Letters

THE EPISTLES OF SAINT DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

EPISTLE I. TO CAIUS THE MONK

^A Darkness vanishes before light, and even more so before abundant light. Knowledge dispels ignorance, and abundant knowledge does so even more. Understand this superlatively and not privatively, and you will speak more than truly: the ignorance which is according to God eludes those who possess light and knowledge of existing things; and His darkness which is super-exalted is hidden by every light and concealed from every knowledge. And if anyone, having seen God, understood what he saw, he did not see Him, but rather something of those things of His which are and are known. For He Himself is established above mind and above being, and is known by the very fact of not being known at all, nor being, and exists above being and is known above mind. And this perfect ignorance in the good sense ^B is the knowledge of Him who is above all things that fall under knowledge.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER

He teaches that that ignorance of God, which he commends in the book *On Mystical Theology* as being above all knowledge, should be understood not privatively but superlatively. And at the same time he demonstrates that all the knowledge which we have of God through cognition is received from creatures.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

*And not privatively.* Lest you suspect that this should be understood according to the common sense—namely, that just as darkness is dispelled by light, and most especially by abundant light; or as ignorance, which is a kind of darkness, is taken away by knowledge, and most especially by abundant knowledge; so the ignorance concerning God might be similar to ignorance through lack of intelligence. On the contrary, the more anyone is illuminated in the knowledge of God, and the more he gathers knowledge of those things which are—that is to say, of intelligible things and intelligent beings, I mean angels and souls—the more he ascends and attains higher knowledge, he will recognize this very fact: that the light is not able, of course, to be comprehended, and that it is an ignorance which is a light and a knowledge above all things known. Therefore, God is not said to be unknown according to privation.

but according to the super-eminence of cognition. For we do not ignore in such a way as if another person knows—as if we were ignorant because someone else did not teach us, as people who have not learned what it is to be ignorant by way of privation, or according to privation; but we are ignorant [of that] which is unknown by every creature, and is unknown above every creature to which it is unknown, which is to be ignorant in a superlative sense.

If anyone, having seen God, has known what he saw, he has by no means seen Him, etc. Thus also Chrysostom in his homily *On Eutropius*, when he was found outside the Church, abstracted and absorbed: "No one," he says, "has seen what God is." When God is seen, therefore, it is not that which He is that appears, but that which he to whom He appears is able to see; not changing His own substance, but fashioning [His] aspect [by a] figure according to the variety of the subjects.

In the second decade, chapter 5, Cyparissiotus says that we can neither have a complete conception of God in this age, nor philosophize fully about God through it, nor through any other notion formed by us. And Gregory the Theologian in his second oration *On Theology*: "The great patriarch Abraham," he says, "was justified by faith and sacrifices a new and unheard-of sacrifice, and [is a] likeness of that great sacrifice. But he did not see God as God, but he set food before Him as a man; and he was praised because he showed as much veneration as his intelligence grasped." In the same place, when he mentioned Jacob: "And he wrestles," he says, "with God as with a man"—whatever this struggle of God with man may be, perhaps a comparison of human virtue with divine. Again in the same place: "How, concerning Manoah the judge, or Peter the disciple later, have you not wondered? The former, indeed, because he did not suffer even the aspect of God to be fashioned by type and image: whence that saying, 'We have perished, O wife, we have seen God'; as if men could not grasp the image of God fashioned and informed in the notion of the senses, much less His nature; the latter truly, because he did not receive into the boat Christ whom he was beholding, and for that reason he was dismissing Him." And Gregory of Nyssa: "How," he says, "may He be found, whom nothing of those things which are known declares? Not form, not color, not circumscription, not figure, not quantity, not quality, not place, not conjecture, not likeness, not proportion, but rather He is always outside every way of being grasped." Whence Cyparissiotus in the same place, chapter 6, concludes that God is neither known from natural representation, nor is anything from among things which are known or understood allowed to be used to philosophize about Him. D. Maximus in the first chapter of the ^A *Theological* [works]: "One," he says, "is God without beginning, incomprehensible, having the whole force, so that He is, wholly preventing [the query] when and how He is, ^B as being known to none of those who are [known] by natural representation." And again the same: "Every intelligence," he says, "is placed, as it were, in substance as a quality, so it also has motion according to the quality affecting the substance; for nothing that is wholly dissolved and existing simple by itself can receive intelligence itself, because it is not dissolved and simple; but God, since He is altogether simple in both of these [respects], both in substance, that is, dissolved from that which is in a subject, and in intelligence, having no subject at all; it results that He is neither of those who understand, nor of those things which are understood, since He is above substance and intelligence." Further, the same in chapter 11 of the first century: "We name all things whatsoever they are, previously perceived by the intelligence, which have in themselves demonstrable principles of knowledge; but God is not named as known, but rather is believed to exist only from those things which are perceived by intelligence, on account of which nothing of those things which are understood is in any way compared with Him." Whence it is concluded that the theology which is concerned with negations is more proper than that which is concerned with affirmations, although both these theologies are equally distant from God. For God is above every negation and affirmation which is the knowledge of Him, and so, according to Dionysius, mystical theology is truer—namely, to know or philosophize nothing about Him, but rather, unknowingly and without any intelligence of those things which are perceived by intelligence, to be joined and coupled with Him. ^C

587 And that most perfect ignorance in the direction of the good. He calls ignorance not indeed unknowing, which is a certain darkness of the soul; but having left behind all thought of external things, and all intelligence alien to the purpose, to be united in a certain silence according to the better part with God who is unknown as to what He is, which is above all cognition, and by knowing and contemplating nothing else, to know and contemplate above the mind, as Dionysius teaches in *Mystical Theology*, chapter 1. This ignorance is called in Exodus XIX the darkness into which Moses is said to have entered, as St. Maximus noted. Dionysius desires this union for Timothy in the beginning of *Mystical Theology*, whence it is permitted to understand it better.

*See the Schol. of S. Maximus and the Paraphr. of Pachym. on Epistle 1, volume II.*

LETTER II

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. He explains in what sense God is said to be above the principle ^D of divinity and goodness, namely participatively and creatively.

How does He who is above all things exist even above the principle of divinity and above the principle of goodness? If you understand divinity and goodness as the thing itself of the deifying and beneficent gift, and the inimitable likeness of the super-divine...

of the supra-good, according to which we are deified and made good. ^A For if this becomes the source of the divinization and the making-good of those who are being divinized and made good, He who is above every source, and above the so-called divinity and goodness—as He is supra-divinity and supra-goodness—transcends these, in so far as He is inimitable and ungraspable, surpassing the imitations and the relationships, and those who imitate and those who participate.

EPISTOLA III. TO THE SAME CAIUS.

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE.

"Suddenly" is that which takes place beyond expectation, and which is brought forth into the light from that which until then was obscure. ^B Regarding the philanthropy of Christ, I think that the theology also wishes to hint at this: that He who is above essence has, from the hidden place, come forth, being humanly substantiated for our manifestation. Yet He is hidden even after the manifestation, or, to speak more divinely, even in the manifestation itself. For this mystery of Jesus is hidden, and has been brought forth by no reasoning nor by any intellect; rather, even when spoken of, it remains ineffable, and when understood, it remains unknown.

