PG_91A_4

It must be the case: that it follows upon existence according to nature, to act in accordance with it. (Of divine begetting: that is, of baptism. Sun-wrought: the beams which the sun produces; and it indicates the rays. § 2. That Ozias: Note the things concerning Ozias and Kore and Nadab.

Gospels: What gospels truly are.

Love of humanity: Note concerning the economy. To assimilate: through faith, clearly, as he indicates in what follows. 1. He who loved these: he means the one recently come to faith and wishing to be enlightened; but initiated, that is, a Christian, and perfectly faithful. 2. But he wholly: concerning the one now called the sponsor of the newly enlightened. 3. To follow after: according to what is said in the law: "In all things we will hear the voice of the Lord."

4. To receive: to receive the one who has been asked for; whence also he is called a sponsor. Namesake of hierarchy: that is, a hierarch.

§ 3. 5. Of the two men. That the phrase must be composed thus: Of the two men, as having received the sheep upon his shoulders, so that it may be from the two men, I mean the sponsor

And when he has come forward, having received him inside the church as a lost sheep—since he himself is turning him back from error; for the sponsor was faithful, and he did not need to be received; now the priest gives thanks to God. For if it were arranged thus, having received the two men, it would be quite barbarous. He was revered: instead of "he was honored." Through the noetic: he means the noetic thanksgiving, the silent one and that which takes place in the mind, and the bodily one, bowing the head and worshiping God. § 4. Every sacred order: that is, the whole clergy. (7. A certain hymn. Note that from all of Scripture it is possible to offer a hymn to God, yet not from David alone. Otherwise, a certain hymn, either the song of Miriam the sister of Moses, "Let us sing to the Lord," or the thirty-third psalm of David, or a part of it, "Come to him, and be enlightened." To become whole: he means a whole approach, that from the whole soul. He commands the priests: Note that he calls priests those below the bishops, that is, the presbyters and deacons, naming them thus; for they themselves enroll the newly illumined. 6. The man: Note also concerning the registration of the one being baptized and of the sponsor.

When the church has been completed: that is, at the utterance of the Amen. He loosens him: this concerns those being perfected in holy baptism. And he strips him: here he does not strip off every garment, but leaves one cloak, as he makes clear next; and this is done through the ministers, that is, the deacons.

He turns him toward the east: here he makes him as one praying and asking; but in the posture toward the west, as one rejecting the works of darkness. Note that at that time only the deacons undressed those who were coming to baptism, while the presbyters did the rest, which now the deacons do, as you have learned a little before; and in what follows you will also find that he calls the deacons ministers, and the presbyters priests. 7. Of the ministers: he calls the deacons ministers. Mother of adoption: he calls the font the mother of adoption. (The sacred thing of the inspiration of the God-inspired: the phrase must be construed thus: the sacred melody of the inspiration of the God-inspired prophets, so that it means: and thereafter the bishop, having spoken the sacred melody of the Holy Spirit, which Holy Spirit is the inspiration of the divine prophets, receives the man; for he does not say the sacred melody of the prophets; for all the prophets spoke the one song; and it is the twenty-eighth psalm: "The voice of the Lord upon the waters," and the "Alleluia." Suitable: that is, white.

To the most divinely-working one: Gregory, in another place, says "most theological." He says it is not fitting that the reader of the father's treatises On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy should be surprised if, contrary to the order now prevailing in the churches, he says certain things in the celebration of the mysteries have been transposed; just as here too, after the anointing with myrrh, he introduces the partaking of holy communion as taking place. For it was likely that these things were suited to the arrangement of the times, but now are done more precisely in the perfect liturgy of the divine mysteries, in which the newly enlightened must also partake. § 8. And by saying again "he is raised up to the contemplation of the first things," he hinted either that a prayer takes place after this, or that after this the hierarch departs for the divine liturgy.

He is raised up to the first things: What he means is this: the bishop, holding the image of the God of all, just as God, ever remaining in his own unity and identity, and established in himself without going forth, for the sake of the salvation of all extends the illuminations of his goodness to all things by his providential processions, and is present to all without departing from his own establishment; so too the bishop, imitating God symbolically as far as possible, while remaining in his own station—that is, the ecclesiastical principality—proceeds by the providence of his love for humanity to the second things, that is, to descending to the one who is returning, and teaches him, and anoints him, and seals him, and after baptizing him imparts the gift. And all these things are, as it were, liturgical second things after his principality.

Having completed all the secondary rites, he returns again to the altar, symbolically representing before God that, although he came forth providentially into secondary things for the sake of the salvation of the one who approached, nevertheless he did not depart from doing his own proper works and from being in his own realm—that is, in the heights of the contemplation concerning God—but from divine things (meaning from the holy liturgy of the newly enlightened) he turns back again to divine things, as it were to the height of theological contemplation, being led and directed by what seems good to the Holy Spirit. These things, and shortly after, he says in the contemplation of the mystery of communion. By water: for by water the unclean are purified. C'. § 1. Hinting: that one must also make the interpretations with a view to the hearers; and that the many are uninitiated in such mysteries, which he calls the multitude.

§ 2. Uniform of the multitude: he calls "uniform" the Godlike, and "of the multitude" the many and unholy.

In the work On Intelligible and Sensible Things: that a treatise on intelligible and sensible things has been labored over by him, and what it contains.

§ 3. Let us speak then: Contemplations.

Of the intellectual beings: He speaks of two forms of evil among intellectual beings: for either they wholly depart from the divine light, having fallen in love with evil, or, having despised the measure of illumination given to them and daringly attempted to surpass it, and being too weak to grasp what exceeds their power, they will utterly fail of the measure given to them as well, while the divine light remains unchanging everywhere. Self-chosen: Note that every intellectual faculty and power (whether of angels or of men) is self-chosen and self-determining; and how it comes to be in evil.

Has been severed: Just as to be conjoined signifies to be fitted together, so also to be severed signifies to have fallen out of harmony and natural union; but sometimes the word also signifies to hang suspended. Here, however, it is taken in the former sense.

Whether of the moderate: From the image of sensible light, apply what is said to the commensurate measure of divine thoughts; since it is also written, "Seek not things higher than yourself; think upon what has been commanded you"; for in these things he calls the commensurate the measure. Of things unsuitable: Of things not fitted to it, as being beyond it. To this the divine: The bishop is a type of this. To those who approach: Here it is clear that he teaches with a view to his hearers. § 4. Discerning: Note that the first gift one gains from exact teaching is to know oneself, in order to keep what is in the law, "Take heed to yourself," as the divine Basil also said; for in this way for the present one imitates the angels who know themselves.

Running back to the visible: By "visible" here he means that which is contemplable, that is, intelligible; and "running back" means being wholly moved toward seeing; and he calls it a sacred gift to be a discerner of oneself.

Of this is: An explanation of what it means to come to the hierarch through an intermediary. Seal: What the seal is and what the registration is. With him: Instead of "along with him."

( Companion: Consequent. § 5. But to be unrelated: As if having no relation to the former life, nor being ranked among the divisions of the uniform; for the one in all things is like itself insofar as it is one; but the multitude, as being in a division of sins, is unlike. Having put off: Why it is put off.

As if breathing out: Note what it signifies that the catechumens breathe upon the devil.

Announcing: That is, the tradition of the symbols. Toward the one of whole inclination: Understand the whole inclination toward the one according to the saying of the Lord when he said, "that they may be one," that is, looking toward the one, which is what is pleasing to God; and "stretching up" means the elevation of the reasoning toward the divine and the withdrawal from things that crawl on the ground.

