι δυνήσεται, καθ᾿ ἕνωσίν τε καί διαίρεσιν περιγραφομένη, καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν μέν ὡς ὕπαρξιν ἔχουσα τῶν μονάδων τήν σύνθεσιν, ὑφ᾿ ὧν ὡς μερῶν περιέχεται καί εἰς ἅς ὡς μέρη τέμνεσθαι ( δύναται (οὐδέν δέ διαιρετόν ἤ διαιρούμενον, ἤ σύνθετον ἤ συντιθέμενον, κατά φύσιν ἤ θέσιν ἤ ἄλλον τινά ἐπινοηθῆναι δυνάμενον τρόπον, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ αὐτή ἡ ἁπλῶς λεγομένη διαίρεσις ἤ σύνθεσις, ἄπειρον εἶναι δυνήσεται, ὅτι μή καί ἁπλοῦν καί μόνον, καί μή ἀριθμητόν ἤ ἀριθμούμενον ἤ συναριθμούμενον, ἤ πάσης ἁπλῶς ἐλεύθερον τῆς οἱασδήποτε σχέσεως· πάντα γάρ ταῦτα ἐν σχέσει θεωρεῖται, τό δέ ἄπειρον ἄσχετον, οὐ γάρ ἔχει τι κατά σχέσιν συνημμένον παντάπασι), κατά διαίρεσιν δέ ὡς ἀριθμῷ κινουμένη, ἐξ οὗπερ ἤρξατό τε καί ὑφ᾿ οὗ περιέχεται, ἐπείπερ οὐ φύσει τό εἶναι καί ἄσχετον ἔχει.
A demonstration that everything that is moved, or is contemplated from eternity together with something else different in essence, cannot be infinite; and that the dyad is neither a principle nor without beginning; and that the monad alone is properly a principle and without beginning. And again, if matter existed, as some say, then clearly it did not come to be; but if it did not come to be, it is not moved either; but if it is not moved, it did not begin to be; but if it did not begin to be, it is altogether without beginning; but if it is without beginning, it is also infinite; but if it is infinite, it is altogether also immovable (for the infinite is altogether immovable, since what is not bounded has no place to be moved); but if this is so, then there are altogether two things infinite, without beginning, and immovable—God and matter—which is impossible. For the dyad is neither infinite, nor without beginning, nor immovable, nor can it be a principle of anything at all, being circumscribed both by unity and by division: by unity, in that it has its existence as the composition of monads, by which as parts it is contained and into which as parts it can be divided (and nothing divisible or being divided, or composite or being composed, whether by nature or position or any other conceivable manner—nor indeed division or composition itself, simply so called—can be infinite, since it is not also simple and alone, and not numberable or being numbered or co-numbered, or simply free from every relation of whatever kind; for all these things are contemplated in relation, but the infinite is without relation, for it has nothing at all joined to it by relation); and by division, in that it is moved by number, from which it both began and by which it is contained, since it does not have its being and its freedom from relation by nature.
Ἀριθμῷ γάρ πᾶσα δυάς καί πᾶσα μονάς εἰς μέρος αὐτῆς συντελοῦσα εἶναι καθέστηκε, καθ᾿ ὅν ἀλλήλων αἱ κατ᾿ αὐτήν μονάδες, ἀφαιροῦνται τό ἀπερίγραφον. Οὐδείς δέ μεμοιραμένος καί ὁπωσοῦν τοῦ λογίζεσθαι εἴποι ἄν ἄπειρον εἶναι ᾧ ἐξ ἀϊδίου συνθεωρεῖταί τι ἤ συνεπιθεωρεῖται κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διάφορον, εἰδώς διαπεσεῖσθαι πάντως αὐτῷ τόν περί τοῦ ἀπείρου λόγον οὕτω φρονοῦντι. Τό γάρ ἄπειρον κατά πάντα καί λόγον καί τρόπον ἐστίν ἄπειρον, κατ᾿ οὐσίαν, κατά δύναμιν, κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν, κατ᾿ ἄμφω τά πέρατα, τό ἄνω τε λέγω καί τό κάτω, τουτέστι κατά τήν ἀρχήν καί τό τέλος. Ἀχώρητον γάρ κατά τήν οὐσίαν, καί ἀπερινόητον κατά τήν δύναμιν, καί κατά τήν ἐνέργειαν ἀπερίγραφον, καί ἄναρχον ἄνωθεν, καί ἀτελεύτητον κάτωθέν ἐστι τό ἄπειρον, καί ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, καί πάντα
ἀόριστον, ὡς οὐδενός τό παράπαν καθ᾿ ἕνα τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων τρόπων συνεπινοηθῆναι αὐτῷ δυναμένου. Καθ᾿ ὅν γάρ ἄν εἴποιμεν λόγον ἤ τρόπον δύνασθαί τι ἕτερον αὐτῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διάφορον παραβάλλεσθαι, τόν ὅλον τῆς ὅλης ἀπειρίας αὐτῷ συναφαιρούμεθα λόγον. Εἰ δέ ἄπειρόν τι εἶναι οὐ δύναται ᾧ ἐξ ἀϊδίου συνυπάρχει ἕτερόν τι κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διάφορον, ἄπειρον εἶναι οὐδαμῶς ἐνδέχεται δυάδα. Αἱ γάρ κατ᾿ αὐτήν μονάδες ἀλλήλαις κατά παράθεσιν συνυπάρχουσαι ( ἀλλήλας ὁρίζουσιν, οὐδετέρας τήν ἑτέραν ἀορίστως ὁρᾶσθαι συγχωρούσης, παρακειμένην, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὑπερβαίνουσαν ἐχούσης, καί τόν τῆς ἀπειρίας εἰκότως ἀλλήλων συναφαιροῦνται λόγον.
For every dyad and every monad is established by number as contributing to a part of itself, according to which the monads within it are mutually removed from the unbounded. But no one who has any share whatsoever in reasoning would say that that is infinite to which something different in essence is from eternity contemplated together or additionally contemplated, knowing that the account of the infinite will altogether collapse for him who thinks so. For the infinite is infinite in every respect and account and mode: in essence, in power, in activity, in both its limits—I mean the upper and the lower, that is, the beginning and the end. For the infinite is incomprehensible in essence, inconceivable in power, unbounded in activity, without beginning from above, and without end from below; and to speak simply and more truly, it is in all respects
indeterminate, since nothing at all in any one of the enumerated modes can be conceived together with it. For in whatever account or mode we say that something else different in essence can be set beside it, we thereby remove from it the whole account of its entire infinity. But if that cannot be infinite to which something else different in essence from eternity coexists, then a dyad can in no way be infinite. For the monads within it, coexisting with one another by juxtaposition, limit one another (neither allowing the other to be seen indefinitely, but having it placed alongside, not surpassing), and they reasonably remove from one another the account of infinity.
Εἰ δέ ἄπειρον, ὡς δέδεικται, μή ἐνδέχεται εἶναι δυάδα, οὔτε ἄναρχον δηλονότι, ἀρχή γάρ πάσης δυάδος μονάς· εἰ δέ μή ἄναρχον οὐδέ ἀκίνητον, κινεῖται γάρ τῷ ἀριθμῷ ἐκ μονάδων κατ᾿ ἕνωσιν, καί εἰς αὐτά κατά διαίρεσιν τό εἶναι λαμβάνουσα· εἰ δέ μή ἀκίνητον, οὐδέ ἄλλου τινός ἀρχήν εἶναι. Τό γάρ κινούμενον οὐκ ἀρχή, ἀλλ᾿ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, δηλαδή τοῦ κινοῦντος. Μονάς δέ μόνη κυρίως ἀκίνητος, ὅτι μήτε ἀριθμός ἐστι, μήτε ἀριθμητόν ἤ ἀριθμούμενον (οὔτε γάρ μέρος ἤ ὅλον ἤ σχέσις ἐστίν ἡ μονάς), καί κυρίως ἄναρχος, ὅτι μηδέτερον ἑαυτῆς ἔχει πρεσβύτερον, ἐξ οὗ κινουμένη δέχεται τό εἶναι μονάς, καί ἄπειρον κυρίως, ὅτι μηδέν ἔχει συνυπάρχον ἤ συναριθμούμενον, καί ἀρχή κυρίως, ὅτι παντός καί ἀριθμοῦ καί ἀριθμουμένου καί ἀριθμητοῦ αἰτία τυγχάνει, ὡς πάσης σχέσεως καί παντός μέρους καί ὅλου ἐξῃρημένη, καί κυρίως καί ἀληθῶς, πρώτως δέ καί μόνως καί ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὕπως, πρώτη τε μονάς ὑπάρχουσα καί μόνη. Καί τοῦτο λέγοντες οὐκ αὐτήν ὡς ἔστι σημαίνομεν τήν μακαρίαν θεότητα, ἀπείρως κατά πάντα καί λόγον καί τρόπον καί νῷ καί λόγῳ παντί καί ὀνόματι ἀπρόσιτον οὖσαν παντελῶς καί ἀπροσπέλαστον, ἀλλ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς ὅρον τῆς εἰς αὐτήν πίστεως παρέχομεν βάσιμον καί ἡμῖν ἐφικτόν τε καί πρόσφορον.
If, as has been shown, a dyad cannot be infinite, then clearly it cannot be without beginning either, for the monad is the beginning of every dyad. And if it is not without beginning, neither is it unmoved; for it is moved by number, receiving its being from monads through unity and into them through division. And if it is not unmoved, neither can it be the beginning of anything else. For what is moved is not a beginning, but is from a beginning, namely from that which moves it. But the monad alone is properly unmoved, because it is neither number nor something numbered nor something being numbered (for the monad is neither part nor whole nor relation), and it is properly without beginning, because it has nothing older than itself from which, being moved, it receives its being as a monad; and it is properly infinite, because it has nothing coexisting with it or counted together with it; and it is properly a beginning, because it happens to be the cause of every number and of everything numbered and countable, being exempt from every relation and every part and whole—and properly and truly so, but primarily and uniquely and simply. Yet in speaking thus we do not signify the blessed Godhead as it is, which is in every way infinitely inaccessible and unapproachable by every mind and word and name and manner and reason, but we provide for ourselves a boundary of faith in it that is walkable and attainable and suitable for us.
Οὐ γάρ ὡς παραστατικόν πάντως τοῦτο, φημί δέ τό τῆς μονάδος ὄνομα, τῆς θείας καί μακαρίας οὐσίας ὁ θεῖος διαγορεύει λόγος, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐνδεικτικόν τῆς παντελοῦς αὐτῆς ἁπλότητος τῆς ἐπέκεινα πάσης ποσότητός τε καί ποιότητος, καί τῆς οἱασδήποτε σχέσεως, ἵνα γνῶμεν ὄτι μή ὅλον τί ἐστιν ὡς ἐκ μερῶν τινων, μηδέ τι μέρος ἐστίν ἐξ ὄλου τινός. Ὑπεράνω γάρ πάσης διαιρέσεώς τε καί συνθέσεως καί μέρους καί ὅλου ἡ θεότης, ( ὅτι ἄποσον, καί πάσης τῆς κατά θέσιν ὑπάρξεως καί τῆς πῶς εἶναι αὐτήν ὁριζομένης ἐννοίας ἀπῳκισμένη, ὅτι ἄποιον, καί τῆς πρός ἄλλο πᾶν πάσης συναφείας τε καί οἰκειότητος ἐλευθέρα καί ἄφετος, ἄσχετον γάρ τό πρό αὐτῆς ἤ μετ᾿ αὐτῆς ἤ μετ᾿ αὐτήν οὐκ ἔχουσα, ὡς πάντων ἐπέκεινα, καί μηδενί τῶν ὄντων κατ᾿ οὐδένα λόγον ἤ τρόπον συντεταγμένη.
Καί τοῦτο τυχόν ἐννοήσας ὁ μέγας καί θεῖος Διονύσιός φησι· "Διό καί μονάς ὑμνουμένη καί τριάς, ἡ ὑπέρ πάντα θεότης, οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε μονάς, οὔτε τριάς, ἤ πρός ἡμῶν ἤ ἄλλου τινός διεγνωσμένη, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα καί τό ὑπερηνωμένον αὐτῆς καί τό θεογόνον ἀληθῶς ὑμνήσωμεν, τῇ τριαδικῇ καί ἑνιαία θεονυμίᾳ τήν ὑπερώνυμον ὠνομάσαμεν, καί τοῖς οὖσι τήν ὑπερούσιον. " Οὐδαμῶς οὖν τις δυάδα ἤ πλῆθος ἄναρχον, ἤ ἀρχήν τό σύνολόν τινος εἶναι λέγειν δυνήσεται, ζῇν εὐσεβῶς δι᾿ ἀληθείας βεβουλημένος.
For the divine Word does not declare this name of the monad—I mean the name of the monad—to be in every way indicative of the divine and blessed essence, but as showing its complete simplicity, which is beyond all quantity and quality and every kind of relation, so that we may know that it is not a whole composed of certain parts, nor a part of some whole. For the Godhead is above all division and composition and part and whole (because it is without quantity), and is far removed from every existence by position and from every concept that defines how it is (because it is without quality), and is free and released from every conjunction and affinity with anything else at all, for it has nothing before it or with it or after it, being without relation, as beyond all things, and is not ranked with any of beings in any way or manner.
And perhaps understanding this, the great and divine Dionysius says: "Therefore the Godhead beyond all things, hymned as monad and triad, is neither monad nor triad, as discerned by us or by anyone else, but in order that we may truly hymn its super-unified and God-begotten [aspects], we have named it by the triadic and unitary divine naming that is beyond every name, and we have named the supersubstantial [name] for beings." No one, then, who wishes to live piously through the truth will be able in any way to say that a dyad or a multitude is without beginning, or that the totality of anything is a beginning.
Εἷς γάρ διά πάσης τῆς κατά λόγον καί νοῦν θεωρητικῆς δυνάμεως καί ἐπιστήμης αὐτῷ Θεός ἀναφανήσεται, πάσης ἀπειρίας ὑπάρχων ἐπέκεινα, καί μηδενί καθόλου τῶν ὄντων καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν, πλήν τοῦ διά πίστεως μόνον γινώσκεσθαι, καί τοῦτο ἐκ τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων ὅτι ἐστίν, οὐχ ὅτι ποτέ ἐστι διεγνωσμένος, καί παντός αἰῶνος καί χρόνου καί πάντων τῶν ἐν αἰῶνι καί χρόνῳ ποιητής τε καί δημιουργός, οὐδέν τό παράπαν ἐξ ἀϊδίου καθ᾿ ὁντιναοῦν τρόπον αὐτῷ συνεπινοῶν, εἰδώς ὅτι μηδέτερον τῶν ἅμα κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν ἀλλήλοις ἐξ ἀϊδίου
συνόντων εἶναι δύναται τοῦ ἑτέρου ποιητικόν. Ἀσυλλόγιστον γάρ τοῦτο παντάπασι καί ἀνένδεκτον, καί τοῖς νοῦν ἔχουσι καταγέλαστον ἐπί τῶν ἐχόντων ἅμα τό εἶναι ποιεῖσθαι ἄλλο ἄλλου ποιητικόν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀεί ὄντος τά πάντα ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος γενέσθαι παντελῶς τε καί ὁλικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ μερικῶς τε καί ἀτελῶς, ὡς ἐξ αἰτίας ἀπειρογνώστου καί ἀπειροδυνάμου σοφῶς ( παρηγμένα, δέξηται, καί ἐν αὐτῷ συνεστηκέναι τά πάντα, ὡς ἐν παντοκρατορικῷ πυθμένι φρουρούμενά τε καί διακρατούμενα, καί εἰς αὐτόν τά πάντα ἐπιστρέφεσθαι, καθάπερ εἰς οἰκεῖον ἕκαστα πέρας, ὡς που φησιν ὁ μέγας Ἀρεοπαγίτης Διονύσιος. Ξ (60). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΑΠΟΔΕΙΚΤΙΚΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΦΥΣΙΝ ΕΠΙ ΠΑΝΤΩΝ ΤΗΝ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΠΡΟΝΟΙΑΝ Θεωρία ἀποδεικτική τοῦ εἶναι κατά φύσιν ἐπί πάντων τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ πρόνοιαν.
For God will appear to him as one through the whole of his contemplative power and knowledge according to reason and intellect, being beyond all infinity, and known by nothing at all of existing things in any respect, except only through faith, and this from his own works—that he is, not that he has been discerned as to what he is—and as maker and creator of every age and time and of all things in age and time, conceiving nothing at all alongside him from eternity in any way whatever, knowing that neither of two things that coexist with each other in existence from eternity can be the maker of the other. For this is utterly inconclusive and inadmissible, and ridiculous to those who have understanding—that among things which have their existence together, one should make another its maker. But that all things came to be from God who eternally is, out of non-being, completely and wholly, and not partially and imperfectly, as brought forth wisely from a cause unknowable and infinite in power, and that all things are held together in him, as guarded and sustained in an all-ruling foundation, and that all things are turned back to him, as each to its own proper end, as the great Dionysius the Areopagite says somewhere. 60. Demonstrative contemplation that the providence of God is by nature over all things. Demonstrative contemplation that the providence of God is by nature over all things.
Καί προνοητήν αὐτόν εἶναι πεισθήσεται τῶν ὄντων, δι᾿ ὧν ὅτι καί Θεός ἐστιν ἐδιδάχθη, δίκαιον εἶναι κρίνων καί εὔλογον, μή ἄλλον εἶναι φύλακα καί ἐπιμελητήν τῶν ὄντων ἤ μόνον τόν τῶν ὄντων δημιουργόν. Αὐτή γάρ ἡ τῶν ὄντων διαμονή καί ἡ τάξις καί ἡ θέσις καί ἡ κίνησις, καί ἡ ἐν ἀλλήλοις τῶν ἄκρων διά τῶν μέσων συνοχή, μηδέν κατά τήν ἐναντιότητα λυμαινομένων ἀλλήλοις, ἤ τε τῶν μερῶν πρός τά ὅλα σύννευσις, καί τῶν ὅλων πρός τά μέρη δι᾿ ὅλου ἕνωσις, καί αὐτῶν πρός ἄλληλα τῶν μερῶν ἡ ἄμικτος διάκρισις κατά τήν ἰδιάζουσαν ἑκάστου διαφοράν, καί ἀσύγχυτος ἕνωσις κατά τήν ἀπαράλλακτον ἐν ὅλοις ταυτότητα, καί ἡ πάντων πρός πάντα, ἵνα μή τά καθ᾿ ἕκαστον λέγω, σύγκρισίς τε καί διάκρισις, καί ἡ πάντων καί ἑκάστου κατ᾿ εἶδος διαδοχή ἀεί φυλαττομένη, μηδενός τό παράπαν τοῦ οἰκείου τῆς φύσεως λόγου παραφθειρομένου καί πρός ἄλλο συγχεομένου τε καί συγχέοντος, δείκνυσι σαφῶς τά πάντα τῇ προνοίᾳ συνέχεσθαι τοῦ πεποιηκότος Θεοῦ. Οὐ γάρ οἷόν τέ ἐστιν ἀγαθόν ὄντα τόν Θεόν μή καί εὐεργετικόν πάντως εἶναι, μηδέ εὐεργετικόν ὄντα μή καί προνοητικόν πάντως εἶναι, καί διά τοῦτο τῶν ὄντων θεοπρεπῶς ἐπιμελούμενον σοφῶς αὐτοῖς ὥσπερ τό εἶναι καί τήν κηδεμονίαν χαρίζεσθαι. Πρόνοια γάρ ἐστι κατά τούς θεοφόρους Πατέρας ἡ ἐκ Θεοῦ εἰς τά ὄντα γινομένη ἐπιμέλεια. Ὁρίζονται δέ αὐτήν καί οὕτως, Πρόνοιά ἐστι βούλησις Θεοῦ δι᾿ ἥν πάντα τά ὄντα τήν πρόσφορον διεξαγωγήν ( λαμβάνει.
And he will be persuaded that he is the provident caretaker of existing things, through the very things by which he was taught that he is also God, judging it just and reasonable that no other than the only Creator of existing things should be the guardian and overseer of existing things. For the very persistence of existing things, and their order and position and motion, and the cohesion of the extremes with one another through the intermediates, since nothing harms another by opposition, and the convergence of the parts toward the wholes, and the union of the wholes with the parts through the whole, and the unmixed distinction of the parts themselves from one another according to each one's peculiar difference, and their unconfused union according to the unvarying identity in the wholes, and the comparison and distinction of all things with all things—that I may not speak of each individually—and the succession of all things and of each according to species, always preserved, with nothing at all of the principle proper to its nature being corrupted and confused with another and confusing it, clearly show that all things are held together by the providence of God who made them. For it is not possible that God, being good, should not also be altogether beneficent, nor that, being beneficent, he should not also be altogether provident, and that for this reason, caring for existing things in a manner befitting God, he should wisely grant them both being and guardianship. For providence, according to the God-bearing Fathers, is the care that comes from God to existing things. And they also define it thus: Providence is the will of God through which all existing things receive the conduct that is fitting for them.
