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(66) You will not be able to reach the greater of the virtues unless you have grasped the height of those within your power.

(67) In those where mercy and truth prevail, there also is everything that is pleasing to God. For the one judges no one without mercy, and the other shows love to no one apart from truth.

(68) Having mingled self-control with simplicity, you will be encompassed by the blessedness that comes from there.

(69) You will not cut off all the passions that war against you unless you first leave untilled the ground from which they were nourished.

(70) Some hasten to purify only the matter of the body; others also that of the soul. For some have gained strength only against sin in act; others also against the passion; but against the desire, very few indeed.

(71) Evil matter is, for the body, impassionedness; for the soul, pleasant-feeling; and for the mind, attachment. And the first is accused by touch, the second by the remaining senses, and the last by a contrary disposition.

(72) The one who feels pleasant-feeling is near to the impassioned one; the attached one is near to the pleasant-feeling one; but the dispassionate one is far from both.

(72) A person is emotionally attached [to sin] when the sin-prone element of his reason is stronger, even if for the time being he does not actually sin outwardly. A person is pleasure-attached when the actual working of sin is weaker than his reason, even if he suffers it inwardly. A person is attachment-prone when he cleaves to the freedom—or rather the slavery—of indifferent things. And a person would be free from passion when he does not know the difference between all these things.

(73) Emotional attachment is destroyed from the soul through fasting and prayer; pleasure-attachment through vigil and silence; and attachment through stillness and attentiveness. Freedom from passion is established by the remembrance of God.

(74) From the lips of freedom from passion drip honeycombs of honey, such as are the words of eternal life. Who then would be deemed worthy to touch his own lips to those lips, and to lodge between her breasts, and to change his garments with the sweet fragrance of that one? That is, to take delight in the laws of the virtues, which, he says, are beyond all the spices of sensible perception.

(75) Every soul will be stripped of the visible body; but of the body of sin, only those few who have here in this life enjoyed its pleasures in addition. (76) All will be seen as dead, out of the living; but only those who have hated sin from a settled disposition will be put to death to sin. (77) Who would see himself stripped of sin before the common death of the body? And who is he who knows himself and his own nature, what it is before the coming stripping?

The same.

Prayer knows how to join to the bridegroom here a soul wounded with bridal love.

(78) The rational soul, lying in the borderland between sensible and intelligible light, was permitted through the former to see and do the things of the body, and through the latter to do the things of the spirit. But since, because of habit from the beginning, the latter has been dimmed for it and the former made clear, unless it becomes wholly with the intelligible in prayer, it cannot wholly gaze upon divine things. And it must be in the borderland between darkness and light, dwelling in relation to the latter and in imagination of the former.

(79) Let prayer remain together with the mind, as a ray in the sun; without it, the cares of sense, like some waterless clouds flitting about, keep the mind from its own brightness.

(80) A passive mind cannot enter within the narrow gate of prayer before it has abandoned the care that is according to relation; but around its outer precincts it will be pained, forever busied. (81) The power of prayer is a voluntary hunger for foods; and of hunger, the not seeing and not hearing anything of the things of the world, except when there is every necessity. The one who takes no forethought for these has not deprived the building of fasting, but has caused that of prayer to be broken down in it.

(82) Unless the mind becomes free from all things perceived by sense, it cannot become upward-bearing, nor recognize its own dignity. (83) Prayer is placed outside the soul, [driving out] all the thoughts that are hostile to it, being strengthened by tears; but the elevation of the mind brings them back in, strengthened by the law of versatility; and he who banishes this has made the all-causing evil of boldness of speech to be banished along with it. (84) Fasting is a symbol of day, because of what is manifest; prayer is a symbol of night, because of what is hidden. He who rightly pursues each of these in each, then, will meet with the city of the scouts, in which pain, grief, and groaning have fled away in Christ.

(85) Spiritual work is by nature established even apart from bodily work. Blessed, then, is he who has judged the immaterial work to be better than material work. For through it he fulfilled the deficiency of work, having lived the hidden life of prayer and made it manifest to God.

(86) The Apostle exhorts us to endure in faith, to rejoice in hope, to persevere in prayer, so that the good of joy may remain for us. But if this is so, then he who does not endure is not faithful; and he who does not rejoice is not of good hope; for he has cast away prayer, the cause of joy, by not persevering in it.

(87) If the mind, from the beginning conversing with worldly thoughts, acquired such great friendship for them, how much intimacy would it not have in continuous prayer? For, as it is said, in whatever things it lingers, in those same things it is accustomed also to expand. (88) Just as the mind, long separated from its own dwelling place, has forgotten its brightness, so it must again, coming to be in forgetfulness of things here, run back to that brightness through prayer.

(89) Just as an infant is found toward its mother's breasts that have gone cold, so will the mind be found toward prayer that cannot comfort it; but toward one that is otherwise disposed, as a child that slumbers from pleasure in her arms. (90) There, he says—in the mournful prayer, clearly, of the virtuous life—as the bride in the Song would say, prayer also to its own lover: I will give my breasts to you, if you are wholly disposed toward me. (91) He cannot acquire friendship with prayer who has not renounced all matter, except food and covering. Be outside of all other things in prayer, you who wish to be with the mind alone.

(2) The testimony of one who loves God is a prayer of single utterance; a timely word is the mark of a prudent thought; and a single-form taste would belong to free perception. In these three things, then, the affairs of the soul are said to be made strong.

(3) The nature of the one praying must be well smoothed and softened, like that of children, so that, in their manner, it may readily receive the unfolding that is wrought from prayer. Therefore do not be negligent, you who love to be joined to it. (4) Not all possess the same aim in prayer; one has one aim, and another has a different one. For one prays, if it be possible, that his heart be always with the prayer, and that he rise above it; another prays that he not be cut off within it by thoughts. But all pray either to be preserved in good things or not to be carried away with evils.

(5) If it is from prayer, no one is without humility; for the one who prays in humility is crushed. Therefore the one who is bold outwardly does not pray in humility. (6) Looking to the widow who stirred up the case against the harsh judge, do not grow faint because of the delay of the good things of prayer. (7) Prayer will not remain with you if you linger over things reasoned within and conversed about outside; but the same prayer will be seen returning to the one who, for its sake, cuts off the greater part.

(8) If the words of prayer do not enter into the sides of the soul, tears will not be permitted to flood over onto the cheeks of the face. (9) Tears rise up for the farmer when the seeds have not been cast upon the face of the earth; tears gush forth for the monk when he does not pursue the words of prayer without toil.

(100) Prayer is the key of the kingdom of heaven. The one who holds it as he ought sees the good things laid up for its friends. But he who has not obtained boldness in it looks only at the things present.

(101) The mind cannot say to God with boldness in the time of prayer, "You have broken my bonds; to you I will offer a sacrifice of praise," unless it has broken away from cowardice and sloth, from much sleep and gluttony, from which comes stumbling, by desire for the better things.

(102) He who wanders in prayer stands outside the first curtain; he who accomplishes it with a single thought is within. But only he has peered into the Holy of Holies who, with the peace of natural thoughts, contemplates the things concerning the essence that surpasses all mind, and is deemed worthy of some light-appearance from there.

(103) Whenever the soul has become free from external things, then, like a flame encircling it, it makes it wholly like iron once for all made red-hot by fire; and the soul is the same, but no longer touchable, just as iron made red-hot is not, by external contacts.

(104) Blessed is the one who in this life has been deemed worthy to be contemplated thus, and to behold the same statue, by nature clay, by grace fiery. (105) For those being introduced, the law of prayer lies upon them like a master; but for those advancing, it is like love driving on one who is hungry, as it were, to a lavish banquet.

(106) For those who pursue the practical life well, prayer is sometimes like a cloud overshadowing and keeps back from them the burning thoughts; and sometimes, sprinkling drops as it were of tears upon them, it shows the spiritual contemplations. (107) A song will be found to be a sweetening of the lyre, struck by someone from outside; but a soul, when the mystical address in the Spirit does not come together with it in prayer, is not naturally shown to be easily brought to compunction. For the saying, "We do not know what we should pray for as we ought," and what follows, leads the one praying to this.

By the same author.

The intellect is illumined by gnostic contemplation when, raised to the height, it encounters these words. (108) The gnostic must know when his intellect is in the region of noemata, when in that of reasonings, and when in that which is according to sense-perception. And in this latter again, whether it is found in things according to season, or rather in things contrary to season.

(109) When the intellect is not in noemata, it is entirely in reasonings; and when it is in reasonings, it is not in noemata. But when it has come to be in sense-perception, it is with all of them. (110) Through the noema the intellect passes to things intelligible; through the reasoning, the logos passes to things rational; and toward the practical, sense-perception passes through the imagination.

(111) When the intellect is gathered into itself, it contemplates nothing of the things according to reasoning, but naked intellects and divine radiances, gushing forth peace and grace. (112) One thing is the intellect of the thing, and another is its logos; and another is that which is brought under sense-perception. And the one is substance; the other, accident; and the other, the difference of the subject.

(113) The intellect, cutting many paths, is shown to be insatiable; but when gathered to the one [path] of prayer, it appears constrained before perfection, longing for the participant to be released to the things from which it has been rolled away. (114) The intellect led from above will not run back there again unless it makes a perfect contempt of things below through devotion to divine things. (115) And if you are unable to make your soul dwell with only the thoughts that pertain to it—even though necessity compels your body to be solitary—always contemplating the wretchedness that surrounds it; for thus in time, by the mercy of God, you will be able also to run back to the first dignity of your nobility.

(116) The practical man can easily subject the intellect to prayer; the contemplative man [subjects] prayer to the intellect. The one contracts the senses from the visible forms; the other transfers the soul to the reasons hidden in the words. And the one persuades the intellect to consider the reasons of bodies; the other to understand those of incorporeals. And the reasons of bodies are incorporeal—both their properties and their essences.

(113) When you free your intellect from the pleasure-seeking of bodies, foods, and possessions, then whatever you do will be reckoned a pure gift to God; and it will be given back to you that the eyes of your heart be opened, and that you clearly meditate on the laws of God hidden within it, which will be reckoned sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to your spiritual throat, by the sweetness that flows from them.

(114) You will not be able to make your intellect superior to bodies, possessions, and the desire for necessary foods, unless you lead it into the pure region of the righteous; in which, the memory of death and the memory of God having sprung up again, will wipe away from an earthly heart every uprising of thought. (115) Nothing is more fearful than the thought of death, nor more wonderful than the memory of God. For the one is the provider of saving grief; the other, the bestower of gladness. For I remembered God, says the Prophet, and I was glad. And the Wise One: Remember your last end, and you will not sin. For it is impossible for anyone to come into possession of the second without having experienced the bitterness of the first.

(112) Until the intellect sees the glory of God with unveiled face, the soul cannot say in its own perception: But I will be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in his salvation. For the veil of self-love lies upon its heart, so that the foundations of the world are not unveiled to it—these being the principles of created things—which is not removed from it apart from voluntary and involuntary labors.

(121) Not after the flight from Egypt—which is sin in act—nor after the crossing of the sea, I mean the slavery in disposition, but after the sojourn in the wilderness, which lies between the workings and the motions of evil, can the leader of Israel spy out the land of promise, which is dispassion, sending out his seeing and overseeing power.