He possesses the unchangeable: How and from where the intelligible states become unchangeable. To be unbending: Unseduced, unsoftened, manly, unyielding, unbending by any remission. But it must be known that this is said concerning women who act manfully or appear manly.

You see the: Concerning the anointing.

According to whom under the judge of the contest: The syntax of the present passage is in hyperbaton, a long interposed clause having been composed. So then it must be construed thus: According to whom, being made under Christ the judge of the contest, the one being initiated will go up rejoicing in the contests, as divine, and so on.

CHRIST as God, as wise, as beautiful, as good, presides over the contest.

gives the law.

adorns the prizes.

contends alongside.

(Since as God: That Christ is God, against the Nestorians. Having gone up: He speaks concerning baptism.

Of the first of athletes: He calls the Lord the first of athletes, who through his own goodness alone struggled against the power of death. By contests: Evidently through the anointing of the divine myrrh. And energies: By energies he means sins and the passionate desires and motions; by existences, the active natures of the demons; for evil deeds are not contemplated in their own existence.

§ 7. Since death is: What death is, and that our composition is a union.

Bringing the unseen: Some said that this unseen thing is Hades, that is, the separation of the soul that has become formless and invisible, into places invisible to the senses.

Of bodily changes: For often the body is dissolved back not only into worms but also into other living things. And observe that he calls such a transformation a change, and that death is not a non-existence of our substance, and that the soul, when it departs from the body, becomes invisible and does not coil around the body, as some said, and that the sinking into the water is rightly taken as a figure of death. The divine-principle: That he calls the three-day burial of the Lord a divine-principle death, and that the saying which the Lord spoke, "The ruler of this world comes, and will find nothing in me," he says belongs to the Word. And he calls Satan the ruler of the world and of the diabolical choices among men, the one who has the power of the

of death, according to the Apostle; since in Christ he found nothing of his own transgression: "For he did not commit sin, nor was guile found," as Isaiah says. Therefore it was also impossible for him to be held by death, as Peter says, but he was released alone free among the dead, according to David. § 8. The disorderly is set in order: Since darkness is the filthy life, according to the Apostle, it is something most disorderly and formless, not having the form of the divine mind (for it is a shadow and a barrier of virtue), it is reasonably adorned by illumination, and the one who comes forward receives the form of light, becoming a child of light and a seed of God, that is, receiving light, according to the divine John. But he called the ill-favored "formless" among existing things, not that which is entirely without share in form, just as we often call the misshapen "shapeless."

To know intelligibly: I indeed suppose that it was by a purpose of modesty that the great Dionysius was silent, as if he were ignorant. For that he was deemed worthy of the Spirit of foreknowledge is clear from the letter he wrote to the evangelist John; nevertheless this seems to me to signify that those deemed worthy of the divine Spirit, being everywhere the fragrance of Christ and united to him by purity according to the Apostle, perceive his presence, by speaking in tongues or having a prophetic gift or effecting healings, and whatever is made clear in the Acts and in the most divine Paul. Otherwise:

Those who, as spiritual people, understand spiritual things and compare them with spiritual things, and who, Paul says, are a divine and spiritual fragrance—those who proclaim the Gospel, as leading from the life of faith to the life that comes through baptism, to the forgiveness of sins, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit, and to the kingdom of heaven through God-befitting works, declaring these things which are also a noetic fragrance; whence the divine John in the Apocalypse beholds the prayers of the righteous as golden bowls full of incense. But the foul odor of the devil is the works of sin, as also it is said in the Psalms: "My wounds stank and rotted because of my foolishness," that is, because of my sin. Therefore also Christ has been prophesied as ointment poured out, and the Lord smells a fragrance of sweetness in the offering of the righteous Noah. Hence also the Gospel is "to some a fragrance of life"—to the faithful, clearly—"but to the unbelieving, of death," meaning that to the unbelieving and impious it becomes again a fragrance unto death, convicting their works and condemning them to Gehenna, in the same way that a very precious ointment at once delights people and kills pigs, since they cannot bear its extreme sweetness. He speaks these things at length below in the fourth chapter, on the ointment.

From the Apostolic Constitutions.

So then, baptism is given for the death of the Lord, the water in place of burial, the oil in place of the Holy Spirit, the seal in place of the cross, the myron as the confirmation of the confession. ON CHAPTER 3, 1. "Guide of the rites": He means Saint Hierotheus. 1. "Having set it forth in a hierographic manner": That is, according to the sacred delineation of the things openly performed.

"The common": This is said by omission of the word "existing." 2. "And communion": Concerning communion.

"The perfection from": That it is impossible to be perfected without participation. "In the chapter": That is, by a most necessary account.

( "Imperfect": That no assembly brings perfection without participation.

And "the chapter": And here "the chapter" is taken for the necessary and essential.

"Its appellation": Why it is called illumination, and that rightly. "From what is performed": And here it is taken by omission of "to exist." 2. "The hierarch": This order was perhaps observed in the times of the Father in the churches in each place.

Tables of the sacred writings: he calls the Old and New Testaments "tables of the sacred writings."

And being energized in addition to them: that is, by unclean spirits. And of the ministers: he calls deacons "ministers," and those now called subdeacons.

Chosen: the "chosen" are the first deacons, and "priests" are the presbyters. They set forth: this is according to the custom prevailing in Rome. For there only seven deacons serve at the altar, whom, I think, he calls "chosen," while the others perform some other ministry; and note from this the Father's archaism, and that the presbyters set forth the bread together with the deacons. This also happens everywhere when the deacons are few; but in Rome, I think, always reasonably, because only the seven chosen ones serve at the altar; and perhaps the seven happen to be chosen also by the manner of life of the others. Of the catholic: that even then some symbol of the faith was recited beforehand, or rather the very lesson and co-lesson of the faith that they then received. Of the sacred tablets: here the diptychs are not first among us (but in the case of this Father, after the kiss the diptychs were recited, as also in the East). The chosen of the ministers: that only the first of the deacons stand at the altar; and perhaps also those among them who are chosen in their manner of life. And he brings before the eyes: that is, he makes clear the things being hymned; for example, that this and this belong to Christ, and this to Christ. And he also indicates the divine gifts that follow these, for example, that they are for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life, and whatever other such mystical things there are.

Perhaps this visible [act] signifies that at that time the holy gifts are uncovered, after the prayers, but remain covered until the time of communion; or perhaps he means the lifting up and elevation of the one blessing of the divine bread, which the priest elevates, saying, "The holy things to the holy," which is also more true, as you will find stated near the end of the chapter.

3. § 1. The images in order: He called the things now accomplished in the assembly "images" of the true realities.

As not even of the symbols: That these are symbols, and not the truth. For the most sacred [readings]: What are the psalms and the readings? For a remembrance: That "after the supper, taking bread," and what follows; and that his death is proclaimed until he comes, according to the Apostle and the Lord himself saying, "Do this in remembrance of me," and what follows. And note that he called the mystical supper of the Lord the archetypal symbol of the present divine mysteries; and that for the one who partakes unworthily of the bread and the cup, the partaking profits nothing, but rather he will receive it unto judgment, according to the Apostle. And from what follows one might reasonably say that after Judas went out from the supper, Christ handed the mystery to the disciples.