Εἰ δέ Θεοῦ βούλησίς ἐστιν, ἵνα αὐτοῖς τῶν διδασκάλων χρήσωμαι τοῖς λόγοις, πᾶσα ἀνάγκη κατά τόν ὀρθόν λόγον γίνεσθαι τά γινόμενα, τήν κρείττω μή ἐπιδεχόμεα τάξιν, αὐτόν οὖν εἶναι προνοητήν ἐκ παντός τρόπου εἰπεῖν ἐναχθήσεται ὁ τήν ἀλήθειαν ὁδηγόν ἔχειν ἑλόμενος, ὅν καί ποιητήν ἔγνω τῶν ὄντων ἀληθῶς, ἤ τοῦ πεποιηκότος τά ὄντα, εἴπερ κἀν τοῖς ζώοις, ὅταν ταῖς κατά λόγον ἐφόδοις τοῖς οὖσιν ἐμβαλόντες ἡμῶν τό νοερόν εὑρίσκομεν ἔμφασιν, οὐκ ἀγενῶς τά ὑπέρ λόγον εἰκάζουσαν. Ἐκεῖνά τε γάρ ὁρῶντες κατά γένος τῶν ἐξ αὐτῶν φυσικῶς ἐπιμελούμενα, θαῤῥοῦντες καί ἡμεῖς τόν περί τοῦ προνοητήν μονώτατον εἶναι τόν Θεόν πάντων τῶν ὄντων μετ᾿ εὐσεβοῦς παῤῥησίας εὐσεβῶς ἑαυτοῖς λόγον διοριζόμεθα, καί οὐ τῶν μέν, τῶν δέ οὔ, καθάπερ τινές τῶν τά ἔξω φιλοσοφησάντων, ἀλλά πάντων ὁμοῦ, κατά μίαν τῆς ἀγαθότητος καί ἀπαράλλακτον βούλησιν, τῶν τε καθόλου καί τῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστον, εἰδότες ὡς τῶν κατά μέρος πάντων τῷ μή προνοίας τυγχάνειν καί φυλακῆς τῆς πρεπούσης διαφθειρομένων καί τά καθόλου συνδιαφθαρήσεται (ἐκ γάρ τῶν κατα μέρος τά καθόλου συνίστασθαι πέφυκε), τήν περί τούτου λογικήν ἀπόδειξιν, διά τῆς εὐλόγου ἀντιστροφῆς πρός τήν ἀλήθειαν ὀρθῶς ποδηγοῦσαν, ἑαυτοῖς προβαλλόμενοι. Εἰ γάρ τά καθόλου ἐν τοῖς κατά μέρος ὑφέστηκεν, οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν τόν τοῦ καθ᾿ αὐτά εἶναί τε καί ὑφεστάναι λόγον ἐπιδεχόμενα τῶν κατά
If it is God's will that I use their words as teachers, then by right reason everything that happens must happen in accordance with it, admitting no higher order. Therefore he who has chosen to have truth as his guide will be compelled in every way to say that he himself is the provident caretaker—he who has truly known him as the maker of existing things, or rather of the one who made existing things—since even among living creatures, when by rational approaches we cast our intellect upon existing things and find an impression, it not unfittingly images things beyond reason. For seeing those creatures naturally caring for their offspring according to kind, we too, with pious boldness, confidently define for ourselves the pious account concerning God being the sole provident caretaker of all existing things—not of some and not of others, as certain of those who have philosophized outside the faith hold, but of all together, according to the one and unvarying will of goodness, both of universals and of particulars—knowing that if all particular things were corrupted by failing to obtain providence and proper guardianship, the universals too would be corrupted with them (for universals are naturally constituted from particulars), and setting before ourselves the rational demonstration concerning this, which through reasonable conversion rightly guides us to the truth. For if universals subsist in particulars, they in no way at all admit the principle of being and subsisting in themselves, apart from the particulars.
μέρος διαφθειρομένων παντί που δῆλόν ἐστιν ὡς οὐδέ τά καθόλου στήσεται. Τά μέρη γάρ ἐν ταῖς ὁλόγησι, καί αἱ ὁλότητες ἐν τοῖς μέρεσι καί εἰσί καί ὑφεστήκασι. Καί οὐδείς ἀντερεῖ λόγος· πλήν ὅτι ὑπό τῆς ἀληθείας ὥσπερ δεσμούμενοι ἄκοντες καί αὐτοί τῆς προνοίας τήν δύναμιν ἐξαγγέλλουσι καί διά πάντων διήκειν κατασκευάζουσι δι᾿ ὧν αὐτοῖς κατεσπούδασαν. Λέγοντες γάρ ὑπό τῆς προνοίας ἄγεσθαι μόνα τά καθόλου, λελήθασιν ἑαυτούς καί τῶν κατα μέρος εἶναι πρόνοιαν λέγοντες, ἐξ ἀνάγκης πρός τήν ἀλήθειαν, ἥν φεύγειν σπουδάζουσιν, ὑπαγόμενοι. Εἰ γάρ χάριν διαμονῆς τά καθόλου ( προνοίας ἀξιοῦσθαί φασι, ταύτης πολλῷ πρότερον ἀξιοῦσθαι τά κατά μέρος εἰσάγουσιν, ἐν οἶς ἡ τῶν καθόλου διαμονή καί ὑπόστασις. Συνεισάγεται γάρ ἀλλήλοις ταῦτα διά τήν κατά φύσιν ἀδιάλυτον πρός ἄλληλα σχέσιν, καί θατέρου πρός διαμονήν συντητουμένου, μηδέ τό ἕτερον ταύτης εἶναι τῆς φυλακῆς ἀλλότριον, καί ἑνός πάλιν τῆς πρός διαμονήν φυλακῆς διαπίπτοντες μηδέ τό ἄλλο ταύτης τυγχάνειν λέγει ἀκόλουθον. Ἄλλως τε δέ κατά τρεῖς τρόπους τό μή πάντων τῶν ὄντων προνοεῖν τόν Θεόν λέγεται. Ἤ γάρ ἀγνοεῖν αὐτόν λέγουσι τῆς προνοίας τήν μέθοδον, ἤ μή βούλεσθαι, ἤ μή δύνασθαι.
It is clear to everyone that if some parts are being corrupted, neither will the universals stand. For the parts exist and subsist in the wholes, and the wholes in the parts. And no argument will contradict this—except that, as if bound by truth, they themselves unwillingly proclaim the power of providence and establish that it extends through all things, by the very things they have taken pains over. For in saying that only the universals are guided by providence, they have unwittingly said that there is also providence over the particulars, being led by necessity to the truth which they strive to flee. For if they say that the universals are deemed worthy of providence for the sake of permanence, they introduce that the particulars are deemed worthy of it much sooner, since in these is the permanence and subsistence of the universals. For these are introduced together with one another because of their natural indissoluble relation to each other, and when the one is preserved for permanence, neither is the other alien to this guardianship; and again, when one falls away from the guardianship for permanence, it follows that neither does the other attain it. And in another way, it is said in three ways that God does not provide for all beings: for either they say that he is ignorant of the method of providence, or that he does not will it, or that he is not able.
Ἀλλά μήν κατά τάς κοινάς πάντων ἐννοίας ἀγαθός ὤν καί ὑπεράγαθος ὁ Θεός ἀεί πάντως τά καλά βούλεται καί πᾶσι, καί σοφός ὑπάρχων καί ὑπέρσοφος, μᾶλλον δέ πάσης σοφίας πηγή, γινώσκει πάντως τά συμφέροντα, καί δυνατός ὤν, μᾶλλον δέ ἀπειροδύναμος, ἐνεργεῖ πάντως θεοπρεπῶς ἐν πᾶσι τά ἐγνωσμένα αὐτῷ καί βεβουλημένα καλῶς καί συμφέροντα, ὡς ἀγαθός καί σοφός καί δυνατός, δεικνούμενος διά πάντων τῶν τε ὁρατῶν καί τῶν ἀοράτων, καί τῶν καθόλου καί τῶν μερικῶν, καί τῶν μικρῶν καί τῶν μεγάλων, καί πάντων τῶν κατά πᾶσαν τήν οἱανοῦν οὐσίαν τό εἶναι ἐχόντων, μηδέν ὑφιείς τῆς κατά τήν ἀγαθότητα καί τήν σοφίαν καί τήν δύναμιν ἀπειρίας, καί πάντα κατά τόν ἑκάστων τοῦ εἶναι λόγον πρός τε ἑαυτά καί ἄλληλα κατά τήν ἀδιάλυτον πάντων σχετικήν ἁρμονίαν τε καί διαμονήν συντηρῶν.
Τί δέ, αὐτήν καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν οὐ κατανοοῦμεν τήν φύσιν περί τοῦ εἶναι τήν ἐπί πάντα τοῦ Θεοῦ πρόνοιαν σαφῶς οὖσαν διδάσκαλον; Τεκμήριον γάρ οὐ μικρόν τοῦ φυσικῶς ἡμῖν ἐνεσπάρθαι τήν τῆς προνοίας γνῶσιν ἡ φύσις αὐτή δίδωσιν, ὁπηνίκα ἄν ἡμᾶς ἀδιδάκτως ὥσπερ ὠθοῦσα πρός τόν Θεόν διά τῶν εὐχῶν ἐν ταῖς ἐξαίφνης περιστάσεσιν ἐκεῖθεν ζητεῖν τήν σωτηρίαν παρασκευάζει. Ὑπ᾿ ἀνάγκης γάρ ἄφνω συλληφθέντες ἀπροαιρέτως, πρίς τινα καί σκέψασθαι, τόν Θεόν ἐπιβοώμεθα, ὡς ἄν ( τῆς προνοίας αὐτῆς πρός ἑαυτήν καί λογισμῶν χωρίς ἑλκούσης ἡμᾶς, καί τό τάχος τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν νοερᾶς νικώσης δυνάμεως, καί πάντων ἰσχυροτέραν τήν θείαν προδεικνυούσης βοήθειαν. Οὐκ ἄν δέ ἡμᾶς ἦγεν ἀπροαιρέτως ἡ φύσις ἐπί τό μή φύσιν ἔχον γίνεσθαι.
But indeed, according to the common conceptions of all, God, being good and beyond good, always in every way wills good things, and for all; and being wise and beyond wise, or rather the source of all wisdom, he knows in every way the things that are beneficial; and being powerful, or rather infinitely powerful, he works in every way in a manner befitting God, in all things, the things known to him and rightly and beneficially willed, as good and wise and powerful, being shown through all things both visible and invisible, both universal and particular, both small and great, and all things that have being in every kind of substance whatsoever, in no way relaxing the infinity of his goodness and wisdom and power, and preserving all things according to the principle of being of each, both toward themselves and toward one another, in accordance with the indissoluble relational harmony and permanence of all things.
But what? Do we not understand by itself the nature that is clearly a teacher concerning being—the providence of God over all things? For nature itself gives no small proof that the knowledge of providence has been sown in us by nature, whenever, as it were pushing us untaught toward God through prayers in sudden circumstances, it prepares us to seek salvation from there. For when suddenly seized by necessity, we involuntarily call upon God, before any reflection, as it were (providence itself drawing us to itself without reasoning, and the swiftness of the noetic power in us conquering, and showing the divine help to be stronger than all things. But nature would not have led us involuntarily toward that which does not have nature to become.
Πᾶν δέ τό ὁτῳοῦν φυσικῶς ἑπόμενον, ὡς πᾶσιν ἄδηλον, ἰσχυράν ἔχει καί ἀκαταμάχητον κατά τήν ἀπόδειξιν τῆς ἀληθείας τήν δύναμιν. Εἰ δέ ὅτι ἀκατάληπτος ἡμῖν τῆς τῶν κατά μέρος προνοίας ὁ λόγος, ὥσπερ οὖν καί ἔστι κατά τό, Ὦ ἀνεξερεύνητα τά κρίματα αὐτοῦ καί ἀνεξιχνίαστοι αἱ ὁδοί αὐτοῦ, διά τοῦτο φαῖεν μηδέ πρόνοιαν εἶναι, οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐροῦσι κατά τόν ἐμόν λόγον. Εἰ γάρ πολλή τίς ἐστιν ἡ διαφορά καί ἀκατάληπτος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἑκάστου πρός ἕκαστον καί ἡ πρός ἑαυτόν ἑκάστου ἑναλλαγή, ἔν τε βίοις καί ἤθεσι καί γνώμαις καί προαιρέσεσι καί ἐπιθυμίαις, ἐπιστήμαις τε καί χρείαις καί ἐπιτηδεύμασι καί αὐτοῖς τοῖς κατά ψυχήν λογισμοῖς ἀπείροις οὖσι σχεδόν, καί πᾶσι τοῖς καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν καί ὥραν ἐπισυμβαίνουσι συμμεταβαλλομένου (ἀγχίστροφον γάρ τοῦτο τό ζῶον ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὀξέως τοῖς καιροῖς καί ταῖς χρείαις συμμεταβαλλόμενον), ἀνάγκη πᾶσα καί τήν πρόνοιαν, προγνωστικῶς πάντα συνειληφυῖαν κατά περιγραφήν τά καθ᾿ ἕκαστα, διάφορόν τε καί ποικίλην φαίνεσθαι καί πολυσχιδῆ, καί τῇ τῶν πεπληθυσμένων ἀκαταληψίᾳ συνεκτεινομένην ἑκάστῳ
Everything that naturally follows upon anything whatsoever, as being evident to all, has a strong and invincible power in the demonstration of truth. But if, because the account of the providence concerning particular things is incomprehensible to us—just as indeed it is, according to the saying, "How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out"—they should say for this reason that there is not even providence, they will not speak rightly, in my account. For if there is a great and incomprehensible difference of each human being from each other, and the change of each in relation to himself, in lives and characters and opinions and choices and desires, and in knowledges and needs and pursuits and in the very reasonings of the soul, which are nearly infinite, and in all things that happen each day and hour, with man changing along with them (for this creature, man, is quick to turn, swiftly changing along with the times and needs), it is altogether necessary that providence too, having foreknowingly comprehended all particular things by circumscription, appear both diverse and varied and manifold, and, by the incomprehensibility of the multiplied particulars, be extended to each
προσφόρως καθ᾿ ἕκαστον καί πρᾶγμα καί νόημα, μέχρι καί τῶν ψιλῶν κινημάτων τῶν κατά ψυχήν καί σῶμα συνισταμένων, ἁρμόζεσθαι. Εἰ οὖν τῶν κατά μέρος ἀκατάληπτός ἐστιν ἡ διαφορά, καί τῆς ἁρμοζούσης αὐτοῖς εἰκότως προνοίας ἄπειρος ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ, ἐπειδή ἄπειρός τε καί ἄγνωστος ἡμῖν τῆς τῶν κατά μέρος προνοίας ὁ λόγος τυγχάνει, τήν ἰδίαν ἄγνοιαν ἀναίρεσιν ποιεῖσθαι τῆς πανσόφου τῶν ὄντων κηδημονίας ὀφείλομεν, πάντα δέ καί ἀνεξετάστως, θεοπρεπῶς τε καί συμφερόντως, τά ( τῆς προνοίας ἐφυμνεῖν ἔργα καί ἀποδέχεσθαι, καί καλῶς γίνεσθαι τά γινόμενα πιστεύειν, κἄν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἐστίν ἀνέφικτος. Πάντα δέ λέγων τά τῆς προνοίας φημί, οὐ γάρ τά κακῶς ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν κατά τόν τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν λόγον γινόμενα· ταῦτα γάρ τοῦ κατά τήν πρόνοιαν λόγου παντελῶς ἀλλότρια. Τόν μέν οὖν σημαινόμενον τρόπον περί τῆς τῶν ἁγίων κατά τόν λόγον καί τήν θεωρίαν δυνάμεώς τε καί χάριτος ὑπό τοῦ μεγάλου τούτου διδασκάλου κατά τό δυνατόν στοχαστικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀποφαντικῶς (πολλῷ γάρ ἀπολείπεται τῷ μέτρῳ τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἀληθείας ὁ ἡμέτερος νοῦς), διά τῶν εἰρημένων ὑποδραμών τῷ λόγῳ, καί ὥσπερ ἰχνηλατήσας, τοιόνδε καθ᾿ ὑπόνοιαν μόνον φημί.
...to be fitted in a fitting manner to each thing and thought, down even to the mere movements that consist in soul and body. If, then, the difference among particular things is incomprehensible, and the account of the providence that fittingly suits them is reasonably boundless, nevertheless, because the account of the providence over particular things happens to be boundless and unknown to us, we ought not to make our own ignorance a refutation of the all-wise care of beings, but rather to hymn and accept all the works of providence without examination, in a manner worthy of God and beneficial, and to believe that what comes to be comes to be well, even if the account is unattainable for us. And when I say all, I mean all the works of providence; for I do not mean the things that are done badly by us according to the principle of what is in our power—for these are wholly alien to the principle of providence. Having, then, run through in speech, as far as possible, in a conjectural rather than an assertoric manner, the meaning indicated by this great teacher concerning the power and grace of the saints according to the principle and the contemplation (for our mind falls far short in measure of the truth according to him), and having as it were tracked it by footprints, I say only the following by way of underlying sense.
ΞΑ (61). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΔΙΑΒΑΘΕΙΣΗΣ ΥΠΟ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΥΛΙΚΗΣ ΔΥΑΔΟΣ... Θεωρία διάφορος τῆς διαβαθείσης ὑπό τῶν ἁγίων ὑλικῆς δυάδος, καί τίς ἡ ἐν τῇ Τριάδι νοουμένη ἑνότης.
Διά δέ τοῦ ὑπέρ τήν ὑλικήν δυάδα γενέσθαι, διά τήν ἐν τῇ Τριάδι νοουμένην ἑνότητα, τό ὑπέρ τήν ὕλην γενέσθαι καί τό εἶδος, ἐξ ὧν τά σώματα, τούς ἁγίους λέγειν ὑπονοῶ αὐτόν, ἤ τήν σάρκα καί τήν ὕλην, ἅσπερ διασχόντας ἔφη Θεῷ συγγενέσθαι καί τῷ ἀκραιφνεστάτῳ κραθῆναι φωτί καταξιωθῆναι, τουτέστι τήν πρός τήν σάρκα τῆς ψυχῆς σχέσιν, καί διά τῆς σαρκός πρός τήν ὕλην, ἤ καθόλου εἰπεῖν, πάσης τῆς αἰσθητικῆς οὐσίας πρός τήν αἰσθητήν ἀποθεμένους φυσικήν οἰκειότητα, τῆς δέ θείας μόνης γνησίως ἐπιλαβομένους ἐφέσεως, διά τήν, ὡς ἔφην, νοουμένην ἐν Τριάδι ἑνότητα. Μέσην γάρ κειμένην Θεοῦ καί ὕλης τήν ψυχήν ἐγνωκότες, καί τάς πρός ἄμφω ἑνοποιούς δυνάμεις ἔχουσαν, τόν νοῦν λέγω πρός τόν Θεόν καί πρός τήν ὕλην αἴσθησιν, τήν μέν αἴσθησιν μετά τῶν αἰσθητῶν παντελῶς ἀπετινάξαντο, κατά τήν ἐν διαθέσει σχετικήν ἐνέργειαν, κατά δέ τόν νοῦν μονώτατον ἀῤῥήτως αὐτήν τῷ Θεῷ προσῳκείωσαν, ( πρός ὅν ὅλον ἀγνώστως ἑνωθεῖσαν ὅλην ὡς ἀρχετύπου εἰκόνα κατά νοῦν καί λόγον καί πνεῦμα, ὡς ἐφικτόν καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν ἔχουσαν τό ἐμφερές θεασάμενοι, τήν ἐν τῇ Τριάδι νοουμένην ἑνότητα μυστικῶς ἐδιδάχθησαν.
Another contemplation of the material dyad that the saints passed through, and what is the unity that is understood in the Trinity.