(122) Those who sit in the wilderness—that is, in the inactivity of evils—hear only by report the good things of that blessed land; while those who have spied out the things in it have come, evidently by the soul's insight, to the contemplation of things seen. But those deemed worthy to enter into it, with their whole perception of the things flowing from it like milk and honey—I mean of the first and second contemplation—have been filled with the principles. (123) He has not yet been crucified with Christ who still has the natural motions of the flesh; nor has he been buried with him who drags along the soul's impulses. How then shall such a one rise with him, to live in newness of life? (124) Since three virtues are more comprehensive than the soul's essences—fasting, prayer, and silence—it is necessary that one who is about to be released from prayer rest in contemplation.

(112) ...but the one who fasts from silence into ethical discourse, into a second and gracious nourishment.

(125) As long as the intellect remains among its own things, it preserves the likeness, being found good and compassionate. But when it has come to be among things perceived by sense, if it descends easily and improperly, giving and receiving trial, being strong in those things, and again returns to itself, at the time and need, it will be found to be like a reckless general, cutting off the greater part of his own power in battle. Nevertheless, not all of those will be found outside it, as many as were unable to come within what is encompassed.

(126) The perceptible sun sets its own rays outside a closed house; but the intelligible sun would not send forth its own rays upon a soul that has not closed its senses to the things seen. (127) He is a man of knowledge who arranges his descents magnificently and the ascents of his soul humbly. (128) A bee, going about a meadow, procures from there the beginnings for its honey; but the soul, looking intently into the ages, pours varied sweetness from there into the mind.

(129) The deer that has swallowed snakes runs to the springs of water to quench the venom; and the soul that has been wounded by divine arrows draws in the love of the one who wounded it, unceasingly.

(130) Bare thoughts grow upon the solitary life; reasoned reflections upon the dual life; but upon the much-divided soul, thoughts are far removed; and bare intellects alone, approaching it without bodies, uncovering the principles concerning Providence and judgment as though foundations of the earth, make them manifest to it. (131) Thoughts belong neither to the irrational part of the soul—for there is no thought in irrational beings—nor to the intellectual part, since neither is there in angels; but being offspring of the rational part itself, using imagination as a ladder, they ascend to the intellect from sensation, reporting to it the things of sensation; and they descend to sensation from the intellect, suggesting to it the things of the intellect. (132) Like those being carried up from the deep and trying to lay hold of someone for help, evil thoughts will be found, like a merchant ship, when evil is in danger from a flood of tears. (133) According to the underlying quality of the soul, thoughts gather around it, either as pirates to sink it, or as rowers to help it when in danger; some dragging it toward the open sea of inappropriate thoughts, others sailing it past nearer shores and bringing the intellect to calm headlands. (134) The thought of vainglory being the seventh, the soul that desires to cast it off as the last garment will not be able, unless it has stripped off those before it, to put on the eighth after them.

The divine Apostle knows how to call it a heavenly dwelling place, and through groans to put on those who by it are stripped bare of material things.

(135) Thoughts that are angelic in nature are compared to perfect prayer; spiritual thoughts to intermediate prayer; and natural-philosophical thoughts to introductory prayer. (136) Just as the nobility of the grain is made manifest through the ear of wheat, so too the purity of contemplation is accustomed to be revealed through prayer. The one has, as it were spears for warding off the seed-picking birds, the surrounding awns; the other has the thoughts that philosophize amid temptations, for their destruction.

(137) The visible things of the soul, on account of practice, are like silvered dove's wings, as they are; but the things understood—I mean the back parts—on account of contemplation, are set as in the greenness of gold. For the soul that has not been thus made beautiful cannot fly and rest where is the dwelling place of all who rejoice.

Here is a meadow filled with fruits: of spiritual practice and contemplation.

(137) The first-fruits of the threshing floor and the winepress were of old commanded to the ancients to be offered in the temple. But now we must offer to God first-fruits of the practical life: self-control and truth; and of the contemplative virtue: love and prayer; by the former cutting off the impulses of irrational desire and of anger; by the latter, empty thoughts and the plots that arise from them. (139) The beginning of the practical life is self-control and humility, truth, chastity and lowliness of mind; and its end is peace of thoughts and sanctification of the body.

(140) Practice is not only the ability to do good things well, but also to do them as one ought, the one who acts bringing along the right time and measure in relation to the things to be done.

(141) Contemplation is not only to contemplate how bodies are by nature, but also the principles in them, to what they look. (142) Neither is practice safe without contemplation, nor is contemplation true without practice. For practice must be reasonable, and contemplation must be practical; so that by the one, evil may be found powerless; by the other, virtue may be mighty in the good pleasures of goodness.

(143) The limit of the practical life is the mortification of the passions; the end of the contemplative life is the vision of the virtues.

(144) As matter is to form, so is practice to contemplation; and as the eye is to the face, so will contemplation be seen in relation to practice.

(145) In the stadium of practical virtue, many run, but one receives the prize: the one who desires by contemplation to reach its end. (146) The practical man drinks in prayer the cup of compunction; but the contemplative man is made drunk with the choicest cup. The one philosophizes among things according to nature; the other, in praying, even forgets himself.

(147) The practical man is not permitted to persist for long in spiritual contemplation. For he is found to be like a stranger to something, and quickly departing from that house.

(148) The practical enter the gates of the commandments of God in prayer; the contemplative, as it were into the courts of the virtues, in hymns; the former giving thanks that they have been loosed from their bonds; the latter, that they have taken captive those who war against them.

(149) One must be found to have both the strength of the practical life and that of contemplation, lest, like a ship that carries sails not suited to it, one either undergo danger in the violence of the winds because of their excess, or suffer loss of the winds because of the smallness of the vessel. (150) Understand the oarsmen of the rational ship to be the pious thoughts; and the oars, the vital powers of the soul—anger and desire, will and choice. Of these, the practical man is always in need; but the contemplative man is not always. For in the time of prayer, having bidden farewell to all these, he seats himself at the helm of discernment, and keeps watch through the whole night of contemplation, offering praises to the sustainer of the universe. And at some point, taking up even a love song, he sings it over his own soul, observing the surgings of the other sea, and, marveling at the divine words and ordinances as at rushing motions. (151) He who is in a middle state regarding practice and contemplation neither makes his voyage entirely with the oars, as sailors do, nor wholly with the intellectual sails; but through both he works out the need of a good voyage, bearing gladly both the labors of practice, because of the moderation of his contemplation, and the reasonings of imperfect contemplation, because he is aided by practice.

(152) The contemplative, having nature in harmony with his judgment, makes his voyage without toil, as if it were a stream; but the practical man, finding his disposition opposed to his choice, endures a great surge of thoughts, so that because of the weight he comes almost to despair. (153) Neither does land poorly cultivated customarily yield to the sower an abundant and pure crop, nor will the man who pursues the practical life, unless he pursues it carefully and without fantasy, see the fruit of prayer, abundant and pure.

(154) In the case of material things, the intellect has reasoning as its collaborator; but in the case of immaterial things, unless it dismisses it, it will have it as a goad striking it.

(155) The practical man has a veil over his heart in prayer—the knowledge of sensible things—which cannot be uncovered because of his disposition; but only the contemplative, because he is free of disposition, is able with unveiled face to see in part the glory of God.

(156) Prayer accompanied by spiritual contemplation is the land of promise, in which the knowledge of the words of God concerning providence and judgment flows as honey and milk; but prayer accompanied by a natural contemplation is Egypt, in which the memory of coarser desires arises in those who pray. And the simple prayer is the manna in the wilderness, which because of the

...uniform, shutting off for the incontinent the good things promised through desire; but for those who endure with such a narrow nourishment, procuring the better and abiding taste.

(157) Action with contemplation is like a body with a governing spirit; but without contemplation, it will be reckoned as flesh with a spirit of choice-bearing reason. (158) Of the rational soul, the court is sense-perception; the temple is the understanding; the high priest is the intellect. In the court, then, stands the intellect that is cut off by untimely thoughts; in the temple, the one cut off by timely thoughts; but in neither of these, the one deemed worthy to enter the divine sanctuary.

(159) Lamentation and song and woe are found in the house of the practical soul because of toil, but a voice of exultation and confession because of knowledge is heard from the house of the contemplative soul. (160) The practical man desires to depart because of his labors, and to be with Christ; but the contemplative man is rather pleased to remain in the flesh, both because of the joy he receives from prayer and because of the benefit to his neighbor in things earthly. (161) In the more intellectual, contemplation precedes action; in the more rustic, action precedes contemplation; but both arrive at one good end. This will be seen more briefly in those in whom contemplation precedes action.

(162) Paradise is the contemplation of intelligible things. In it the one who is a knower enters within, as into a house, in prayer; but the one who is practical will be seen as a passerby, desiring to peek inside, but not permitted, because the fence of his spiritual maturity stands too high. (163) Bodily passions resemble wild beasts; those of the soul, birds. But the practical man can wall off the things that come from the rational vineyard; yet he cannot [wall off] the birds, unless he comes to be in spiritual contemplation, however much he may make haste toward the guarding of the things within.

(164) The practical man cannot become better than ethical propriety, unless he himself, like the patriarch Abraham, goes outside—as from his own [land], the natural law, and as from his kindred, the life that is of his own age and according to relation. For thus he too will receive as a seal of generic pleasure the removal of that by which the veil that has been wrapped around us from birth does not permit complete freedom to be granted to us.

(163) Neither does a colt in spring remain inside the manger, and endure to eat what is in it; nor can a newly initiated mind persevere for long in the narrow confinement of prayer; preferring rather, according to that saying, to go out into the breadth of natural contemplation, which is found in psalmody and in reading. (166) As one who has his loins girded, the practical life has fasting and chastity as its vital powers; and as one who has burning lamps, the contemplative life has silence and prayer, setting over them its contemplative virtues; the one sets reason as a pedagogue over those, the other sets the indwelling word as a bridesmaid. (167) An imperfect mind is not permitted to enter into the fruitful vineyard of prayer; but only, and with difficulty, like a poor man gathering the leftover grapes, it reaches the bare echoes of the psalms.

(168) Just as not all who come into the king's company are able to dine with him; so neither will all who come to the encounter of prayer be seen in the contemplation that is according to it.

(189) Timely silence is a muzzle for anger; moderate eating is a muzzle for irrational desire; and single-minded prayer is a muzzle for a thought that is hard to restrain.

(190) Whoever wishes to descend into the depth below and to ascend above—the one for the sake of the sensible pearl, the other for the sake of the intelligible pearl—must, if he is to draw it up, be stripped: the one of his clothing, the other of sensation; otherwise both will miss what they seek.

(191) The mind that has come within its own understanding will be found in prayer conversing with the bridegroom in the bridal chamber, as a bride with her bridegroom; but the mind that is not permitted to enter stands outside, groaning and crying out: Who will lead me into a city of refuge? Or who will guide me until I no longer look upon vanities and false follies in prayer?

(192) As food conceived in the throat without salt, so also is prayer pursued by the mind without compunction. (193) The soul that is still pursuing prayer is like a woman in labor; the one that has attained it is like a woman who has conceived and is filled with joy because of the birth.