In like manner the holy things: He means Judas. And note that he also gave him a share of the mystical bread and the cup, but the mysteries to the disciples after Judas had gone out from the supper, since he was unworthy of them. As the one who is in a state: In these words he indicates that which is according to knowledge, that is, to be so disposed inwardly, and not according to bodily approach alone, but according to the disposition of the mind through faith and spiritual perception. § 2. From the things caused: That is, from the visible things that are accomplished, to the invisible and mystical things, which are the causes and archetypes of the things perceived by the senses. And things are called causes which have their being in some way from elsewhere, or [he means the transition] from the things caused to the causes, that is, from the sensible symbols to the intelligible and noetic things; or rather, from the more imperfect to the more perfect; for example, from the types to the image, and from this to the truth. For the things of the Old [Covenant] are a shadow, the things of the New Testament an image, and the truth the state of things to come.

Then the sacred: "Then" with an acute accent on the final syllable; it means "and then." § 3. Of the statues: He calls "statues" the images of things invisible and mystical, that is, the things accomplished symbolically; and first of these he named the mystery of the assembly, whose intelligible meaning, that is, what is revealed through contemplation, he promises to lay bare.

For she who is above all: Behold, one mode of the contemplation of the chapter before us.

Not outside of: Note the immovable station according to essence, and that the bishop is a type of God. Note that the matters concerning the offering of incense are understood in three modes: beginning from the altar, the hierarch, having gone around the whole temple, is restored to it again.

( Likewise: Another mode.

The mode, the divine: The third mode of the contemplation before us—how also in the case of the bishop, from the one he is multiplied, yet to the lesser he is unconstrained, that is, not sharing with the worse.

§ 4. And that of the psalms: What the psalms are. And note "consubstantial"; but also that he added "almost"; for these things are not united to one another according to essence, but by the fact that all contribute to one goal, that is, to the salvation of men, he called it "consubstantial"; whence he immediately added "almost," correcting the contradiction arising from the expression. And further down he calls it one inspiration, that is, one concord, which shows that there is one goal of all.

For every sacred: A summary mention of the books of the Old Testament. Of those who go up: Of those who grieve, as in the case of Job. Songs of loves: Concerning the love in the Songs. Or the manly: From here he similarly introduces the things of the New. Of the beloved and: I think it indicates the Revelation of the divine John, or his Gospel, which is more likely.

§ 5. He rooted together: He drew together.

But the one of the divine: The purpose of the psalms, he says, is that God and His genuine servants be hymned, since they have a power that suggests and contains such things; which, he says, is necessarily taken up in all things performed in a priestly manner, producing in those who sing an abiding remembrance of the psalms. Theurgies: Majesties.

And with the singing of the divine odes: Note that the harmony of psalmody is a teaching of concord with God and with one another.

( Abbreviated: That the abbreviated things, that is, the unclear things, are made clear through the symbols that are accomplished; for this is what "is widened" indicates. Note also that the Father says that the things spoken in a shadowed way in the psalms are made clear through the reading of the Scriptures.

In these: In these, clearly the Scriptures, the one who looks closely knows that one and the same Spirit spoke all of them. It is proclaimed: As making clear the Old by itself. The one said the things: As the one, the Old Testament, said, and the New completed. Of theology: Note that he calls the Old Scripture theology, and the New theurgy.

§ 6. In general of those: Those generally uncatechized and unhearing of these, having chosen so willingly.

Of the divine birth: That is, of holy baptism. But those who are catechumens: Concerning catechumens and the energized and those in repentance, and of what things they partake.

The last therefore: That catechumens are last. Imparticible: Without part.

Being midwifed: Being born again.

Abortions: Stillbirths.

§ 7. Unholy both itself: Unperfected. Note that he ranks with the energized also those who persist unrepentantly in bodily enticements, such as fornicators, lovers of spectacles, and those pursuing similar things, whom the divine Apostle naming expressly adds, not even to eat with such a one. These things he makes clearer in what follows. But it must be known that this exactness of the distinction and separation of such persons does not now take place. Such a one at some time: Note that one united to God will not be energized by an unclean spirit.

Most accursed activity: That the licentious are more demon-possessed than those who fall.

The things of beings: That he calls the virtues the things that truly are. The things subject to matter: Since matter too is altered in many ways. In alien things. Note that the things tending to sin are alien to us; for sin is not natural to us, but the fitness for every good work, according to the Apostle, and what is in the Psalms: "and from alien things spare your servant." From this you understand also what was said by the Lord: "If then you were not found faithful in what is alien, who will give you what is yours?" For this reason these alien things are also said not to be; for they are not of nature, but bastard; but to act according to nature is what is and is ours. Otherwise. He called the things according to the world alien, as not being anyone's privately, but passing from some to others, or also as our sojourn is not in these things throughout, but looks to another life, for which we were also made. Of the servant: That is, lest some of those who are acted upon suffer passion, as he says next.

Of things done with passion: A clear demonstration.

Since [the things] of the divine: Concerning the order of those being released. Uninitiated: The catechumens, the licentious.

And samples: And mockeries of impressions.

Through cowardice: Note whence he says that some of the faithful are troubled by demons.

(With habit and love: As it were, by repentance.

The all-holy ones: The faithful, both united to God and to one another. 1. Catholic: He called the hymnody "catholic," either as being sung by all, or as being offered on behalf of the universal grace.

2. And this hymn. Note that he called the hymn a symbol and a confession and a thanksgiving.

For it seems to me: To what end the symbol looks. 3. The essence: That is, according to the word of the Apostle when he said, "For all things are ours." And he calls "archetypal beauties" the things contemplated in the divine nature, of which he granted to men participation as far as possible, or he means the "according to the image" and "according to the likeness."

4. By repairers: That is, by the good things prepared from it for us.

5. Of the perfect: Note what he says concerning Christ, that is, his perfect incarnation, and against Apollinarius.

The divine bread: Note that not only was the holy bread set forth covered, but also the divine cup, which is not done now. § 8. Most divine kiss: Note why the kiss is given. Of desires, from: Note that the passionate desires are divisive, dividing us from God and from one another, and perhaps even from ourselves. Likeness-hatreds: That is, toward fellow men. § 9. Of the poor: Why after the kiss the diptychs are read. (Those who piously: Note that the diptychs of the dead were read in his time only, not, as now, also of the living. Theology says: These things are from the so-called Wisdom of Solomon; and note that this holy father also used it. But consider: He says this, that what is said in the prophets, to remember before the Lord, must not be understood as though the memory of God were renewed in the faculty of memory's imagination, which happens in the case of the noetic [souls] bound in the flesh, that is, in us, but it would reasonably be called the memory of God when we have become godlike in him through a virtuous life, and have been deemed worthy of the unceasing knowledge of him. Note how he takes the saying of the psalm.

Of symbols: of the body and blood.

§ 10. With water: What is it that they washed their hands, and when. He says, "the one who has bathed": Note how the father takes the Lord's saying, which says, "the one who has bathed has no need to wash his feet." And the syntax of the things set forth has its completion in relation to "he hints at," so that what is said is as follows: That this is so, he hints at—the laver in the legal worship, but in our own, the washing of the hands. And "unrestrained" and "released" signifies that he will not be carried along by the lesser impulse and disposition. Otherwise: The reading of this syntax by way of hyperbaton will be fitted together as follows: that, as the oracles say, the one who has bathed needs no other purification except the washing of his own extremities, that is, his outermost parts, through which (the outermost purification, in the all-pure state of the Godlike) he will make his turning undefiled and spotless, and proceeding to secondary things in a Godlike manner, preserving the fullness and completeness of the Godlike, he will be unrestrained and released, as being once for all uniform and turning back again to the One in a unified way.