By becoming beyond the material dyad, because of the unity understood in the Trinity, I surmise that he means the saints' becoming beyond matter and form, from which bodies come, or flesh and matter, which, he said, they passed through and were deemed worthy to be joined to God and mingled with the purest light—that is, the soul's attachment to the flesh, and through the flesh to matter, or, to speak generally, that they laid aside the natural affinity of the whole of sensible substance for the sensible, and genuinely grasped only the divine longing, because of the unity understood in the Trinity, as I said. For having known the soul to lie midway between God and matter, and to have unifying powers toward both—I mean the intellect toward God and sensation toward matter—they wholly shook off sensation together with sensible things, in the relational activity of disposition, and by the intellect alone they ineffably brought it near to God, (having contemplated it wholly united to him in an unknowing way, as an image of the archetype, having its likeness in intellect and reason and spirit, as far as is attainable, in similitude, they were mystically taught the unity understood in the Trinity.
Τυχόν δέ καί τόν θυμόν καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν ὑλικήν δυάδα προσηγόρευσεν ὁ διδάσκαλος, διά τό προσύλους καί τοῦ παθητικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς μέρους αὐτάς εἶναι δυνάμεις, καί πρός τόν λόγον στασιαζούσας, καί εἰς πολλά σκεδάσαι τόν νοῦν δυναμένας, εἰ μή ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπιστημόνως ἄγχων ἑαυτῷ ὑποζεύξειεν. Ὧν εἴ τις κρατήσειε καί ἐφ᾿ ἅ δεῖ πρεπόντως φέρεσθαι πείσειε, δουλικῶς ὑποζευγμένας τῇ δυναστείᾳ τοῦ λόγου, ἤ καί παντελῶς αὐτάς ἀπολιπών ἀπολίποι, καί μόνος τῆς ἀῤῥεποῦς κατ᾿ ἀγάπην γνωστικῆς διά λόγου καί θεωρίας ἔχεται θέλξεως, καί πρός μίαν καί μόνην ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν καθαράν τε καί ἁπλῆν καί ἀδιαίρετον τῆς κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν ἀῤῥενωτάτης δυνάμεως κίνησιν συνεστάλη, καθ᾿ ἥν περί Θεόν ἀκαταλήκτως ἐν ταυτότητι τῆς κατ᾿ ἔφεσιν ἀεικινησίας ἑαυτῷ φιλοσόφως ἐπήξατο τήν μονιμότητα, μακάριος ὄντως ἐστί τῆς ἀληθοῦς τε καί μακαρίας τυχών οὐ μόνον ἑνώσεως τῆς πρός τήν ἁγίαν Τριάδα, ἀλλά καί ἑνότητος τῆς ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ Τριάδι νοουμένης, ὡς ἁπλοῦς καί ἀδιαίρετος καί μονοειδής κατά τήν δύναμιν πρός τήν
Perhaps the teacher also called anger and desire a material dyad, because they are powers attached to matter belonging to the passible part of the soul, and because they rebel against reason, and are able to scatter the mind into many things, unless from the beginning one knowingly throttles and yokes them to oneself. If someone gains mastery over them and persuades them to be carried properly toward what they should, yoked slavishly to the dominion of reason, or even abandons them altogether and leaves them behind, and alone cleaves to the unwavering, in love, knowledge-giving delight through reason and contemplation, and is gathered toward one single, pure, simple, and undivided motion out of many—the most manly motion of the power of aspiration—in which, concerning God, ceaselessly, in the sameness of his ever-moving aspiration, he has philosophically fixed his stability for himself, he is truly blessed, having obtained not only the true and blessed union with the Holy Trinity, but also the unity that is understood in the Holy Trinity, as one simple and undivided and uniform in power toward the
ἁπλῆν καί ἀδιαίρετον κατά τήν οὐσίαν γεγενημένος, καί κατά τήν ἕξιν τῶν ἀρετῶν τήν ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν ἀγαθότητα κατά τό ἐφικτόν ἐκμιμούμενος, καί τήν ἰδιότητα τῶν κατά φύσιν μεριστῶν δυνάμεων διά τήν τοῦ ἑνωθέντος Θεοῦ χάριν ἀποθέμενος. ΞΒ (62). ΕΞΗΓΗΣΙΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΘΗΤΙΚΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΨΥΧΗΣ, ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩΝ ΔΙΑΙΡΕΣΕΩΝ...
Ἐξήγησις περί τοῦ παθητικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς, καί τῶν αὐτοῦ καθολικῶν διαιρέσεών τε καί ὑποδιαιρέσεων.
Διαιρεῖται γάρ, ὡς φασι, τό παθητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς εἴς τε τό ἐπιπειθές λόγῳ, καί τό μή πειθόμενον λόγῳ. Καί τό μέν λόγῳ ( μή πειθόμενον διαιροῦσιν εἰς τό θρεπτικόν, ὅ καλοῦσι φυσικόν, καί εἰς τό φυσικόν, ὅ καλοῦσι ζωτικόν, ὧν οὐδέτερον λόγῳ πειθόμενον ἄγεται· οὐκ ἐπιπειθές δέ λόγῳ καλεῖται, ἐπειδή μή πέφυκεν ἄγεσθαι λόγῳ. Τό γάρ αὐξάνειν, ἤ ὑγιαίνειν, ἤ ζῇν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν. Τό δέ ἐπιπειθές λόγῳ διαιρεῖται εἰς δύο, τό τε ἐπιθυμητικόν καί τό θυμικόν. Ἐπιπειθές δέ λόγῳ καλοῦσιν αὐτό, διότι λόγῳ πέφυκεν ἐν τοῖς σπουδαίοις ἄγεσθαί τε καί ὑποτάσσεσθαι. Πάλιν δέ τό ἐπιθυμητικόν διαιροῦσιν εἰς ἡδονήν καί λύπην. Ἐπιτυγχάνουσα γάρ ἐπιθυμία ἡδονήν ἐργάζεται, ἀποτυγχάνουσα δέ λύπην. Καί πάλιν καθ᾿ ἕτερον τρόπον φασί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν διαιρουμένην τέσσαρα σύν ἑαυτῇ τά πάντα εἴδη ποιεῖν, ἐπιθυμίαν, ἡδονήν, φόβον, καί λύπην. Καί ἐπειδή τῶν ὄντων τά μέν ἐστιν ἀγαθά, τά δέ φαῦλα, ταῦτα δέ ἤ παρόντα ἤ μέλλοντά ἐστι, προσδοκώμενον μέν ἀγαθόν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐκάλεσε, παρόν δέ ἡδονήν, καί πάλιν προσδοκώμενον κακόν φόβον, παρόν δέ λύπην·
...having become simple and undivided in essence, and imitating as far as attainable the goodness that is likewise disposed in the habit of the virtues, and having put aside the peculiarity of the powers that are divided according to nature, through the grace of the God who has been united. 62. An exposition concerning the passible part of the soul, and its universal divisions...
An exposition concerning the passible part of the soul, and its universal divisions and subdivisions.
For the passible part of the soul is divided, as they say, into that which is obedient to reason and that which does not obey reason. And they divide that which does not obey reason into the nutritive, which they call natural, and into the natural, which they call vital, neither of which is led by being obedient to reason; and it is called not obedient to reason because it is not by nature led by reason. For to grow, or to be healthy, or to live, is not in our power. But that which is obedient to reason is divided into two, the desiring and the spirited. And they call it obedient to reason because it is by nature led and subjected by reason in the earnest. Again, they divide the desiring into pleasure and pain. For desire attaining its object produces pleasure, but failing, pain. And again, in another way, they say that desire, being divided, produces with itself all four species: desire, pleasure, fear, and pain. And since of existing things some are good and some are base, and these are either present or future, the good that is expected they called desire, the present good pleasure, and again the evil that is expected fear, and the present evil pain.
ὡς εἶναί τε καί θεωρεῖσθαι περί μέν τά καλά, εἴτε τά ὄντως ὄντα, εἴτε τά νομιζόμενα, τήν ἡδονήν καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, περί δέ τά φαῦλα τήν λύπην καί τό φόβον.
Πάλιν δέ τήν λύπην διαιροῦσιν εἰς τέσσαρα, εἰς ἄχος, εἰς ἄχθος, εἰς φθόνον, εἰς ἔλεον. Καί τό μέν ἄχος εἶναί φασι λύπην ἀφωνίαν ἐμποιοῦσαν οἷς ἄν ἐγγένηται, διά τήν εἰς βάθος πάροδον τοῦ λογιστικοῦ· τό δέ ἄχθος λύπην βαροῦσάν τε καί διοχλοῦσαν ἐπ᾿ ἀβουλήτοις συμβάσεσι· τόν δέ φθόνον λύπην ἐπ᾿ ἀλλοτρίοις ἀγαθοῖς· τό δέ ἔλεος λύπην ἐπ' ἀλλοτρίοις κακοῖς. Κακόν δέ πᾶσαν λύπην ἔφασαν τῇ ἑαυτῆς φύσει. Κἄν γάρ ὁ σπουδαῖος ἐπ᾿ ἀλλοτρίοις λυπῆται κακοῖς, ὡς ἐλεήμων, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ προηγουμένως κατά πρόθεσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐφεπομένως κατά περίστασιν. Ὁ δέ θεωρητικός κἄν τούτοις ἀπαθής διαμένει, συνάψας ἑαυτόν τῷ Θεῷ, καί τῶν τῇδε παρόντων ἀλλοτριώσας.
Τόν δέ φόβον πάλιν διαιροῦσιν εἰς ἕξ, εἰς ὄκνον, εἰς αἰδώ, εἰς αἰσχύνην, εἰς κατάπληξιν, εἰς ἔκπληξιν, εἰς ἀγωνίαν. Καί ( τόν μέν ὄκνον εἶναί φασι, φόβον μελλούσης ἐνεργείας, τήν αἰδώ δέ φόβον ἐπί προσδοκίᾳ ψόγου, τήν δέ αἰσχύνην φόβον ἐπ᾿ αἰσχρῷ πεπραγμένῳ, τήν δέ κατάπληξιν, φόβον μεγάλης φαντασίας, τήν δέ ἔκπληξιν φόβον ἐκ μεγάλων ἀκουσμάτων τήν αἴσθησιν ἀφαιρούμενον, τήν ἀγωνίαν δέ φόβον διαπτώσεως, τουτέστιν ἀποτυχίας. Φοβούμενοι γάρ ἀποτυχεῖν ἀγωνιῶμεν. Καλοῦσι δέ τινες αὐτήν καί δειλίαν. Τόν δέ θυμόν πάλιν εἶναι λέγουσι ζέσιν τοῦ περικαρδίου αἵματος δι᾿ ὄρεξιν ἀντιλυπήσεως. Διαιροῦσι δέ καί τοῦτον εἰς τρία, εἰς ὀργήν, ἥν τινες ἐκάλεσαν χολήν καί χόλον, καί εἰς μῆνιν, καί εἰς κότον.
so as to be and to be contemplated in relation to good things—whether things truly existing or things thought to be—pleasure and desire, and in relation to base things, pain and fear.
Again they divide pain into four: into grief, into distress, into envy, into pity. And they say that grief is a pain producing speechlessness in those in whom it arises, because of the passage of the rational faculty into depth; and distress is a pain weighing down and troubling at unwished-for circumstances; and envy is a pain at others' goods; and pity is a pain at others' evils. And they said that all pain is evil by its own nature. For even if the earnest man feels pain at others' evils, as being merciful, yet not primarily by intention, but consequently by circumstance. But the contemplative man remains impassible even in these things, having united himself to God and having become alien to the things present here.
Again they divide fear into six: into hesitation, into shame, into disgrace, into consternation, into amazement, into agony. And they say that hesitation is fear of future action, shame is fear in expectation of blame, disgrace is fear at a shameful deed, consternation is fear of a great imagination, amazement is fear from great reports taking away the perception, and agony is fear of falling, that is, of failure. For fearing to fail, we are in agony. And some call it also cowardice. And they say that anger again is a boiling of the blood around the heart through desire for retaliation. And they divide this also into three: into rage, which some called bile and gall, and into wrath, and into rancor.
Καί τήν μέν ὀργήν εἶναί φασι θυμόν πρός ἐνέργειαν ἀρχήν καί κίνησιν ἔχοντα, ἤ θυμόν ἐνεργούμενον· τήν δέ χολήν τήν δι᾿ ἄλλου ἄμυναν τοῦ λυπήσαντος· τό δέ χόλον τήν δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ τοῦ λυπηθέντος ἐπεξέλευσιν εἰς τόν λυπήσαντα· τήν δέ μῆνιν θυμόν εἰς παλαίωσιν (εἴρηται δέ παρά τό μένειν καί τῇ μνήμῃ παρακατέχεσθαι), τόν δέ κότον θυμόν ἐπιτηροῦντα καιρόν εἰς τιμωρίαν· εἴρηται δέ παρά τό κεῖσθαι καί οὗτος. Διαιροῦσι δέ καί τούτων ἕκαστον
εἰς ἄλλα πολλά. Ἅπερ εἰ βουληθείη τις δι᾿ ἀκριβοῦς ἐξετάσεως παραδοῦναι γραφῇ, πολύν ἀθροίσει λόγον καί χρόνον δαπανήσει, ὡς μηδέ ἀνεκτόν εἶναι τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι διά τό πλῆθος.
Μέγα οὖν καί θαυμαστόν ὄντως ἐστί καί πολλῆς δεόμενον προσοχῆς τε καί σπουδῆς, καί πρό τούτων τῆς θείας ἐπικουρίας, τό δυνηθῆναι πρῶτον μέν τῆς ὑλικῆς δυάδος τῶν ἐμφύτων κρατῆσαι δυνάμεων, θυμοῦ λέγω καί ἐπιθυμίας, καί τοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτάς μερισμοῦ, καί μακάριος ὅς ἄγειν ἑτοίμως ταύτας ὅποι τῷ λόγῳ δοκεῖ δεδύνηται, μέχρις ἄν τοῖς πρακτικοῖς διά τῆς ἠθικῆς φιλοσοφίας τῶν προτέρων καθαίρηται λογισμῶν.
They say that anger is spirit (thumos) having its beginning and motion toward action, or spirit being actualized; that bile is the requital through another of the one who caused pain; that wrath (cholos) is the self-avenging assault upon the one who caused pain; that rancor (menis) is spirit persisting to old age (and it is said from "to remain" and "to be held fast in memory); and that malice (kotos) is spirit watching for the opportune time for punishment—and this too is said from "to lie in wait." They divide each of these
into many other things. If anyone wished to hand these down in writing through exact examination, he would gather a long account and spend much time, so that it would not even be bearable for those who encounter it, because of the multitude.
Great and truly wonderful, therefore, and requiring much attention and zeal, and before these things divine assistance, is the ability first to master the material dyad of innate powers—I mean spirit and desire—and the division according to them; and blessed is he who has been able readily to lead these wherever the reason seems good, until through ethical philosophy he is purified in practical matters from the former thoughts.
ΞΓ (63)... ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΜΗ ΔΕΙΝ... ΤΩ ΤΗΣ ΦΥΣΕΩΣ ΝΟΜΩ ΤΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΣΟΦΙΑΣ ΛΟΓΟΝ ΣΥΝΑΠΤΕΙΝ...
( Θεωρία ἐκ τῆς Γραφῆς περί τοῦ μή δεῖν τόν γνωστικόν τῷ τῆς φύσεως νόμῳ τόν τῆς σοφίας λόγον συνάπτειν, καί τίς ἡ προσθήκη τοῦ ἄλφα στοιχείου εἰς τό ὄνομα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ.
Ἔπειτα δέ καί ὑπέρ αὐτάς γενέσθαι καί παντελῶς ἀπώσασθαι, ὡς τήν Ἄγαρ καί τόν Ἰσμαήλ, ὁ Ἀβραάμ ἐκεῖνος ὁ μέγας, τοῦ λογιστικοῦ ἤδη περί τά θεῖα κατά τόν Ἰσαάκ ἐκεῖνον γυμνασθῆναι δυναμένου θεάματα, ὑπό τῆς κατά τήν γνῶσιν φερομένης θείας φωνῆς διδασκόμενος, μή δύνασθαι τό κατά νοῦν θεῖον τῆς ἐλευθέρας κατά πνεῦμα γνώσεως γέννημα, τῷ δουλικῷ τῆς σαρκός ἐπισυνημμένον σπέρματι, τῆς μακαρίας τυχεῖν ἐπαγγελίας, ἥτις ἐστίν ἡ κατ᾿ ἐλπίδας προκειμένη τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τόν Κύριον τῆς θεώσεως χάρις, ἥν ἤδη τυπικῶς ὑπῆρχε προειληφώς, τῷ περί μονάδος λόγῳ διά πίστεως μυστικῶς συναφθείς, καθ᾿ ὅν ἐνοειδής γενόμενος, μᾶλλον δέ ἐκ πολλῶν εἷς, μόνος πρός μόνον δ᾿ ὅλου τόν Θεόν μεγαλοπρεπῶς συνήχθη, μηδένα τό παράπαν τῆς οἱασοῦν περί τι ἄλλο τῶν σκεδαστῶν γνώσεως τύπον ἑαυτῷ συνεπιφερόμενος, ὅπερ οἶμαι δηλοῦν τήν τοῦ δοθέντος εἰς προσθήκην τοῦ ὀνόματος ἄλφα γράμματος δύναμιν. Διό καί πατήρ τῶν διά πίστεως προσαγομένων Θεῷ κατά στέρησιν πάντων τῶν μετά Θεόν ἐχρημάτισεν, ὡς τούς αὐτούς κατά πίστιν ἐν πνεύματι τύπους τῷ πατρί τῶν τέκνων ἐμφερῶς ἔχειν δυναμένων.
A contemplation from Scripture on why the one who has knowledge must not join the word of wisdom to the law of nature, and what is the significance of the addition of the letter alpha to the name of Abraham.
Then also, that he should rise above them and thrust them away completely, like Hagar and Ishmael—that great Abraham, being taught by the divine voice borne along by knowledge, since the rational faculty was already able to be exercised in divine contemplations according to that Isaac of his, [was taught] that the divine offspring of free knowledge according to the spirit, according to the mind, could not, being yoked to the servile seed of the flesh, attain the blessed promise—which is the grace of deification set before those who love the Lord in hope, which he had already received beforehand in a typological manner, having been mystically united through faith to the word concerning the monad, according to which he became unified, or rather, one out of many, and alone was magnificently gathered to God alone, carrying with himself no trace at all of the knowledge concerning any other of the scattered things, which I think indicates the power of the letter alpha given as an addition to the name. Therefore he was also called father of those who are brought near to God through faith, by the privation of all things after God, so that the same types in the spirit through faith might be able to possess them in a manner resembling the father of the children.
ΞΔ (64). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΜΩΫΣΗΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΦΑΙΡΟΥΜΕΝΩΝ ΥΠΟΔΗΜΑΤΩΝ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Μωϋσῆν περί τῶν ἀφαιρουμένων ὑποδημάτων. Τοῦτο τυχόν ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς γνωστικῆς ἀγωγῆς καί ὁ μέγας Μωϋσῆς ἐκεῖνος διδασκόμενος ὑπό τῆς θείας φωνῆς ἐπαιδεύετο, ἡνίκα προσῆγεν ἰδεῖν τό ἐν τῇ βάτῳ μυστικῶς φανταζόμενον ( φῶς φασκούσης, Λύσον τά ὑποδήματα ἀπό τῶν ποδῶν σου, ὁ γάρ τόπος ἐν ᾧ ἔστηκας γῆ ἁγία ἐστί, τό δεινῶς, οἶμαι, τῶν σωματικῶν ἁπάντων ἀπολελύσθαι κατά διάθεσιν τήν ψυχήν, μέλλουσαν τήν διά θεωρίας πρός τήν τῶν ὑπερκοσμίων νόησιν γνωστικήν ποιεῖσθαι πορείαν καί τελείαν τοῦ ἐν σχέσι σαρκός προτέρου βίου ἀλλοτρίωσιν διά τῆς τῶν ὑποδημάτων ἔχειν ἀποθέσεως. ΞΕ (65). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΜΕΡΗ ΤΩΝ ΘΥΣΙΩΝ Θεωρία εἰς μέρη τῶν θυσιῶν.