^A NOTES OF CORDERIUS. The first note is that there is an allusion here to that passage in Malachi, chapter III, 1: *Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before my face; and presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the messenger of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple.* It speaks there of the advent of Christ and of John His precursor. See the explanation of this passage in Cornelius [à Lapide]. The second note is that the mystery of Christ is here said to be also hidden after its declaration; because as it is supernatural, it is not understood, but only believed. For faith is the argument of things not apparent (Heb. XI, 1). Hence in this mystery, as in other supernatural ones, we are not to ask "how" and "why," as St. Justin Martyr well warns in his oration *On Right Confession*. "It is an evident argument of infidelity," he says, "to say about God: 'How? How is He the maker of the heavens? How of the earth? How of the sea, and the air, and of all plants and living things, and of yourself?' You who inquire diligently about all things concerning God, you will clearly say that He produced everything by His power. Did God's power, therefore, attend those things that were being made according to accident, or according to substance? If according to accident, it attended them as if they existed before they were made; since an accident is not according to nature in itself, but exists in some subjects that priorly exist. But if this is ridiculous, it remains that the power of God was present to all things according to substance. Did God, therefore, because His power was present to all things that were made according to substance, have nothing more than the temple itself in which He was?" This has its problem, and that has its problem: and faith is the solution of both problems. In the same place: "Tell us, then, how the Word made flesh did not leave the heavens? Truly, you will say that, remaining God, He was so made. Tell us then again, how did He who remains come to be? For if He remained what He was, how was He made what He was not? But if He was made what He was not, how did He remain what He was? If you have a doubt about the solution, have a doubt also about the manner of the union. But you believe that He who remains was made; believe also that the Word is present everywhere according to substance, and in a certain special way is in His temple." See the Scholia of St. Maximus and the Paraphrase of Pachymeres, on Epistola IV, Vol. II.

LETTER IV.

TO THE SAME CAIUS THE MONK.

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. That Christ was both true man and at the same time God-man, who in a supernatural manner assumed human nature.

"How," you ask, "is Jesus, although He is superior to all, substantially aggregated to the other men?" He is not indeed called man in this place as the author of men, but in as much as He is truly man, according to the whole substance of man. But we do not define Jesus in a human way—for He is not only man (because He would in no way be suprasubstantial if He were only man)—but [He is] truly man, who, having been captured by a certain ^B special love for men, above men and according to men, from the substance of men, when He existed above substance, assumed substance. Nevertheless, He is full, beyond measure, of suprasubstantiality, as He who is always above substance, by a certain abundance of suprasubstantiality; even coming truly to substance, He was substantiated above substance, and He performed the things that are of man above the condition of men. This is declared also by the Virgin who gives birth above nature; and by the flowing water, which sustains the weight of feet composed of material and earthy substance, and does not yield, but by a supernatural power subsists without diffusion. But what of the rest, which are very many, who could recount them? Into which if any divine person looks, he will recognize, even beyond the mind, that the things which are affirmed concerning the humanity of Jesus contain also the power of an excellent negation. For, that we may speak summarily, He was not even man, not that He was not man, but as having become man from among men, beyond men, and truly man above man. And as for the rest, not having acted the divine things according to God, nor the human things according to man, but as God having been made man, He has enacted for us a certain new, θεανδρικήν (theandric) energy. ^C

born of men, he far surpassed men, and being truly made man, was above man. Furthermore, he performed divine works not as God, nor human ones as man; but because he was God and man, he exhibited to us a certain new God-man operation (theandric operation) in his life among us. ^A

NOTES OF CORDERIUS Note first, that Christ is not called man in the same way that he was called Light, Life, Wisdom, etc., in the Divine Names, because he is the author of light, life, etc.; but he is called man properly and substantially, on account of the substantial union of human nature in the person of the Word. Concerning which, see St. Thomas in the third part, question 2, article 3. Note second, that Christ is called by Dionysius a suprasubstantial or supernatural man, because the divine subsistence and the hypostatic union, by which his human nature is terminated and subsists, transcends every order of nature. Whence Christ is also more properly called *theanthropos*, that is, God-man, than man. Note third, that the actions of Christ also are of a dignity more than human, indeed angelic, because they belong to a divine Subject; and by this merit, his works are called not human but *theandrikai*, that is, divine-manly. Concerning these, it is thus maintained in the Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council: We know the two-fold operation of both natures, I say natural and substantial, and congruent: proceeding without division from both, in substance and nature, according to the operation and quality naturally implanted; and at once neither partible nor confused, the operation of either substance brought together; this makes the difference of operations in Christ, just as the difference of natures. Where observe with Turrianus that he says "without division," namely, by person. For Christ is not divided on account of the difference of the divine and human substances; rather, he is the same perfect God and perfect man. Again, "without division," because the operation of the divine nature is the operation of the three persons, whose unity of essence (as is in the sixth synod, action 14) cannot be divided, nor coupled to another unity, but is rather singular and beyond all number. Likewise, he says that the operation of either substance is brought in together; because thus each nature operated that which was its own, so that the other operated at the same time in a manner convenient to itself, and as it behooved it. For whether the operations were convenient to God, as of miracles, the flesh operated; as when with divine power he remitted sins, and said with his mouth: Thy sins are forgiven thee; and with divine power restored sight, and anointed the eyes with hand and spittle: or whether the operations were convenient to human nature; as to thirst, to hunger, to be wearied. The Word operated by permitting and willing; or whether the operations were mixed, that is, partly divine, partly human, that is, convenient to God and man, as to walk upon the sea; for it was convenient to man to walk, but for him not to be submerged while walking upon the sea became God; which operations, as we said above, are called *theandrikai* by Dionysius, that is, at once divine and human. See the scholia of St. Maximus and the Paraphrase of Pachymeres on Epistola IV, vol. II.

LETTER V. TO DOROTHEUS THE MINISTER.

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. He explains what divine darkness is, of which he treated in the book *On Mystical Theology*.

^B The divine darkness is the unapproachable light, in which God is said to dwell. And since it is invisible by reason of the super-abundant clarity, and unapproachable by itself by reason of the excess of its supersubstantial infusion of light, into this enters everyone who has been deemed worthy to know and see God, by this very fact of not seeing, and not knowing, truly being in him who is above sight and knowledge, knowing this very thing, that he exists above all things, as well sensible as intelligible, and saying with the Prophet: Thy knowledge is become wonderful from me, it is strengthened, and I shall not be able to attain to it. Just as therefore the divine Paul also is said to have known God, having known him to be above all understanding and knowledge; wherefore also he is known to exist above all knowledge and intelligence.

NOTES OF CORDERIUS

"Divine darkness is unapproachable light," etc. St. Dionysius alludes to that passage in 1 Tim. vi, 16, where he speaks of God: "who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see," namely, according to the law ordained by God in this life, or by the powers of nature. See St. Thomas, p. 1, q. 2, art. 1 et seq.; also what is said of the divine darkness in the first and second chapters of the *Mystical Theology*, and in the notes there.

It is said, however, that the divine darkness is light unapproachable—that is, to the powers of nature—because, of course, God is neither known from natural representation, nor is he anything among beings that understand or are understood, such that it might be permissible to philosophize about him from his substance. For representational knowledge in the mind or intellect takes its origin and principle from phantasms of a thing falling under sense, with which God can in no way be compared, so that the intellect, turned toward phantasms, can in any way know God, as it can other substances that are otherwise incorporeal. For all things that are understood have within themselves a principle of cognition, because they either exist in sensible things, of which there are phantasms from which intelligible species are abstracted by which the intellect, once informed, understands; or they are incorporeal things, which have within themselves that by which they may be compared to sensible things, to whose phantasms—which are their images and likenesses—the intellect turns itself as they arrive at the mind, so that it may understand something of incorporeal things. Now, these likenesses are the principles of sensing and understanding, as St. Thomas says, p. 1, q. 84, art. 3. But God cannot be compared thus with a sensible creature, whence he is not understood in this way, but as a cause by way of excess, as St. Thomas says in the same question 84, art. 7, or through supernatural revelation, whether of faith—which is obscure—or which simultaneously possesses evidence in the witness, and is most perfect, which is as much as can be had in this life. And in both, God is known as in a darkness and an unapproachable light, which surpasses all demonstration, in which, clearly, our mind, without any notion and without any intelligence of those things which are perceived by natural intelligence, is joined and coupled with God.