(194) Formerly the Amorite, dwelling on the mountain, used to wound those who forced their way through as he came out; but now evil forgetfulness pursues those who, before purity, attempt to ascend to the higher prayer of simplicity. (195) The demons are by nature in great enmity against pure prayer. And what strikes them with amazement is not a multitude of [good] deeds, as a army does enemies from outside, but the concord of three: of the mind with the word, and of the word with the senses.

(196) Bare prayer will appear as bread, strengthening beginners; prayer with some contemplation, as oil making them fat; and formless prayer, as fragrant wine, with which those who are filled without satiety are beside themselves.

(197) The wild ass is said to laugh at the crowdedness of a city; and the unicorn cannot be bound by anyone. And the mind that has reigned over nature and the words concerning nature laughs at the thoughts of vanity when it prays; and it cannot be dominated by anything under the senses. (198) The one who struggles must contract his senses to uniform food, and his mind to single-thought prayer; for thus, having become unrestrained from the passions, he will come to be caught up to the Lord in his praying.

(194) The one who brandishes a rod at dogs has provoked them against himself; and so has the one who forces himself to pray purely, against the demons. (195) Those who pray while given to pleasure, being as it were material, have their thoughts like frogs leaping about and distracting them; while those with moderate passions have their contemplations like nightingales delighting them, by passing from one branch to another—that is, from one contemplation to another, varied contemplations; but silence and great stillness from thoughts and concepts attend those who are free from passions when they pray. (196) Formerly Mary, the sister of Moses, when she saw the fall of the enemies, took up the timbrel and led the singing women in the victory song; but now, to the praise of the soul that has conquered the passions, the love that is greater in virtues, having been stirred up, handling the lyre with song as a kind of contemplation, does not cease, rejoicing together with those who are with her, to praise God for that beauty which was formerly toiled for, as a kind of abundance of beauty.

(197) Whenever, through the continuity of prayer, the words of the psalms are held fast in the heart of the one praying, then he too, like good earth, begins of its own accord to bring forth, as roses, the contemplation of incorporeal beings; and as violets, the varied and hard-to-behold nature of the divine judgments.

(193) A flame bound in matter becomes light-bearing; but a soul released from matter is found God-bearing. And the former is naturally carried up as far as its fuel; but the latter, as far as the consummation of divine love. (194) The soul that has perfectly denied itself and wholly devoted itself to prayer—this soul does not go below when it wishes, being found above creation; but when it seems just to the one who orders our affairs by all weight and measure. (195) When listlessness has been driven out of the soul, and wickedness shaken out of the mind, then the intellect, becoming naked in simplicity, and in uncontrived life, and without any covering of shame, and without the screen of fantasy—this one too sings a new song to God; and gives thanks, striking up a melody in gladness, to the one who anticipates the inauguration of the life to come. (196) When the praying soul begins to have certain more divine energies worked in it, then it too, like the Bride in the Songs, answers in kind to such things: My kinsman sent his hand through the opening, and my belly was stirred at him.

(197) And a soldier returning from war sets aside the weight of his weapons; and the practical man sets aside his thoughts when he comes to contemplation; for neither does that man have need of weapons except in war, nor this man of thoughts. (198) The practical men contemplate bodies as they have position; but the contemplative men, as they have nature; but the gnostic men alone see the principles of both.

(199) In the principles of bodies, incorporeal things are known; but in incorporeal things, the supersubstantial Word, toward whom every earnest soul hastens to be dissolved.

(200) The principles of bodies are like bones covered over by sensible things, which no one would see, unless he had come outside the attachment to sensible things.

(201) A soldier too sets aside his weapons, having left the war; and the contemplative man his thoughts, dissolving toward the Lord. (202) And a general in war who misses the spoils is brought into despondency; and the practical man in prayer, into spiritual contemplation. (203) A deer runs to the springs of bodily waters, as one bitten by the beast; but the soul, wounded by the sweetest dart of prayer, runs to the rays of incorporeal things.

(198) Neither can the bodily eye see the grain of wheat, nor can the practical mind see its own nature, unless it be stripped—the one of its husk, the other of the attachment that wraps around it. (199) Stars are hidden at the rising of the sun; and thoughts fail when the mind turns back to its own kingdom. (200) After the end of the practical life, the spiritual contemplations, poured around the mind like rays of the sun that have risen above the horizon, seem to strike it from outside, being akin to it, and by their purity to embrace it.

(201) Such things the contemplative mind is able to utter when it has come down from above, from heaven, yielding to the constraints of nature; such things as he also who spoke: What is more wonderful than divine beauty? And what thought of God's magnificence is more gracious? What desire, then, is so sharp and unbearable as the one that is born from God in the soul purified from every evil, and from a disposition that says, I am wounded with love?

(198) It belongs to that man to say, "My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be kindled," who does not grow weary of following after God through prayer, nor desire by day to look upon men. (199) Let the practical soul also say, after the laying aside of evils, in the words spoken in the Song concerning the wicked demons and thoughts that again constrain her, "I looked upon vanity and false madnesses": "I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" (200) O soul beloved of God, that dares to say to God, "Tell me, O good Shepherd, where you feed your sheep, where you make your lambs to lie down at noon, that following them I may not become as one gone astray among the flocks of companions."

(201) Seeking to grasp the principle of prayer, the practical soul, and not being able, cries out also herself, in the words of the Song: "In the nights I sought upon my bed him whom I loved; I sought him, and found him not; I called him, and he did not answer me. I will arise therefore through more strenuous prayer, and having gone about in the city, in the streets and in the marketplaces, I will seek him whom I loved. Perhaps he will be found by me—he who is in all this and outside the whole. I shall be filled when his glory appears to me.

(202) When the soul begins to become wholly tears from the joy that comes from prayer, then, speaking boldly as to her own bridegroom, she cries out: Let my brother come down into his garden, and let him eat of my fruits as of the fruits of trees, the petition that has been labored over.

(203) When the practical soul begins, from the greatness and beauty of created things, to marvel at the Creator, and to delight in the pleasure that comes from them, then, struck with wonder at these things, she too cries out: How beautiful you have become, bridegroom, paradise of your Father. Flower of the field, and his cedars, as the cedars of Lebanon. Under his shadow I desired, and I sat down, and his fruit appeared sweet in my throat. (204) If the one who receives a king into his chamber is found to be so distinguished and glorious, and full of every other... joy, what would a soul suffer, having received the King of kings in its purification according to his unerring promise? And what will it leave out, casting outside what does not seem to him to be for rest, and bringing inside what is pleasing to him? (205) The one who expects to be called by the king tomorrow, of what other thing will he be in care, than the study of words that are going to be for that one's pleasing? Every soul that keeps this will not be seen unprepared for the judgment that comes from there.

(206) Blessed is the soul which, because it hopes today that its Lord will come, counts the toil of the whole day as nothing, and the toil of the night as nothing, because he is about to appear to it immediately at daybreak. (207) God sees all; but those who see God are those who contemplate nothing while praying. And as many as see God are also heard by him. Blessed is the one who believes that he is seen by God, for his foot of pleasing him shall not be moved for his sake.

(208) The good things of the kingdom that is within us, the eye that loves the world has not seen, and the ear that loves honor has not heard, and they have not come up upon a heart empty of the Holy Spirit. They are the earnest of the good things to be given to the righteous in the coming kingdom of Christ; and the one who does not delight in these things, which are the fruits of the Spirit, cannot come to be in the enjoyment of those things.

(209) The thoughts of practical men are like deer. For as those are sometimes up in the mountains because of fear of the hunters, and sometimes down in the valleys because of longing for the things in them, so also are these: they are able neither to be always in spiritual contemplation, because of their own worthlessness, nor always in natural contemplation, because they do not always pursue rest. But they become despisers of the theoretical thoughts that are on foot, as it were, compared with the contemplative ones.

(206) Blessed is the soul which, because it hopes today that its Lord will come, counts the toil of the whole day as nothing, and the toil of the night as nothing, because he is about to appear to it immediately at daybreak.

(216) Showers of dew make the furrows of the earth drunk; and the dispositions of the soul in prayer are moist groans sent up from the heart. (217) No one will be seen in contemplation of the Godhead that is understood in the Trinity, unless he has first been seen from above to have passed beyond the material dyad and the neighboring monad; nor will he become higher than this, unless he has made his own mind, as understood by those who understand, monadic.

(218) It will not be found so difficult to turn back the course of a river so that it is not carried downward, as to check the rush of the mind so that it is not scattered among things visible, but is gathered, when it wills, toward things above and akin to itself, for the one who prays; even though the former is according to nature, and the latter is contrary to nature. (219) Those who are being purified, sending the mind inward [outward] beyond things visible, are filled with so much amazement, and are filled with so much joy, that they are able to contain nothing else of earthly things, not even if all the things most fought over should rush in upon them.

(220) The laws of nature, when merely spoken, suffice to be greatly marveled at; but when contemplated, they are found to be blooming meadows, gushing with the sweetness of spiritual feasting from heavenly nectar through undefiled flowers. (221) Bees encircle the queen of the swarm among the dewy flowers of meadows; and upon a soul that is continually in compunction, the noetic powers, as though they were its own, encircling it, join in longing for the things it desires. (222) In the visible world, man is seen as a kind of other world; in the intelligible world, reasoning is so; for this is the herald to that of heaven and of the things in between.

(206) ...of the mind and of the senses, and of the things pertaining to them, the reason is the interpreter; without which both worlds would have been deafened. (207) Not so does a captive released by time go on his way, as the mind, freed from material attachments, journeys to the heavenly things as to its own, with exulting foot.

(208) For the one who prays not with attention but with a scattered mind, the psalm will be reckoned barbarian, and he himself barbarian to the psalm; and both are like madmen to the demons.

(209) It is not the same thing to be those to whom the world has been crucified, and those who have been crucified to the world. For to the former, fasting and vigil are the nails; to the latter, poverty and contempt. And without the second, the labors of the first are unprofitable. (210) He cannot pray purely who is mastered by the passion for beauty and the love of honor. For around these things are the attachments, and the thoughts of vanity having kinship with them become like ropes entangled around him, dragging him down like a sparrow tied fast and trying to fly away in the time of prayer.

(261) It is impossible for the mind to become peaceful in prayer unless it has acquired self-control and love. For the one struggles to destroy the enmity of the body against the soul; the other, the enmity against one's neighbor for God's sake. And from this, the peace that surpasses all understanding, coming to dwell there, promised to make its abode only with the one who has thus made peace.

(262) It is necessary for the one who strives to enter the kingdom of God to enter in, and that the work of his righteousness abound in good things: in almsgiving, through giving from what he lacks; and in labors, those for the sake of peace, through the deprivation of patience in the Lord.

(263) Neither the one who is deficient in virtue through negligence, nor the one who is excessive through conceit, will be found within the harbor of impassibility. For neither of them has come to the enjoyment of the good things that are from righteousness, since deficiency and excess are found as mediators for them. (264) Nor will the earth, unless it bestows on the farmer labor many times over, make him prosperous and free from want, providing only the seed, or even some small addition; nor can the work accomplished for the practical man, unless his zeal be found greater than his purpose, make him righteous toward God.