Τοῦτο πάλιν ἴσως ὁ αὐτός θειότατος Μωϋσῆς ἐν ταῖς τῶν θυσιῶν διατάξεσι παρεδήλου τῶν ἱερείων ἀφαιρεῖν τό στέαρ, καί τούς νεφρούς, καί τό στηθύνιον, καί
τόν λοβόν τοῦ ἥπατος, ἐπιτάσσων, τό δεῖν αὐτάς τε τάς γενικάς τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν παθῶν δυνάμεις, τόν θυμόν λέγω καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, τήν ὄντως ὑλικήν δυάδα, καί τάς ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν ἀφαιρεῖν, καί τῷ θείῳ πυρί τῆς κατά γνῶσιν μυστικῆς ἐκτῆξαι δυνάμεως, τῆς μέν ἐπιθυμίας διά τῶν νεφρῶν, τῆς δέ ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς, τουτέστι τῆς ἡδονῆς, διά τοῦ λίπους, ἤτοι τοῦ στέατος δηλουμένης, καί τοῦ θυμοῦ διά τοῦ στηθυνίου, τῆς δέ κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐνεργείας, διά τοῦ λοβοῦ τοῦ ἥπατος, ἐν ᾧ ἡ πικρά καί δριμυτάτη πέπηγε χολή, σημαινομένων.
64. Contemplation on Moses concerning the removal of the sandals. This, perhaps, is what that great Moses was being taught at the beginning of the gnostic conduct, instructed by the divine voice, when he drew near to see what was mystically imaged in the bush—the light, that is, saying, Loose the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground—namely, I think, that the soul must be utterly released in disposition from all bodily things, since it is about to make the gnostic journey through contemplation toward the understanding of supercosmic things, and to possess a complete alienation from the former life in relation to the flesh through the putting off of the sandals.
65. Contemplation on the parts of the sacrifices. This again, perhaps, the same most divine Moses was intimating in the ordinances of the sacrifices, commanding that the fat be removed from the victims, and the kidneys, and the breast, and the lobe of the liver, meaning that one must remove both the general powers of the passions within us—I mean anger and desire, the truly material dyad—and their activities, and melt them down with the divine fire of the mystical power that comes through knowledge: desire being signified by the kidneys, and its activity, that is pleasure, by the fat, or the suet; and anger by the breast, and its activity by the lobe of the liver, in which the bitter and most pungent gall is fixed.
Ξ (66). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΑ ΝΟΜΟΝ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΟΝ ΛΕΠΡΑΝ Θεωρία σύντομος εἰς τήν κατά νόμον διάφορον λέπραν. Τοῦτο πάλιν κἀν τῷ περί λέπρας τόπῳ σοφῶς οἶμαι παρεμφαίνειν δι᾿ αἰνιγμάτων συμβολικῶν, τήν ἀφήν τῆς λέπρας εἰς τέσσαρα γένη μερίσαντα, εἰς λευκόν καί χλωρόν καί ξανθόν καί ἀμαυρόν, δι᾿ ὧν τό τε θυμικόν καί τό ἐπιθυμητικόν εἰς τά ( ὑπ᾿ αὐτά εἴδη διαιρούμενα δείκνυται, τῆς μέν ἐπιθυμίας διά τοῦ λευκοῦ καί χλωροῦ, εἰς ἡδονήν καί λύπην μερίζεσθαι δηλουμένης, τοῦ δέ θυμοῦ διά τοῦ ξανθοῦ καί τοῦ ἀμαυροῦ εἰς ὀργήν καί μῆνιν καί τήν κεκρυμμένην κακουργίαν τῆς ὑποκρίσεως τεμνομένου. Ταὐτα γάρ πρῶτα γένη τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτά παθῶν, ὥς φασι, καί πάντων ἀρχηγικώτερα τῶν τοῦ θυμοῦ καί τῆς ἐπιθυμίας γεννήματα, οἷς τήν νοσηλευομένην ψυχήν οὐχ οἷόν τε, ἕως ὑπό τούτων κατέστικται, τοῖς τῆς θείας ἠξιωμένοις παρεμβολῆς ἐναρίθμιον εἶναι. ΞΖ (67). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΦΙΝΕΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΑΙΡΕΘΕΝΤΑΣ ΥΠ' ΑΥΤΟΥ Θεωρία εἰς τόν Φινεές καί τοῦ ἀναιρεθέντας ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ. Τοῦτο καί τόν θαυμαστόν οἶμαι Φινεές ἐκεῖνον τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ζήλῳ παραινίττεσθαι. Τήν γάρ Μαδιανίτην τῷ Ἰσραηλίτῃ συγκαταιχμάσας, μυστικῶς διά τοῦ δόρατος τήν ὕλην τῷ εἴδει, καί τῷ θυμῷ τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, καί τήν ἀλλόφυλον ἡδονήν τῷ ἐμπαθεῖ λογισμῷ διά τῆς τοῦ ἀρχιερέως λόγου δυνάμεως συναπωθεῖσθαι χρῆν παντάπασι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνέφαινεν.
66. A Brief Contemplation on the Different Kinds of Leprosy under the Law. This, I think, he again wisely indicates in the passage concerning leprosy through symbolic riddles, dividing the touch of leprosy into four kinds—into white, green, yellow, and dark—through which both the irascible and the concupiscent are shown divided into the species beneath them: concupiscence, on the one hand, being indicated by white and green as divided into pleasure and pain; and anger, on the other, by yellow and dark as cut into rage, wrath, and the hidden malice of hypocrisy. For these are the first kinds of the passions beneath them, as they say, and the most principal of all the offspring of anger and concupiscence, by which the soul that is being treated cannot, so long as it is spotted by these, be counted among those deemed worthy of the divine camp.
67. A Contemplation on Phineas and Those Slain by Him. This, I think, that wondrous Phineas also was exhorted to by his own zeal. For having taken captive together the Midianite woman with the Israelite, he showed mystically through the spear that matter must be wholly driven out together with form, and concupiscence with anger, and the alien pleasure with the passionate thought, through the power of the high priest's word, from the entire soul.
Εἶδος γάρ πρός ὕλην τρόπον ἐπέχει, ὅ τε θυμός πρός τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, τῷ προσεγγισμῷ διδούς αὐτῇ κίνησιν, καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν οὖσαν ἀκίνητον, ὅ τε λογισμός πρός τήν ἡδονήν, εἰδοποιεῖν αὐτήν πεφυκώς, ἀνείδεον καί ἄμορφον κατά τόν ἴδιον λόγον ὑπάρχουσαν. Δηλοῖ δέ τοῦτο καί αὐτή τῶν ὀνομάτων ἡ δύναμις. Χασβή γάρ ἡ Μαδιανίτις ὀνομάζεται, ὅπερ ἐστί Γαργαλισμός μου, καί Ζαμβρί ὁ Ἰσραηλίτης, ὅπερ ἐστίν Ἆσμα μου, τουτέστι μετεωρισμός μου. Ἐπειδάν οὖν τῆς θείας ἀπονεῦσαν μελέτης τε καί ἐνατενίσεως τό λογιστικόν τῆς ψυχῆς καί μετεωρισθέν τῷ ὑλικῷ τῆς σαρκός γαργαλισμῷ συμπλακῇ κατά τήν κάμινον τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ ζηλωτοῦ πάντως δεῖται ἀρχιερέως λόγου, πρός ἀναίρεσιν μέν τῶν οὕτω κακῶς ἀλλήλοις συμπεπλεγμένων, ἀποστροφήν δέ τῆς φερομένης θείας ἀναγακτήσεως.
ΞΗ (68). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, «ΜΗ ΔΩΤΕ ΤΑ ΑΓΙΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΚΥΣΙ, ΚΑΙ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, ΜΗΤΕ ΡΑΒΔΟΝ..».
( Θεωρία εἰς τό, "Μή δῶτε τά ἅγια τοῖς κυσί, καί εἰς τό, μήτε ῥάβδον μήτε πήραν μήτε ὑποδήματα χρῆναι τούς ἀποστόλους βαστάζειν». Τοῦτο καί ὁ Κύριος αὐτός, ὡς ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ, τυχόν παρεδήλου, τοῦτο μέν ἐν οἷς φησι, Μή δῶτε τό ἅγιον τοῖς κυσί, μηδέ βάλλετε τούς μαργαρίτας
For form bears the same relation to matter as anger does to desire, giving it motion by its approach, though it is in itself motionless, and as reason does to pleasure, being naturally fitted to give it form, though by its own principle it is formless and shapeless. The very force of the names makes this clear. For the Midianite woman is called Chasbe, which means "My tickling," and Zambri the Israelite, which means "My song," that is, "My exaltation." When, therefore, the rational faculty of the soul has swerved from divine meditation and contemplation and, exalted, has been entangled with the material tickling of the flesh in the furnace of sin, it surely needs the zealous high priest, the Word, both to destroy the things thus evilly intertwined with one another and to turn back the divine retribution that is being borne along.
68. Contemplation on "Do not give the holy things to the dogs," and on "neither a staff nor a wallet nor sandals" — that the apostles ought not to carry them. This the Lord himself, as it seems to me, perhaps hinted at, both in what he says, "Do not give the holy thing to the dogs, nor cast the pearls...
ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, ἅγιον ἴσως καλῶν τό ἐν ἡμῖν νοερόν, ὡς θείας ἀπεικόνισμα δόξης, ὅπερ μή κακῶς ἐᾷν ὑπό τῶν θυμικῶν κινημάτων καθυλακτούμενον ἐκταράσσεσθαι παρηγγύησε, μαργαρίτας δέ τά θεῖα καί λαμπρά τούτου νοήματα, οἷς τίμιον ἅπαν κοσμεῖσθαι πέφυκεν, ἅπερ διαφυλάττειν ἀμόλυντα καί τῶν ἀκαθάρτων τῆς ὑλικῆς ἐπιθυμίας παθῶν ἐλεύθερα δεῖν παρεκελεύσατο· τοῦτο δέ ἐν οἷς πρός τούς ἁγίους αὐτοῦ μαθητάς ἀποστελλομένους ἐπί τό κήρυγμα περί τοῦ πῶς εὐσταλεῖς αὐτούς εἶναι καί ἀπερίττους διατυπῶν καί τοῦτο πρός τοῖς ἄλλοις φησί, Μή δέ πήραν αἵρετε εἰς τήν ὁδόν, μήτε ῥάβδον, μήτε ὑποδήματα εἰς τούς πόδας ὑμῶν, ὡς δέον τόν τῆς ὑψηλῆς κατά τήν γνῶσιν πορείας ἐπειλημμένον παντός μέν ὑλικοῦ βάρους ἐλεύθερον εἶναι, πάσης δέ τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν καί θυμόν ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως καθαρόν, ὡς δηλοῖ ἥ τε πήρα καί ἡ ῥάβδος, ἡ μέν τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, ἡ δέ τό θυμόν ἐπισημαίνουσα, μάλιστα δέ τῆς καθ᾿ ὑπόκρισιν γυμνόν κακουργίας, τῆς οἷον ὑποδήματος δίκην τοῦ βίου τό ἴχνος ἐπικαλυπτούσης, καί τό ἐμπαθές τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπικρυπτούσης ἐπιεικείας πλάσματι· ἥν ὑποδησάμενοι ἀφρόνως οἱ Φαρισαῖοι, μόρφωσιν εὐσεβείας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ εὐσέβειαν ἔχοντες, καί εἰ λαθεῖν ἐνόμιζον, ὑπό τοῦ Λόγου ἐλεγχθέντες ἐδιδάχθησαν.
Before the swine, perhaps calling holy the noetic element in us, as an image of the divine glory, which he commanded not to be evilly allowed to be thrown into confusion by the barking of the passionate movements, and pearls the divine and bright thoughts of this element, with which everything precious is naturally adorned, which he enjoined must be kept undefiled and free from the impure passions of material desire. And this he says among the other things he set forth to his holy disciples when they were being sent out for preaching, concerning how they ought to be unencumbered and without excess: Take no bag for the road, nor staff, nor sandals on your feet, as it is necessary that the one who has undertaken the high journey in knowledge be free from every material burden and clean from every passionate disposition according to desire and anger, as the bag and the staff make clear, the one signifying desire, the other anger, and especially that he be naked of the malice that is according to hypocrisy, which, like a sandal, covers the trace of one's life and conceals the passionate state of the soul by a plausible fiction; having put this on foolishly, the Pharisees, having a form of piety but not piety, even if they thought they would escape notice, were convicted by the Word and taught.
ΞΘ (69). ΘΕΩΡΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΣΕΛΗΝΙΑΖΟΜΕΝΟΥ ( Θεωρία περί τοῦ σεληνιαζομένου.
Ταύτης τῆς ὑλικῆς δυάδος, τῆς κατά θυμόν λέγω καί ἐπιθυμίαν, πάλιν ὁ Κύριος ἐλευθέρωσεν, ὡς οἶμαι, τόν σεληνιαζόμενον, μᾶλλον δέ τοῦ πυρί τῷ θυμῷ καί ὕδατι τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ αὐτόν βουληθέντος ἀπολέσαι πονηροῦ δαίμονος, ἐπέσχε τε καί κατήργησε τήν μανιώδη λύσσαν (σελήνης γάρ οὐδέν διενήνοχεν ἡ πρός τά γινόμενα καί ἀπογινόμενα σχέσις τῶν ἡττημένων τοῖς ὑλικοῖς ἀνθρώπων)· ἧς ἐπιλαβόμενος ὁ τά πάθη διεγείρων δαίμων ὥσπερ ὕδατι καί πυρί τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ καί τῷ θυμῷ ἐμβάλλων τόν νοῦν καί ἐναποπνίγων οὐ παύεται, ἕως τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος παραγενόμενος τό μέν ὑλικόν καί πονηρόν ἀπελάσει πνεῦμα (δι᾿ οὗ ὁ παλαιός τε καί χοϊκός χαρακτηρίζεται ἄνθρωπος), τόν δέ ἐνεργούμενον τῆς πονηρᾶς ἐλευθερώσει τυραννίδος, τήν φυσικήν αὐτῷ σωφροσύνην ἀποδούς καί χαρισάμενος, δι᾿ ἧς ὁ νέος καί κατά Θεόν κτιζόμενος ἄνθρωπος διαδείκνυται. Οὕτω μέν οὖν πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι τοῦ θείου καί ἀπλανοῦς Λόγου γνησίως ἐπειλημμένοι τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτον διέβησαν, οὐδενί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τερπνῶν τό τῆς ψυχῆς ἴχνος ἐναπερείσαντες.
69. Contemplation Concerning the Moonstruck Man
From this material duality—I mean that of anger and desire—the Lord again set free, as I think, the moonstruck man; or rather, when the evil demon wished to destroy him by fire, that is, by anger, and by water, that is, by desire, he checked and brought to nothing his mad frenzy (for the disposition of those defeated by material things toward things that come to be and pass away differs in no way from the moon); laying hold of this, the demon who stirs up the passions, casting the mind into desire and anger as into water and fire and drowning it therein, does not cease, until the Word of God comes and drives away the material and evil spirit (by which the old and earthy man is characterized), and frees the one worked upon from the evil tyranny, restoring and granting to him his natural chastity, through which the new man, created according to God, is shown forth. In this way, then, all the saints who have genuinely laid hold of the divine and unerring Word passed through this age, fixing the trace of the soul on none of the pleasant things in it.
Πρός γάρ τούς ἄκρους τῶν ἀνθρώποις ἐφικτῶν περί Θεοῦ λόγους, τῆς ἀγαθότητός τέ φημι καί τῆς ἀγάπης, μάλα γε εἰκότως ἐνατενίσαντες, οἷς κινηθέντα τόν Θεόν τό εἶναί τε δοῦναι τοῖς οὖσι καί τό εὖ εἶναι χαρίσασθαι ἐπαιδεύθησαν (εἴπερ κίνησιν ἐπί Θεοῦ τοῦ μόνον ἀκινήτου θέμις εἰπεῖν, ἀλλά μή μᾶλλον βούλησιν, τήν πάντα κινοῦσάν τε καί εἰς τό εἶναι καί παράγουσαν καί συνέχουσαν, κινουμένην δέ οὐδαμῶς οὐδέποτε), τούτοις καί αὐτοί σοφῶς ἐαυτούς ἀπετύπωσαν, τοῦ ἀφανοῦς καί ἀοράτου κάλλους τῆς θείας μεγαλοπρεπείας εὐμιμήτως φέροντες φαινομένην διά τῶν ἀρετῶν τήν ἰδιότητα. Διά τοῦτο ἀγαθοί καί φιλόθεοι καί φιλάνθρωποι, εὔσπλαγχνοί τε καί οἰκτίρμονες ( γεγόνασι, καί μίαν πρός ἅπαν τό γένος διάθεσιν ἔχοντες ἀγάπης ἐδείχθησαν, ὑφ᾿ ἧς τό πάντων ἐξαίρετον εἶδος τῶν ἀρετῶν, τήν ταπείνωσιν λέγω, διά πάσης αὐτῶν τῆς ζωῆς βεβαίαν κατασχόντες τήν φυλακτικήν μέν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, φθαρτικήν δέ τῶν ἐναντίων, οὐδενί τό παράπαν ἁλώσιμοι τῶν διοχλούντων γεγόνασι πειρασμῶν, τῶν τε ἑκουσίων καί τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν λόγου, καί τῶν ἀκουσίων καί
For, having fixed their gaze quite reasonably upon the highest of the words concerning God attainable by men—I mean those of goodness and of love—by which they were taught that God was moved to grant both being to things that exist and well-being as a gift (if indeed it is lawful to speak of a movement in God, who alone is unmoved, and not rather of a will that moves all things and brings them into being and sustains them, yet is never moved in any way at any time), they too wisely molded themselves upon these things, bearing in an imitable manner the visible distinctness of the hidden and invisible beauty of the divine magnificence through the virtues. For this reason they became good and lovers of God and lovers of men, compassionate and merciful, and they were shown to have one disposition of love toward the whole race, by which, holding fast through their whole life the most excellent of all the forms of the virtues—I mean humility—which preserves the good things and destroys the contrary ones, they became altogether incapable of being captured by any of the temptations that trouble us, whether those that are voluntary and within the scope of our own reason, or those that are involuntary and
οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῶν, τῷ τοῖς μέν δι᾿ ἐγκρατείας ἀπομαραίνειν τάς ἐπαναστάσεις, τῶν δέ δι᾿ ὑπομονῆς τάς προσβολάς ἀποσείεσθαι.
Διχόθεν γάρ βαλλόμενοι, ὑπό τε δόξης καί ἀτιμίας, διέμενον ἄσειστοι, πρός ἄμφω ἀκινήτως ἔχοντες, μήτε ὕβρεσι τιτρωσκόμενοι διά τήν ἑκουσίαν ὕφεσιν, μήτε δόξαν προσιέμενοι, δι᾿ ὑπερβάλλουσαν πτωχείας οἰκείωσιν, ὅθεν οὐ θυμός, οὐ φθόνος, οὐκ ἔρις, οὐχ ὑπόκρισις, οὐ δόλος, οὐκ εἰρωνευτική τις καί ἐπίκλοπος τῷ φαινομένῳ πλάσματι δι᾿ ἀπάτης ὑποσύρουσα πρός ἄλλο στοργή, τό πάντων παθῶν ὀλεθριώτατον, οὐκ ἐπιθυμία τῶν κατά τόν βίον δοκούντων εἶναι λαμπρῶν, οὔτε τι ἕτερον τῆς πονηρᾶς τῶν παθῶν πληθύος, οὐκ ἀπειλαί παρ᾿ ἐχθρῶν ἐπανατεινόμεναι, οὐδέ τις θανάτου τρόπος αὐτῶν ἐκυρίευσε. Διό καί μακάριοι δικαίως παρά τε Θεῷ καί ἀνθρώποις ἐκρίθησαν, ὅτι τῆς φανησομένης ἀῤῥήτου καί περιφανοῦς δόξης κατά τήν χάριν τοῦ μεγάλου δώρου Θεοῦ ἐμφανεῖς εἰκόνας ἑαυτούς κατέστησαν, ἵνα χαίροντες ὡς γνωρίμοις τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ἀρετῶν, μᾶλλον δέ Θεῷ, ὑπέρ οὗ καί καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκοντες διεκαρτέρησαν, ἑνωθῶσιν, ἐν ᾧ πάντων οἱ λόγοι τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ὥσπερ πηγῇ ἀειβλύστῳ, προϋφεστήκασί τε κατά μίαν, ἁπλῆν καί ἑνιαίαν τῶν πάντων περιοχήν, καί πρός ὅν ἕλκουσι πάντας τούς καλῶς καί κατά φύσιν ταῖς ἐπί τούτῳ δοθείσαις χρωμένους δυνάμεσι. Ο (70). ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΜΒ' ΛΟΓΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΩΝ ΕΜΝΗΣΘΗ ΤΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ ΙΩΒ...
not ours, by withering the uprisings through self-control in the case of some, and by shaking off the assaults through endurance in the case of others. For, assailed from two sides—by glory and by dishonor—they remained unshaken, holding themselves immovably toward both, neither wounded by insults because of their voluntary self-abasement, nor accepting glory because of their excessive attachment to poverty, whence neither anger, nor envy, nor strife, nor hypocrisy, nor guile, nor any ironic and stealthy affection that by deceit drags one toward something else under a feigned and counterfeit appearance—the most destructive of all the passions—nor desire for the things in life that seem to be splendid, nor any other of the evil multitude of the passions, nor threats brandished by enemies, nor any manner of death prevailed over them. Therefore they were justly judged blessed both by God and by men, because they made themselves manifest images of the ineffable and radiant glory that shall appear, according to the grace of the great gift of God, so that, rejoicing in the words of the virtues as things known, or rather in God, for whom they also persevered, dying each day, they might be united to him in whom the words of all good things, as from an ever-flowing fountain, have their pre-existence in one, simple, and single comprehension of all things, and toward whom they draw all who rightly and according to nature use the powers given them for this. (70). From the forty-second discourse of the Theologian, concerning what he mentioned of blessed Job...