This light is therefore unapproachable because, as Gregory the Theologian says in book 1 *On Theology*, what God ultimately is in substance and nature, no man has ever found, nor can he find. And again in the same place: Solomon, he says, who was wiser than all men who were before him and after him; to whom was granted the breadth of heart as a gift of God, and an affluence of contemplation more abundant than the sand of the sea; the more he probes the deep, the more he burns [with longing], and he finds a certain end to wisdom, [finding instead] how much it had escaped him. Paul, however, does indeed attempt to grasp, I do not say the nature of God (for this is impossible in every way), but the judgments of God. But because he cannot find the exit, nor where to plant his foot on the ascent, nor where the curiosity 592 of the mind might cease; while something of that which is left behind always appears further on (O miserable condition! that the same should happen to me!), he circumscribes his prayer with awe; and he calls the riches of God and this depth divine, and confesses that the judgments of God cannot be comprehended; speaking much the same as David, who now indeed calls the judgments of God a great abyss, the bottom of which it is not permitted to grasp by measure or sense. At other times, however, he says that knowledge has become wonderful from himself, and from his own formation. And the same author says again in the same book: Because every nature indeed seeks the first cause; but it cannot comprehend it, for the reasons I have stated: laboring with desire, and as if anxious, and unable to bear the loss, it undertakes a "second navigation," so that it might contemplate, namely, the things that are seen; and it makes something from them into a God, being badly taught. For what is it that falls under aspect, that is higher and more similar to God than the one who looks, so that this should be worshipped, and that [the other] should be worshipped?

St. Gregory of Nyssa in the *Life of Moses*: "You will not be able to see my face, for no man shall see my face and live." This, however, Scripture does not say as if God were the cause of death (for how could the face of life ever become the cause of death to those who have approached it?), but because God is the nature and author of life. Now, the proper sign of the divine nature is to be higher than every sign. Whoever, therefore, thinks that any of the things that are known is God, as if it were from him who truly is, is badly deflected toward that which is thought to exist by the comprehension of a fictitious thought, [and] has no life. For he who is the author of the things that are, he is the true life; but this [God] cannot be known (namely, what he is). Because, therefore, the nature that creates life transcends cognition, Moses’ desire is fulfilled in this way through what he did, that his longing remained unquenchable. The same author in his explanation of that beatitude: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Whoever, he says, has cleansed his heart from every turbid affection, beholds in its own beauty the image of the divine nature. For the measure of the perception of God, which can be taken by you, is within you. Therefore, he who sees himself sees in himself that which he desires; and thus the pure in heart is made blessed, when, gazing upon his own purity, he sees the archetype in his own image. This purity of heart is absolutely necessary for mystical contemplation, nor is there any access to the divine darkness for anyone without it.

From these things it is clear that God can never be known by anyone through natural representation. For he flees from cognition in every way, as to when or how he is, nor is he of the things that understand, or of the things that are understood. For he is a substance that cannot be a subject; and a notion that has no subject in any way. In what, therefore, will it know that which is founded, which cannot possibly receive a subject for a notion? Rightly, therefore, is his immensity above substance, and his mind is unthinkable to all thoughts; or rather, the mind [is] not falling under intelligence, and the rationale is ineffable to us, and this on account of the super-position of substance and intelligence.

See the Schol. of St. Maximus and the Paraphr. of Pachymeres on Epistol. 5, tom. II.

LETTER VI. TO SOSIPATER THE PRIEST

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. He persuades Sosipater not to occupy himself so much in refuting false opinions, as in establishing the truth.

^A Do not think it a victory, venerable Sosipater, that you have assailed a religion or opinion which appears to be not good; for even if you should rightly refute it, it does not follow that the affairs of Sosipater are in a good state. For it is possible for you and for others, amidst many false and apparent things, to let that one secret and true thing escape your notice. ^B For just because something is not red, it is not immediately white; nor, if someone is not a horse, is he necessarily a man. Thus, therefore, if you will listen to me, do this: cease speaking against others, but speak in such a way for the truth that what is said cannot be refuted.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS. Mark the most prudent counsel of Dionysius for those who deal with heretics, with whom one must not argue contentiously, because this is of little use, according to that word to Titus 3:9: "Avoid foolish questions and contentions, for they are unprofitable." It is profitable, however, to bring forward and establish the truth, by the knowledge of which errors vanish no otherwise than darkness in the light. See the Schol. of St. Maximus and the Paraphr. of Pachymeres on Epistol. 6, tom. II.

LETTER VII. TO POLYCARP THE BISHOP

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. I. He teaches that one must not deal contentiously against unbelievers, but rather establish the truth, by which establishment the falsehood will collapse of itself. II. He says that the abuse of unbelievers is not to be much cared for, but to be retorted upon themselves. And at the same time he suggests to Polycarp arguments which he ought to use against Apollophanes, especially from the prodigious eclipse which Apollophanes observed together with Dionysius at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. III. He shows from his own confession that he is convicted by this very eclipse.

§ I. ^C Indeed, I do not know that I have ever inveighed against the Gentiles or others, thinking it sufficient for good men if they are able both to recognize the truth itself in its own nature and to declare it as it truly is. For when this—whatever it is—has been rightly demonstrated according to the law of truth, and stands pure, everything that is otherwise, and that lays claim to the truth, will be refuted ^D as being something else than that which truly exists, and as being something rather dissimilar and apparent than truly existing. It is therefore superfluous for him who demonstrates the truth to do battle against these or those; for each man asserts that he himself possesses the royal coin, and perhaps he has some deceitful image of a certain particle of the truth; and if you refute this one, another and then another will contend about the same thing. But

^A If the true doctrine has been rightly established, and remains irrefragable in all other respects, whatever does not entirely conform to it in every way is, by the invincible stability of that which is absolutely true, brought to nothing. This, then, as I believe, having understood well, I have not made it my endeavor to speak against the Greeks or others; but it is enough for me, if God grants me first to think correctly about the truth, and then to speak it as it behooves one to speak.

§ II.

^B You say, however, that I revile the sophist Apollophanes and call him a parricide because I supposedly use the sayings of the Gentiles against them in an insincere manner. Yet we could with more truth object to them, that the Gentiles sacrilegiously abuse divine things against the Divine, while they endeavor to abolish the worship of the divine religion through the very wisdom of God. And I do not here speak of the opinion of the multitude, which, clinging materially and tenaciously to the fictions of the poets, serves the creature rather than the Creator; but even Apollophanes himself makes an impious use of divine things against the Divine; for through this very knowledge of things, which he himself ^C correctly calls philosophy, and which the divine Paul names the wisdom of God, true philosophers ought to be led up to the Author of the things themselves and of that knowledge. And so that I may not appear to be exposing the opinions of others rather than his own, contrary to my intention, Apollophanes ought to have known, wise man that he is, that nothing of the celestial order and motion could ever be changed in any way without the instinct of its Author, from whom it received its being, and by whose power it is preserved, who, according to the testimony of Scripture, perfects and changes all things. Why, therefore, ^D does he not worship Him whom we have also recognized from this to be the true God of all, admiring the admirable power of Him by whom all things subsist? For when the sun and the moon, by a wonderful power and state, together with this whole universe of things, have been brought to an absolute immobility, and have stood in the same signs for the space of an entire day; or, what is more, even when all the primary orbs, which contain the others in their embrace, while revolving in their own way, have not carried around the things contained by them in a single circle; or when another day, in its duration, was made nearly triple the length, and for twenty full hours, the whole universe, in an identically equal space of time, moved in a contrary motion by most wonderful retrogradations, and was brought back again; or when the sun itself, in its course, has performed its five-fold movement...

^A that this movement, contracted to ten hours, should have been found again in a retrograde degree, entering a certain new path for another ten hours; which indeed rightly and deservedly confounded the Babylonians, and without a fight subjected them to Hezekiah as if he were a peer of God or similar, and superior to men. I omit what was magnificently done in Egypt, and certain other signs which were divinely performed elsewhere; I only mention these which are obvious and celestial, and celebrated by all throughout the whole world. But Apollophanes will say that these things are not true at all; yet this is celebrated most of all in the sacred monuments of the Persians, and even now the magi recall the memory of the triple Mithras, or the sun. But let it be permitted to him, whether through ignorance or lack of knowledge, to deny faith to these things; but say to him: What do you think of that eclipse of the sun which happened on the saving cross? ^B For then, both of us being present and standing together near Heliopolis, we saw in a wonderful way the moon coincide with the sun (nor was it the time of conjunction), and the same again, around the ninth hour of the evening, being supernaturally restored to the diameter opposite the sun. Furthermore, recall to his memory something else; for he knows how we saw that encounter of the moon begin from the east, and reach to the extremity of the sun, and then finally rebound, and again, that the encounter and recession did not occur from the same side, but from the opposite side of the diameter. These are the things which then happened entirely above nature, and can be done only by Christ, the creator of all things, who does great and stupendous things of which there is no number.