(261) Not all who do not love their neighbor are able to hate him; nor are those who do not hate him able to love him. And it is one thing to envy another's virtue, and another thing to be found not standing in the way of his progress. But he will be found at the last degree of wickedness who is not only stung by another's advantages, but also slanders his good qualities as though they were not really such. (262) Some passions are bodily and others are of the soul; some are according to nature and others contrary to nature. So then, the one who thrusts some aside but takes no forethought for others is like a man who sets up a high, well-roofed wall against wild beasts, yet takes pleasure with the birds that eat the conspicuous grapes of the rational vineyard.

(263) In the first place the soul comes to be in imagination of the evil; then in desire; then in pleasure or grief; then thus in perception; then after this in touch, both apparent and unseen—the thoughts following along in all of these, except the first movement; and if this is not admitted, every evil after it will be found inactive. (264) Those who are approaching dispassion are not shaken by imaginations; those who are moderately passionate, by desires; those who are pleasure-loving, by attachments. Those who come to be in perception of evil are those who misuse the things of need and are grieved; and those in touch are those who consort with it without pain.

(289) Pleasure is established in all the members of the body, yet it does not appear to trouble all alike; but in some it works rather upon the desiring part of the soul, in others upon the irascible part, and in others upon the rational part of it—through gluttony, irascibility, and wickedness, the cause of all unholy passions.

(290) Therefore it is necessary to open the senses as the gates of the city. But it is necessary not to permit, in the opening for necessities, those things that wish to enter in together with them and become causes of battle. (291) The activity of pleasure is desire; of anger, irascibility; of envy, wickedness. He who does not struggle against the ruling passions does not make peace with the last; nor can he who pursues the commandments by force enter the harbor of moderation. (292) Those who repel the assaults do not permit the thoughts to enter from within the rational vineyard like wild beasts, and to bring its fruits to ruin; but those who are joined to them yet simply permit them to enter, and not to touch any of these things—they who converse pleasantly with the passions through their thoughts, yet do not come to consent, have been likened to those who allowed the wild boar to enter within the fence, but in satiety of the

(293) He has not yet arrived at simplicity who still needs the protection of a fence, namely that of self-control. For the perfect man, it is said, does not practice self-control; but he is like one who has a vineyard or a field, not in the midst of many other vineyards and lands, but in some corner; and for this reason he needs much guarding and watchfulness. For in the case of one who has reached simplicity, the vineyard becomes wholly untouchable, like that of a king or some other powerful ruler, making thieves and passers-by shudder at the very attempt from hearsay alone.

(294) Many ascend the cross of hardship, but few accept its nails; many are slaves of willing obedience, but of involuntary shame, only those who have destroyed their love of honor. (295) Many have stripped off all the garments of skin, but the last one, that of vainglory, only those who have loathed its mother, self-pleasing.

(296) He who accepts the praise of men and bodily ease, but does not accept it in a welcoming way—this man has become naked of the last tunic of vainglory, and from this point has been deemed worthy to put on the dwelling place sought with many groans, the brightness of which comes from heaven. (297) One thing is activity, and another is the effect of activity. The one is indicative of sin fully accomplished; the other, of mere sensual pleasure that has been worked inwardly but is external. They are like those who are not moved from their own land, yet nonetheless pay tribute to those who tyrannize over their desires. (298) When taste prevails in pleasures, it is impossible that all the senses not follow along, even if the lower parts of those who are more frigid seem to be at peace, as with the aged who have not received a burning from fire. But the barren woman who commits adultery will not be judged chaste in regard to bearing children. I would say that everyone is chaste who does not commit fornication, nor is charmed by sight. (299) In foods and forms and voices, the desiring part of the soul is exposed for what it is by the volitional impulses and those otherwise disposed, in taste and sight and hearing, whether as using them, or misusing them, or being found midway between both.

(296) Where fear does not go first, the thoughts will be found in confusion, like sheep without a shepherd; but in good order, and within the fold according to the law, when he follows or goes before them. (297) Fear is the son of faith; and this fear is the shepherd of the commandments; and he who has not acquired its mother will not be deemed worthy to be seen as a sheep of the pasture according to the Lord.

(298) Some have only the beginnings of good things; others also their middles; others also their ends; without which each will be found, like a bare soldier or an officer, outside the rations. And for this reason, one keeps his own house only, and that with difficulty, from those who attempt to harm it; another is not found in the honor that is fitting, in whatever circumstances he may come together. (299) Those who urge us to come together with pleasures, being sound in the throat, do something similar to those commanded to weed out the wounds that have already come for health; or to scratch the itches for the sake of sweetness; or to eat what kindles the fever, or to block up his vineyard, and to allow the good thoughts to enter, as a wild boar

the mind of the flesh, to be grazed upon like grapes. These one must not obey, nor be bent by the untimely flatteries of men and of passions; but one must fortify the fence through self-control, until both the wild beasts—the passions of the flesh—cease to roar, and the vain thoughts, like birds, cease to descend and ravage the soul that is flourishing like a vine through the contemplations in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. SCHOLIA ON THE LETTERS OF SAINT DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE * ON THE FIRST LETTER (I take this Gaius to be the one to whom the divine evangelist John wrote the third letter, inferring also from the other things in which this divine man was associated with the Apostles. And he said that monks are called Therapeutae in the sixth chapter of "On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," saying there also how they are appointed though not being clerics, but superior to the people. These it seems Philo the Jew admires in the treatise "On the Contemplative Life" or "On Suppliants," calling them Therapeutae, and describing their manner of life near the end of this book. Read the things of the same Philo. "But not by deprivation": This, he says, do not suppose according to common notions, that just as darkness is dissolved by light, and especially by much light, or just as ignorance, which is itself also darkness, ceases when knowledges, and especially many, have come upon it, so also the ignorance according to God resembles the ignorance according to lack of learning, as we said;

But to the extent that one is enlightened concerning God, and to the extent that one gathers knowledge of beings—that is, of things intelligible and intellectual—by so much the more, ascending in the knowledge concerning God, will one know the incomprehensibility, that is, the unknowing, concerning God, that it is light and knowledge beyond all things known, and thereafter honors in silence the ineffability concerning God. Therefore the unknowing of God is not spoken of by way of privation of knowledge, but by way of transcendence and excess of all knowledge, because one has known the One unknown to all and to himself, and incomprehensible. These things are also said in the first chapter of "On Mystical Theology," and in the second chapter of "On the Divine Names." "But what of his own beings?" To the extent, he says, that one has knowledge of beings, and the light that is, that is, the very understanding of truth, to that extent will one see the things concerning God as unknown; for they are not made manifest by the light or by knowledge, but rather escape those who possess these. And the progress and increase in these things—I mean in light and knowledge—shows the Divine to be invisible and unknown; because one who has seen God and understood what he saw has not seen him, but something of his own beings and things known.

By the very universal": One must further consider, in addition to these things, what pertains to beings and things known. And "not to be" is added, since "to be" belongs to created things, whereas God is even beyond being, because he is uncreated.

This text comes from the "TO BYZANTION" editions of the "GREGORIOS O PALAMAS" series, Thessaloniki 1992, PHILOKALIA OF THE NEPTIC AND ASCETIC FATHERS, volume IV. It passed through a scanner, followed by optical character recognition and checking.

ON THE SECOND EPISTLE, "How the One beyond all": These things have often been said in various ways also in the "On the Divine Names," but he interpreted them especially in that same discourse, chapter 11, near the end, saying: How the cause of all and deity and goodness, and the subsistence of deity, and beyond these. And it must be read thus: You ask how God is a beginning beyond deity? Then he answers: If you understand that deity is the very gift from God by which we are deified, not indeed God himself, you have the solution; for God, I mean the supersubstantial essence itself, is beyond the divine principality—that is, the deification—that is granted and bestowed by him, and so on likewise. Then finally he reasons, saying that, if the gift from God becomes a beginning of our being deified, it is clear that the cause of all and the one who is a beginning—or rather beyond beginning—is thus also beyond what is called deity, or is beyond divine principality. For God does not possess the good by relation, as we do, but possesses it without relation; whereas we possess it relationally, for we are changeable, but he is unchangeable.

Whether divinity and goodness": He does not mean, he says, the divinity and goodness according to essence itself—whatever it is, I mean—but the beneficent and deifying gift of the God who is and is good; for this is the principle and cause of being deified and made good, and in this way, he says, it is spoken of as beyond divine origin and good origin, that is, as understood in this manner. Note also from this that the divinity and the goodness are not the very substance of God; for God alone is beyond these too, as has been said more extensively in the eleventh chapter of "On the Divine Names." "Inimitable and unrelated": He who does not have anything by relation, but is himself, from himself, both imitation and relation—the things themselves—while others participate and imitate, in whom these things are seen. He called the Divine inimitable and unrelated because, to the extent that one advances toward imitation of and relation to God, to that extent he apprehends the unattainability of the imitation and relation.

ON THE THIRD EPISTLE. "Suddenly is what is beyond hope": I observe that Gaius rather asked that prophetic saying of the prophet Malachi which runs: "And suddenly the Lord will come to his temple, whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire." And it seemed to me that this was asked because of his adding: "This, I think, hints at theology." Here he wonderfully theologizes about the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Note how he derives the etymology of "suddenly"; note also that Christ was made substance in a human way.

Hidden" means: He often used "hidden" in place of "God," and "hiddenness" for "divinity," as in the earlier discourses. So here "hidden" is said in place of "God," as being invisible.

ON THE FOURTH EPISTLE, "How, you say, is Jesus": You ask, he says, how this is? Note the phrase "here, that is, in the economy," since apart from this economy he is also called man as the cause of men, as the maker of men.

"For not as the cause of men": Africanus also says this in his Chronographies; for God is called by the same name as all things that come from him, since he is in all things. But in the economy he is called man as having been made man according to his whole essence,

according to what is said: "In whom dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily." And note every phrase of the epistle; for it is directed against every heresy, both older and newer.

"But we, Jesus": Not because of the human element of Christ, he says, do we set him apart, or call him above man, defining this as foreign to the common principle of nature's essence, but plainly according to the principle of divinity. For he added: For he is not man alone, but also God. Even if, he says, he took up the whole essence of man, we do not divide him from the divinity; for he adds: For not man only. Then, having said this, he continues: Nor only superessential, in that he is also man.

Beyond men": "Beyond men" indeed because of being born of a virgin, but "according to men" because of the time in the womb, or as [observing] the laws of gestation. And "from the substance of men," because, as the holy father himself said, the holy body of Christ is from the virginal bloods.

"Beyond substance he was made substantial": Even after the incarnation he named the divinity "super-substantiality." And the "super-substantial" of this is the exceeding of substance and wisdom and power.

"And beyond man": "Of man" indeed is the [birth] from a woman, but "beyond man" is the [birth] from a virgin. Note also that the body of Christ is earthly, and not heavenly, as some supposed.