( Ἐκ τοῦ μβ´ λόγου τοῦ Θεολόγου περί ὧν ἐμνήσθη τοῦ μακαρίου Ἰώβ, εἰς τό,· "Τά δέ ἑξῆς μικρά, καί μικρῶν ἕνεκεν οἰκονομηθέντα. " Τῇ γενομένῃ παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Ἰώβ ἀναῤῥήσει, ὡς οἶμαι, συγκρίνων τά μετά τούς ἀγῶνας τῶν πειρασμῶν δοθέντα σωματικά μικρά προσηγόρευσεν, ὡς κατ᾿ οὐδένα τρόπον ταῖς αἰωνίοις δυνάμενα παραβάλλεσθαι. Μικρῶν δέ ἕνεκεν οἰκονομηθέντα φησί, τῶν περί διάνοιαν γνωστικήν δηλονότι μικρῶν τῶν εὐχερῶς ἐν τοῖς περί προνοίας καί κρίσεως λόγοις σκανδαλιζομένων, καί περί αὐτήν τήν εὐσέβειαν σαλευομένων. Περί ὧν οἶμαι τόν Κύριον ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις φάναι, Ὁ σκανδαλίζων ἕνα τῶν μικρῶν τούτων· οἵ ὅταν ἴδωσι δίκαιον ἀσθενοῦντα, ἤ πτωχεύοντα, ἤ ἄλλως κακουχούμενον (καί σχεδόν οἵγε ἀσθενέστεροι ἄδειαν τοῦ παντός κατακρίνουσι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐν τῇ ἀθρόᾳ μεταβολῇ τοῦ Ἰώβ, ὡμολογημένως δίκαιον πᾶσιν ὑπειλημμένου;) εἶχον τοῦτο παθεῖν, εἰ μή πρός τό ἀρχαῖον αὐτῷ σωματικῶς κατά τό διπλάσιον ἐπανῆλθε τό περιφανές καί ἐπίδοξον. Περί τούτων οὖν εἴρηται τῷ διδασκάλῳ, Μικρῶν ἕνεκεν οἰκονομηθέντα. ΟΑ (71). ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΥ, ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, «ΚΑΘΑΙΡΕΙ ΜΕΝ ΤΟ ΙΕΡΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΘΕΟΚΑΠΗΛΩΝ..».
From the forty-second discourse of the Theologian, concerning the things he mentioned about the blessed Job, on the phrase, "But the things that follow are small, and were dispensed for the sake of the small." Comparing, as I think, to the restoration that came to Job from God, he called the bodily things given after the contests of temptations "small," as being in no way able to be compared to the eternal powers. And he says "dispensed for the sake of the small," meaning evidently the small in respect of the gnostic mind—those who are easily scandalized in the accounts concerning providence and judgment, and who are shaken concerning piety itself. Concerning whom I think the Lord said in the Gospels, "He who scandalizes one of these little ones"; who, whenever they see a righteous man sick, or poor, or otherwise afflicted (and indeed the weaker sort all but give license to condemn everything—how much more in the sudden change of Job, who was confessedly supposed by all to be righteous?), would have suffered this, had not the conspicuous and glorious state returned to him bodily in double measure as at the first. Concerning these things, then, it was said by the teacher, "Dispensed for the sake of the small." OA (71). From the same discourse, on the phrase, "He cleanses the temple of the money-changers.
Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Καθαίρει μέν τό ἱερόν τῶν θεοκαπήλων καί χριστεμπόρων, πλήν ὅσον οὐ φραγελλίῳ πλεκτῷ, λόγῳ δέ πιθανῷ τοῦτο ἐργάζεται». Οὔτε στυπτικώτερον ἐν τούτοις, ὥς τινες ὑπειλήφασι, τοῦ μακαρίου πατρός Ἀθανασίου τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν καί Θεόν ἀποδείκνυσιν ὁ ἀοίδιμος οὖτος διδάσκαλος, μή γένοιτο, οὔτε μήν καταχαρίζεται τῷ ἁγίῳ Ἀθανασίῳ τῷ τόν μέν φραγελλίῳ, τόν δέ λόγῳ χρησάμενον, καθαίρειν τό ἱερόν τῶν θεοκαπήλων εἰπεῖν. ( Ὡς ἀνάγκην ἐκ τούτων εἶναι, κατά τούς λέγοντας, δυοῖν θάτερον ὑποληφθῆναι, ἤ τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν καί Θεόν τήν προσηνεστέραν ἠγνοηκέναι μέθοδον τῆς ἰατρείας, ἤ τόν ἅγιον Ἀθανάσιον μή γινώσκοντα τῆς πνευματικῆς ἐπιμελείας τούς τρόπους
φιλανθρωπίαν ἄκαιρον μετιέναι. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή ὁ διαγνωστικός λόγος ὧν πεπράχαμεν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀνακινούμενος, οἷον ἱερῷ τινι ἐμψύχῳ τε καί ζῶντι, ἀναλογοῦσαν τοῖς πλημμεληθεῖσι μεταμέλειαν ἐργάζεται, δι᾿ ἧς Χριστός ὁ Θεός καί Λόγος ἀεί τύπτει ἡμᾶς ἁμαρτάνοντας, πλεκτόν ὥσπερ ἔχων φραγέλλιον, αὐτήν ἡμῶν τήν ἐξ ἀτόπων ἐννοιῶν συμπεπλεγμένην καί ἔργων συνείδησιν, ὁ δέ ἅγιος Ἀθανάσιος ἠπίως τούς πταίοντας ἐνῆγε πρός διόρθωσιν, ὡς καί αὐτός ἀσθενείας σάρκα περικείμενος, τούτου χάριν τῷ τρόπῳ τούτῳ τῷ λόγῶ χρῆσθαι τόν θεόφρονα τοῦτον οἶμαι διδάσκαλον.
From the same discourse, on the phrase, "He cleanses the temple of the God-sellers and Christ-mongers, yet not so much with a plaited whip as with persuasive speech he accomplishes this." Neither does this celebrated teacher show our Lord and God to be more harsh in these matters, as some have supposed, than the blessed father Athanasius—God forbid—nor does he gratify holy Athanasius by saying that he cleansed the temple of the God-sellers, one using a whip and the other speech. (So that from these things, as some say, one of two things must be supposed: either that our Lord and God was ignorant of the gentler method of healing, or that holy Athanasius, not knowing the ways of spiritual care, pursued an untimely philanthropy. But since the discerning reason, stirring up within us the things we have done, as in a kind of living and animate temple, produces repentance proportionate to the offenses, through which Christ God and the Word always strikes us when we sin, as though holding a plaited whip—namely, our own conscience woven together from unseemly thoughts and deeds—while holy Athanasius gently led those who stumbled toward correction, as himself also clothed with the weakness of the flesh, for this reason I think this God-minded teacher used this manner of speech.
ΟΒ (72). ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΣΧΕΔΙΑΣΘΕΝΤΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΥΝΟΜΙΑΝΟΥΣ ΛΟΓΟΥ... Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ σχεδιασθέντος πρός Εὐνομιανούς λόγου, εἰς τό, «Εἰσί τινες οἱ τήν ἀκοήν κνηθόμενοι καί τήν γλῶτταν».
Φασίν οἱ περί λόγους ἐσχολακότες καί τάς αὐτῶν ἀκριβεῖς σημασίας γινώσκειν, κλέος οὐ τό τυχόν ποιησάμενοι, καί ἑκάστῳ πράγματι φωνήν πρόσφορον δεῖν ἀπονέμεσθαι, παραστατικήν τῆς πρός ὁτιοῦν ἄλλου τοῦ σημαινομένου, καθ᾿ ὅντινα τρόπον τύχοι λεγόμενον, ἀμιγοῦς ἰδιότητος, καλῶς ἔχειν ἀποφηνάμενοι, κνηθομένους δέ τήν ἀκοήν καί τήν γλῶσσαν εἶναι τούς καινότερόν τι μανθάνειν ἤ λέγειν ἐθέλοντας, καί ἀεί ταῖς καινοτομίαις χαίροντας, καί ὅρια μετατιθεμένους, γραφικῶς εἰπεῖν, ἅ ἔθεντο οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν καί τοῖς προσφάτοις καί ξένοις ἡδομένους, καί τῶν συνήθων καί πάλαι γνωρίμων καί ὡσαύτως ἐχόντων ὡς ἑώλων καί πεπατημένων καί μηδενός ἀξίων, κατεξανισταμένους, καί μᾶλλον τά νεαρώτερα προσδεχομένους ( ἀσπασίως, κἄν ψευδῆ τύχοιεν ὄντα, καί μηδεμίαν εἰς ψυχήν διαβαίνουσαν ὠφέλειαν ἔχοντα. Ὑπέρ ἧς μάλιστα πᾶς εὐσεβής λόγος καί πόνος σωτήριος ᾅδεταί τε καί γράφεται καί ἐπιτηδεύεται, ὁ μέν κατά τῆς ἀγνωσίας, ὁ δέ κατά τῆς ἡδονῆς ὁπλιζόμενος, ὁ μέν ἵνα τῆς ἀγνοίας ἐκτεμών τά πηρώματα τῆς ψυχῆς οἰκειώσῃ Θεῷ διά γνώσεως τήν ἀλήθειαν ἔχοντας, τούς διά τοῦτο τοῖς μαθήμασι χαίροντας, καί τῶν ὁρωμένων τε καί νοουμένων ὑπεράνω τόν νοῦν παραπέμψας θέλξῃ τῷ ἀῤῥήτῳ τῆς θείας καλλονῆς ἔρωτι, καί προσηλώσῃ τῷ πόθῳ μηδαμοῦ φέρεσθαι δυνάμενον, μᾶλλον δέ δυνηθῆναι μή ἀνεχόμενον·
From the same discourse composed against the Eunomians, on the phrase, "There are some who tickle the ear and the tongue."
Those who have devoted themselves to letters and claim to know their exact meanings, having made no ordinary reputation for themselves, and having declared that a fitting sound ought to be assigned to each thing, one that conveys the unmingled peculiarity of whatever is signified in relation to anything else, in whatever way it happens to be spoken—they say that those who tickle the ear and the tongue are those who wish to learn or to say something rather novel, and who always delight in innovations, and who, as Scripture says, remove the boundaries which their fathers set, and who take pleasure in things fresh and strange, and who rise up against things customary and long known and remaining the same, as though stale and trampled upon and worth nothing, and who rather welcome newer things eagerly, even if they happen to be false and carry no benefit that passes over into the soul. It is for this that every pious discourse and saving labor is sung and written and pursued—one armed against ignorance, another against pleasure—the one so that, having cut away the disabilities of the soul caused by ignorance, it may make those who possess the truth through knowledge dear to God, drawing up the mind above things seen and things understood and charming it with the ineffable love of divine beauty, and fastening it by longing so that it can be carried nowhere, or rather so that it may be able, not enduring to be—
ὁ δέ ἵνα τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονήν σχέσεως τούς ἥλους ἐκκρούσηται οἷς ὁ περί Θεόν τῆς ψυχῆς πόθος τε καί τόνος ἐκ τῆς ἀρχαίας παρακοῆς πρός τήν ὕλην ἐνεπάγη καί τά φθειρόμενα, καί ἀπαλλάξῃ κακίας τούς ἐνεσχημένους, καί ἀρετῆς ποιήσειε φοιτητάς γνησίους, καί ἄσειστον πρός πάντα τά κωλύειν δοκοῦντα τῆς ψυχῆς τήν πρός τό καλόν οἰκείωσιν ἀπεργάσηται, διδάξας πρός μέν ἀποστροφήν ἡδονῆς, διά τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἀτόπων ἀπατηλῶς σαινούσης καί μαλασσούσης τό στεῤῥόν τῆς γνώμης, καί πειθούσης προαιρεῖσθαι τά παρόντα τῶν μελλόντων, καί τά ὁρώμενα τῶν νοουμένων, ἐγκράτειαν, πρός δέ φόβου καί δειλίας ἀπόθεσιν, δι᾿ αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν τά ἀνήκεστα καί ἀνθρωπίνης εἶναι δοκοῦντα κρείττονα δυνάμεως ὑποτιθεμένων, καί βίᾳ κραττεῖν διά τῆς τῶν φοβερῶν ἐπαγωγῆς τοῦ σώφρονος λογισμοῦ μηχανωμένων, ὑπομονήν καί τήν ἐκ τούτων συμπληρουμένην ἀνδρείαν, τήν πρός πᾶσαν ἡδονήν τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν καί ὀδύνην τῶν οὐκ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἀνένδοτον καί ἀήττητον ἕξιν.
But he, in order to drive out the nails of the pleasurable attachment, by which the soul's longing and tension toward God had, from the ancient disobedience, been fixed fast to matter and to things that perish, and to set free those held fast in vice, and to make them genuine disciples of virtue, and to render the soul's affinity for the good unshaken against all things that seem to hinder it, taught, on the one hand, for the turning away from pleasure—which, through the evils that are in our power, deceitfully fawns and softens the firmness of the will, and persuades us to prefer the present to the future and the seen to the understood—self-control; and, on the other hand, for the putting off of fear and cowardice—since these things, through the very circumstances that are not in our power, suggest that unbearable things and things that seem to surpass human power are at hand, and contrive by force to overpower the sober reason through the bringing on of terrifying things—endurance and the courage that is completed from these, the unyielding and unconquerable habit against every pleasure of the things in our power and every pain of the things not in our power.
Κνηθομένους δέ τήν ἀκοήν καί τήν γλῶσσαν ἐκάλεσεν ὁ διδάσκαλος τούς περί ὧν ὁ λόγος, ἐπειδή πᾶς λόγος διά γλώσσης καλεῖσθαί τε καί προφέρεσθαι καί δι᾿ ἀκοῆς ἀκούεσθαί ( τε καί μανθάνεσθαι πέφυκεν. Εἰ δέ καί κατ᾿ ἄλλην ἐπιβολήν ἐκδέχεσθαι θελήσομεν τό λεγόμενον, Κνηθόμενοι τήν ἀκοήν καί τήν γλῶσσαν, τυχόν οἱ μόνον πρός ψόγον καί τῆς κατ᾿ ἄλλων διαβολῆς ἤ λοιδορίας ἀκούειν τε καί καλεῖν προθυμούμενοι, καί τό κατά παντός ἀμαθῶς ἐπαίρεσθαι λόγου
τε καί ἀνδρός σεμνολόγημα κρίνοντες, καί πρό τοῦ τι φάναι τόν ὕποπτον αὐτοῖς καί φθονούμενον σφαδάζοντες τῷ πνεύματι καί οἷον τήν ψυχήν προωθοῦντες καί τήν ἀκοήν ἑτοιμάζοντες καί τήν γλῶσσαν πρός θήραν τινός συλλαβῆς ἤ λέξεως, οὐχ ἵνα εὐθυμῶσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα κακίσωσι καί ὕλην ἔχωσι τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ γλωσσαλγίας. Ὅπερ ἐποιοῦντο τῷ ἁγίῳ τούτῳ ἀνδρί οἱ κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροί, προπηδῶντες, καί προεξανιστάμενοι, καί πρίν λεχθῆναι, τῶν λεγομένων· καθάπερ τῶν ἵππων τούς πολεμιστηρίους τε καί ἀμιλλητηρίους, οἵ καί πρό τῶν ἀγώνων καί τῆς σάλπιγγος εὐθυτενῆ τά ὦτα ποιοῦσι, καί τούς πόδας τῇ γῇ προσαράσσουσι, καί προσκνήθονται ταύτην ταῖς ὁπλαῖς, καί πρός δρόμον ἑαυτούς διεγείρουσι, καί τήν ὠθοῦσαν πολλάκις προλαμβάνοντες μάστιγα· πλήν ὅτι τῶν ἵππων οὐδείς ἅπτεται ψόγος ὑπό τῆς φυσικῆς ἀλογίας, μή ἀναμενόντων τούς εὐθέτους τῶν ἀγώνων καιρούς, οὕς διασημαίνει ἥ τε φωνή τῆς σάλπιγγος καί ἡ τῆς μάστιγος πληγή, τοῖς δέ τοιούτοις ἀνδράσιν οὐδείς ἐστιν ὁ πρός ἀξίαν τῶν αὐτῶν κακίας ἐπινοηθῆναι δυνάμενος ψόγος.
The teacher called those about whom the discourse speaks "whose hearing and tongue are tickled," since every word is naturally called forth and uttered by the tongue and heard and learned through the hearing. But if we wish to take what is said in another sense as well—"tickled in hearing and tongue"—perhaps it means those who are eager only to hear and to call forth reproach and slander or abuse against others, and who judge it a boastful utterance to rise up ignorantly against every word and every man, and who, before anything is said, are in turmoil in spirit against the one suspected and envied by them, and as it were push forward their soul and make ready their hearing and tongue to hunt down some syllable or phrase, not so that they may be cheered, but so that they may condemn and have material for their prating against him. This is what the enemies of the truth in that time did to this holy man, leaping forward and rising up before the words were spoken—just like war-horses and racehorses, which even before the contests and the trumpet make their ears stand straight, and strike their feet against the ground, and scratch it with their hooves, and rouse themselves for the race, and often anticipate the whip that urges them on—except that no reproach attaches to horses because of their natural lack of reason, since they do not wait for the suitable times of the contests, which the sound of the trumpet and the stroke of the whip signal; but against such men no reproach can be devised that is worthy of their wickedness.
Ἔργον ἔχουσι καί σπούδασμα τήν μελέτην τοῦ ψεύδους, καί τήν κατά τῆς ἀληθείας ἔνστασιν. Εἰκότως οἱ τοιοῦτοι κνηθόμενοι τήν ἀκοήν καί τήν γλῶτταν λεγέσθωσαν, διότι καθάπερ τις χυμός δριμύτατός τε καί παχύτατος, τῷ βάθει τοῦ σώματος ἐμφωλεύων, πολλάκις διά τοῦ κνήθεσθαι πρός τήν ἐπιφάνειαν ἐρεθιζόμενος ἐκδίδοται, οὕτως καί τούς ἐπηρεστάς τῶν καλῶς λεγομένων ἐρεθίζει λαβομένους ἀφορμῆς μάλιστα δημοσιεύειν τήν κατά ψυχήν κακουργίαν ἡ κεκρυμμένη διάθεσις, ἥτις τοσοῦτον τό βάθος κατέχειν πέφυκε μᾶλλον, ὅσον κενοῦσθαι ( τῇ προόδῳ κατά τό εἰκός ἔδοξεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐξίσταται τοῦ βάθους προφερομένη διά τῶν ἔργων ἡ τῶν μοχθηρῶν ἀνθρώπων διάθεσις, ἀλλά καί τά ἐκτός πάντα μανικῶς ἐπινέμεται, καί τῆς κατά ψυχήν οὐδαμῶς ἐξίσταται χώρας.
ΟΓ
(73)...» ΑΩΡΟΝ,... ΓΥΝΑΙΞΙ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ ΑΝΔΡΕΙΟΣ Ή ΑΝΔΡΑΣΙ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΙΟΣ...ΠΕΝΘΕΙ ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΑ»
Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Ὥσπερ ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι παντελῶς ἄωρον, καί γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἤ ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, ἤ πένθει γεωμετρία».
Their work and zeal is the study of falsehood and the opposition to the truth. Such people may reasonably be called "whose hearing and tongue are tickled," because just as some very sharp and very thick humor, lurking in the depth of the body, is often irritated by scratching toward the surface and discharged, so too the hidden disposition provokes those who set upon what is well said, once they have taken an occasion, especially to make public the wickedness of the soul—a disposition that naturally holds its depth all the more, the more it seemed likely to be emptied by its advance. For the disposition of wicked people is not removed from the depth when it is brought forth through their deeds, but it madly consumes all things outside as well, and in no way departs from the region of the soul.