§ III.

These things, if it is permitted, say to him, and you, Apollophanes, refute them if you can, and that against ^C me, who was then present with you, and together saw and observed everything with admiration. Finally, then, inspired by I know not what spirit, Apollophanes also burst into divination, and turning to me: These, he said, O excellent Dionysius, are the vicissitudes of divine things. Let these things said by us as if by letter be enough. Furthermore, you yourself can supply what is missing, and lead to God a man who is perfect, wise indeed in many things; nor perhaps will he disdain to learn meekly and humbly the truth of our religion, which is more than wise.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS

§ I. Note, this letter was written to Saint Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna in Asia, disciple of Saint John the Evangelist, whose Epistle to the Philippians survives. Therefore, Saint Dionysius prescribes to him the manner of acting towards the philosopher Apollophanes, and suggests arguments by which, as a philosopher, he might be thought most capable of being captured and sweetly induced to embrace the catholic faith.

§ II. By the divine Paul, [Christ] is called the wisdom of God. Namely, 1 Cor. 1:7, where he says: We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, etc.; he calls it wisdom in a mystery, or of the mystery, namely, of that great and secret counsel concerning the redemption of men through Christ. Who according to the testimony of Scripture, Dan. 2:21: Changes times and ages, transfers kingdoms and establishes them.

"Since the sun and moon themselves, etc." This alludes to that passage in Joshua 10:12: *Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day that he delivered up the Amorite before the children of Israel, and he said before them: Sun, stand you still against Gibeon, and Moon against the valley of Aijalon; and the sun and moon stood still, until the nation could avenge themselves upon their enemies.* For a learned and full discussion of this prodigy, see Serarius on the cited passage of Joshua.

"And another day also, etc." This miracle occurred under Hezekiah, king of Judah, as we have it in 4 Kings 20:11: *And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had already gone down on the sundial of Ahaz;* hence, this artificial day became approximately three times as long, since this happened near the sunset, but as Scripture indicates, and indeed when the day was almost finished, when it returned once again by a backward path to the first degree or horary mark of the artificial day, for the same number of hours; and from there it again completed ten hours of the day until the sunset; by which miracle the king of the Babylonians, being struck with awe, desisted from war and sent gifts to Hezekiah, as follows in the cited place in the fourth book of Kings.

"Of the threefold Mithras, or sun, etc." From this it is evident that St. Dionysius was also well versed in the Persian Annals and the histories of the Babylonians, and was not ignorant of their language; since he uses the Persian word *Mithri*, by which the Persians and Babylonians signify the sun (as an old Scholium has it). Strabo lib. xv says this about it: *The Persians, therefore, set up neither statues nor altars, but sacrifice in a high place, regarding the heaven as Zeus. They also honor the sun, whom they call Mithras.* That is: The Persians erect neither statues nor altars, but sacrifice in a high place, considering the heavens to be Jove. Furthermore, they worship the sun, whom they name Mithras. And because the day in the time of Hezekiah was in its delay or duration almost tripled, he says that the Persians celebrated the memory of a triple or tripled sun. That the Persians sacrifice to the sun alone, Herodotus says also, as do many others. That they call the sun Mithras, Herodotus indeed dissents, writing that Venus is so called by the Persians (unless someone thinks *Mizony* and *Mithrn* differ), but very many others agree, among whom is Hesychius: *Mithras, the sun among the Persians. Mithres, the first god among the Persians.*

"We were then both near Heliopolis, etc." He describes here that prodigious eclipse which occurred while Christ was hanging on the cross, which Dionysius had witnessed along with Apollophanes at Heliopolis (which city was in Egypt, long dedicated to the worship of the sun). Phlegon also mentions this, whom Philoponus cites in lib. I *On the Creation of the World*, cap. 21, with these words: *He says, in fact, that in the second year of the two hundred and second Olympiad there occurred the greatest eclipse of the sun, and one unknown before; and night happened at the sixth hour of the day, so that even the stars appeared in the sky.* It happens, in fact, that in the second year of the two hundred and second Olympiad the greatest defect of the sun of all that had ever been known before occurred, and that at the sixth hour of the day it turned to night, so that stars even appeared in the sky. But the evangelists also, whose trustworthiness is far above all history, make mention of this defect. Mark 15:33: *And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,* and Luke 23:44: *And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour; and the sun was darkened.* The holy Dionysius, however, as an eyewitness of this defect and an accurate observer, describes its mode more exactly than the rest, as being a philosopher; which see explained below and illustrated with a diagram in the *Annotations to chapter 1 of the Life of Saint Dionysius* by Peter Halloix.

§ III. "Finally, I know not by what spirit inspired, etc." Having seen the sun's eclipse, Dionysius, still a pagan, is said to have said: "Either the Author of nature is suffering, or the fabric of the world is dissolving." Dionysius here insinuates that Apollophanes also said or thought similar things at that time.

See the *Scholia of St. Maximus and the Paraphrase of Pachymeres on Epistle 7, tom. II.*

EPISTLE VIII. TO DEMOPHILUS THE MONK. On personal conduct and kindness.

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE.

§ I. The histories of the Hebrews relate, O noble ^B Demophilus, that that saint, even Moses, was judged worthy of the vision of God because of his great meekness. And if at any time they record him as enjoying a divine vision, they do not cast him out from the presence of God except for his meekness.

^A For it is said that the Lord was angered with a great wrath against one who was too arrogant and resistant to the divine counsels. ^B Yet when they proclaim him by titles chosen by God, he is proclaimed because of his preeminent imitation of the benevolent God; for he was indeed very meek, and for this reason he is called the servant of God, and accounted more worthy than all the prophets to behold God. But even when certain insolent men contended against him and Aaron regarding the high priesthood and the leadership of the nation, he was superior to all ambition and love of power, and he yielded the leadership of the people to the one chosen by God. And when they had conspired against him, and reproaching him for his past deeds, they threatened him, and were already on the verge of rushing upon him, that meek one called upon the good God for their salvation, and he spoke with great boldness and utter gentleness, that he was blameless of all the evils that had befallen those under his authority; for he knew that he who communes with the good God must, as far as is possible, impress upon himself the greatest possible likeness to Him, and be conscious in himself of benevolent works. And what made the ancestor of God, David, beloved of God? For he was good, and good even toward his enemies: "I have found," says the all-good and lover of goodness, "a man according to my heart." Although a good law had also been given, even to provide for the beasts of an enemy. And Job was justified as one who held fast to innocence. And Joseph did not take vengeance on his treacherous brothers, and Abel simply and without suspicion accompanied his fratricidal brother. And theology proclaims all who are good as those who do not pre-conceive evils, nor feign them, nor even when faced with the malice of others are they turned away from what is good, but on the contrary, in a God-like manner, they even do good to the wicked and shower them with their great goodness, and gently invite them to a similar state.

But let us look up to higher things, passing over the gentleness of holy men and the kindness of angelic friends of man—how they show mercy to nations and offer prayers to the divine goodness on their behalf, and rebuke the destructive and ruinous multitudes, and grieve over evils, but rejoice in the salvation of those who are turned toward good; and all other things which theology hands down concerning the benevolent angels—but let us, with a tranquil mind, receive the beneficent rays of the truly good and super-good Christ, and through them be led clearly to His divine acts of beneficence. For is it not a sign of ineffable and incomprehensible goodness that He brings into being the things that exist, and that He has brought them all forth to exist, and that He always wills for all of them to be like unto Himself, and ^C participants in Him according to the capacity of each? And what ^D of the fact that He also is passionately disposed toward those who have departed from Him, and contends, and longs not to be disdained by those who are His beloved and who are wasting away;

^A furthermore, He sustains those who are fastidious and rash in provoking Him, and He Himself makes excuses for them, and all the more He receives them to heal them; and while they are still distant, He nevertheless runs to meet those who are approaching, and falling upon them, He kisses them with His whole being, and He does not reproach them for their former deeds, but loves their present state, keeps a feast, and calls together His friends, namely the good, so that there may be a dwelling place for all who rejoice.