"Power of supereminence": Behold, here too he spoke supereminently, in contrast to things taken by privation. And immediately, through what follows, he interprets himself. But what affirmation is, we have said above in "On Mystical Theology," chapter 3. How, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, affirmations have the power of a transcendent negation, he explains by the things according to men. For if we affirm of Christ, saying that he is a man, and from a virgin mother according to our substance, yet he has the power of negation hidden and beyond mind. For the hearer will say, "Not a man, since from a virgin, but beyond man," even if in other respects he is a man. And he explains this too, saying that to call him a man affirmatively signifies this: that he is not a man negatively, but beyond man, evidently because of the signs that were done by him. ("Not according to God did he do the divine things": He says that Christ did the divine things not according to God, because [he did them] with flesh and not with bare divinity;

Nevertheless, they are divine; nor are the human things according to man, for in divine authority, when he willed, he gave the flesh time to manifest its own, yet nevertheless human things. And "having been made man" makes clear "having become man." And theandric activity signifies divine and human. For thus for us, that is, on our behalf, plainly on earth, having lived as a citizen, he did, as is set forth, both divine and human things. Note also the supernatural and ineffable union of the Lord, that he did not do divine things according to God (for he was man), nor human things according to man (for he was also God). Hence wonderfully the divine Gregory the Theologian says, "As the natures were mingled, so also the appellations, and they interpenetrate each other by the principle of connatural union." How he did not do divine works according to God, the walking bodily with feet upon the sea makes clear; for it is God's to compress the water, but not God's to walk with fleshly feet. Nor are feet's flesh and bones of the Godhead. Again, it is God's to make a virgin conceive, but it is not the Godhead's to be formed in appearance and the other human members. Thus also from the opposite: the same things; for he did not do human things according to man; for he was man from the Virgin, but this not according to man; for what sort of man from

of a virgin? Again, walking with the feet is a human thing, but walking on water is not a human thing; for what sort of man has done this?

“A certain new thing”: Let no one, turning to foolish babble, say that he calls the Lord Jesus a “God-man” (theandrites); for he did not say “God-manly” (theandrike) by forming it from “God-man” (theandrites), but “God-manly activity,” that is, an activity of God and a man interwoven. Whence he also says God “was made man” instead of “God became a man.” (But now he called only the mixed activity “God-manly”; for he acted as God only, when being absent he healed the centurion’s servant; and as a man only, even if he was God, in eating and being grieved. But he worked his wonders in a mixed way, creating eyes for the blind by anointing, and by touch staunching the flow of the woman with the hemorrhage.

ON THE FIFTH EPISTLE “In this it happens”: Take for me what is said here by the Father from the example of the bodily eye. For what the absence of light does, working the inactivity of the visual powers, this also the intense gaze at the sun at midday accomplishes.

ON THE LETTER: "For it is possible also": He says that someone, while refuting an obvious falsehood in many points, may himself miss the truth, which is one (and not many); for the truth is one, but it is hidden because of the mystical nature of the doctrines, and it requires much investigation together with divine grace. For example, Nestorius, while shaking the teachings of Arius and Apollinarius, or others like him shaking the teachings of others of the same sort, fell into other absurd heresies. Let no one, then, be misled by these words into rejecting the Fathers' works against the heterodox; for he does not say this—that one should not refute and overturn the opinions of the impious (since how does he himself appear in "On the Divine Names" to be shaking the teachings of Elymas?)—but rather that one ought not to be occupied with this as a primary matter, namely speaking against others, but should set forth the word of truth accurately in a didactic manner, and use refutation according to the circumstance of the uprising of the impious. Otherwise: That one must not slander the opinions of others, but strengthen one's own; nor indeed should one write against an opinion or religion that does not appear good, but for the sake of truth. How he says this, the following letter makes clear.

On behalf of the truth": Note also why one must write on behalf of the truth only, and not against others.

ON THE LETTER 7 § 1. This holy Polycarp was bishop of Smyrna in Asia, having been a hearer of Saint John the Evangelist, as Irenaeus says in the third book of "Against the Falsely-Named Knowledge," and he was also perfected by martyrdom through fire. This same divine Polycarp also has letters to the Philippians. This letter of the blessed Dionysius contains many wonderful and strange things concerning the solar eclipse at the crucifixion of Christ. "He will be convicted": "He will be convicted" applies in common; for thus also is the construction. "Image" instead of "imitation."

§ 2. "The sophist Apollophanes": Concerning Apollophanes the sophist, who was a companion of the great Dionysius and who reviled him for having become a Christian and for speaking against the Greeks; for indeed human wisdom is also of God. "And not the opinion of the many": The saying must be construed thus: 'And I for my part do not mean the opinion of the many, of those who abide in a material and passionate manner in the words or passions of the poets.

For by "the knowledge of things that are": He called the knowledge of things that are the observed motion of the heavenly bodies and the contemplation of the other parts of creation, according to that one definition of wisdom which says, to know things that are insofar as they are. And the voice of the Apostle, in saying in the first [letter] to the Corinthians: "For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom"—that is, he understood this of the wisdom manifest in the harmonious and ordered arrangement of creation. Note therefore that the knowledge of things that are is called philosophy, and what the Apostle in the first [letter] to the Corinthians calls the wisdom of God. [For he stated at the beginning the purpose for which he wrote neither against the Greeks nor against others.]

"It was necessary to observe Apollophanes": From things acknowledged among the Greeks he sets forth the ordering of God, the cause of all things, saying that from this it is fitting to recognize God, the definer of all things—from the fact that the sun and the moon have the appointed boundaries of the day and circle around the whole circuit of heaven, that is, from east to west. Whether they do not move along with the heaven that contains them—the heaven and the sphere of the fixed stars of the immovable stars revolving circularly from east to west, while the sun and moon themselves run in the opposite direction to the whole, from west to east—and thus especially is God, the creator and orderer of the whole, justly recognized and admired. These things we have interpreted according to Apollophanes, who says that the heaven was not then standing still together with the sun, since in the preceding writing we have stated the precise matter beforehand.

Concerning the fixed ordering of the stars by the will of God, and its not being moved again whenever He wills, as in the case of Joshua the son of Nun and Ezekiel. "When the sun by him": In these words he cites the events of Joshua the son of Nun, and reminds the holy Polycarp of this history, so that he may set it against Apollophanes. He says therefore: He said to him: Learn how God, when the sun and the moon were then diametrically opposite to each other, the sun already setting, fixed the luminaries in place—a standing, as it were, by some ineffable power of God their cause. And the whole stood motionless together with the two luminaries; for neither the heaven nor the remaining stars continued their revolution, but they stood still motionless together with the two luminaries. And the course and motion of the whole did not stand still only for a little while, but for a whole day, so that in the time of Joshua the son of Nun the day became double, of twenty-four hours, as Joshua the son of Sirach clearly says in the hymn of the Fathers. Then he adds: But if Apollophanes should say, It is impossible, for the heaven and the remaining stars did not stand still with the two luminaries, but those continued to move while these stood still, answer him that this especially ought to turn you toward the true God and the knowledge of Him, who moves the heaven that contains the luminaries but makes the luminaries contained within it stand motionless. For this is a matter of greater power—that, while the heaven and the remaining stars move, the sun and moon stand still motionless and are not carried along in the same motion with the whole, with which they were always carried round together.

Most supernatural at once with the whole": He says that together with the pole, which remained motionless (for this is what he called "the whole"), the standing still of the sun and the moon took place. But rather, he says, it was far more wondrous, if indeed the pole was carried round (for this is what he indicated by saying "of the wholes, and the better, and the containing"), while the sun and the moon (for these are the "contained") were not carried round together with the containing. "By continuity it is almost tripled": He added "almost" because that day did not become triple in full (for it consisted of thirty-two hours): the time from sunrise up to the place where it was, since the sign was given there, and ten hours from there to the east, and twelve up to the final setting. And he used the same figure of speech here also, that either the pole itself together with the sun made that supernatural counter-revolution in the interval of the twenty-four hours, or the sun alone. "Or the whole of so much time": Arrange the saying thus, since it involves hyperbaton: Or the whole reverses these contrary motions, retracing a span of time so great by these revolutions beyond reason. These things are also made clear in the fourth book of "Kingdoms," and especially in the edition according to Symmachus, and in the second book of "Paralipomena.

Or the sun in its own course": The annual motion of the sun makes five turnings: a northern ascent, that is, from the equinox in spring to the summer solstice; and a northern descent from it to the equinox in autumn; and a southern descent from the equinox to the winter solstice; and from it again a southern ascent to the equinox; and a fifth, the opposite of the whole. Having spoken, then, of its fivefold-turning motion, by the addition of the article and by adding "its," he indicated the familiar and customary one. But let us understand what is said in these words by the Father thus: Let us suppose that the sun on that day, at the hour of sunrise, was in the first degree of Aries, complete, having no minutes. It was not possible for it to return to the same degree without having completed the appointed fivefold-turning motion, that is, in the course of 365 days and a quarter. In the ten hours, then, from the twelfth in which it was, until the place where it made its rising, that is, the first degree of Aries, having turned back in it, it fulfilled the things of the fivefold-turning motion, that is, of the annual circuit; and in the other ten (having come, after the turning back, to the place in which it was at the one and a half degree of Aries), it likewise fulfilled the things of the same fivefold-turning motion by dissolution, which he called "analytically"; for it was not possible for it to be again in this one and a half degree of Aries, once it had departed from it, except through the days of the year, as has been said.

Carried by reports": meaning by histories.

"They perform the rites of Mithras": The Persians call the sun Mithras. He indicated the extension of that day by the threefold. Note besides this, concerning the darkness that came over all the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth hour at the time of the Lord's crucifixion, what the father says.

"At Heliopolis": Perhaps he means the Heliopolis in Egypt; for they were still reading there at the same time.

"Paradoxically": For they say the eclipse does not otherwise occur unless the moon falls in with the sun.

"And again it": Note from this the resolution of the difficulty in the evangelist Luke. No one else recounted the strangeness of the manner and of the miracle, but only this one. For when the divine Luke said, "from the sixth hour darkness came over the Lord's cross, the sun failing," it was doubted by all how he called this an eclipse, since the moon was on the fourteenth day, and there was certainly no conjunction of sun and moon. For nearly all the commentators, being much later than those times, supposed that the sun itself lost its rays for the three hours until the ninth. Here, however, the strange manner is also stated

Of the eclipse. He says, then, that the moon, being on the fourteenth day from the east (for it was not the time of conjunction), reached the sixth hour of the sun, and falling into it, ran under it, inserting itself into the eastern part of the solar disk (whence also the moon came, and entered, running under it and going backward, until it shadowed its whole disk. It was necessary, then, if it was an eclipse according to custom, that both the eclipse and the clearing should come from the same part; for example, when the moon runs under the sun, say, from the east, it first blocks the eastern part of the solar disk, which it also began to run under; from there, then, from the eastern part, the disk of the sun begins to be cleared, as the moon moves toward the west and first uncovers the part in passing by and running past the sun, which it also first covered, that is, the eastern part. But at the saving Passion it did not happen thus, but the opposite. For the moon, coming from the east, ran under the sun, and they blocked its whole disk. Then it no longer passed to the west, but went backward again to the east, and first bared the western part of the solar disk; for it ran back to the opposite diameter of the sun, toward the east, so that the falling-in and the clearing no longer came from the same part. Phlegon the Greek chronicler also mentions this eclipse in the thirteenth book of his Chronicles, in the 103rd Olympiad, saying that it happened contrary to custom; however, he did not record the manner.