From the same discourse, on the passage, "Like a flower in winter, utterly out of season, and a manly ornament for women or a womanly one for men, or geometry in mourning.
Τήν ἐπί παντός λόγου τε καί πράγματος εὐταξίαν, καθ᾿ ἥν τῆς ἑκάστου καί πάντων εὐπρεπείας ὁ λόγος ἀναφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἀκραιφνής, διά τῆς τῶν ἀπεμφαινόντων ἀπαριθμήσεως εἰσηγούμενος, ταῦτά φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, ἵνα διά τούτων εὐτάκτους εἶναι καί εὐλαβεῖς τούς θρασεῖς καί ἀτάκτους καί μηδεμίαν τάξιν εἰδότας, οὐδενός μέν, μάλιστα δέ τῆς περί Θεοῦ διαλέξεως, ἀλλά πάντα τολμηρῶς ἀλλήλοις παμμιγῶς τά διεστῶτα φύροντάς τε καί συγχέοντας διδάξειεν. Εἰ γάρ τῶν οὐκ ἐχόντων φύσιν ἐστί, καί διά τοῦτο οὐδέ τάξιν, τό τε ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι ὁρώμενον, καί γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἐπιβεβλημένος, καί ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, καί πένθει συνημμένην γεωμετρίαν λέγειν (τό μέν γάρ καινοτομεῖ τόν χρόνον καί τῆς ἰδίας ἐξίσταται θέσεως, ὁ δέ παραχαράττειν τήν φύσιν ἐναλλάξ, ἀνδρί τε καί γυναικί ἐπιφαινόμενος, καί τήν αὐτοῖς προσοῦσαν ἐκ φύσεως τάξιν ἐξίστησιν, ἡ δέ τά μηδέπω συνυπάρχειν ἀλλήλοις δυνάμενα, χαράν τέ φημι καί πένθος, εἰς ἕν ἀγαγεῖν βιαζομένη φύρει πάντως καί ἀφανίζει), οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ περί Θεοῦ λόγος, ὡς ἔτυχε καί ὑπό τοῦ τυχόντος, καί ἡνίκα καί οὗ μή καθῆκον ἔτι προφερόμενος, ἀειδής ἔσται καί ἀπρεπής, καί οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἀκουσθῆναι περί Θεοῦ ἄξιος, ἐφ᾿ οὗ μᾶλλον τοσοῦτον τιθέναι δεῖν οἶμαι τό εὔκαιρον ( τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας, ὅσον πάντων ἀσυγκρίτως προβεβλημένων, Πένθει δέ γεωμετρίαν ἀνάρμοστόν φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος. Ὁ δέ μᾶλλον ἀπορεῖν ὑμᾶς πεποίηκεν, ὡς οἶμαι, κατά τοιούσδε τρόπους, ἤ ὅτιπερ οἱ
Setting forth the good order that pertains to every word and deed, according to which the principle of the fittingness of each and of all is naturally made manifest in its purity, through the enumeration of things incongruous, the Teacher says these things, so that by these means he might teach the bold and disorderly and those who know no order at all to be orderly and reverent in nothing so much as in discourse concerning God, but rather that they boldly and indiscriminately confuse and confound things that are distinct, mixing them all together. For if it belongs to things that have no nature, and for this reason no order either, to speak of a flower seen in winter, and of a manly adornment put upon women, and of a womanly one upon men, and of geometry joined with mourning (for the one innovates upon time and departs from its proper position, while the other falsifies nature by interchange, appearing upon man and woman alike, and displaces the order that belongs to them by nature; and the third, forcing into one things that can never coexist with one another—I mean joy and mourning—utterly confuses and destroys them), how much more will discourse concerning God, when it is brought forward as it happens and by anyone at all, and at whatever time and place are not fitting, be shapeless and unseemly, and not at all worthy to be heard concerning God, in which I think those who have understanding ought to place the fitting occasion so much the more, inasmuch as it surpasses all things incomparably. And the Teacher says that geometry is unfitting for mourning. But he has made you rather at a loss, as I think, in ways such as these, either because those
χώρας τινός διά στρατιωτικῆς κρατήσαντες χειρός γεωμετρίᾳ ταύτην καταδιαιροῦνται, ἡνίκα βασιλείας νόμῳ κρατεῖν ἐθέλωσι, χαρᾶς δέ καί χρῆμα μέγιστον, χαρᾶς, τοῖς μόνα τά παρόντα μεταδιώξουσιν ἀγαθά, καί τό νικητάς αὐτούς γενέσθαι, καί πλοῦτον ἀθρόον κτήσασθαι, οἶς τό οἱονοῦν πένθος συνεῖναι ἀμήχανον· ἤ ἐπειδή φασιν οἱ περί ταῦτα δεινοί τούς ἀναγκαστικούς ἰδίως συλλογισμούς ἀνῆφθαι τῇ γεωμετρίᾳ, φορτικός τις εἰκότως ὀφθήσεται, καί τό καθῆκον μή συνορῶν, τόν πενθοῦντα συλλογιζόμενος καί ἀλόγως αὐτόν πενθοῦντα δεῖξαι πειρώμενος· ἤ τυχόν καί αὐτῷ τῷ πενθοῦντι φαίη τις ἀνάρμοστον εἶναι τό συλλογίζεσθαι, πιθανότητι λόγων ἑαυτόν μηχανώμενος πείθειν ὡς οὐ πέπονθε τήν ἔργῳ καί πράγματι συμβᾶσαν αὐτῷ συμφοράν, ἤ καί αὐτῷ τῷ πένθει, ἤτοι τῇ τούτου φύσει, παντελῶς ἐναντίον. Ἐκκρούεται γάρ ὥσπερ τό πένθος ὁ πενθῶν συλλογιζόμενος, οὕτω καί τό πένθος τοῦ εἶναι πένθος ἐκπίπτει, πρός συλλογισμόν μετατιθέμενος. Ἀπολαβών γάρ τις τόν εἰς ὅν τάς ἐλπίδας εἶχε τῆς διαδοχῆς, περιττά λοιπόν ἡγεῖται τά τῇδε πάντα. Καί κατά τοῦτον ἴσως τόν τρόπον οὐκ ἔξω λόγου φαίη τις εἶναι τά θεωρηθέντα, γνούς μή δύνασθαι συμβαίνειν ἀλλήλοις κατά τό αὐτό τήν χαράν καί τό πένθος, τῆς ἑκατέρου ποιητικῆς αἰτίας οὐκ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν ἀρχῶν ἐχούσης δηλονότι τάς ἀφορμάς.
Having taken possession of some region by military force, they divide it up by geometry, whenever they wish to rule by the law of kingship; and joy is also the greatest thing, joy, for those who pursue only present goods, and to become victors themselves, and to acquire wealth in a mass, with which any grief whatsoever cannot coexist; or since those skilled in these matters say that compulsory syllogisms are peculiarly attached to geometry, such a man will reasonably appear burdensome, and failing to see what is fitting, syllogizing the grieving man and attempting to show him grieving irrationally; or perhaps one might say to the grieving man himself that syllogizing is unfitting, contriving by plausibility of arguments to persuade himself that he has not suffered the misfortune that has befallen him in deed and fact, or that it is wholly contrary to grief itself, that is, to its nature. For just as the grieving man is driven out of grief by syllogizing, so too grief falls away from being grief, being transferred to syllogism. For when someone has recovered the one in whom he had his hopes of succession, he thereafter considers all things here superfluous. And perhaps in this way one might say that what has been considered is not without reason, having recognized that joy and grief cannot occur to one another at the same time, since the productive cause of each does not obviously have its starting points from the same principles.
Καί τούτων μάρτυς ἐχέγγυος ὁ ἅγιος καί θεόφρων Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης, οὐτωσί διεξιών περί τῆς ἀγγελικῆς εἰκονογραφίας· "Τά δέ γεωμετρικά καί τεκτονικά σκεύη, τό θεμελιωτικόν καί οἰκοδομικόν καί τελειωτικόν, καί ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς ἀναγωγοῦ καί ἐπιστρεπτικῆς ἐστι τῶν δευτέρων προνοίας». Ταῦτα δέ πάντα φαιδράν ἐνδείκνυται διαγωγήν, ᾗτινι πάντως ( τό πένθος ἐναντίον, καί διά τοῦτο ἀνάρμοστον. Εἰ δέ καί ἄλλως ἔστιν ἐκλαβεῖν τόν τόπον, οὐκ ἄκαιρον εἶναι νομίζω, καί τό τοῦ Σιράχ Ἰησοῦ προσθεῖναι τοῖς εἰρημένοις. Ἔστι δέ τοῦτο· Μουσικά ἐν πένθει, ἄκαιρος διήγησις. Ὡς οὖν τῆς μουσικῆς πάσας περιεχούσης τάς παιδεύσεις, ὧν μίαν φασί τήν γεωμετρίαν οἱ περί ταῦτα τήν σπουδήν ἐσχηκότες, τούτου χάριν, ὡς οἶμαι, συμφερόμενος τῷ τήν προῤῥηθεῖσαν ἐκθεμένῳ ῥῆσιν ὁ διδάσκαλος ἀνάρμοστον ἔφη τῷ πένθει τήν γεωμετρίαν. Εἰ δέ τις φαίη. Τί δήποτε τάς λοιπάς παρείς παιδεύσεις ταύτην μόνην ὡς ἀνάρμοστον τῷ πένθει παρείληφε; φαμέν ὅτι ταύτην ἐσκόπησε κατάλληλον εἶναι πάσαις ταῖς προλεχθείσαις ἐπιβολαῖς. Ἔπειτα δέ καί διά ταύτης τῆς μιᾶς καί αἱ λοιπαί συνεκδοχικῶς συμπαρελήφθησαν. Ταῦτα μέν, κατ᾿ ἐμέ φάναι, λελέχθω. Εἰ δέ τις τό κρεῖττον ἐξεύροι, ὁμολογήσω χάριν τῶν ἠγνοημένων παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ τήν γνῶσιν λαβών. ΟΔ (74). ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ, ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΥ, ΕΙΣ ΤΟ, «ΤΟΥ ΜΕΝ ΓΑΡ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΘΕΟΝ ΚΑΙ..».
A trustworthy witness to these things is the holy and God-minded Dionysius the Areopagite, who sets it out as follows concerning the angelic imagery: "And the geometrical and architectural implements, the foundational and the building and the perfecting, and whatever else belongs to the anagogic and converting providence of secondary things." All these things indicate a cheerful way of life, to which grief is altogether opposed, and for this reason is unfitting. But if the passage can be taken in another way, I think it is not out of place to add to what has been said the saying of Jesus son of Sirach. It is this: "Music in mourning is an untimely tale." Since, then, music encompasses all the branches of learning, of which those who have devoted their zeal to these matters say geometry is one, for this reason, as I think, the teacher, agreeing with the one who set forth the aforementioned saying, called geometry unfitting for grief. But if someone should say, "Why ever, passing over the other branches of learning, has he taken up this one alone as unfitting for grief?" we say that he observed that this one is suited to all the undertakings previously mentioned. And then, through this one, the others too were included by synecdoche. Let these things, then, be said, so far as it is for me to speak. But if someone should discover something better, I will acknowledge that I have received the knowledge of the things I did not know from him. OD (74). Of the same, from the Great Theological [Work], on "For that there is a God, and...
Τοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἐκ τοῦ μεγάλου θεολογικοῦ, εἰς τό, «τοῦ μέν γάρ εἶναι Θεόν καί τῶν πάντων ποιητικήν τε καί συνεκτικήν αἰτίαν, καί ὄψις διδάσκαλος καί ὁ φυσικός νόμος, ἡ μέν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις προσβάλλουσα καί πεπηγόσι καλῶς καί ὁδεύουσι, καί ἀκινήτως, ἵν᾿ οὕτως εἴπω, κινουμένοις τε καί φερομένοις, ὁ δέ διά τῶν ὁρωμένων καί τεταγμένων τόν ἀρχηγόν τούτων συλλογιζόμενος». Ὁ τό μέγεθος τῶν ὁρωμένων ὡς ἔχει κάλλους καί φύσεως, σύν λόγῳ κατά τήν αἴσθησιν ἐπελθών, μή συγχωρῶν αὐτῇ παντελῶς καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν γενομένην ἐνεργεῖν τοῦ ἡνιοχοῦντος αὐτήν λόγου ἐχωρισμένην οὐδέν, μηδέ τόν λόγον αὐτόν τῆς τοῦ νοῦ ἁπλότητος ἄφετον, καθ᾿ ὅν τῆς μέν αἰσθήσεως τά τε εἴδη ( καί τά σχήματα διά μέσης τῆς κατά τόν λόγον δυνάμεως εἰς λόγους παντοδαπούς ἄγεσθαι πέφυκε, τῆς δέ τοῦ λόγου δυνάμεως ἡ κατά τήν διαφοράν ποικιλία τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι παντοδαπῶν λόγων εἰς ἑνοειδῆ καί ἁπλῆν καί ἀδιάφορον συνάγεσθαι
νόησιν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ ἀμερής λεγομένη καί ἄποσος καί ἑνιαία γνῶσις συνέστηκεν, οὗτος ἀληθῶς διά τῶν ὁρωμένων καί τῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς εὐταξίας τόν ποιητήν τούτων καί συνοχέα καί ἀρχηγόν, ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν, ἀνετυπώσατο, καί ἔγνω Θεόν, οὐ κατά τό τί ποτε τήν οὐσίαν εἶναι καί τήν ὑπόστασιν (τοῦτο γάρ ἀμήχανον καί ἀνεπιχείρητον), ἀλλά κατ᾿ αὐτό τό μόνον εἶναι μαθών.
Of the same, from the Great Theological [Work], on the passage, "For to be God and the creative and sustaining cause of all things, both sight is a teacher and the natural law — the one applying to things seen, which are well fixed and moving and, so to speak, borne along without motion, and the other through things seen and ordered reasoning out their author." He who has approached the magnitude of things seen, as it possesses beauty and nature, with reason according to sense, not allowing sense, when it has come to be entirely by itself, to act apart from the reason that guides it — nothing at all — nor allowing the reason itself to be set free from the simplicity of the intellect, according to which it is natural for the forms and shapes of sense, through the power of reason, to be led into reasons of every kind, and for the variety according to difference of the manifold reasons in existing things, by the power of reason, to be gathered into a unified and simple and undifferentiated intellection, according to which the knowledge called indivisible and without quantity and singular consists — this man truly, through things seen and the good order in them, has imprinted in himself, as far as is possible for a human being, the maker and sustainer and author of these things, and has known God, not according to what the substance and hypostasis are (for this is impossible and unattemptable), but having learned [Him] according to this alone, that He is.
Καί ταῦτα μετά πᾶσαν τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐν σχήματι θέσεώς τε καί μορφῆς καί τυπώσεως καί φαντασίας διάβασιν, καί εἰ μή τῷ περιττός εἶναι δοκῶ, καί αὐτῆς ἔξω παντελῶς τῆς ἐν τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων διαφορᾶς γενόμενος, καί οἷον μεθόριον ἑαυτόν παρενθείς Θεοῦ τε καί πάντων τῶν μετά Θεόν, τόν μέν ὡς ὑπερέχοντος καί ἀψαύστου δι᾿ ὅλου μένοντος καί μηδεμίαν φθάνουσαν αὐτόν ἔχοντος νόησιν, τῶν δέ καταλελειμμένων καί τῇ περιουσίᾳ τῆς κατά νοῦν γνώσεως διαβαθέντων καί κατωτέρων ἐννοίας φανέντων τῷ τί ποτε εἶναι βεβαίως ὑπέρ αὐτά καί ἀληθῶς ἐννοῆσαι, ταῦτά μοι δοκεῖ διά τῆς ὄψεως καί τοῦ φυσικοῦ νόμου κατά τήν ἀποδοθεῖσαν αἰτίαν ὁ διδάσκαλος παραινίττεσθαι, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ ταὐτόν τίθεσθαι, καθώς τινες ᾠήθησαν, τήν ὄψιν τε καί τόν φυσικόν νόμον. Ἄμφω γάρ περί τά αὐτά τήν ἐνέργειαν ἔχοντα τήν ἀπ᾿ ἀλλήλων δύναται κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν δέχεσθαι διάκρισιν, τῷ τήν μέν ἀλόγως τῇ προσψαύσει τῶν ὁρατῶν μόνον στηρίζεσθαι περαιτέρω βαίνειν οὐκ ἔχουσαν, τόν δέ τῷ τε συνημμένῳ λόγῳ ταῦτα πολυπραγμονεῖν καί τῷ νῷ καλῶς τε καί σοφῶς ὑπερβαίνειν, καθ᾿ ὅ μάλιστα τήν περί τοῦ εἶναι Θεόν ἔννοιάν τε καί πίστιν ὁ φυσικός διά τῆς ὄψεως εἰσαγήοχε νόμος. Ὄψιν οὖν ἐκάλεσε τήν ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τήν πῶς, πρός τά ( αἰσθητά τῆς αἰσθήσεως προσβολήν (οὐ γάρ αἰσθήσεως ἀπλῶς τό ἔκ τινος ἕτερόν τι συλλογίζεσθαι καθέστηκεν ἴδιον), νόμον δέ φυσικόν τήν διά τῆς αἰσθήσεως γινομένην κατά νοῦν καί λόγον φυσικήν ἐνέργειαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ πρός τό κρεῖττον μετ᾿ ἐμμελοῦς ἐξετάσεως καθ᾿ ὁδόν ἀπό τῶν ἡττόνων ἀνάβασις γίνεται.
And these things after every passage through sense in shape and position and form and impression and imagination, and—if I do not seem to be excessive—having come to be entirely outside the very difference among the principles of beings, and having placed myself, as it were, as a boundary between God and all things after God, remaining wholly on the one hand as that of the transcendent and untouchable and having no thought that reaches him, and on the other of the things left behind and traversed by the abundance of knowledge according to the mind and shown lower than conception by the fact that one can firmly and truly conceive what they are beyond them—these things, it seems to me, the teacher urges through sight and the natural law according to the cause that has been set forth, but he does not posit sight and the natural law as the same thing, as some have thought. For both, having their activity concerning the same things, can receive a distinction from one another in conception, in that the one is fixed irrationally by the contact of visible things alone, having no power to go further, while the other, by the reason attached to it, busies itself with these things and by the mind rightly and wisely transcends them, in which respect especially the natural law has introduced, through sight, the conception and faith concerning God's being. He called sight, then, the simple—but not the qualified—application of sense to sensible things (for it is not the proper function of sense simply to infer one thing from another), and natural law the natural activity according to mind and reason that comes about through sense, by which there is an ascent on the way from lesser things to the better with fitting examination.
Ἀκινήτως δέ κινεῖσθαί τε καί φέρεσθαι τά ὁρώμενα εἴρηται τῷ διδασκάλῳ τῷ μέν λόγῳ, ᾧ γέγονε ταῦτα, κατά τε φύσιν καί δύναμιν καί ἐνέργειαν, τάξιν τε καί διαμονήν ἀμεταστάτως ἔχειν, καί μή ἐξίστασθαι καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν τῆς φυσικῆς ἰδιότητος καί μεταβάλλειν εἰς ἄλλο καί φύρεσθαι, κινεῖσθαι δέ πάλιν τῷ κατά ῥοήν καί ἀποῤῥοήν λόγῳ, αὐξήσει τε τῇ περί τό ποσόν καί μειώσει καί τῇ περί τό ποιόν ἀλλοιώσει, καί κυρίως εἰπεῖν, τῇ ἐξ ἀλλήλων διαδοχῇ, ὑπεξισταμένων ἀεί τοῖς ἐπιγνομένοις τῶν προειληφότων. Καί ἁπλῶς ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντα τά ὄντα καθ᾿ ὅν μέν ὑπέστησάν τε καί εἰσί λόγον, στάσιμά τε παντελῶς εἰσι καί ἀκίνητα, τῷ δέ τῶν περί αὐτά θεωρουμένων λόγῳ, καθ᾿ ὅν ἡ τοῦ παντός τούτου σαφῶς οἰκονομία συνέστηκέ τε καί διεξάγεται, πάντα κινεῖται δηλονότι καί ἀστατεῖ. Οὐ ταὐτόν δέ φασιν εἶναι τῇ φορᾷ τήν κίνησιν. Τήν μέν γάρ κίνησιν μᾶλλον εἶναί φασι τῶν ὑπό γένεσιν καί φθοράν, ὡς ἐπιδεχομένων τοῖς περί αὐτά θεωρουμένοις τό μᾶλλον καί τό ἧττον (κἄν ἐπί πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν γενητῶν κυρίως λέγεσθαι δυνατόν), τήν δέ φοράν τῆς κατά κύκλον κινουμένης οὐσίας καί ἀκαμάτως τήν περιδίνησιν. Οὐκ οἶδα πότερον θαῤῤήσαντι περί τό πᾶν φυσικῶς ἐνεργούσης λέγειν ἐστίν ἀσφαλές ἤ ἐνεργουμένης, πλήν ὅτι κυρίως εἰπεῖν ἐστιν ἐνεργουμένης τό φέρεσθαι. Οὐδέν γάρ τῶν ὄντων παντελῶς ἐστιν αὐτενέργητον, ὅτι μηδέ ἀναίτιον, τό δέ μή ἀναίτιον, κινεῖται πάντως δι᾿ αἰτίαν, ἐνεργούμενον ( δηλονότι τό κινεῖσθαι φυσικῶς ὑπό τῆς αἰτίας, δι᾿ ἥν καί πρός ἥν ποιεῖται τήν κίνησιν.