But Demophilus, or anyone else who is hostile to the good, is justly and deservedly corrected and instructed in what is good, so that he may be improved. For how, He says, was it not fitting that He who is good should rejoice in the salvation of those who had perished, and in the life of those who had been dead? Indeed, He carries upon His shoulders the one who has barely turned from error, and stirs the good angels to joy, and is kind ^B to the ungrateful, and makes His sun rise upon the evil and the good, and lays down His very soul for those who are fleeing from Him. But you, as your letter shows, when he who, as you say, is impious and a sinner fell down before the priest, I do not know how you, being present, kicked him away; and then, while he was begging and confessing that he had come for the healing of his evils, you, fearing nothing, even heaped insults with some insolence upon the good priest, because he had shown mercy to the penitent and had justified the impious; and finally, you said to the priest, "Get out! You have broken in with those like you, against what is permitted, into the inner sanctums and have defiled the Holy of Holies," and you write to us that you have providently saved the holy things that were about to be destroyed, and still keep them undefiled.

Now, therefore, hear our judgment: It is not lawful for a priest to be corrected ^C by ministers more worthy than you, or by monastics of your order, even if he appears impious in divine matters, and even if he is proven to have done some other forbidden thing. For if confusion and lack of order regarding the most divine things is a violation of the canons and laws, there is certainly no reason to subvert, for the sake of God, the order divinely handed down. For God is not divided against Himself; for otherwise how will His kingdom stand? And if God’s is the judgment, as the Scriptures testify, and the priests are angels and heralds, after the hierarchs, of divine judgments, then learn the divine things properly from them, through the intermediate ministers, when it is the right time, through whom you were also deemed worthy to become a monastic.

Or do not the sacred symbols themselves proclaim this? For the Holy of Holies is not set apart from all things simply; rather, the order of the hierophants ^D approaches them more closely, then the arrangement of the priests, and following them, that of the ministers; but for the assigned [theōroi] (attendants), the gates of the inner sanctums are closed off, at which they also perform their functions and stand, not for their protection, but for order and the understanding of themselves

^A. Hence, the holy hierarchy of sacred things initiates them into the divine mysteries, having entrusted the communication of them to others who are more interior to them; for they who always stand symbolically by the divine altar, behold and hear the divine truths clearly revealed to them, and as they proceed benevolently toward those things outside the divine veils, they disclose the holy things—which have been well and immaculately preserved—to the ministers who are subordinate, to the holy people, and to the orders undergoing purification, in accordance with their merit. And yet, you have tyrannically encroached upon them and compelled the Holy of Holies to be displayed to you, though it did not wish it; and you boast that you possess and guard the holy things, although you have neither seen, nor heard, nor possess any of those things that befit priests, just as you have not known the truth of the scriptures, fighting against them daily in words for the ruin of those who hear. If any ^B chieftain were to usurp a position not assigned to him by the king, he would be justly punished. And if, when a ruler is acquitting or condemning someone, any one of the subjects standing by were to dare to reconsider the sentence—not to mention insulting him—would he not appear to be casting himself out of his own authority? Yet you, O man, are so reckless against the meek and good, and against the hierarchical institution of God. And this would need to be said even if someone, while attempting things beyond his merit, still appeared to present plausible reasons—though not even this is permissible for anyone. For what absurd thing did Uzziah do when he offered incense to God ^C? Or Saul when he offered sacrifice? Or the cruel demons when they truly proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of God? But in the theology, everyone who is an alien to the episcopacy is to be cast out; each person shall be in the order of his own ministry, and the high priest alone shall enter into the Holy of Holies, and that but once a year, and this with all the hierarchical purity prescribed by the law. The priests guard the holy things, and the Levites shall not touch the holy things, lest they die. The Lord was angered with fury at the rashness of Uzziah, and Miriam became leprous ^D because she presumed to lay down the law for the Lawgiver; and the demons set upon the sons of Sceva, and, "I did not send them," He said, "and yet they ran; and I did not speak to them, and yet they prophesied," and, "The wicked man who offers Me a calf is as one who kills a dog." And to speak simply, the all-complete justice of God does not tolerate the lawless, even when they say, "In Your name we performed many mighty works," for He answers, "I do not know you; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity." Thus, it is not righteous, as the holy oracles say, to pursue even just things in an unworthy manner.

^A It is necessary for each one to pay attention to himself, and not to contemplate higher and deeper things, but to think only on those things which have been assigned to him according to his worthiness.

§ II.

What then, you say, ought not priests who are detected doing something impudently or wrongly to be corrected? Shall it be permitted only to those who boast in the law to dishonor God through the transgression of the law? And how are priests interpreters of God? For in what way do they announce to the people the divine virtues, not knowing their power? Or how will those who are darkened illuminate others? How will they impart the divine Spirit, not having believed that the Holy Spirit exists ^B or in the truth? To these things I myself shall answer you: Demophilus is not the enemy, nor will I suffer you to be outwitted by Satan. For every order of those who occupy themselves with God is more godlike than that which is further removed; and those things are simultaneously more luminous and more enlightening which approach nearer to the true light. Do not, however, conceive of this proximity in terms of place, but in terms of the capacity to receive God. If, therefore, the order of priests has the power of illuminating, then someone who lacks the power of illuminating is utterly at variance with the priestly order and faculty—and how much more so one who is himself unilluminated? To me, indeed, such a person appears too rash if he lays claim to priestly ^C functions, and is restrained by neither fear nor shame from pursuing divine things beyond his worthiness, thinking that God is ignorant of what he himself is conscious of, and imagining that he can deceive God, whom he falsely calls Father by name, and dares to utter his wicked blasphemies (for I would not call them prayers) over the divine symbols in a Christ-like manner. This person is not a priest; he is not, but is a malevolent enemy, a deceiver of himself, and a wolf armed with a sheepskin against the divine flock.

§ III.

But it is not lawful for Demophilus to correct these things. For if the divine word commands that just things be pursued justly (and to pursue justly is to render to each what is his own according to merit), then that ^D which is just must be pursued by all, but not beyond their own worthiness or order; for it is just that offices be distributed to the angels according to their merits, and be defined, yet not by us, O Demophilus, but through them to us from God, and to them through the superior angels. And to speak simply, in all things

ordered by the most orderly and most just providence of all, those things which are right are distributed to the second by the first, so that clearly those who have been appointed by God to lead others—the ^A rulers—may also distribute things according to merit to their own subordinates. Therefore, let Demophilus set a limit to his discourse, his rage, and his desire, as is fitting, and let him not violate the order, but let the superior reason hold sway over the inferiors. For if, when we see in the forum a servant cursing his master, or a young man an elder, or even a son his father, and at the same time rushing to inflict blows, we seem to be violating piety if we do not hasten to run and bring aid to the superiors, however much injury they might perhaps have inflicted upon the others beforehand; why then do we not blush, we who see reason violated by rage and desire, and cast down from the office divinely entrusted to it, and who neglect this, and within ^B ourselves stir up an impious and unjust rashness, and sedition, and confusion? Deservedly, indeed, our blessed divine lawgiver does not deem him worthy to preside over the Church of God who has not already presided well over his own house; for he who has ordered himself, will also order another; and he who orders another, his house; and he who orders his house, also the city; and he who orders the city, also the nation; and to speak briefly, as the oracles say, he who is faithful in a little, will be faithful also in much; and he who is unfaithful in a little, will be unfaithful also in much.