If not of the extremities: What is it that the one who has bathed has no need of another washing, except to wash the extremities? And he calls "second" the things perceived by the senses, to which the soul clings through imagination.

Note the sacred: Note that there was no laver in the law, and that he has another treatise concerning the hierarchy according to the law, which is not extant. Of the hierarch: Note the divine indwelling of the priest, the truly most perfect. To have been purified for the sacred rite: By the divine sacred rite, evidently. The splendor of mirrors: He calls the souls of the saints "mirrors," as being receptive of the divine light and assimilative of the better lot. Of those sending forth to pass through: And here, Atticizing like an Athenian, he composed the phrase, saying, "of the sparklings sending forth their own gleam," when he ought to have said with the feminine, "of the sparklings sending forth," which indeed we showed more fully above in chapter 7 of the book On the Heavenly Hierarchy, that the figure is Attic. Read there, then. But that of the hierarch: Note why the hierarch washes at the altar, that is, upon the saints, that is, in front of them. And of the utmost: Of the extreme purification, that is. And under view: Rather, at that time the divine gifts remained covered until the time of holy communion; and this he indicates shortly after. Or, to be precise, that the hierarch, lifting up the holy bread, showed the blessing, saying, "The Holy Things to the holy.

§ 11. Some indeed, then: All the providences that come to us few know, and perhaps not even a few know; and concerning what the offering is. A helper: A supporter.

The human: Concerning the fall of human beings. Transgression: A violation. By their own inclinations: That is, by their own free choice. And the arrangement refers to what was said above; for he said that the most suffering life succeeds the human nature, and the other things in between, from "for consequently" to "from here pitiably." Alluring: Healing.

Of the beginning: Since we also have the beginning of our constitution from the earth—for our bodily part is from it—reasonably after the transgression we also have the end suited to the beginning; for we are dissolved into earth, since it was said, "You are earth, and to earth you shall go."

End: That is, death.

Of the upward-leading life: He calls "upward-leading life" the one that seeks the things above and is turned toward God.

Most suffering alteration: What alteration is in the case of bodies, we have set out in the work On the Divine Names.

Hostile: Wretched.

Into non-existence piteously: Into non-existence because of sin; for the sinner in a certain way does not exist; for evil is non-existent. Most boundless love of humanity: Concerning the incarnation, that he accomplished this in a manner befitting love of humanity.

(His own work: Note the precision of the doctrines, expressed in a multitude of words and warring against all heretics; for the fact that God's providence toward us became his own work shows that he himself was God the Word; not indeed another in another, as some rave together with Nestorius. But the fact that in true participation of all our [properties] without sin casts down the Manichaeans and Eutychianists and Apollinarianists and the Headless Ones and, in a word, all who are heretical.

Of state: "Of state" here must be understood not as some abiding quality, but as settlement and permanence, that is, possession.

Not by power: Note that Christ did not conquer Satan by strength, but by judgment and righteousness. Gregory of Nyssa also says this in the Catechetical Oration.

Of Olbius: Of the wealthy.

Formless by beauties: And above we said thus, that he calls the darkness of ignorance formless. And it signifies our freedom. Of the most accursed: Of the defiled.

§ 12. It is necessary for the hierarchic: Of the God-ruling goodness, as he said at the beginning of the chapter.

And having hymned: That is, blessing the bread and the cup of the holy gifts. And note that everywhere he calls the divine liturgy symbolic, and the holy gifts symbols of the things above and more true. For the veiled: Thus also a little before it was said, that the divine gift remained veiled until the time of partaking, unless perhaps it is called veiled as being hidden from the many and those standing outside, and simply from the laity. For the one and simple: Since he took both a rational soul and a earthly body. Being formed from us, that is, having taken the form according to us, that is, the nature. And note how we become partakers of the divine nature, being united to Christ. Note also the things concerning the economy, and who it is that appeared, and what is the breaking of the bread and the distribution.

At the summit: That is, at the summit of union, both perfect and true in essence according to hypostasis.

Of the uninjured: Of the undamaged.

For it is necessary for us: Note what the aim of Christianity is. § 13. Bringing under view: Here he speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ not symbolically, whom he also called our intelligible life. And “perfectly,” because he assumed both a rational soul and an earthly body. And well did he say “by an unconfused incarnation”; for he remained God, seen as man, and preserving the properties of each nature; and note this against the Apollinarians.

Being formed from us: That is, having taken the form according to us, that is, the nature. Partakers of God: Note how we become partakers of the divine nature, being united to Christ.

§ 14. For thanksgiving: Concerning thanksgiving. Of partaking he leads: “He leads” is used in a common sense, that is, he precedes; because the priest must first partake, and thus distribute. Therefore the participation leads, and the partaking of the one who has offered precedes the mystical distribution to the rest. With divine teachings: What sort of man the priest ought to be. Those who have boldly misused: What he says is this: just as the priest who does not first partake of what has been offered by him is unholy, so also those who dare to teach others while not doing what they teach are unholy; for one must do, and thus teach, according to what was said by the Lord: “He who does and teaches, this one will be called great.

Of legislation: Of the divine law.

One must not dare: Fear greatly.

Harmost: That is, fitting. The Lacedaemonians called "harmost" the ruler appointed by them over the cities subject to them, from the fact that the governed live in accordance with the laws; whence again the Athenians called "harmosters" those who arranged matters for living well, as Plato the comic poet clearly shows in the drama Embassies. And here, therefore, he has fittingly named the bishop, the ruler of the Church, "harmost."

§ 15. For by the sacred: Note what "taste and see" is. ON CHAPTER 4.1. Thus toward the one: That is, toward the intelligible and spiritual. Of fragrant diffusion: Instead of the bishop having censed the whole church.

2. Melody: The "Holy" evidently, or also the "Alleluia." And the [song] upon it: For through it every holy thing is perfected. 3. § 1. By the sacred: Note truly a divine word, that divine men must keep the deeds of virtue covered from empty glory. Statue: Image.

If it is lawful: If it is just.

In the image: Even if the image has an exact and in every way similar likeness to the archetype, nevertheless the essence, he says, is different; for the one is lifeless, the other is ensouled; and the one is a true living being, breathing, while the other is the painter's work of wax and colors. In this, then, since the difference is observed, the identity in both is different in respect of likeness.

Image: Likeness.

Fitly: Clearly, in relation to the divine beauty.

They do: They perform.

To be seen: Note how he understands that we must not make a public show of our good deeds.

They are of fragrance: That is, God (for this is the fragrance), doing the truly beautiful from himself, does not turn toward all, that is, he does not concern himself vaingloriously with those who do not at times accept the judgments that come from him, nor does he seek to have glory among men.

§ 2. As of hidden things: We have often indicated in the work On the Divine Names what is intelligible and what is intellectual. This, then, he also says here, that to the bishop, being holy, as one akin to the divine light, God reveals—not through another teacher, but himself illuminating him—the mystery of the vision and of the myrrh; therefore no veil lies over the divine myrrh for the bishop himself, but "with unveiled face," according to the Apostle, he contemplates the mysteries; but for the imperfect there is need of symbols; therefore the holy myrrh of God becomes covered with wings, both for the people and for him who through interpretation unveils the symbols.