And our own Africanus as well, in the fifth book of his Chronographies, and Eusebius of Pamphilus, in the same work, make mention of the same eclipse.

ON THE EIGHTH LETTER, § 1. This Demophilus was a monk, as the superscription makes clear; for they used to call monks "therapeuts." Having tyrannized over his own presbyter, and being indignant that he had received someone in repentance for sins, he cast him out, struck the penitent, thrust the presbyter aside, and sat down as a self-ordained presbyter. Note, then, that these evils also occurred in those times. Reasonably, therefore, the phrase "O noble Demophilus" reproaches him with an unruly strength and not a godly reverence, and thereby holds the monk up to ridicule. "And if ever he went out": that is, whenever the Scriptures say that he came to be in God's indignation, and in the turning away of his face. But first, he says, they show that he had gone outside of meekness, and then in this way he suffered to be away from the face of God.

"From the pre-eminent": Note that meekness is exceptional and pre-eminent for the imitation of God, and that because of meekness Moses is called the servant of God. "Of ambition": Ambition properly means to desire and long for honor. And "Theocritus" is not someone so named, but one who is judged by God to rule and is fit for it. "But what of the God-father": That he calls David "God-father" because of Christ. For the divine Paul says: "Set apart for the Gospel, which he promised beforehand in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh." Reasonably, then, David is God-father.

Indeed, and it is a statute": For it is written in the law, that one should even raise up the fallen beast of burden of an enemy.

"But to the upward": To the higher. Note the love of humanity of the angels, and that they intercede with God on behalf of the nations, and that they rebuke the apostate powers, that is, the demons.

"But of the truly good": Concerning the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God. He makes things truly to be, that is, He sustains them for continuance. "And He wills all things always to come to be": Since He said "all things," and among all things are both soulless and irrational creatures, having added "according to the fitness of each," He beforehand healed the underlying opposition.

"And He strives": How the Lord loves all things, and exhorts us not to fall away from Him, whence also He is called Paraclete. "And of the pampered": To be pampered is properly to be broken down; the word is used also of beloved ones, who, deferring intercourse with their lovers, employ such a bodily, that is, broken-down, disposition. Whence it is taken also for other similar matters. "Yet to those who approach He runs": The things of the gospel parable of the prodigal are suggested in these words, and similar things. Wonderfully also he says "whole" of "whole" people, putting to shame the heretics of that time, who said that the soul alone is saved by God, and not the body. Whole, then, he says, the Lord, as having taken soul and body, has saved us whole, who are of soul and body. There were heretics then from Simon, as Irenaeus and Hippolytus make clear. And those who dogmatize the opinions of Origen think the same things. "Enfolded" is instead of "embracing.

That is, the good": Note whom he calls the friends who are invited; and a little later he understands these to be the good angels. Observe how he understands the phrase, "that their dwelling may be with all rejoicing." "But you, as your letters show": But you, he says, O Demophilus, have also insulted the priest, who said that the impious man who repents is merciful, that is, worthy of mercy. It seems to me that Demophilus has insulted a presbyter; for he is accustomed to call priests presbyters, as he made clear in the work "On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy." And here too, a little further down, he confirms what has been said. The construction is by hyperbaton. You insulted the priest who judged righteous both that the impious man is merciful, that is, worthy of mercy.

"You have contracted the Holy of Holies": You have contracted, instead of you have humbled and diminished—or not this, but you have contracted instead of you have gathered together, as has been said, as it were you lifted up, having carried them from the altar, although it is permitted to deacons and presbyters to do this, the law saying, "And the priests shall wrap up the holy things," as he also says in the following leaf.

It is not lawful for a priest": Note that a presbyter must not be corrected by a deacon or a monk, even if he sins—much less by laymen—and this without partiality; for the order of monks is above the order of the ministers, that is, of the deacons. And if this is so, much more is it unlawful for a bishop to be accused by anyone. "But the priests are angels": Note that priests are also angels and spokesmen, that is, teachers of the divine judgments, after the hierarchs; and that the letter was written concerning a presbyter who was persecuted and insulted by a monk is made especially clear from this.

"Through the mediation of the ministers": Note that those who seek to learn the divine things from presbyters ought not to do this by themselves, even if they are monks, but through the mediation of deacons, and this when a suitable occasion presents itself. "Through whom also the being": Just as we said above in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, in the chapter on monastic perfection, the monastic habit is given to them through presbyters.

Ordering": Concerning the ecclesiastical orders, and what the ministry of monks is; for he calls them healers. These things he also says in the "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy."

"The gates of the sanctuaries": For to the deacons is assigned the guarding of the gates of the Church, as he says in the "Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," in the chapter concerning the priestly perfections, a little after the beginning of the chapter. ("Of the divine veils": That even then there were veils around the altar.

"You have nothing of what is fitting": Note that he who rushes in disorderly and contrary to the sacred ordinances upon the holy things is believed neither to see, nor to hear, nor to have anything of them, even if he touches them with his hands. "He dared; for not yet": In common, "justly he was punished," as if also this one.

"When someone undertakes beyond his worth": That even if someone does what is fitting, but contrary to his own order and worth, he too exceeds what is attainable. "Demons truly theologizing": Concerning the demons who theologize Jesus.

But let him be proclaimed": Because every one who intrudes into another's oversight is proclaimed alien to theology. "And the priests shall wrap them up": Who are able to gather and lift up the holy things, and that this is not attainable by all.

"And Miriam is made leprous": Note the reason for which Miriam, the sister of Moses, was made leprous.

"And against the sons of Sceva": For the demons leaped upon the sons of Sceva, because neither believing in Christ nor having been ordained, they adjured the demons, which was lawful only for those who adjure. This is set down in the Acts of the holy Apostles.

"Nor even just things not according to worth": Note what is meant by "he shall justly pursue the just thing," which Moses says, and that it is not lawful to pursue even just things not according to worth. You have this also in what follows. Origen exercises this at length in the tenth of his "On the Lamentations of Jeremiah."

( § 2. "What then do you say?": An objection, as it were from Demophilus, that there is ungodliness among the priests that is not corrected.

"But I will defend myself to you": A defense against the objection concerning private action. [1] "And not locally": That the things concerning the angelic descents and orders must not be received locally, that they draw near to God, but according to each one's fitness; [2] for God is not in a place, and reasonably therefore neither are the intelligible powers. [3] "Symbols in a Christ-like manner": That is, the accomplishment of the mysteries. And "in a Christ-like manner," because the priests, praying over the divine gifts, that is, the symbols, hold the rank of Christ.

§ 3. [4] "But not to Demophilus": For it is not permitted, he says, for Demophilus, being a therapist, to correct these sins.

"And just things are": What is it, to pursue just things justly, and that what is just is apportioned to angels.

[5] "But Demophilus in word": That is, let Demophilus punish his own irrationality, and his anger, and the desire of his own love of rule. [6] Note also, that in all things that exist, through the first things, what is according to worth is apportioned to the second things.

[7] "But let him preside": Let the word, he says, rule over anger and desire; for these are the subordinate things; for in the withholding of these, the rational authority and power is shown, so as to use them not simply, but for something useful. "From God a lawgiver": He means the divine Paul. "He does not deem worthy of the Church": From the letter to Timothy. § 4. "Separate what is according to worth": Note the praiseworthy ecclesiastical order, that the deacons give admonition to the monks, and to these the presbyters, and to the presbyters the bishops, and to the bishops the apostles and their successors. And among the successors of the apostles, the admonition comes from those of equal rank.

And to the hierarchs the apostles": Note that the apostles are greater even than bishops, and the successors of the apostles, and that each one ought to be corrected by the one holier than his own rank. And I consider the present patriarchs to be successors of the apostles.

"I do not know how I shall weep": Note the bitterness, or rather the compassion, of the father.

"For even if not of the good": For even if you do not think, he says, that the therapist is of the good God who is with us, you are certainly alien to us and to the whole Church. And note that perhaps this was sinned in the parish of the great Dionysius, and that he himself appointed Demophilus a monk of the Church. "Or the double sin": Note what he calls the double sin, when one who sins does not know that he has sinned. And this is from Jeremiah, as he clarifies in what follows: "For the people has sinned two sins: they have forsaken me, the fountain of life," and the rest. "For Demophilus thinks": A great and mighty and compassionate entreaty for sinners.

But the hierarchic consecrator of divine rites": He means the Lord, that he does not ordain things similar to those that came about through Demophilus. "And these things of sinners": For "he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth," speaking the word of the Apostle; plainly, "separated from sinners, and having become higher than the heavens." ("But he justifies those who enjoy their own things": That is, his own love for humanity, and not darkness and punishment. "For indeed also to those who are toward him": It is found in the Gospel according to Luke. § 5. "Away, we have not": May many good things come to you, most compassionate father! "For indeed also the most divine": Note that he says the disciples of the Lord were without a share of the Holy Spirit, when they sought to rain down fire upon the Samaritans, as we find in the Gospel. How then does the Lord say to them, "You do not know of what spirit you are?" But perhaps he said this, showing with what grace they were chosen to minister; and perhaps also the Father, looking to the perfection of the gift which they received after the resurrection, said this, because it is written: "For the Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." And he calls the holy apostle Paul a "hierothete," as having ordained for himself the high priesthood of the Church of Athens, just as is written in the sacred Constitutions of the Apostles. "For they ought to be taught, not punished": Note this fine point, and especially useful now, that those who are ignorant ought to be taught, and not punished, just as we guide the blind, not punish them.

On the cheek": Some say this means the temple, others the jaw, and others a part of the head. But it is better, as I said, to call the temple the "cheek"; Homer, however, calls it the "korse." The word "korry" is accented on the penult. Demophilus, then, struck the penitent on the temple.

"For they meant to do wrong": Note what he says follows upon those who wish to wrong or to benefit certain people, even if they did not bring to fulfillment what they had intended. "Attempting": That is, those whom they purposed to wrong or to benefit—not in every case, he says, did they treat them as they wished. And it is evident that the one case is due to the unwillingness of those being benefited, the other to the weakness of those doing the wrong.

"And here and there": That the righteous are not only in the age to come, but also in the present life, followers—that is, attendants and companions—of good angels.

"The greatest of all good things": That the greatest of all good things is to be always with God.

"And here, and after death": That sinners are punished both in this life and in the next, being condemned, together with the demons, to be with the passions they preferred.

I will call to mind": Note the vision of Saint Carpus, how full it is of horror and of exhortation.

§ 6. "Having once become": A beautiful narrative, showing that one ought not to curse those who sin, even if they offend against God. One must note, then, the account, which contains the ineffable compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and concerns those who repent. It also speaks of the holiness of the divine Carpus. This is the Carpus whom the Apostle mentions in the second Epistle to Timothy. "According to the preliminary prayers": The Athenians called "preliminaries" the prayers with sacrifices before marriages; for they called marriage the "end," since it perfects a man in respect of life; and this can be shown from many comic poets. In any case, they held marriage to be a mystery. They also said that to be "preliminarily initiated" was to be pre-initiated, and as it were pre-purified in preparation for a mystery, as Cratinus evidently says in the play Pylaea. For especially the mysteries of one of their falsely named gods they called "ends" and "initiations," as perfecting and leading those initiated to perfection. The term, then, used impiously among the Greeks, the great Dionysius applied to the mystery of the truth, and called "preliminary prayers" the most perfect supplications before the life-giving mystery, for purification and for the uncondemned partaking of the most perfect and perfecting gift of the sacrifices. And "he brought him out" is used in place of "he received him as a stranger.