§ IV. Therefore, let him set the merits to each according to desire, rage, and reason, as is fitting; but to you, the divine ministers, and to these the priests, and the hierarchs to the priests, and the apostles and the successors of the apostles to the hierarchs. And if perhaps any of them should fall away from what is proper, he shall be corrected ^C by the holy men of his own order, and rank will not be turned against rank, but each shall remain in his own order and in his own service. These things have been said to you by us, that you may both know and do what pertains to your duty. But concerning the inhumanity toward the man who is, as you say, impious and lost, I do not know with what tears I shall lament the ruin of my beloved; for whom do you think you have been appointed by us to be a healer? For if you are not a servant of the Good, it is necessary that you be altogether a stranger both to us and to the whole of our healing ministry, and it is time for you to seek out a God and other priests, and with them to be turned into a beast rather than be initiated, and to be an implacable minister ^D of a cruelty that is dear to you. For are we ourselves made perfect in the entirely Holy One, and do we not need divine benevolence for ourselves? Or do we commit the double sin, as the oracles say, after the manner of the impious, not knowing in what we offend, but even justifying ourselves, and thinking that we see, while in truth we do not see? Heaven was astonished at this, and I shuddered, and...

I scarcely trust myself. And if I had not read your letters—would that I had never seen them!—no one certainly could have persuaded me by any arguments that Demophilus imagines that the God who is good over all is not also a lover of mankind, or that he himself has no need of the grace of him who shows mercy or saves. Nay, he even degrades the priests who, in their kindness, have deigned to bear with the ignorances of the people, well knowing that they themselves are encompassed with infirmity. But that divine and chief priest ^A has walked another way, and he, as the sacred oracles testify, being separated from sinners, set forth this most excellent proof of his love towards him: that we should pasture his sheep with the utmost gentleness. He calls him wicked who did not forgive his fellow-servant the debt, and who did not at least permit himself to share in the very abundant kindness granted to him; and he commands him to be satisfied with what is his own—a thing which I ^B must needs fear also for Demophilus. For Christ, even at the time of his passion, was praying to the Father for his own murderers, and he rebuked his disciples because they had asked that the Samaritans who were persecuting him should be cruelly condemned for impiety. This is what is repeated a thousand times in your bold letter, for you prate up and down that you did not avenge yourself, but God. Tell me, do you avenge through malice him who is supremely good?

§ V. Far be it; we do not have a high priest unable to sympathize ^C with our infirmities, but he is innocent and merciful. He shall not strive, nor shall he cry out; but he is himself meek, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. We shall by no means, therefore, approve of your uncouth zeal, even if you were to cite Phinehas and Elijah a thousand times; for these things did not please Jesus when he heard them from his disciples, who were not yet partakers of his meek and good spirit. For even our most divine Teacher, in his meekness, instructs those who oppose the teaching of God ^D; for the ignorant ought to be instructed, not punished, just as we do not torment the blind, but lead them by the hand. But you, on the contrary, struck a man who was just beginning to breathe into the light, and you rashly repelled him who was approaching with the greatest reverence—a man whom Christ, because he is good, seeks out as he wanders and flees upon the mountains, and, having found him, with difficulty lifts him upon his shoulders. Do not, I beseech you, let us take such bad counsel for ourselves, nor...

^A press the sword against ourselves. For those who endeavor to injure or, on the contrary, to benefit others, do not in every case accomplish what they desired, yet they bring upon themselves either malice, according to their own purpose, or goodness, and thus they will be filled either with divine virtues or with untamable passions. And these indeed, as followers and fellow-travelers of the good angels, both here and there, with all peace and freedom from all evils, will inherit the most blessed lots in the age that is to come; and they will ever be with God, which is the greatest of all good things. But those others will fall away from the divine and their own peace, and will be with those fierce demons, both here and after death. For this reason, we have great zeal to be with God, who is good, and to be with the Lord always, and not to be separated from the just One by our evils, ^B suffering instead what is deserved according to our own actions—something I fear more than anything else and pray to be free from all evil. And if you wish, I shall also mention a divine vision of a certain holy man; and do not laugh, for I shall speak the truth.

§ VI.

Once when I was in Crete, the holy ^C Carpus received me into his hospitality, a man who, if any other, was most apt for the contemplation of God due to the great purity of his mind. Indeed, he would not even undertake the holy celebrations of the mysteries without first having some sacred and propitious vision appear to him during the preparatory holy prayers. He related, therefore, that he had once been grieved by a certain infidel. The cause of his grief was that the man had led someone from the Church into the error of infidelity, while the days of celebration that take their name from cheerfulness were still being observed. He thought that, for the sake of both, one ought to have prayed in a manner becoming the good, and, taking God the Savior as a helper, to have converted the one and overcome the other with goodness, and not to cease from admonishing them throughout one's whole life, until the present day, and thus to lead them to the divine knowledge, so that finally, even for them, those things which seemed ambiguous and obscure might be revealed, and they might be compelled to repent by the legitimate truth for the things they had rashly committed against reason. But I do not know how it happened ^D that, since that had never happened to him before, he then fell asleep having conceived a great ill-will and bitterness (for it was evening). But around midnight (for he was accustomed to wake up at this time for the divine hymns himself), he rises—not fully from his sleep, though it was much, and always being interrupted, and sharing in the lack of peace—but standing, nevertheless, for the divine colloquy, he was not religiously troubled, and he was heavy-hearted, saying that it was unjust if godless men, who also distort the straight paths of the Lord, were to live. And these...

things saying, he besought God that He would pitilessly cut short the lives of both at once with some thunderbolt. ^A Having said these things, he reported that he suddenly seemed to see the house in which he was standing first shaken from the top of the roof and divided in two, and a certain pyre of immense light before him—and this (for the place now seemed to be under the open sky) he seemed to see descending from the heavenly space down to him—and heaven itself opened, and on the vault of heaven Jesus, with countless angels standing by him in human form. And these things, he said, were seen from above, and he was struck with wonder. But looking down, Carpus related that he saw the very floor split open into a vast and dark chasm, and those men whom he was cursing standing before him at the mouth of the chasm, trembling and miserable, as if they were just about to slide down because of the instability of their feet. From below, from the chasm, he descried serpents creeping up, and winding about their feet, sometimes dragging them away, twisting around them at the same time and burdening them, and pulling them back, and sometimes stinging or tickling them with their teeth or tails, and in every way striving to cast them into the abyss. There were also certain men in the midst, who were launching an assault against them ^B together with the serpents, agitating them at the same time and pushing and striking them; and those men appeared to be approaching a fall, partly against their will, and partly of their own accord, being thus gradually compelled and simultaneously persuaded by evil. Carpus reported that while he was looking at the things below, he was delighted, neglecting the things above; and that he was gravely and indignantly annoyed that they had not yet fallen, and that having often in vain applied himself to this matter, he was angry at them and cursed them. But having with difficulty turned his gaze upward, he saw again the heaven, as he had seen it before, and Jesus, having taken pity on what was happening, risen from the supercelestial throne, and having descended to them, and stretching out a kind hand, and the angels assisting Him, taking hold of the men on this side and that, and Jesus saying to Carpus: "The hand being now stretched out, strike Me from here out; for I am ready to suffer again on behalf of men being saved, and this is pleasing to me, that others should not sin. But consider whether it is profitable for thee to change this dwelling of such a kind in the chasm and with the snakes for that with ^C God and the good and philanthropic angels." These are the things which, when I heard them, I believe to be true. ^D

^A Furthermore, "When he was against him and Aaron," etc. He is dealing here with the rebellion of Core, Dathan, and Abiron, which is described in Numbers chapter sixteen. However, that Dionysius says that Moses attested that he was guiltless of all the calamities that had happened to his subjects is not read in Scripture; wherefore it is likely that he drew this from certain secret books of theMosaic law, which were preserved among the priests.

"But what of David," etc. Examples of the gentleness of David are obvious in the first book of Kings, especially in chapter twenty-four, where, though Saul was seeking him for death and had now been delivered into his hands, he did no harm to him, but held back his hand from him. Because of which gentleness he was called a man according to the heart of God (1 Kings xiii, 13; Ps. lxxxviii, 21; Acts xiii, 22).