The teacher has said that visible things are moved and borne immovably: by the principle according to which they came to be—both in nature and power and activity—they possess order and permanence without change, and do not depart in any respect from their natural property, nor change into another, nor become confused; but they are moved again by the principle of flow and efflux, by increase in quantity and decrease, and by alteration in quality, and, to speak properly, by succession from one another, the earlier always giving way to those coming after. And, to speak concisely and sum it up: all beings, by the principle according to which they subsist and are, are entirely stable and immovable; but by the principle of the things contemplated concerning them, according to which the economy of this whole is clearly constituted and carried out, all things are evidently moved and are unstable. They say that motion is not the same as being borne. For they say that motion belongs rather to things subject to generation and corruption, as admitting the more and the less in the things contemplated concerning them (though it can properly be said of all generated things together); but being borne belongs to the essence that is moved in a circle and its unwearying revolution. I do not know whether it is safe to say that it acts naturally concerning the whole, having dared, or that it is acted upon; except that, to speak properly, being borne is being acted upon. For nothing of beings is entirely self-acting, since nothing is without cause; and what is without cause is certainly moved by a cause, being acted upon—clearly, being moved naturally by the cause through which and toward which it makes its motion.
Ἀναιτίως γάρ οὐδαμῶς κινεῖται καθ᾿ οἱονδήτινα τρόπον τῶν κινουμένων οὐδέν.
Ἀρχή δέ πάσης κινήσεως φυσικῆς ἐστιν ἡ τῶν κινουμένων γένεσις, ἀρχή δέ τῆς τῶν κινουμένων γενέσεως ὁ Θεός, ὡς γενεσιουργός. Τῆς δέ τῶν γεγενημένων φυσικῆς γενέσεως τέλος ἡ στάσις ἐστίν, ἥν ποιεῖ πάντως μετά τήν διάβασιν τῶν
πεπερασμένων ἡ ἀπειρία, ἐν ᾗ διά τό μή εἶναι διάστημα πᾶσα ποιεῖται κίνησις τῶν φυσικῶν κινουμένων, οὐκ ἔχουσα λοιπόν ὅποι τε καί πῶς καί πρός τί κινηθῆναι, ὡς τόν ὁρίζοντα καί αὐτήν τήν πάσης ὁριστικήν κινήσεως ἀπειρίαν Θεόν τέλος ὡς αἴτιον ἔχουσα. Πάσης οὖν γενέσεώς τε καί κινήσεως τῶν ὄντων, ἀρχή καί τέλος ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων καί δι᾿ αὐτοῦ κινουμένων, καί εἰς αὐτόν τήν στάσιν ποιησομένων. Πάσης δέ φυσικῆς τῶν ὄντων κινήσεως προεπινοεῖται ἡ γένεσις, πάσης δέ στάσεως προεπινοεῖται κατά φύσιν ἡ κίνησις. Εἰ οὖν κινήσεως προεπινοεῖται κατά φύσιν ἡ γένεσις, κινήσεως δέ μετεπινοεῖται κατά φύσιν ἡ στάσις, γένεσις δηλονότι καί στάσις εἶναι τῶν ἅμα κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν ἀμήχανον, ἀλλήλων αὐτάς φυσικῶς διείργουσαν ἔχουσαι κατά τό μέσον τήν κίνησιν. Οὐ γάρ φυσική ἐνέργεια τῆς γενέσεως τῶν κινουμένων ἡ στάσις ἐστίν, ἀλλά τέλος τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν δυνάμεως ἤ ἐνεργείας, ἤ ὅπως ἄν τις ἐθέλει τοῦτο λέγειν. Ἐπ᾿ ἐνεργείᾳ γάρ τά γενόμενα γέγονε, πᾶσα δέ ἐνέργεια πρός τι τέλος ἐστίν, ἵνα μή ἀτελής. Τό γάρ τέλος μή ἔχον τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐνεργειῶν οὐδέ τέλειόν ἐστι, τέλος δέ τῶν κατά φύσιν ἐνεργειῶν, ἡ τῆς πρός τό αἴτιον τῶν γεγενημένων κινήσεως στάσις.
For nothing that is moved is moved in any way whatsoever without a cause.
The beginning of every natural motion is the coming-into-being of the things that are moved, and the beginning of the coming-into-being of things moved is God, as the maker of generation. The end of the natural coming-into-being of things that have come to be is rest, which infinity brings about altogether after the passage of finite things—infinity in which, because there is no interval, every motion of natural things moved takes place, no longer having where, or how, or toward what it might be moved, since it has as its end, as its cause, God himself, who is the boundary and the very infinity that bounds all motion. Therefore God is the beginning and the end of all coming-into-being and motion of beings, as they have come to be from him and are moved through him and will make their rest in him. But the coming-into-being of every natural motion of beings is conceived beforehand, and motion is by nature conceived beforehand of every rest. If, then, coming-into-being is by nature conceived beforehand of motion, and rest is by nature conceived afterward of motion, it is impossible for coming-into-being and rest to belong to the same things at the same time in respect of existence, since they naturally separate them from each other, having motion in the middle. For rest is not the natural activity of the coming-into-being of things moved, but the end of the power or activity according to it, or however one wishes to say this. For things that have come to be have come to be for activity, and every activity is toward some end, so that it not be incomplete. For what does not have the end of its natural activities is not perfect either, and the end of natural activities is the rest of the motion of things that have come to be toward their cause.
Οἷον ἵνα ἐξ ἑνός τόν ἐπί πάντων τῶν ὄντων κατανοήσωμεν τῆς κινήσεως τρόπον, ἡ ψυχή, οὐσία νοερά τε καί λογική ὑπάρχουσα, καί νοεῖ καί λογίζεται, δύναμιν ἔχουσα τόν νοῦν, κίνησιν δέ τήν νόησιν, ἐνέργειαν δέ τό νόημα. Πέρας γάρ τοῦτο τῆς τε τοῦ νοοῦντος καί τοῦ νουμένου νοήσεώς ἐστιν, ὡς περιοριστικόν ( τῆς πρός ἄλληλα τῶν ἄκρων ὑπάρχον σχέσεως. Νοοῦσα γάρ ἡ ψυχή ἴσταται τοῦ νοεῖν ἐκεῖνο τό νοηθέν μετά τήν αὐτοῦ νόησιν. Τό γάρ νοηθέν κυρίως ἅπαξ, οὐκ ἔτι τήν πρός τό νοηθῆναι πάλιν ἐκκαλεῖται τῆς ψυχῆς δύναμιν, καί καθ᾿ ἕκαστον νόημα οὕτω στάσιν δέχεται τῆς ποίας ἐπί τῷ νοήματι τοῦ νοηθέντος νοήσεως. Ἡνίκα οὖν πάντα τά νοήματα τῶν νοουμένων πάντων αἰσθητῶν τε καί νοητῶν κατά τήν νόησιν παρέλθῃ, παύεται, ὥσπερ τῶν νοουμένων ἁπάντων, οὕτω καί τῆς ὅλης νοήσεώς τε καί σχέσεως πρός τά σχετά πάντα καί νοητά, οὐκ ἔχουσα λοιπόν τί νοῆσαι τό παράπαν, μετά τήν τῶν νοηθῆναι φυσικῶς δυναμένων νόησιν, μεθ᾿ ἥν ὑπέρ νοῦν καί λόγον καί γνῶσιν ἀνοήτως, ἀγνώστως τε καί ἀφράστως κατά ἁπλῆν προσβολήν ἑνωθήσεται τῷ Θεῷ, οὐ νοοῦσα παντάπασιν, οὔτε μήν τόν Θεόν λογιζομένη.
For example, so that from one instance we may understand the manner of motion in all beings: the soul, being an intellectual and rational substance, both thinks and reasons, having the intellect as its power, thought as its motion, and the concept as its activity. For this is the limit of the thought of both the thinker and the object thought, as being that which bounds the relation of the extremes to one another. For when the soul thinks, it comes to a standstill of thinking that object thought, after its thought of it. For the object properly thought, once for all, no longer calls forth the soul's power toward being thought again, and in accordance with each concept it thus receives a standstill of the particular thought concerning the object thought. When, therefore, all the concepts of all objects of thought, both sensible and intelligible, have passed by in thought, it ceases, just as from all objects of thought, so also from the whole of thought and relation toward all things related and intelligible, having no longer anything at all to think, after the thought of the things naturally capable of being thought, after which, beyond intellect and reason and knowledge, without thought, without knowledge, and inexpressibly, by a simple contact, it will be united to God, not thinking at all, nor indeed reasoning about God.
Οὐ γάρ ἐστί τι τῶν νοουμένων, ἵνα κατά τινα σχέσιν ἡ ψυχή τήν αὐτοῦ δύνηται νόησιν ἔχειν, ἀλλά κατά τήν ἁπλῆν, ὡς ἄσχετον, καί ὑπέρ νόησιν ἕνωσιν, καί τινα λόγον ἄῤῥητόν τε καί ἀνερμήνευτον, ὅν μόνος οἶδεν ὁ τήν ἄφατον ταύτην χάριν τοῖς ἀξίοις δωρούμενος Θεός, καί οἱ ταύτην ὕστερον πείσεσθαι μέλλοντες, ἡνίκα πάντα τροπῆς ἐλεύθερα καί ἀλλοιώσεως ἔσται πάσης, τῆς καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν περί τι κινήσεως τῶν ὄντων παντελῶς πέρας λαβούσης τήν περί Θεόν ἀπειρίαν, ἐν ᾗ τά κινούμενα πάντα δέχεται στάσιν. Περί Θεόν γάρ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ Θεός, ἡ ἀπειρία, ὅστις καί ταύτης ἀσυγκρίτως ὑπέρκειται. Δικαίως γοῦν, οἶμαι, μέμψεως ἄξιος πλείστης ὁ τήν προΰπαρξιν τῶν ψυχῶν δογματίζων ἐστί, καί τήν ἀκίνητον καθόλου τῶν λογικῶν ἑνάδα θεσπίζων, φύρων ἑλληνικῶς τά μή φυρόμενα, καί λέγων ἅμα κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν εἶναι τῇ γενέσει τῶν λογικῶν τήν στάσιν. Οὐ γάρ συμβαίνει τῷ ἀληθεῖ λόγῳ τήν γένεσιν προεπινοεῖσθαι τῆς στάσεως, ἀκίνητον φύσει κατ᾿ αὐτόν ὑπάρχουσαν, οὔτε μετεπινοεῖσθαι στάσιν ἀκινήτου γενέσεως, οὔτε μήν συνεπινοεῖσθαι τῇ γενέσει τήν στάσιν. Οὐ γάρ δύναμις τῆς γενέσεως ( ἡ στάσις ἐστίν, ἵνα συνεπινοηθῇ τῇ γενέσει τῶν γεγενημένων, ἀλλά τῆς κατά δύναμιν ἐνεργείας τῆς τῶν γεγενημένων γενέσεως τέλος ὑπάρχει, καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, τῶν πρός τι οὖσα ἡ στάσις, οὐ πρός γένεσιν, ἀλλά πρός κίνησιν λέγεται, πρός ἥν και ἀντιδιαστολήν ἐπιδέχεται, οὐδαμῶς τήν πρός γένεσιν ἀναφοράν ἔχουσα, πρός ἥν
For it is not one of the things understood, such that the soul can have the understanding of it according to some relation, but according to the simple, as it were relationless, and supra-intellectual union, and a certain reason both unutterable and uninterpretable, which God alone knows, who grants this ineffable grace to those who are worthy, and those who are later to experience it, when all things will be free from change and from every alteration, since the motion of beings in any respect whatsoever has wholly received its end in the infinity that is around God, in which all things that are moved receive rest. For the infinity is around God, but not God, who is incomparably above even this. Justly, then, I think, he is worthy of the greatest blame who dogmatizes the pre-existence of souls and decrees the altogether immovable unity of rational beings, confounding in a Hellenic manner things that are not to be confounded, and saying that rest exists simultaneously with the coming-into-being of rational beings according to existence. For it does not follow in the true account that coming-into-being is conceived before rest, which by his own account exists immovable by nature, nor that rest is conceived after an immovable coming-into-being, nor indeed that rest is conceived together with coming-into-being. For rest is not a power of coming-into-being, so as to be conceived together with the coming-into-being of things that have come into being, but it is the end of the activity according to power of the coming-into-being of things that have come into being; and simply, to speak concisely, rest, being of things in relation, is spoken of not in relation to coming-into-being but in relation to motion, in contrast to which it also admits of distinction, having in no way a reference to coming-into-being, in relation to which
διαστολήν οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται. Ἕως δ᾿ ἄν οὖν στάσιν ἀκούω, παῦλαν μόνον μανθάνω κινήσεως.
Εἰ δέ τῶν ἅμα κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν οὐκ ἔστι γένεσις καί στάσις, ἄρα παραχαράττει, σαφῶς τόν τῆς ἀληθείας λόγον ὁ τοῦτο θεσπίζων, καί τήν ἀκίνητον ἅμα τῇ γενέσει προϋπάρχουσαν ἑνάδα τῶν λογικῶν δογματίζων. Εἰ δέ τις λέγοι, Καί πῶς ἐπί Θεοῦ λέγεται στάσις, μή ἔχουσα προεπινοουμένην κίνησιν; φημί πρῶτον μέν, Οὐ ταὐτόν Κτίστης και κτίσις, ἵν᾿ ὅπερ ἑνί δυνατόν προσεῖναι, κατ᾿ ἀνάγκην τῷ ἑτέρῳ ὡσαύτως ἐπιθεωρηθῆναι δύνηται, ἐπεί οὕτωγε οὐδαμῶς τό κατά φύσιν διάφορον τούτων ἔσται καταφανές· ἔπειτα κυρίως εἰπεῖν, ὁ Θεός οὔτε κινεῖται παντελῶς οὔτε ἵσταται (τοῦτο γάρ τῶν κατά φύσιν πεπερασμένων καί ἀρχήν τοῦ εἶναι ἐχόντων ἐστίν ἴδιον), οὔτε μήν τι ποιεῖ παντάπασιν, οὔτε πάσχει τῶν ὅσα ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς καί νοεῖται καί λέγεται, διά τό κατά φύσιν ὑπέρ πᾶσαν εἶναι κίνησίν τε καί στάσιν, καί μηδενί λόγῳ τοῖς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ὑποβάλλεσθαι τρόποις. Ταῦτα παρεκβατικῶς εἰρήσθω περί τοῦ μηδέν χρῆναι λέγειν τῶν ὄντων κατά φύσιν ἀπολελυμένως ἐνεργεῖν, ἵνα μή ἀναίτιόν τι τῶν μετά Θεόν ἀφρόνως εἰσάγωμεν, ἐνεργεῖσθαι δέ φυσικῶς τό ἐνεργεῖν τοῦθ᾿ ὅπερ ἐνεργούμενον πέφυκεν ἐνεργεῖν.
It does not admit of distinction. But as long as I hear of "rest," I understand only a cessation of motion.
But if generation and rest are not among things that exist simultaneously, then he who decrees this clearly falsifies the account of truth, and dogmatizes a unity of rational beings that is motionless and pre-existent together with generation. But if someone should say, "And how is rest spoken of in the case of God, since it has no motion pre-conceived?" I say first, that Creator and creation are not the same, so that what is possible for one might not necessarily be contemplated in the same way in the other; for in that case the natural difference between them would in no way be evident. Secondly, to speak properly, God neither moves at all nor stands still (for this is the peculiar property of things naturally finite and having a beginning of existence), nor indeed does he do anything at all, nor suffer any of the things that are both conceived and spoken of in his case because of us, since he is by nature beyond all motion and rest, and is in no way subject to our ways. Let these things be said by way of digression, concerning the fact that one ought not to say that any of existing things acts in a wholly detached manner by nature, lest we foolishly introduce something among the things after God as without a cause, but that the act of acting is naturally effected in that very thing which, being acted upon, is naturally disposed to act.
ΟΕ (75)...» ΑΛΛ’ ΕΙ ΑΣΩΜΑΤΟΝ, ΟΥΠΩ ΜΕΝ ΟΥΔΕ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΤΗΣ ΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΠΑΡΑΣΤΑΤΙΚΟΝ,..».
Τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου εἰς τό, «Ἀλλ’ εἰ ἀσώματον, οὔπω μέν οὐδέ τοῦτο τῆς οὐσίας παραστατικόν, ὥσπερ οὐδέ τό ἀγέννητον, ( καί τό ἄναρχον, καί τό ἀναλλοίωτον, καί ἄφθαρτον, καί ὅσα περί Θεοῦ ἤ περί Θεόν εἶναι λέγεται». Πρός τούς ἀνόμοιον μάλιστα τῷ Πατρί τόν Υἱόν κακούργως εἰσάγοντας, διά τοῦ νομίζειν οὐσίαν εἶναι τοῦ Πατρός τό ἀγέννητον, ὡς οἶμαι, τόν λόγον ποιούμενος, καί ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων τό δέον αὐτούς ἐπιγνῶναι διδάσκων, ταῦτά φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, ἵν’ ὑπό τῆς ἀληθείας πρός τήν εὐσέβειαν συνελαυνόμενοι εὐπειθῶς σύν ἡμῖν τό μή ἔχειν γένεσιν τόν Πατέρα μόνον δηλοῦν τό ἀγέννητον ὁμολογήσωσι, συνειδότες ὡς εἴπερ οὐσίαν Θεοῦ τό ἀγέννητον εἶναι βιάσαιντο, οὐσίαν Θεοῦ καί τό ἀσώματον ἐξ ἀνάγκης, καί τό ἄναρχον, καί τό ἀθάνατον, καί τό ἀναλλοίωτον, καί τό ἄφθαρτον, καί ὅσα διά τῆς στερητικῆς ἀναιρέσεως διά τήν ὑπεροχήν ὁ Θεός εἶναι λέγεται, λέγειν εἰκότως, ἑαυτοῖς γοῦν στοιχοῦντες, ἐκβιασθήσονται, καί οὕτω πολλάς οὐσίας Θεοῦ, καί οὐ μίαν, μᾶλλον δέ, κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν καί ἀληθέστερον, πολυθεΐαν ἑλληνικήν νοσοῦντες ἐλεγχθήσονται, ὅπερ ὡς ἀσεβές εἰπεῖν αἰσχυνόμενοι τῆς ἀπονοίας πάντως ἀφέξονται καί μή βουλόμενοι. Τά γάρ στερητικά ἤ ἀναιρετικά περί τι θεωρούμενα οὐκ αὐτό ἐκεῖνο τυγχάνει ὄντα τό περί ὅ θεωροῦνται, ἐπεί πάντως ἔσονται τῶν σημαινόντων τό τί ἐστιν, ὡς ἐκεῖνο αὐτό ὄντα, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τό τί οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτό ἐκεῖνο σημαίνοντα·
Of the same discourse, on the text, "But if it is incorporeal, not even this is yet indicative of essence, just as neither is unbegottenness, nor beginninglessness, nor immutability, nor incorruptibility, and whatever else is said to be concerning God or pertaining to God." He is directing his argument against those who wickedly introduce the Son as unlike the Father, by supposing that unbegottenness is the essence of the Father, as I think, and teaching them that they ought to recognize what is fitting from things that are alike. The teacher says these things so that, compelled by the truth toward piety, they may obediently confess with us that unbegottenness signifies only that the Father has no generation, being aware that if they should force unbegottenness to be the essence of God, they would reasonably be compelled also to say that incorporeality is the essence of God, and beginninglessness, and immortality, and immutability, and incorruptibility, and whatever else God is said to be through privative negation because of his transcendence—at any rate, consistent with themselves, they will be forced, and thus they will be convicted of suffering from many essences of God and not one, or rather, to speak more properly and truly, of a Hellenic polytheism. Shamed to say this as impious, they will altogether abstain from their folly, even unwillingly. For privative or negative terms contemplated concerning something are not that very thing concerning which they are contemplated, since then they would altogether be among terms signifying what something is, as being that very thing, but they do not signify that very thing which it is not.