He calls the bishops "spectators," since among the Greeks too those appointed by all to inquire of God concerning future things, and to offer sacrifices on their behalf and propitiate him on their behalf, were called "spectators." And he calls "unlike" the imperfect among the people; for this is his custom. For he does not conceal the intelligible things, but he is obscure in his books. Of enigmas: For through enigmas and symbols these orders are illuminated according to their own weakness.

§ 3. Of the hierarchic: For the divine myron perfects all things when it is applied, just as the partaking of the holy body and blood does. Of the divine: For all, being made fragrant, partake of the divine mystical fragrance proportionally.

Of those being energized: Of the demon-possessed and those turned to licentiousness, concerning whom he also speaks in the chapter before this. And he calls "panic" as it were confusion, fear, terror, deceit.

But to those who are led to mind: He speaks of those in repentance. They lead: An orderly sequence and ascent befitting the saints. The uniform: He calls "uniform" that which is toward the one, that is, the mind that sees the Divine itself, which he also says is united to the one itself and is filled with its union.

§ 4. But what about: Read the passage as a question. For if the [passage] "of those": That the perceptible fragrance nourishes the sense and makes it vigorous. Of the discerning: He calls "discerning" the faculty of the soul that distinguishes, that is, the intellectual, which, if it were not pure of inclination toward the worse, he says would not come to be in perception of the divine fragrance.

"Olbon": Wealth.

"Rejoicing": In place of "being perfumed."

§ 5. "Of the things according to the mind": "According to the mind" applies to angels. It is signified by the number twelve: of what are the twelve wings a type. Note also the magnitude of the seraphim.

( "Theology": "Holy, holy, holy." And of evil at the same time: Note that the Father says the powers above are without part not only in evil but also in forgetfulness.

"Knowledge": Well did he join understanding to knowledge; for the exact comprehension of anything produces knowledge of it. § 6. "The one therefore": What is the peculiarity of the seraphim, and that he mentioned this beforehand. "Of the supercelestial": He speaks in the treatise On the Celestial Hierarchy. § 7. "The one therefore": The contemplation of the holy seraphim. Note the whole passage, how it grants us in it to understand the things written about the powers above in the prophets.

Sixfold position: He says "sixfold position" because there are six wings. First and middle: It has been said in the preceding [comments] how one should understand the first, middle, and last powers of the intellectual beings. Formation: For they do not have real wings.

Of the wings: Note how he took up the matters concerning the wings of the seraphim, and that they flew with them wholly, having nothing slackened and lowly. § 8. But the faces: Note the most beautiful and strange contemplation, why the seraphim cover their faces and feet with their wings, but fly with the middle ones.

§ 9. And this too: An interpretation of the seraphim. § 10. Of the essential: In the discourse On the Heavenly Hierarchy it was clarified what the essential state in angels is, in the seventh chapter. 1. He did not fail to know: That the holy angels also know that Jesus who sanctifies was also sanctified, and when, and how.

Having come down: That is, having become man. 2. From the Father: He says this because the activity of the Holy Trinity is one. Note the incomparable orthodoxy of the great Dionysius, and how he preserved the divinity of the Lord Jesus—that as God he is all things, and that he himself as man was sanctified by the Father and by himself, since he is also God, and by the Holy Spirit—the heavenly orders also knowing their own origin, that is, Jesus, their cause and creator, that even if he is sanctified, yet

Therefore it is also thus: the unchangeableness according to essence—for [he is] God. Note that he knows his own beginning from his deification. 4. Seraphim stand around: Note why the six-winged ones stand around the divine myrrh. He said "without variation" either as regards being made like us in all things according to our nature apart from sin, or as regards not undergoing variation or a shadow of turning according to the divinity, in his taking on the human nature. Note the whole incarnation, against those who say he is without mind. 5. The one being sanctified: Rather, it was thus rendered in the [letter] to the Hebrews: "For both the one sanctifying and the one being sanctified."

The myrrh: Why the myrrh is poured out in the baptistery in the shape of a cross. He brings before the eyes: Instead of "openly proclaims." Needing divine generation: For he rose on the third day, not being held by death.

By the uncontainable: For he rose on the third day, not being held. Those unto death: For the reason of the mystery is hidden from the many—why baptism into Christ, because we are baptized into his death.

§ 11. In a manner befitting a human being. Note also from this that Christ, both as man receives the Holy Spirit being sanctified, and as God gives it. Note also the matter of essential divinity, and that he remained unchangeable. He will have the most divine habit: If, in the case of the angels, when we hear of essential habits, we do not understand them as qualities coming upon them from outside by accident, as was also said a little before, and as we made clear in the seventh chapter of the discourse On the Heavenly Hierarchy, much more in the case of God, who is properly being even beyond essence, shall we receive the habit not as a quality, which occurs in composite things, but as a habit of essential divinity, which naturally has from itself all the things of goodness. For the present it indicates that divinity is not the very essence of God, but the glory of the essence. § 12. Of the altar: That the altar also is perfected with myrrh, and why. The altar is Jesus: That Jesus is the altar; and note the magnitude and height of such an altar, which is Christ. Being wholly burnt mystically: He hints at the end of the fiftieth psalm. Consecration of myrrh: That it was called a consecration of myrrh, and why. All things in a divinely wrought manner: What he says is this: Since every divine manifestation and operation is shown through symbols, it follows that the symbol of the prophets' song, the alleluia, should be contemplated as to what it signifies.

Those of the Hebrews say: Note against the Headless. Of Theophany: What psalm is meant, and it is clear that it is one of those inscribed "Alleluia."

ON CHAPTER 5 § 1. Allotments: He calls these allotments because each priestly order has its own priestly services assigned to it, allotted, as it were, to it, which it cannot overstep; for the work of the deacon and of the others likewise is clear. Powers and energies in these matters: it is possible to take them in one sense, since they signify the same thing; for those who are permitted to perform these things are said to have the power of purifying and illuminating in a teaching manner. But it is also possible to distinguish them in another way, so that powers are the spiritual gifts and dignities, while energies are the ministries; for the perfections, it is evident, we shall understand as applying to the ordinations, that is, the laying on of hands.

And the one: He clarifies in sequence what the triadic division is, and what the triad of the transcendent orders is, about which he also set forth earlier in the first chapter of the present discourse. And note that in the ecclesiastical hierarchy there is a triadic division, and of what sort.

Our sacred tradition is divided into mystery; for this is the rite of initiation, into the initiate, and into those being initiated.

§ 2. The most holy: What the hierarchy in the heavens is, and that the knowledge and possession of God according to capacity is the initiation of the heavenly hierarchy. And its initiates are the first orders around God, while those being perfected are the orders after them, being initiated and taught by them.

After that: What the hierarchy according to the two peoples is. The one according to the law: Concerning the hierarchy according to the law. Not easily distinguished: Note that he says the contemplation and allegory of the legal ordinances is not easy to grasp and not easily distinguished. And by this according to the law: What the initiation of those under the law is. (Of the initiate and leader: that is, of Moses. Writing sacredly the: According to what was said: "See, you shall make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain."

The more perfect: He speaks concerning the new hierarchy in the Church, that it is an allotment of those according to the law. And the Apostle says these things in the letter to the Hebrews, and the Lord: "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." By the middle position: Note how the ecclesiastical hierarchy is middle between the heavenly hierarchy and the legal one, and how it shares in both, in the one by the spirit, and in the other by the letter, that is, by the symbols.

The threefold: How the division into three of the orders, the Godlike of the sacred: That is, into sacred knowledge, and teachers, and those being taught.

Of those among us: Of the angels.