During the days of the Hilaria": There were certain days among the idolaters which they called Hilaria; and some were private and personal, as when a man married or acquired a son, while others were called common and public Hilaria, as when a king was proclaimed and provided public Hilaria. And in these it was not permitted even to wear mourning, but both spectacles and public sacrifices were continually held each day, and those in mourning ceased and went to the spectacles, and spent the appointed days of such Hilaria in unceasing feasting. There was also Hilaria, a private festival of the Romans in honor of the mother of their gods—or rather of demons—as Demophilus says in his "On the Sacrifices and Festivals of the Ancients." "Throughout all of life": That is, until the things of the present life are at hand. And it must be noted that the God-loving ought throughout all of life to admonish those who have gone astray, and to draw them to the knowledge of the truth. Note this, then; for some ignorantly say the opposite, using the apostolic saying that says, "Reject a heretical man after a first and second admonition," not understanding the force of what is said, which is made most clear from the sayings that follow. For then is the rejection after a first and second admonition reasonable, when the teacher comes to the rejection, knowing that such a man has been perverted, and does not perceive it, being

self-condemned. For it is clear that in the sacred teachers the condition of those who come forward is also revealed. But others understood the phrase "after a first and second admonition" in this way, instead of "after the teaching from the Old and New Testament." "For he was accustomed to this": Note that the apostolic tradition handed down the night-time rules of psalmody. "Outside of turmoil": The negative particle "not" must be construed with "outside of turmoil," so that the whole is like this: He arose, having not enjoyed even the many sleeps, because they were interrupted, (nor being outside of turmoil, because even his sleeps were interrupted.

"He besought God with a certain thunderbolt": A thunderbolt is a spiral motion of fiery air from above downward. And such a thing burns, whence it is also called from "to inflame." "In numberless ways in human form": Note that angels also appear to the saints in human form.

"By the instability of their own feet": Note "by the instability of their own feet," which indicates the fickleness of their purpose; for not willing, they did not fall.

Into the abyss": Note how the devil casts men into the outer darkness, which here he calls an abyss, that is, a pit, either deceiving or pushing those who obey him. And sometimes he takes shameless men as his co-workers for the deception of others, as also the idolater in the case of the one now deceived, about whom the account is. Therefore also in the vision he sees men among the serpents, that is, the demons, dragging those conquered by the devil, from whom may the Lord deliver us.

"By the evil": Note "by the evil," that is, by sin, which we say is properly evil when it is begotten in the will. But "unwilling and compelled" must not be understood as some coercive power, that is, the devil, as seems good to the Manichaeans and Messalians; but that, being persuaded to do evil, we give the deceiver room to attack us continually, taking strength against us from us; and he will be powerless if we are not persuaded, since the help of God is near us, assisting together, as what follows makes clear. "And to extend a good hand": Note the ineffable compassion of the Lord.

With his hand already extended": Clearly the hand of Carpus. "Not of others": That is, of those who crucify; the Lord says this to Carpus.

"Of good and philanthropic": Note that the Lord himself also calls the angels good and philanthropic.

ON THE NINTH EPISTLE § 1. This holy Titus is the one known to the Apostle, whom he also appointed bishop of Crete, as the Epistle to Titus written to him by the divine Paul says.

"But in the Symbolic": What the "Symbolic Theology" of the great Dionysius contains.

"They impress": To impress is to mold and cast something into one's own mind, by a metaphor from painters, who, attending to the truth, paint images. "Fathers of the ineffable wisdom" he calls the prophets.

"For thus beholding we should be revered": "We should be revered" instead of "we should be held in reverence, we should honor, we should marvel, we should be struck with awe." Note also, concerning the holy and adorable Trinity, the phrase "a fount of life poured out into itself, and standing upon itself"; for from this is shown both the consubstantiality and that the Monad, having proceeded into a Triad, stands even to itself. Thus also Gregory the Theologian says in the first Discourse On the Son, and in the second Peace Discourse. Note also the phrase "ever beholding itself through itself"; he says this too concerning the holy Trinity. "For the things outside it": Of the same, clearly the symbolic formation. And here too "of how much" stands for "of much," and "the things outside," that is, the things readily suggested by the wording.

Womb of God, bodily": "Womb of God" because of "From the womb, before the morning star." "A word into the air," because of "My heart has uttered a good word." "A spirit breathed out," because of "And by the spirit of his mouth." And "bosom," because of "The only-begotten who is in the bosom of the Father." And "plant-like," that is, according to the form of plants, because of "It is a tree of life," and "From a shoot, my son, you went up," and "Jacob shall blossom and sprout," taken of Christ, whose fruit of salvation filled the earth, and similar things. Note, then, how "womb" is said of God, and the belching forth of the word, and such things. "Or springs of waters": "Springs of waters" according to "With you is the fountain of life," and "They abandoned me, the fountain of the water of living water," and as many such things. And "effulgences," because of "Who being the effulgence of the glory," and "Lord, in the light of your face they shall walk, and in your light we shall see light," and similar things. "And of the intelligible things": Indicative of "providences" is "As an eagle he will cover his nest" and the things with it; of "gifts," as "You open your hand," and "He who gives food to all flesh"—rather, this too is indicative of providence. And of "appearances," because he was seen by the saints in the Old Testament in the form of a man, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. And of providence, also the punitive aspect toward the impious; for it is said in the Prophet, "As a bear bereaved, and as a leopard." Of "powers," then, eyes and the names of other bodily members are descriptive; of "properties," as in Amos, adamant;

For it is proper to the divine nature to be impassible and indomitable. Just as also the consuming of wicked dispositions, according to what is said: "Our God is a consuming fire." And the rest of the things said are evident to the diligent; and the anagogical and allegorical contemplation of these things is not incongruous. It is also possible to take "terminations" and "abidings" as the immutability and unchangeableness of the divine nature, which is indicated by the foundation stones; and "processions" and "distinctions" as the communication of the goods naturally present in him, as in a pattern, the fragrance from the lily, on account of which it is said, "a flower of the field, a lily of the valleys." So then one must understand "the unions" as the turning and binding of creatures to him, made clear through the cornerstone. And "women's ornaments" are the things set down in Isaiah, outlining the manifold nature of divine providence. Just as also one must understand "the smelting" and "the smelting furnace" as the remolding providence, or the discerning and purifying power. For the things of the armament's equipment are evident where they lie; and they indicate the destructive and annihilating power against opponents. And "barbarian weapon-forgings" perhaps that passage, "In clothing of woven gold," and, "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one." For the sword is a barbarian weapon, as Phylarchus records. Likewise also every craftsman is a manual worker who works through fire.

Banquets": He calls the feasts "banquets," as in the Gospel, when the fatted calf and the rest are made for the prodigal son. "The manifold and crooked things": He says that in these things the sins of the promises—in some of the foretellings, according to what appears at hand—did not receive their end, the things promised; such as, to set down a few out of many, what was said to Jacob, "Become lord over your brother," and the things concerning the continuance of the seed of David in the kingdom, which in the obvious sense missed their outcome, but in the precise contemplation by no means. For the promise to Jacob was fulfilled through the dominion of those from him and the leading up to Christ, just as also the promises to Abraham (concerning the possession of the land and the blessing of the nations). And the things spoken to David are referred solely to Christ. Likewise also the things concerning Solomon that seem to have been spoken in the forty-fourth psalm. The interpretive renderings in these things, then, having variety, he called manifold subtleties, not as though they craftily reasoned away the truth, but as clearly unfolding what is sought. (Concerning the Song of Songs, that it is holy according to these holy men; for Theodore of Mopsuestia slandered it very foolishly.) "Of the tokens": He says "tokens" of the things that come to be symbolically, which are for their own sake—that is, for them to be understood thus, as the appearance has it and the letter plainly dictates; he says they were not stamped, but are a covering and type of the deeper meanings and suppositions.

He says this: that the symbols—the mystical tokens—were not devised for their own sake, but for the sake of the unworthy, lest, being set before them, they should seem easy to despise.

"The secret tradition": He explains the secret and mystical tradition of Scripture itself, calling it symbolic, inasmuch as it was given by oracles through symbols; but also initiatory, as delivering the initiations of the mysteries in symbols through the priestly tradition. This secret, that is symbolic, tradition, he says, has the unspoken, that is the mystical, interwoven with the spoken—that is, with the symbol that has been permitted to be spoken. For in the symbol the true and unpublished is overshadowed, as in the legal Passover the true Passover, of which it is said: "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us." But the second part of the theological tradition is manifest and knowable, though not through symbols; which he also calls philosophical and demonstrative, such as is the tradition that hands down the ethical and natural and practical matters of creation. And this more manifest part has a certain persuasiveness, and the truth bound together with what is said; for in this respect it is also demonstrative. But the symbolic part does not have persuasion, but a certain hidden and efficacious divine energy, which establishes mystical and contemplative souls through the mystical, that is symbolic, riddles, and as it were lays a foundation in Christ, and through mysteries not taught by word but by silence and the revelation of illuminations, enlightens the mind unto the understandings of the unspoken mysteries. Note that the tradition of the theologians is twofold, and how, and of what sort it is.

Both symbolic": He calls symbolic and initiatory that which is accomplished through symbols, such as the rites of the legal worship and the mysteries of our own mystical sacred service, even if our own are both loftier and more spiritual. "Philosophical and demonstrative": that which consists through the understanding of created things, and of certain divine dispensations, and of the contemplative exposition of the things said about God in the Scriptures.

"It persuades and binds fast": It persuades and binds fast, as it were placing a kind of bond and seal of truth upon what is said, and gives assurance to the hearers. And the symbolic [element] brings one near to God through the things accomplished, by a real state and impression, which he also called "unlearned initiations." "Or of the legal tradition": Because not only the legal tradition, but also the celebration of our own sacred mysteries stood in need of symbols. And it is no wonder, seeing that even the angels bring forth the divine mysteries through riddles. And the Lord Himself appears theologizing in parables. Of the tradition of the theologians, one part is secret and mystical, which is [unspoken]; the other is manifest and knowable, which is both symbolic and initiatory, and philosophical and demonstrative and persuasive and effective.

Of symbols": Natural contemplation that has a cause, explaining why some things in Scripture are handed down as symbolic and others as undefiled.