εἰ δέ τοῦτο, ὅρος ἐκείνου τοῦ περί ὅ λέγονται εἶναι ταῦτα δειχθήσεται, ὅπερ ἄτοπον καί ἀδύνατον. Οὐ γάρ ἐκ τῶν ὧν οὐκ ἔστι τῶν πραγμάτων οἱ ὅροι συνάγονται, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῶν ὧν ἅ ἔστιν, ἐξαπλοῦντα τήν σύντομον τῶν πραγμάτων περίληψιν, ἥτις ὀνομασία τούτων ὑπάρχει. Οὐδέν οὖν τό σύνολον τῶν περί Θεοῦ ἤ περί Θεόν εἶναι λεγομένων οὐσία εἶναι Θεοῦ πώποτε δύναται, ὅτι μηδέ θέσιν, μόνην καί μόνῳ Θεῷ ἁρμόζουσαν, ἄσχετον, καί τῆς περί τι παντάπασιν ἐνεργείας ἄφετον αὐτό ἐκεῖνο κατά τό τί ποτε εἶναι ἐμφῆναι δύναται.
Ο (76)...» ΩΣ ΓΑΡ ΟΥΚ ΑΡΚΕΙ ΤΟ ΣΩΜΑ ΕΙΠΕΙΝ,... ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ Ο ΤΑΥΤΑ ΠΑΡΑΣΤΗΣΑΙ ΤΕ..».
( Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Ὡς γάρ οὐκ ἀρκεῖ τό σῶμα εἰπεῖν, ἤ τό γεγεννῆσθαι, πρός τό καί περί ὅ ταῦτα παραστῆσαί τε καί δηλῶσαι, ἀλλά δεῖ καί τό ὑποκείμενον τούτοις εἰπεῖν, εἰ μέλλοι τελείως καί ἀποχρώντως τό νοούμενον παραστήσασθαι· ἤ γάρ ἄνθρωπος ἤ βοῦς ἤ ἵππος τοῦτο τό ἐν σώματι καί φθειρόμενον».
But if this is so, that will be shown to be a definition of that concerning which these things are said to be, which is absurd and impossible. For definitions are not gathered from the things that it is not, but from the things that it is, unfolding the concise comprehension of the things, which is their naming. Therefore, nothing at all of the things said to be about God or pertaining to God can ever be the essence of God, because not even position—alone and fitting to God alone, unrelated, and altogether free from activity concerning anything—can itself reveal that very thing according to what it once is.
Of the same discourse, on the text, "For it is not enough to say 'body,' or 'has been begotten,' to present and make clear that concerning which these things are, but one must also state the subject underlying these things, if one intends to present the conceived meaning perfectly and sufficiently; for either man or ox or horse is this thing that is in a body and is corrupted.
Ἐπείπερ ἐώρα τούς αἱρετικούς ὁ ἅγιος ἕνα μόνον ἔχοντας ἀγῶνα, τήν ὑπερούσιον ἑαυτοῖς ἀνοήτως συγκαταβάλλειν φύσιν, καί τεχνικαῖς μεθόδοις περιλήψει τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτούς γνώσεως κρατεῖν ἐπιχειροῦντας, ὡς ᾤοντο, τήν ἀκράτητον δύναμιν, καί πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει κατά τό ἴσον ἀχώρητον, δι᾿ ὅλου τοῦ λόγου τάς στερήσεις τε καί τάς ἀποφάσεις προὐτίμησεν ἐπί Θεοῦ λέγειν, μηδεμίας παντελῶς ἀνασχόμενος θέσεως ἤ καταφάσεως, ἵνα μή ταύτης λαβόμενοι ὡς ἀναιδεῖς κύνες δήγματι τούς ἰοβόλους ὀδόντας μανικῶς τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐμβάλλωσιν, ἀφορμήν τοῦ ὁπωσοῦν προτείνειν καί παραλογίζεσθαι, καί τό οἰκεῖον εἰς πέρας ἀγαγεῖν δυνηθῆναι σπούδασμα, τήν ὁποιανοῦν περί Θεοῦ δοθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς τοῦ λόγου θέσιν ποιούμενοι. Διά τοῦτο οὔτε σῶμα, οὔτε ἄϋλον σῶμα, οὔτε ἀσώματον παντελῶς, οὔτε ἐν τῷ παντί, οὔτε ἔν τινι τοῦ παντός, οὔτε ὑπέρ τό πᾶν, καί ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, οὐδέν τό παράπαν καί ἐν οὐδενί καθ᾿ οἱονδήποτε τρόπον, ὡς ἔστιν ἀληθές, τῶν ὁρομένων ἤ χωρουμένων ἤ λεγομένων ἤ νοουμένων ἤ γνωσθεῖναι καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν δυναμένων, εἶναι τόν Θεόν ἀποφαίνεται, πάσης αὐτούς τῆς περί Θεοῦ καταληπτικῆς κατά τό τί ποτε εἶναι τήν οὐσίαν ἐννοίας ἀποῤῥαπίζων. Ἔπειτα δυσωπητικώτερον αὐτούς ἐνάγων πρός εὐσέβειαν, καί ἐκ τῆς περί τά δεύτερα καί μακράν ἀσυγκρίτως ἀπό Θεοῦ ἐρεύνης τό καθόλου περί Θεοῦ τολμηρῶς μηδέ ἐννοεῖν, μήτιγε λέγειν, εἶναί τινι θεμιτόν δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ταῦτά φησι.
Since the saint saw that the heretics had only one struggle: to bring down upon themselves in their folly the nature that is beyond being, and by technical methods of comprehension, according to their own knowledge, to attempt to grasp, as they thought, the power that cannot be grasped and is equally incomprehensible to all creation, throughout the whole of his argument he preferred to speak of privations and negations in the case of God, tolerating absolutely no position or affirmation, so that they, seizing upon it like shameless dogs, might not madly sink their venomous teeth into the word of truth, and so that no occasion might be given them to put forward anything at all and to reason falsely, and to be able to bring their own zeal to its goal, by making whatever position of the word concerning God had been granted to them. For this reason he declares that God is neither a body, nor an immaterial body, nor entirely incorporeal, nor in the universe, nor in any part of the universe, nor beyond the universe, and, simply put, neither anything at all nor in anything in any way whatsoever, as is true, of the things that are seen or contained or spoken or thought or can be known in any respect, tearing away from them every concept of God that is comprehending as to what the substance ever is. Then, urging them more persuasively toward piety, and wishing to show that from the investigation of secondary things, which are incomparably far from God, it is lawful for no one even to conceive boldly anything at all concerning God, let alone to speak it, he says these things.
Καί μήν ( καί πρός σύστασιν τῶν ἤδη πρός αὐτούς κατά στέρησίν τε καί ἀπόφασιν εἰρημένων, ὥστε αὐτούς συνειδότας ἐντεῦθεν, ὡς καί ἡ τῶν ἐσχάτων ἐν τοῖς ποιήμασιν ἀκριβής κατάληψις τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς λογικῆς ἐνεργείας ὑπερβαίνει τήν δύναμιν, τῆς περί τά πολλῷ μείζω θρασύτητος τόν ἀλόγιστον δυνηθῆναι φοράν ἐπισχεῖν, ἐν τοῖς μικροῖς τό ἀσθενές μαθόντας τῆς φύσεως. Εἰ γάρ ἐξετάζουσιν ἡμῖν στοιχεῖόν τι, φέρε εἰπεῖν ἤ ἄνθρωπον ἤ ἵππον ἤ βοῦν, οὐκ ἀρκεῖ πρός τελείαν κατάληψιν τό σῶμα λέγειν τό στοιχεῖον, ἤ γεννητόν μόνον ἤ φθαρτόν τόν ἄνθρωπον ἤ τόν βοῦν ἤ τόν ἵππον, ἀλλά δεῖ παραστῆσαι καί τό τούτοις ὑποκείμενον, ὅπερ γεννᾶται καί φθείρεται καί πεποίωται. Σῶμα δέ ἤ γέννησις ἤ φθορά, οὐδαμῶς ὑπάρχον, ἐπεί ἔσται κατά τοῦτο ἀνάγκης ἀκολουθία, εἴ τι σῶμα, καί στοιχεῖον εἶναι, καί εἴ τι γεννητόν ἤ φθαρτόν, ἤ ἄνθρωπος εἶναι ἤ βοῦς ἤ ἵππος. Οὐ γάρ εἴ τι σῶμα, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί στοιχεῖον ἤ ἄνθρωπος ἤ βοῦς ἤ ἵππος. Εἴ τι μέν γάρ στοιχεῖον, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί σῶμα, οὐκ εἴ τι δέ σῶμα, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί στοιχεῖον. Οὔτε εἴ τι σῶμα ἤ γεννητόν ἤ φθαρτόν, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί ἄνθρωπος, ἐπεί οὕτω γε καί ἄνθρωπος ἔσται πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης πᾶν εἴ τι σῶμα, καί πᾶν εἴ τι γεννώμενόν ἐστιν ἤ φθειρόμενον. Εἴ τι μέν γάρ ἄνθρωπος, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί σῶμα καί γεννώμενον καί φθειρόμενον, οὐκ εἴ τι δέ σῶμα ἤ γεννητόν ἤ φθαρτόν, πάντως ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί ἄνθρωπος.
Indeed, also for the confirmation of what has already been said against them by way of privation and negation, so that they, having become aware from this, may learn in small matters the weakness of their nature—since the precise comprehension of the last things in created beings surpasses the power of our rational activity—and may be able to check the irrational impulse of their audacity concerning things much greater. For if we examine any element—say, a human being or a horse or an ox—it is not sufficient for complete comprehension to say that the element is a body, or that the human being or the ox or the horse is merely generated or perishable, but one must also present the subject underlying these things, which is generated and perishes and is qualified. But body or generation or corruption does not exist at all, since in that case by necessary consequence, if anything is a body, it would also be an element, and if anything is generated or perishable, it would be a human being or an ox or a horse. For it is not the case that if anything is a body, it is by all necessity also an element or a human being or an ox or a horse. For if anything is an element, it is by all necessity also a body; but it is not the case that if anything is a body, it is by all necessity also an element. Nor is it the case that if anything is a body or generated or perishable, it is by all necessity also a human being, since in that way every body whatsoever would by all necessity also be a human being, and everything whatsoever that is generated or perishing. For if anything is a human being, it is by all necessity also a body and generated and perishing; but it is not the case that if anything is a body or generated or perishable, it is by all necessity also a human being.
Οὔτε γάρ ἕπεται πάντως, ἐπεί ἔσται ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί στοιχεῖον καί βοῦς καί ἵππος, καί πᾶν εἴ τι ἄλλο ἐνσώματον καί γεννώμενον καί φθειρόμενον. Οὐ γάρ κατηγορεῖταί ποτε τά μερικά κατά τῶν καθόλου, οὔτε τά εἴδη τῶν γενῶν, οὔτε τῶν περιεχόντων τά περιεχόμενα, καί διά τοῦτο ( οὐδέ ἀντιστρέφει τά καθόλου τοῖς ἐπί
μέρους, οὐδέ τά γένη τοῖς εἴδεσιν, οὐδέ τά κοινά τοῖς ἰδιάζουσιν, οὐδέ συνελόντα φάναι, τοῖς περιεχομένοις τά περιέχοντα.
Οὕτως οὖν κατά τόν ἀποδοθέντα λόγον καί ἐπί βοός καί ἵππου καί παντός τοῦ ὁτιοῦν ἑτέρου ληπτέον. Εἰ τοίνυν οὐκ ἀρκεῖ πρός τελείαν γνῶσιν τῶν πραγμάτων τό πλῆθος τῶν περί αὐτά θεωρουμένων εἰπεῖν, λέγω δή τό σῶμα καί τό γεννᾶσθαι καί τό φθείρεσθαι, καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα περί τό ὑποκείμενόν ἐστιν, ἀλλά δεῖ πάντως καί τό ὑποκείμενον τούτοις, θεμελίου τρόπον ἐφ᾿ ᾧ ταῦτα βέβηκε, τί ἐστιν ἐνδείξασθαι, εἰ μέλλοιμεν τελείως καί ἀπαραλείπτως τό νοούμενον παριστάναι. Ἤ γάρ ἄνθρωπον ἔχομεν εἰπεῖν ἤ βοῦν ἤ ἵππον, ταῦτα δή τά μή ὄντα αὐτό τοῦτο σῶμα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνσώματα, καί μή ὄντα αὐτό τοῦτο γεννήσεις καί φθοράς, ἀλλά γεννώμενα καί φθειρόμενα, ὡς εἶναι ταῦτα, σῶμά φημι καί γέννησιν καί φθοράν, δηλαδή περί τά ζῶα, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τά ζῶα ταῦτα ὑπάρχειν, σῶμα λέγω καί γέννησιν καί φθοράν.
For it does not at all follow that, because man exists, he must necessarily also be an element and an ox and a horse, and whatever else is bodily and generated and corruptible. For particulars are never predicated of universals, nor species of genera, nor things contained of the things containing them; and for this reason universals do not convert with particulars, nor genera with species, nor common things with things that are peculiar, nor, to speak summarily, do the things containing convert with the things contained.
In this way, then, according to the account that has been given, one must also take it in the case of an ox and a horse and every other thing whatsoever that is taken. If, therefore, the multitude of things contemplated in them is not sufficient for complete knowledge of things—I mean the body and being generated and being corrupted, and whatever such things belong to the subject—but one must by all means also show what the subject itself is, in the manner of a foundation on which these things stand, if we are to present the object of thought completely and without omission. For either we can say man or ox or horse—these things, surely, not being this very thing, body, but bodily things, and not being this very thing, generations and corruptions, but things generated and corrupted—so that these things, I mean body and generation and corruption, clearly belong to living things, but are not the living things themselves, I mean body and generation and corruption.
Εἰ τοίνυν οὐδέν τό σύνολον τῶν ὄντων ἐστί κατ᾿ αὐτό τό εἶναι ὅπερ ἐστί καί λέγεται τό ἄθροισμα τῶν ἡμῖν περί αὐτό νοουμένων τε καί λεγομένων, ἀλλ᾿ ἕτερόν τι παρά ταῦτα, τό περί ὅ ταῦτά ἐστι, συνεκτικόν μέν τούτων, αὐτό δέ τούτοις οὐδαμῶς συνεχόμενον (οὐδέ γάρ ἐστιν ἐκ τούτων, ἤ ταῦτα, ἤ τι τούτων, ἤ ἔκ τινων, ἤ τινος αὐτῶν, ἤ ἐν τούτοις, ἤ τισιν, ἤ τινι τούτων, τό περί ὅ ταῦτα καί ἔστι καί λέγεται), παυσάσθω πάσα ψυχή παντί λόγῳ τῶν περί Θεοῦ θρασέως ἐπιπηδᾷν εἰθισμένη τοῦ διακενῆς ἀσεβεῖν, καί ἐν τοῖς μικροῖς μαθοῦσα τήν οἰκείαν ἀσθένειαν, καί σιγῇ σεβέσθω μόνον τήν ἄῤῥητόν τε καί ὑπέρ νόησιν καί πάσης ἐπέκεινα γνώσεως τῆς θείας οὐσίας ὀντότητα. "Οὐδέ αὐτή γάρ κατά μικρόν, ὡς προλαβών ἐδίδαξεν ὁ ἅγιος, ἡ τῆς κτίσεως ( ἀκριβής κατανόησις" κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον ὑπό τῆς ἡμῶν περιέχεται γνώσεως, ἵνα κἀγώ μικρόν τι προσδιατρίψω τῷ λόγῳ, καί τῆς ὑπέρ πάντα σοφίας θαυμάσω τό ἀνεξιχνίαστον. Τίς γάρ τῶν ἄγαν σοφῶν ταῖς λογικαῖς πιστεύων ἐφόδοις καί ταῖς οὐκ οὔσαις θαῤῥῶν ἀποδείξεσι μετά λόγου τήν τῶν ὄντων ἐπελθών μεγαλειότητα δυνήσεται γνῶναι, εἰπεῖν τε καί παραστῆσαι;
If, then, the whole of beings is not, according to the very fact of being, that which the aggregate of the things understood and spoken by us concerning it is and is called, but is something else besides these—that about which these things are, which holds them together, yet is in no way held together by them (for it is not from these things, nor is it these things, nor any one of them, nor from certain things, nor from any one of them, nor in these things, nor in certain things, nor in any one of them, that which these things are and are called about)—then let every soul that is accustomed to leap rashly with every argument upon the things concerning God, so as to be impiously bold in vain, cease; and having learned its own weakness in small matters, let it in silence reverence only the ineffable and beyond-thought and beyond all knowledge reality of the divine essence. For not even the accurate comprehension of creation itself, as the saint taught beforehand, is, in small measure, according to the true account contained by our knowledge—so that I too may linger a little on the argument, and marvel at the unsearchable depth of the wisdom that is above all things. For who among the exceedingly wise, trusting in rational approaches and relying on demonstrations that do not exist, having with reason traversed the greatness of beings, will be able to know, to speak, and to set it forth?
Τίνες οἱ ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων τῇ ὑπάρξει πρώτως ἐγκαταβληθέντες λόγοι, καθ᾿ οὕς καί ἔστι καί πέφυκε τῶν ὄντων ἕκαστον, καί εἰδοπεποίηται, καί ἐσχημάτισται, καί συντέθειται, καί δύναται, καί ἐνεργεῖ, καί πάσχει, ἵνα μή λέγω τήν ἐν τῷ ποσῷ τε καί τῷ ποιῷ, καί τῇ σχέσει, καί τῷ τόπῳ, καί τῷ χρόνῳ, καί τῇ θέσει, τῇ τε κινήσει καί ἕξει, διαφοράν καί ἰδιότητα, πρός ἅ καί ἡ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς μεγαλοφυῶς λογική πέφυκεν ἰσαρίθμως πλατύνεσθαι δύναμις εἰς νοῦν, καί νόησιν, καί ἔννοιαν, καί διάνοιαν, καί σύννοιαν, καί τόν ἐνδιάθετον λόγον, τόν τε κατά προφοράν καί τόν γεγωνότα, τουτέστι φωνήν καί κραυγήν, καί αὖθις συνάγεσθαι, χωρίς τῆς κατ’ ἐπιστήμην καί τέχνην, ὥσπερ ἐν ποσῷ τε καί ποιῷ καί τοῖς λοιποῖς, καθώς ἀπηρίθμηται, τούτου διαφορᾶς τε καί ἰδιότητος; Τίς ὁ γινώσκων τούς λόγους τῶν ὄντων καθώς καί εἰσίν, ὡς εἶπον, καί διαφέρουσι, καί στάσιν ἔχουσιν ἀκίνητον τήν κατά φύσιν καί πρός ἄλληλα μηδαμῶς μεταπίπτουσαν κίνησιν, ἐν τῇ κινήσει τήν στάσιν, καί ἐν τῇ στάσει τό παραδοξότατον τήν κίνησιν ἔχοντα; τίς πρός ἄλληλα τῶν ἐναντίων εἰς ἑνός κόσμου σύστασιν ὁ δεσμός, καί τῆς εὐτάκτου τε καί ἀφύρτου κινήσεώς τε καί διοικήσεως ὁ τρόπος;
What are the principles (logoi) that were primarily implanted by existence into each of beings, according to which each of beings both is and is naturally constituted, and is formed, and is shaped, and is composed, and is capable, and acts, and is acted upon—not to mention the difference and peculiarity in quantity and quality, in relation, in place, in time, in position, in motion and state, toward which our own naturally rational power, greatly endowed, is able to expand in equal number into mind, and thought, and conception, and discursive reason, and understanding, and the internal word, and the word of utterance and the sounding word—that is, voice and cry—and again to be gathered together, apart from the difference and peculiarity that comes through knowledge and art, as in quantity and quality and the rest, as has been enumerated? Who is it that knows the principles of beings as they are, as I said, and how they differ, and how they possess a motionless stability—the natural motion that in no way falls away in relation to one another—having stability in motion, and, most paradoxically, motion in stability? What is the bond of opposites in relation to one another for the constitution of one world, and what is the manner of their well-ordered and unconfused motion and governance?