The sacred rite of the mysteries is divided into purification, initiation, and perfection.

The ordering of the sacred ministers into purification, into illumination, into perfection of the uninitiated, of those purified, of those enlightened.

The power of those being initiated into those being purified, into those being enlightened, into those being perfected.

§ 3. The sacred power: In these things observe clearly the threefold division of the hierarchy being shown.

And that of the sacred ministers: Concerning those who perform the rites.

It purifies: What purifying is, and what illuminating is, and what perfecting is, he has said in the third chapter of On the Celestial Hierarchy, near the end, and proceeding here he will say: this threefold.

(Perfections: The first is purifying the uninitiated, the middle is that by which they initiate others, and the last is being perfected only. The first: Instead of the threefold of the subordinate orders. The threefold: What is the threefold power of the priests. Of the assembly: In common, that, when it has been demonstrated.

Now this: For from the divine Scriptures we are purified and illuminated toward the sacred divine birth; and from the assembly and the rite of the myron we are perfected knowingly. Note here likewise the threefold division being made clear. The hierarchical order is divided into purifying, illuminating, and perfecting.

§ 4. Or is it not also the perceptible things: As in the case of glass receiving the sun, which he also mentioned above; and as one may see in the case of fire or light, the one illuminating through the rare and transparent bodies even the denser and non-luminous things, and the fire through easily combustible matter burning up even natures unsuited for participation in it.

It illuminates: The activity of the hierarch, clearly. Of these, then, it is: The "it is" must be understood as common; for it is supplied by implication in all the [terms] in the passage.

Of the God-seeing, the to those: Note that the hierarch is first illuminated in a God-seeing manner, then imparts to those under him, then perfects those to whom he imparts the illumination.

§ 5. The first, then, is this. It must be noted how the same order is both first and last. And that of the hierarchic order: On the power of the orders. But the things set before us must be understood thus: that all things performed in a hierarchic manner have their reference to the hierarch, as he himself effects them through the orders under him, to which he also granted the power to effect them; nevertheless, the sanctification of the myron and the consecration of the altar and the ordination of the priestly orders are allotted to the hierarch alone for his own personal working, and not through the ministry of others—things which he also called perfective images of the divine power. And he says wholeness of all the orders, as he explains immediately.

And these are: namely, those that perfect the holy bread into the body of Christ, and the cup into the holy blood, and the water into holy purification, and the unilluminated into adoption as sons, and all the rest likewise.

For even if by the sacred: Note that to sanctify and to perfect the myron is not for the presbyters, whom he also calls priests, nor to perfect an altar, so as to offer upon it, nor indeed to ordain. For the hierarch alone does these things; apart from them the presbyter neither baptizes nor offers, but performs the sacred rites upon the things pre-perfected by the bishop. Sanctification: that is, ordination.

In summary: In a single manner.

The sciences: That the didactic power of the mysteries belongs to the hierarchs.

§ 6. But that of the priests: What is the order of the priests, that is, of the presbyters. It acts: The order of the priests, evidently.

But that of the ministers: What is the order of the ministers, that is, of the deacons. It purifies: How the deacons purify. Whence in the sacred: Contemplation of purification. Note also that it belongs to the deacons to strip and unshoe those being baptized, and to station them facing west, and again to lead them toward the east.

(Therefore also in the sacred: Note that the deacons then had charge of the doors, but now the subdeacons do;

§ 7. It has been shown, then: A recapitulation.

That is, of the hierarchic: That the bishop also performs the functions of those below him, and the first perform the functions of the second and of those after them, but not the reverse—the second do not perform the functions of the first.

To attempt arrogance: That each one must not presumptuously reach for greater things. The priestly images: Of what the priestly orders are types, as they work among men the things that come from God.

Since: On the heavenly orders, how they are served as priests by God. 2. The hierarch: The ordination of a bishop, presbyter, and deacon. Both feet: Now it is performed differently.

One of the feet: It is unclear which foot he means. According to each: Note that all those in the priesthood ought to greet the one being ordained.

3. § 1. Sacred proclamation. Proclamation is, as it were, a declaration by name; for the high priest who ordains him, sealing him, says by name: 'So-and-so is sealed from presbyter to bishop in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit'; likewise also for a presbyter and a deacon. Subordination: Subordination is the kneeling, and proclamation is what they now call public announcement or heralding.

The proclamation: The heralding at ordinations, for example at that of the bishop: 'For the holy father bishop so-and-so.' And at that of a presbyter: 'For this presbyter so-and-so.' And at that of a deacon: 'For our brother, this deacon so-and-so.' He calls proclamation this: when in the very act of ordaining he declares: 'The divine grace appoints the one being ordained, so-and-so, to such-and-such.' § 2. The one indeed: Contemplation.

§ 4. On the manly [life]. Note the manly life of Jesus and the divine, sinless perfection.

Proclamation: What is the proclamation.

§ 5. Nor a brother: Beautiful and altogether necessary and safe, that no one did even a brother without God.

Hierarch: As man, Christ also became high priest. Note this against the Acephali and the Nestorians.

Therefore he himself. Note when the disciples were ordained priests, and that Jesus, although being God, did not himself ordain, but promised to send the Holy Spirit from the Father, when as tongues of fire they appeared to them. Ruler of the rites: He calls the Lord [this] according to divinity. Of the disciples: The holy Peter, clearly with the others, when he appointed Matthias as an apostle.

But concerning God. Note what he says about the lot that fell on Matthias, and what he understands this to mean.

For it seems to me the saying: The saying in the Acts of the apostles concerning these things I found in some books thus: "and they gave lots to them," but in some, "and they gave their lots." The "to them" therefore supports what is now said by the divine Dionysius, as indicating some symbol of the lot, from revelation perhaps or the working of the Holy Spirit, falling upon the one chosen by lot; whence also the great Peter says concerning the Iscariot, that "he obtained with us the lot of this ministry," although the customary lot had not occurred among the apostles for the Lord who chose them. § 7. But the hierarch: Concerning the bishop, why the holy Gospels are placed upon him alone.

Of divine working, of divine appearing: The word "existing things" must be understood beforehand; for the construction often omits the verb. Note of how many divine privileges the bishop partakes.

Of sacred discourses: That is, of interpretations.

But to the priests: Concerning presbyters.

The inclination, then: What the inclination signifies.

§ 8. The three of the sacred rites: That is, of hierarchs, priests, and ministers. By the three of those being initiated: That is, of those being purified, those being enlightened, and those being initiated in the contemplative way.

The liturgical order: Concerning the deacon bending one foot. But the priests: What it means that the presbyters bend two feet. Both feet: What it means that the hierarch bends two feet, and why the Scriptures are placed upon his head.

On Chapter 1. The triad of those being initiated: That there are three orders of those being initiated. § 1. We say, then: Who are those being purified, and how. The multitudes standing apart: That is, the catechumens, those in repentance, and those troubled. And he introduces a distinction of those in repentance in what follows. But of those, as: Of those who sin after baptism. (But of those, as still: Of those storm-tossed and energized. But of those, as still toward: Of those from heresies or licentiousness. But of those, as having been brought over: Of those who have not completely turned from licentiousness to sanctification, or of the catechumens.

§ 2. The middle order: the faithful people.

The people purified from every: The entire purification of the people. The orders that are being purified are divided.

On those cast out from the sacred things, On the faithful people, On monks, that is, healers.