"Furthermore it was ordained." Namely, Exodus xxiii, 4: "If you meet your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering, you shall bring it back to him," etc. But concerning Job, see his book throughout, a living example of true patience and gentleness. For the history of Joseph, and his patience and gentleness, see Genesis xxxvii; and concerning Abel, Genesis iv. Furthermore, examples of the kindness of the angels exist in the book of the *Celestial Hierarchy*, chapters 5, 6, 7, and elsewhere throughout; but the Gospel is full of the kindness of Christ. He alludes here most especially to the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv), and to the precept regarding the loving of enemies (Matt. v, 44).

"But you, approaching the priest," etc. Hence it can be gathered that a wholesome and religious discipline of humble accusations and confessions had been practiced by Christians from the times of the apostles, for the raising up of those falling, and the justification of sinners.

"And if the judgment is God’s." According to that passage of Isaiah xxx, 18: "The Lord is a God of judgment." And Paul to the Romans ii, 2: "For we know that the judgment of God is."

"Priests, however, are angels." Malachi ii, 7: "For the lips of the priest keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth, for he is the Angel of the Lord of hosts." See regarding this matter chapter 12 of the *Celestial Hierarchy*.

"But regarding the monks who have been ordered," etc. For the rite of monastic consecration, and in what rank the monks of the Church are to be held, see above in the book *On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, chapter 6, and in the same place our annotations, and the scholia of Saint Maximus.

"What absurdity did Ozias commit?" He alludes to chapter xxvi, 19, of the second book of Paralipomenon, where it is read that Ozias was stricken with leprosy. Concerning the proud presumption of Saul, it is found in 1 Kings xiii, 14, on account of which he was rejected by God. Concerning the demons preaching Jesus, it is read in Mark iii, 11.

"And the high priest alone shall enter once a year into the Holy of holies." This is found in Leviticus chapter xvi, 2, where his office is also described; as is that of the priests and Levites in Numbers chapter iv. Maria, the sister of Moses, is stricken with leprosy (Num. chapter xii, 10). Concerning the sons of Sceva, the ancient scholium holds that because they did not have the power to lay on hands, but rashly abused exorcisms and incantations, demons immediately invaded them.

^B § II. Every order of those dwelling around God is more God-like in proportion as it is more distant. The same is taught in chapter 7 of the *Celestial Hierarchy*, § 2, where he gathers the God-likeness and dignity of the first hierarchy from its proximity to God and its more immediate illumination. And in chapter 4, he says that those natures are closest to the divinity which have participated in it in a manifold way.

"If, therefore, the order of priests has the power of illuminating." See chapter 5 of the *Ecclesiastical Hierarchy*, part 1, §§ 5, 6, and 7, where it is demonstrated that the order of pontiffs has the power of perfecting and does in fact perfect; that the priests, however, have the power of illuminating and do illuminate; and the ministers, or deacons, possess the faculty of purifying and discerning.

§ III. "For the divine word bids us follow justly what is just." He alludes to Deuteronomy chapter xvi, 20, where it is said: "That which is just, you shall pursue," to which passage Simeon, in the *Catena of 65 Greek Fathers on Luke*, ch. i, n. 7: "For good, he speaks, is not good, if it is not done well."

"Rightly, indeed, does our divine lawgiver," etc. He understands Saint Paul, writing to Timothy, 1 Epist., chapter iii, 2, where he describes the conditions of a bishop, saying: "It behooves a bishop to be irreproachable," etc.

§ IV. "Or we delinquency like the impious in a double sin." He alludes to Jeremiah chapter ii, 13: "My people have done two evils," etc., and v. 35: "And you have said, 'I am without sin, and innocent I am, and therefore let your fury be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: I have not sinned.'"

"If we feed his sheep with most gentle government." He alludes to John chapter xxi, 15, where Christ explores Peter’s love through a triple interrogation, and to each of his responses he adds: "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep."

"And he calls him wicked," etc. See this parable about the fellow servant in Saint Matthew chapter xviii, 23. But that Christ prayed for his slayers, Saint Luke recounts in chapter xxiii, 34. Who also, in chapter ix, 55, writes that Christ rebuked his disciples when they wished the Samaritans to be destroyed because they would not receive Christ.

§ V. "We do not have a high priest," etc. This is from the Apostle to the Hebrews iv, 15 (recte 16), where he exhorts them to the confidence of obtaining mercy. That phrase, however, "He will not contend nor cry out," is from Matthew xii, 19, from the passage in Isaiah xlii, 2. But that statement, "He is the propitiation for our sins," is from the 1st Epistle of John chapter ii, 2.

"Even if you should cite Phinehas and Elias a thousand times." Regarding the zeal of Phinehas, it is in Numbers chapter xxv, 7. Regarding Elias, it is read in 3 Kings xviii, 40, that he ordered four hundred and fifty vain priests to be killed; and the book of Maccabees, chapter ii, 54, says of both: "Phinehas our father, in being zealous for the zeal of God, received the testament of an everlasting priesthood"; v. 58: "Elias, while he is zealous for the zeal of the law, was received into heaven." But Saint Paul, the teacher of Dionysius, as a doctor of the New Testament, which is founded in the law of charity, says in 2 to Timothy, ii, 24: "For the servant of the Lord, he says, must not litigate, but be gentle toward all, teachable, patient, with modesty correcting those who resist the truth."

§ VI. "When I had come at one time to Crete, Saint Carpus," etc. This is Carpus, of whom Blessed Paul makes mention in the 2nd Epistle to Timothy, chapter iv, 13, saying: "The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring with you, and the books, especially the parchments."

"For the sacred rites of the mysteries," etc. Where note that formerly, before the priests betook themselves to the altar, they were accustomed to employ certain preparatory prayers with a certain pious rite, which were called *proteleis*; where the interpreter Pachymeres thinks that this word was derived from the ancient custom. For "proteleis," he says, the Athenians called those prayers which preceded nuptials along with the sacrificial offerings. For they called *telos* the *gamos*, that is, the marriage. Now, therefore, since the host is to be offered, than which nothing greater or holier can be conceived, and which ought to lead the bridegroom to the good and singular happiness of souls; such *proteleis* would indeed be opportune, and some prayers by which the priests might prepare themselves for sacrificing.

"And when the celebration, which took its name from hilarity." The ancients called the *Hilaria* the day on which they celebrated the vernal equinox, as Macrobius says, namely, the eighth day before the Kalends of April, on which the vernal equinox occurs, during which

to the divine hymns, they used to keep ^A sacred vigils, starting from midnight.

EPISTLE IX

TO TITUS THE HIERARCH

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE

§ I. The holy Timothy, most excellent Titus, I do not know if he has failed to hear any of the theological symbols that I have handed down to him; for in the *Symbolic Theology* we have distinctly explained to him everything that, in the wondrous oracles, seems to the many to be monstrous talk regarding God. For in truth, they impress a grave appearance of absurdity upon the souls of the more inexperienced, whenever the fathers of the hidden wisdom—by means of certain secret and daring riddles—reveal the divine and mystical truth that is inaccessible to the profane. Therefore, we the many even disbelieve the words concerning divine mysteries; for we see them only through the sensible symbols that cling to them. But one ought to strip them off, and see them [as] naked and pure in themselves; for in this way, when we contemplate [them], we shall revere the fountain of life as being poured into itself and standing in itself, seeing it ^C as a certain single power—simple, self-moving, self-acting, not departing from itself but existing as the notion of all notions, and always contemplating itself through itself. Hence, we judged it right both for him and for others that we should unfold, as far as was possible, the all-various forms of that symbolic holy-fashioning which pertains to God; for how full of unbelievable and feigned monstrosity are its exteriors! As, for example, when in the suprasubstantial generation of God, it paints a womb bodily bringing forth God, and a man’s heart belching forth a word into the air, and a spirit being breathed forth from the mouth, and the God-bearing bosoms of the Son…