("Through riddles": Through riddles, as the angel in Zechariah, prefiguring the things concerning Jesus the son of Josedek and his robe, and saying; and in Daniel, Gabriel recounting the things concerning Christ and dictating the mysteries that accompany him, and other such things. And he calls "God-working" either the things that make the participant in them God, or the things wrought by God. "Through a typical banqueting": He calls "banqueting" the mysteries accomplished at the divine table through the holy bread and the cup of blessing. Note that both the old and the new Scripture hand down many things through symbols, and for a reason. [1] "Human life": I think he has called human life "undivided" and "divided," the one because of the soul's being undivided and incorporeal, the other because of the body's being varied and many-parted. Observe how admirably he hands down the things of the soul. For he calls its undivided part also the impassible part; and this is the soul's purest part and, as one might say, its flower, which is the intellect, which also pours forth the rational faculty, according to which intellect the soul is also intellectual, in which intellect the simple and, so to speak, naked mysteries without symbols are contemplatively beheld in knowledge. And its divided part is what he also calls the passible part; and this is the soul's power that is united to the senses through the spirit that is between the soul and the body, in which spirit the powers of sense and of the thoughts known through reflection are firmly established.

This, then, is a passible aspect of the soul, since through the senses it is carried down into an attachment to sensible things. And this part of the soul, so to speak, as the intellect, is not pure, nor can it directly behold the divine, the knowable, and the intelligible, but it needs some more solid medium, as it were guiding it by the hand toward the simple and indivisible, which the symbols accomplish through things divided—that is, through sensible and apparent things—leading it as a stranger toward the ineffable. ([2] "And the impassible part of the soul": The impassible part of the soul is the intellectual, not as being wholly without a share in passion, but as not having the occasions of suffering from without, just as the body falls under many evil accidents, which the soul does not endure without its own voluntary consent. And its passible part is that which through the senses apprehends things from without, to which he said the handing down of divine things bodily through symbols is akin, through which we are led up to the vision of immaterial things. [3] "Of clear theology": That even those who have heard a clear theology and one stripped of coverings fashion certain types within themselves, guiding the hearers toward understanding. "Otherwise": Of clear theology, such as "The Lord appeared to Abraham," or "to Moses," and "The Lord said," and "The word of the Lord came to the prophet," and the like. "Clear," however, as not being shaped through typical symbols. He calls a type, then, the reverent contemplation that we conceive upon such utterances, and one suited to the divine nature.

§ 2. [δ'] "A certain type for the understanding": Just as when the divine Athanasius sets forth the hypostases of the worshipful Trinity from trees, and the other saints from other things. Why, the creation of the world itself has been put forth as a representation of the invisible things of God, holding in a certain way the rank of symbols.

[ε'] "As Paul says": The Apostle speaks thus: "For his invisible things, both his eternal power, are clearly seen in the things that are made." And Christ (for I think he calls the true Word this) when he says: "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe?" and all such things. [ς'] "Therefore also the theologians": "politically and legally" the acceptance and good order of those who succeed and the chastisement and condemnation of those who transgress. "Purifying and undefiled" the admonitions and precautionary exhortations. "Humanly and intermediately," such as the questions, as "Where is Abel your brother?" and "Having come down I will see" and "The Lord examines the righteous and the ungodly." Which things hold a middle place between what is fitting for God and what seems altogether incongruous, that is, likenesses of beasts and lifeless materials. "Supracosmically and perfectly" he says the wonder-workings by word and will alone. "Laws that appear," as when he deems worthy of defense the virgin forced in the wilderness, and the like. "Invisible statutes," such as "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau," and other such things. (ζ') The father said "in many ways," because the Scripture has handed down some things symbolically, others undefiledly and supracosmically.

Things in a political sense": Of philosophy, one part is practical, the other theoretical. And of the practical, one part is common, which is also called political, such as the legislative, and another is particular, such as the ethical. And the middle of the practical is the economic. Of the theoretical, one part is named natural, the one among perceptible and changeable things, which is also cosmological, and the other is epoptic and theological, the one among intelligible and eternal things. These things he has now set forth in these [words]. And the middle of the theoretical is the one among eternal and perceptible things, which is astronomical and mathematical, which indeed the Scripture does not mention, but the Hebrews have it in Deuteronomy. [8] "For not a bare history": That the things said in Scripture symbolically, that is, historically, do not have a bare history, but a living perfection. And he calls it a living perfection because the goal for the saints through the Scriptures is that those who are taught be perfected unto eternal life. And he says these things, showing that the anagoge and allegory are necessarily to be received.

To pass through in a manner befitting the sacred": It is written "to pass through" (diabainein) and "to slander" (diaballein), which is to invade and enter in, and to come to be within the matter; thus Diogenianus also says.

"The supersubstantial lights": By supersubstantial, intelligible, and divine lights he means the all-immaculate and all-holy Trinity, and by intelligible lights, the angels who have transcended all. We have set out the difference between these fully in the work On the Divine Names.

"Against his intelligible providences": In the case of providences, as in the Gospels, "I came to cast fire upon the earth"; but in the case of words, as in Jeremiah: "Are not my words like fire, says the Lord?" The image of fire, then, must evidently be taken in one way in the case of God, and in another way in the case of intelligible things—namely angels, and the providences of God, and his words.

"And the one by cause": The image of fire "by cause," that is, in the case of the oracles of the Lord; the one "by subsistence" in the case of God; and the one "by participation" in the case of the angels. The "by subsistence" differs from the "by participation" in these respects: the one signifies substance

being in itself and having the God-like form as something introduced from without, as in the case of the angels; but the thing according to existence is either a divine Oracle, that is, brought forth from God. "As the contemplation according to them": Because the types are also understood in relation to the underlying subjects, even if they are the same.

"Seeking by you": The problem from Proverbs also came into question, and he speaks about the power of food.

"But the moist": Note that he called drinking "moist food." "A round mixing-bowl": The contemplation of the mixing-bowl and its roundness. "Without beginning and without end": He calls the providence of God without beginning, not because he foreknew existing things as co-eternal with them, according to those who are foolish and say, "At the same time God, at the same time all things," but because even before existing things were made, in the ideas, that is, the paradigms of God, that is, in his eternal thoughts (which we said the divine Paul names "predestinations" in the work "On the Divine Names"), according to which ideas and thoughts of God future things were pre-figured to be brought forth, the providence of God also pre-existed without beginning before every creation. For it belonged to divine providence, that is, forethought, to will to bring forth a creation that would enjoy his providential goodness. In this respect, then, providence is also called without end, extending to the immortal angels and to us who shall be made immortal, and the good things that will be for our sake.

Building, too, is Wisdom": What is "Wisdom builds for herself a house," and prepares in it the things she spoke of, and is outside it, and in it. "And in the whole she becomes": About this it has been said also in "On the Divine Names," how he stands and is moved. And it must be noted that he calls God providence.

"In the same by way of eminence": And in these words "by way of eminence" is used so that we do not take the things set before us in the sense of privation and non-existence. "And standing": Here it seems to me he clarifies what a hearth is, that is, the abiding as it is, the name of "hearth" being derived from "is." "And in no way outside it": Since he took "standing" for immutability of permanence, and "being moved" for providence toward beings, in each of these we must think and apply "wholly," so that what is said is of this sort: neither standing wholly, so as not to be moved providentially, nor being moved wholly, so as to depart from his own permanence. "Otherwise: That 'always standing and being moved,' said of God, reveals his providential activity in permanence. And 'neither standing nor being moved' presents his remaining in providence." All the things here we have often gone through in "On the Divine Names.

§ 4. "Solid food, then": What is solid food, and what is liquid; and that solid food is stable perfection. "And powerful and single": He calls knowledge single and undivided when, in the words about God, the mind is not parceled out among material concepts, but thinks in a single way the things that are above nature and unsearchable of the divine nature—the one who has the senses of the inner man exercised. "And of divided things": I think the compound [phrase] carries over from the common [term] of the diffusive [power], and so on.

"Guiding by the hand": For we know that those who are taught are led to the perfection of the knowledge of God not in one way, but in many forms and various ways. (Why the divine oracles are likened to dew and water and milk and wine and honey, and what is the power of each of these.)

"He gives to those who come": What the symbols signify. "Truly to feast": Note that the father etymologizes the word "feast" (euōchia) as "to be well" (eu echein).

"Life-giving at once and nurturing the young": To nourish good young men. And this is from Homer; for "koros" is the young man, and by pleonasm "kouros," whence also "kourotrophos" (nurturing the young).

§ 5. "God is said to be drunk": Note how God is said to be drunk, and from what, and what is the drunkenness that is upon us, and how ecstasy is spoken of in relation to God. "Being above understanding": That God is both above understanding and above being understood, and above being.

"Drunk at the same time": Note briefly how God is said to be drunk and beside himself.

"We shall be received according to the same": What are the so-called suppers, that is, banquets, in the kingdom of heaven.

"The reclining": What is the reclining in the kingdom of heaven—that it is rest and a life free from harm, and so on.

"According to which gladness": Gladness, that is, cheerfulness (for this is gladness), he reasonably calls Jesus. § 6. "And the sleep that is praised": How he took sleep and waking in relation to God.

"The symbolic theology": Note what "Symbolic theology" contains. And it has been set out and delineated more fully, that is, more broadly. TO THE TENTH LETTER. The letter is worthy of that sacred antiquity, and declares the grace of the disciple whom Jesus loved. And it is possible to infer from the seventh letter to Saint Polycarp that the great Dionysius was about ninety years old when he wrote these things. For in the letter to Saint Polycarp he says that, while staying at Heliopolis in Egypt, he saw the eclipse of the sun that occurred contrary to nature at the saving cross of Christ, which happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius; for in his fifteenth year the Lord Jesus began his preaching, as is shown in the Gospel according to Luke.

After preaching for three years and a few months, our Lord and God willingly suffered, so that it was the eighteenth year of Tiberius. Tiberius reigned about twenty-three years, so that from the saving Passion to the death of Tiberius there are still almost six years. The holy evangelist John was exiled to the island of Patmos, which is one of the Cyclades, around the last year of the reign of Domitian. He reigned fifteen years and five months. From the eighteenth year of Tiberius, when the eclipse occurred, to the death of Domitian there are gathered about sixty-four years and seven months. Let us suppose that the divine Dionysius was twenty-five years old when he saw the things that happened at the cross of the Lord, being, I think, still a reader, so that all together is about ninety years. Irenaeus also, in the third and fifth books of Against Heresies, mentions the exile of the most holy John under Domitian, where he also noted the time, as did Clement of Alexandria in his discourse On "Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?" "For not even in the ages": Note that God is not the cause for sinners of their separation to the station on the left, but the sinners themselves are the cause of these things for themselves, having wholly separated themselves from God.

Divine name": He means the divine name either as their always doing all things in the name of God, or when those named after God—that is, after Christ—happen to live in accordance with him, and are themselves called gods. "The sun of the Gospel": He rightly calls this divine John the sun of the Gospel. He says, then: Because I, reasonably blaming and reproaching those who think that you, the sun of the Gospel, are confined to a place, nevertheless pray that they may come to their senses and run to you, so that being enlightened they may be saved. For just as the one who thinks he encloses this sun within a place is mad, so too these are mad, thinking to confine the light of your Gospel together with you on the island of Patmos. "But we not even the opposite": Instead of, not even your being farther away. Note also that the great Dionysius prophesied, saying clearly that it was revealed to him by God, as also to the holy John, that within a very short time he would be recalled from his exile in Patmos, which indeed happened. For as we said, a little while ago, around the final year of the reign of Domitian, he was banished to Patmos, when Domitian stirred up persecution; then, around the death of the king, this greatest evangelist John sees the divine Revelation.