Of the sacred people: Note that he calls the sacred people a middle order, that is, those in the lay rank who possess the whole, that is, the blameless; but monks, that is, healers, the highest of all. § 3. Of monks: Measures of the monastic state. Some, healers: Why monks were called healers. And of the single: What is an undivided unit and a single life. By the sacred of divisible things: He calls divisible things those of daily life. Godlike unit: How the solitary is perfected, and why the monk has a peculiar perfection and calling and state. 2. The priest: Note that he says "the priest," and not "the hierarch," and that according to this word of the Father, a bishop ought not to give the monastic habit, but only a presbyter.

By the divided: By the worldly and much-divided, such as, I mean, commerce and other business dealings. And “imaginations,” that is, the desires of the mind and the impressions of the passions.

He shears off: How the monk is shorn.

The threefold: Note the threefold substance.

(Chapter 3. § 1. a. The monastic order: Why one is called a monk, and what the monastic state and pursuit is.

§ 2. Renunciation: What renunciation is.

b. Therefore also many things: Note this against the Lampetians, that is, the Messalians or Adelphians, and, to say the same, the Marcianists, who, having strenuously practiced asceticism for only three years, thereafter are so indifferent for the remaining time of their life as to commit every absurdity without fear; for wallowing in adulteries and licentiousness, gluttonies and mutual marriages, and simply in all debaucheries, they boast that they do such things without passion; and, insensibly sick with passion and painlessly suffering from themselves and from the demons dwelling in them, like those possessed by the disease of frenzy, they rather exult and are not grieved.

3. It is forbidden: Note that a monk is prevented from doing many things of which laymen have the charge and authority—for example, marriage, and engaging in military service or commerce, and other things in which a layman is not condemned. § 3. Shearing of the hair: What the shearing is.

§ 4. And of the former: What it means to change one's garment. § 5. And all: What the greeting is.

Unto the divine leadership: What it means to commune immediately. Unto the reception: Why those being ordained commune immediately. It is given to: For all alike, after ordination, are deemed worthy of the divine mysteries, which signifies intimacy and union with God. Rites, purification: What the rites signify. (Order: Behold, here too the Father has taught more clearly which are the orders that have been surpassed, of which he made mention above. § 6. But you will say that: And that there is no one being purified in heaven, and concerning angels.

There is a certain heavenly: Note that no injury befalls any of the heavenly powers, which Origen and those who hold his views imagine, asserting that each of the heavenly orders obtained its particular name and rank in proportion to its deviation, and were bound to finer bodies for the discipline of their own deviation toward the worse; but they are, clearly, altogether pure and incorporeal intellects, as they were created from the beginning; and that the heavenly powers are incorporeal, you have learned in various ways in what has gone before. Otherwise. But none of these heavenly intellects was ever caught after the fall of the demons; for we have not learned this even from the divine Scripture, nor has any of the God-wise Fathers said it.

This holy man says this by way of concession, so to speak, that they are all-holy and undefiled and have no need of purification; yet, even if we were to grant that one of them came to be in some defect, he would certainly have departed into the opposing powers, so that the rest likewise possess their undefiled state and similarly have no need of purification. And that this is so, he clearly showed; for having stated his own true opinion in reply to the objection, he added the words, "For if anyone"—instead of "But if anyone were also to grant that someone was turned aside"—"has fallen out of this choir," which, he says, I do not assert, but the contrary, that they remain all-holy forever, since I would fall from my established state. Let no one, then, of the initiates of Origen think that the present passage speaks in favor of his evil-faithed opinion, claiming that there is always a falling and declination and change of the heavenly minds, as Origen says in the first book of On First Principles, thus: "The argument, then, I think, shows wholly that every rational being whatsoever can become [anything] from any rational being whatsoever"; and after a few words he adds, saying: "After the end upon all things, again there is a flowing away and a falling down." But Evagrius in

In the seventy-eighth chapter of the second century he speaks thus: "Each order of the heavenly powers is constituted either wholly from those below, or wholly from those above, or from both those above and those below." And in the nineteenth chapter of the fifth century he says thus: "From the angelic and archangelic condition, a psychic condition comes to be; and from the psychic, a demonic and a human one; and from the human, angels and demons come to be again."

To the subordinate [questions]: What is the purification and ordering of the heavenly powers? Otherwise: That the purification of the heavenly powers is the illumination unto more perfect knowledge; and note that they advance in knowledge, and that he does not say that demons are purified, on account of those who claim that even they are saved together with the saints in the restoration mythologized by them.

Thus also being illumined: Note the things concerning the angels, how they are illumined and perfected.

ON CHAPTER 7, 1. § 1. Thus also toward: That not all who die are led away to the same places, and concerning the resurrection. Of the whole resurrection: That is, obviously, with the body. For the one set: He speaks concerning the righteous.

The pure [teachings] concerning the resurrection of bodies. Of those who affirm resurrection and judgment, some say the soul is raised with the same bodies, others without them, and others with different bodies, as do those who hold the body to be foreign, and that they have a life, Christians—

as now.

Of those who have fallen asleep, some are holy,

others unholy.

For things united: that bodies are united to souls. [Note also the universal resurrection.] § 2. Of the unholy: concerning the death of sinners, and what the Greeks think happens after death, whose opinions he sets forth. For of these, the more irrational neither confess the soul to be immortal—among whom is Bias, not the one of Priene, but some other—but that it is mortal and is dissolved, in the same way as the body, and passes into non-being. But the supposedly more rational among them, who have philosophized about the immortality of the soul, as Plato and such men, say that after death the body will no longer be constituted, but will not return for ages to the constitution it once had. For this is what he means by "once for all," instead of "no longer to be constituted," since they say it is unworthy for the material to endure forever together with the soul, and that the soul alone exists immortally. These things the heretics also say in various ways, as do the followers of Simon the Magician, and Menander, and Valentinus, and Marcion, and Manes; and now those who come from the myths of Origen—for not the doctrines. And see with whom they wish to be numbered, and what absurd opinions the hateful before God and right-minded men attach to the blameless faith of the Christians.

Those who [say] the bodily: That is, that the resurrection is of souls only, apart from bodies.

Having been raised already: What the Apostle says—that our Lord Jesus Christ has become the pledge and proof of the universal resurrection with the body; and that our life is now hidden in him, to be revealed in God at the regeneration.

To souls, unions: Certain heretics arose at that time, such as those around Simon the magician and those with him, who claimed that the body would be ethereal, if indeed there would be a body for souls at all. But one should know that Origen also says this in one of his writings; yet in others he utterly denies it, dogmatizing that all bodily nature passes into non-existence. Read what was written against him by the holy martyr Methodius and by Olympius, bishop of Adrianople in Lycia, concerning the resurrection, and by Antipater, bishop of Bostra, and you will learn his mythical and bizarre nonsense.

And most blessed: He says these things, I think, hinting at Papias, who was then bishop of Hierapolis in Asia and flourished at the same time as the divine evangelist John. For this Papias, in the fourth book of his Expositions of the Oracles of the Lord, spoke of pleasures through foods in the resurrection, a doctrine which Apollinarius afterward believed, as is shown in his writing which some call the millennium. How, then, do the writings of the holy Dionysius, which refute Apollinarius, [stand] in accordance with the nonsense of certain people?

And Irenaeus of Lyons, in the fifth book of Against Heresies, says the same thing, and brings forward as a witness to what he has said the aforementioned Papias. When at the end: The ends of sinners are dreadful and exceedingly terrifying. With other eyes: He means the eyes of the mind, which is now purer and observes the things that are in Hades and turns toward the foretaste of Gehenna, which it had not previously believed; therefore it is also distressed and laments death, considering (perhaps the punishments below are true; so that even sinners are raised in the body.

2. Having gathered: Concerning priests who have died. But if to the devout: Concerning monks, the righteous, and laypeople. In the divine: Note what is read and what is sung over departed monks and laypeople; he says that the ministers sing odes concordant and equivalent in meaning to the truthful promises concerning the resurrection that were read beforehand.

3. § 1. Jesus giving light: That the places of the departed are also in relation to life.

Concerning this divine: That it is a matter of justice to give to life also the place.

A sacred prayer: Why the prayer.

§ 2. But the songs of the divine origins: Why songs and readings. Note also what was the old order and arrangement for those who have fallen asleep. And observe that now: That over the departed, neither those possessed by evil spirits nor those in repentance may go out, but only the catechumens, and why. The catechumens: Nothing in our mysteries is small, but all things are great; yet these very things, when compared with one another, will have a difference in magnificence. For of the rites performed over the departed, the greatest and incomparable are the mysteries of the divine washings and illuminations and partakings; therefore he called the rites over the departed small; yet not even of these are the catechumens worthy. For they will be harmed: These things follow what was said by the Apostle in the first letter to the Corinthians concerning those who partake unworthily; and here he says that they even despise the divine mysteries. § 4. The prayer, then: Note what it prays for.

Human weakness: That is, the slight sins. § 5. By analogous significations: He said "by analogous significations," that is, by words and names familiar and customary to us, and not beyond our understanding, the things signified.

Of their reality: That is, insofar as we are able to understand, and from the words and names known to us, God named the enjoyments there, saying that there is no grief there, nor sickness, nor pain, nor groaning, but that there is light; yet this is not the good things there, but as truly unknown to us for now and incomprehensible, "for what the eye has not seen," and the following, but from what we know He gives examples of blessedness. Note also how he takes "into the bosoms of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." § 6. For what reason: He raises a difficulty concerning the prayer made by the hierarch over those who have fallen asleep in sins.

The prayers of the righteous: Note that the prayers of the righteous benefit only those worthy of God's mercies, whether living or departed, but not sinners and those worthy of condemnation both here and after death. Or what is it to Samuel: For neither did Samuel benefit Saul, who was most wicked, by praying, nor did Moses benefit the Hebrews, who were sinners; for the Lord said to him: "Do not pray for this people." The sun's own: See that you do not suppose he says the sun bestows its own lights (for how could a soulless thing bestow? for bestowal belongs to free choice), but by characterization he speaks the present matter as it were in a certain way. For just as if one were to suppose the sun saying: I give light to healthy eyes.

Then someone with weak eyes might say, "Give to me also, for I am strong." Then, having received the ray, he will lose what he saw. In the same way, the sinner too, when he asks a righteous man to pray for him, suffers this: for the sinner, being dim-sighted and receiving the ray of the righteous man's prayer, does not allow it to act and illuminate according to nature, but procures darkness for himself, both by not attending to God's gifts through a pure life and by his departure—that is, his withdrawal—from the illuminating commandments of God; and he will be helped nothing by the righteous man's prayer. That he understands the matters concerning the sun in this way, he also indicates in the fourth chapter of On the Divine Names. Beneficial: How and when the prayer of a righteous man benefits one who is living only; and he says, when he repents according to the Apostle, "to weep with those who weep," when that saying also is fulfilled, "The prayer of a righteous man has great power, being energized through the repentance of the one in need"—of the prayer, that is. For if one builds, namely the righteous man, and one tears down, namely the sinner, the work remains unfinished, as we have known in the example of Saul and Samuel.

Having a sacred habit: here he has called the disposition of one's own life toward virtue a sacred habit. And "helper" instead of "assistant." Conversation: the father does not simply forbid us to proceed to conversation with the divine and to ask the better and saving things from God through ourselves, knowing that the Apostle commands us to pray without ceasing, but he forbids it in the case of one who is held fast by conceit, so as to think himself above the saints and to count their prayers as nothing.

Concerning the passage "When he overlooks": from here he begins to speak of how the prayer benefits the dead man. And note that this difficulty was raised even before this. § 7. "When it overlooks": which of our sins God overlooks through the prayer and supplication of the priest.

"Does he ask these things": what the priest asks.

"For those present": that is, for the righteous and the pious.

"According to the divine life": that is, whatever the righteous bishop asks lawfully and consistently, he will receive, but in the case of the righteous; for it was said to Saint Peter, "Whatever you bind on earth," and the rest; and the bishops are in imitation of Saint Peter, as he says shortly after. And note the greatness of the hierarchy, its height and purity.

Therefore to the unholy: Note that he does not pray these things for sinners. To the Lord of hosts: That is, to the divine Spirit. Ask and: The saying is from the Epistle of James, teaching us that one must not pray concerning any evil person or matter. They have the powers of excommunication: Concerning the exclusions from communion and the excommunications made by the hierarch; for he calls "powers" the discerning examinations and judgments given to them by God, through which they separate sinners from the righteous, or the reverse.

By irrational impulses: Note that if the hierarch excommunicates contrary to God's purpose, the divine judgment does not follow him; for he ought to bring these things according to divine judgment and not by his own will.

(The Spirit. Note what the Holy Spirit, given to the apostles after the resurrection through the Lord's breathing upon them, provided. To the enlightened: To Saint Peter.

Which is his and every: How one should understand the Gospel saying, "Whatever you bind," and what follows.

And "the sacred": He calls "sacred theology" the statement, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," which must be noted against the Basilians and Nestorians and Paulianists and the like.

"That": Just as, "hierarchically": Most securely he said "hierarchically" concerning these things. § 8. "Divine birth," before: Because in the case of those being baptized the holy oil comes first, but in the case of those who have fallen asleep, last. "And then": Why the anointing with oil is in the case of those being baptized, and why in the case of those who have fallen asleep.

§ 9. "With his own": Because each soul has its own body, with which it also receives the recompenses; therefore both partake of the sanctifications; and the gift is bestowed in common upon both.

"Divine communions": That is, divine ordinance. "The whole man": Note that he calls "whole man" the one consisting of the rational soul and body, as he shows by "in pure contemplation and knowledge"; and that he speaks of the whole salvation of the soul and the body; and these things must be noted for this reason, that when he says in other discourses, "the supersubstantial Jesus was wholly made substantial according to us," you may understand the incarnation as consisting of a rational soul and body. § 10. "Consecratory invocations." He calls "consecratory invocations" the prayers at the ordination. And note why he passed over these in silence, that is, the holy invocations and the operations.

(§ 11. "Children not yet": Note what the Father says about the baptism of infants. He wrote these things as to holy Timothy when he asked, so that it is clear that both the earlier and the other discourses he wrote were in response to those asking. "The sacred traditions": That even then there were those mocking our mysteries, as also the things concerning baptized children, who, being unable to speak, those who bring them renounce on their behalf and confess the symbols; concerning this mockery he makes a defense, adding that not all things are known to all. And note that even the angels are ignorant of many things.

"Approved": Approved, that is, known. For they say that very thing: Note how he received from those before him the things concerning children.

"Guides": He calls the apostles guides. "To the good the divine things": Note to whom the child is handed over by the parents when baptized, that is, to a sponsor who has been initiated into the divine things for sacred ascent. "Guide": Note that he calls the sponsor a guide. "That which is coming to be": The life, clearly.