as they are hymned to us in a manner befitting the body, or as it fashions these in a natural manner—proposing certain trees, and shoots, and flowers, and roots; or fountains of water gushing forth; or light-producing, procession-leading splendors; or some other sacred writings capable of explaining ^A supernatural theologies. And in the case of the intelligible providences of God, or gifts, or manifestations, or powers, or properties, or abidings, or processions, or distinctions, or unions, it creates for God a human form and the multiformity of wild beasts and other animals and plants and stones; and it puts upon Him those of women, or barbarian armaments; and ascribes the potter’s art and the melting-furnace to Him, as if to some manual laborer; and places under Him horses, and chariots, and thrones; and prepares for Him feasts ^B of delicacies, and fashions Him as drinking, and drunk, and sleeping, and suffering the effects of wine. And what is one to say of His angers, His sorrows, His various kinds of oaths, His repentances, His curses, His wrath, and the manifold and crooked sophistries of the promises of sin; the battle with the giants in Genesis, in which God is said to have laid a snare from fear of those powerful men, and that building, which they devised not to injure others but to save themselves; and that council in heaven fashioned for the deceit and trickery 33 of Ahab; and those fleshly and harlot-like enticements of the Canticles [m], and all the other sacred signs which all-daring formation ^C creates in God, covering the hidden things with multiplied and varied symbols, and bringing manifold and multiform things upon the simple and indivisible, the formless and shapeless things—of which, if anyone be able to behold the beauty concealed within, he will find all things mystical and God-like, and filled with much theological light. For let us not think that these manifest symbols were fabricated for their own sake, but rather that they were set forth for the sake of the ineffable knowledge which is invisible to the many 34, so that the all-holy things may not be easily accessible to the profane; but rather that they are revealed only to the genuine lovers 35 of holiness, ^D as those who have cast away all childish imagination concerning the sacred symbols, and who are capable, through simplicity of mind and the aptitude of contemplative power, of passing through to the simple, and supernatural, and transcendent truth of the symbols. Furthermore, it must be understood that there is a twofold tradition among theologians: one is hidden and mystical, the other is manifest and more recognizable; the one is symbolic and initiatory, the other is philosophical and demonstrative. The ineffable is interwoven with the stated. And the one persuades, and confirms the truth of what is said, while the other acts and establishes [the soul] in God by means of those unteachable initiations. And indeed, not even according to the most holy...

mysteries did the holy masters of our own or the Mosaic discipline abstain from symbols conformable to God; rather, we see the angels, full of all holiness, mystically proclaiming divine things through riddles, and Jesus himself discoursing on divine matters in parables, and delivering the deifying sacraments through the typical arrangement of a table. For it was fitting that not only should the Holy of Holies be kept undefiled from the ^A many, but also that human life itself, which is at once indivisible and divisible, should appropriately receive for itself the light of divine knowledge; and that the part of the soul which is free from the necessity of suffering should be destined to contemplate the simple and innermost sights of godlike images, while that part which is subject to passions should, as is fitting for its nature, be healed and at the same time, through typical symbols, be skillfully led and extended toward the most divine things, as such veils are kindred to it, and, as they declare, even those who, having heard the open theology without wrappings, fashion within themselves a certain type that guides them to the understanding of the aforementioned theology.

§ II.

Indeed, even the very fabric of the visible world has been spread over the invisible things of God, just as Paul and true reason attest. For this reason, theologians consider some things in a civil and legal manner, but others purely and undefiledly; and the former in a human and intermediate way, but the latter in a supramundane and perfect way. And sometimes they do so from apparent laws, ^{B C} and sometimes from occult oracles, according to what is appropriate to the sacred matters at hand and to the minds and souls [of the hearers]; for the whole discourse set before them contains not some meager history, but a life-giving perfection. Wherefore it behooves us, having omitted the popular opinion concerning these things, to penetrate the sacred signs themselves, as is fitting, in a sacred manner, and not to dishonor them, since they are native and express likenesses of divine things, and indeed clear images of arcane and supernatural spectacles. For not only are the supersubstantial and intellectual [lights], and simply divine lights, variegated with figurative symbols, as when the supersubstantial God is called fire, and the oracles of God that are perceived by the intellect are called fiery, but furthermore, the divine orders of the angels, which are at once intellectual and intelligent, are depicted with various forms and manifold species and fiery figures. And it is necessary to take this same image of fire differently when it is said of God, who transcends understanding; differently when it is said of His providences, ^D which we perceive by intelligence, or of His utterances; and differently when it is said of the angels. And one must define that image of fire said of God according to cause, and the other according to subsistence, and the other according to participation, and other things in other ways, as the very contemplation of them and the scientific arrangement determines. And let it not be the case that the sacred symbols are united together

^A fortuitously or rashly, but rather let them be explained appropriately according to causes, or existences, or powers, or orders, or dignities, which all things reveal through signs. Furthermore, that we may not exceed the measure of this letter, let us come now to the very question proposed by us. We say, therefore, that every food has the power of perfecting those whom it nourishes, while it fills up their imperfection and need, and heals their weakness, and preserves their life, and makes them flourish again and renews them, and imparts to them a vital affection, and simply drives away sadness and imperfection, and brings about joy and perfection.

§ III. Wherefore, rightly is the more than wise and benignant Wisdom extolled ^B in the divine oracles, establishing a mystic mixing bowl, and pouring out its sacred drink, but first setting forth solid foods, and with a high proclamation benevolently inviting all who are in need of it. Divine wisdom therefore sets forth a twofold food, the one solid and lasting, the other liquid and flowing, and in the mixing bowl it distributes its providential goodnesses. The mixing bowl, then, being round and open, let it be a symbol of the general providence which is without beginning and without end, and which contains and penetrates all things. But since ^C, while advancing to all things, it remains in itself and stands in an immovable identity, formed by a thoroughly unchangeable nature, the mixing bowl also remained constantly unmoved. Wisdom is said to build a house for itself, in which it sets forth the solid foods, and the drinks, and the mixing bowl, that it may be clear to those who rightly engage in divine things that He whose providence it is, is the perfect Cause, that all things should exist and be well, and that He reaches to all things, and exists in all, and contains all things, and yet again this same One, ^D while being excellently in Himself, is in no way in any thing, in any part, but is separated from all, while in Himself He is in the same and eternal manner, and persists and remains, and is always the same and continues in the same way, and in no way departs from Himself, nor leaves His own seat and immovable rest and hearth, but also in it performs all the perfect works of His providence, and goes forth to all, and remains in Himself; and always insists and is moved; and neither insists nor is moved; but as one might say, as the One who possesses the actions of His providence in perseverance, and perseverance in providence, connaturaliter, at once and above nature.

§ IV. But what is the solid food, and what is the liquid? For these things the benignant Wisdom [grants and provides]

—to speak of the solid food, I believe it to be the symbol of that intelligible and abiding perfection and identity, by which divine things are participated in by those intellectual senses, according to a stable, mighty, unified, and indivisible knowledge; those senses to which the most divine Paul, having received them from Wisdom, imparts the truly solid food. And [I believe] the liquid [food] to be the symbol of that effusion which is at once diffusive and hastening to reach out to all things, and furthermore, through various, manifold, and divisible means, leading by the hand those who are nourished toward simple and untrembling knowledge of God, by a goodness appropriate to them. For this reason, the divine and intelligible oracles are likened to dew and water, and to milk, and wine, and honey, because they have the power to vivify and render fruitful as in water, to lead to increase as in milk, to recreate as in wine, and both to purge and preserve as in honey. For this is what divine Wisdom bestows upon those who approach her, granting and superabundantly pouring forth an effusion of abundant and unfailing banquets. This is indeed truly to feast; and on this account it is celebrated as vivifying, as nourishing the little ones, as renewing, and as perfecting. ^B

§ V. According to this sacred exposition of the banquet, even God himself, the author of all good things, is said to be inebriated, on account of the most full and—to exceed all intelligence—divine feasting, or, more properly speaking, the most perfect and ineffable immensity of the good disposition of God. For just as with us drunkenness is taken in a worse sense, being an immoderate repletion by which we are deprived of mind and sense; so, if drunkenness be understood in a better sense in regard to God, it is to be understood as nothing other than the most full immensity of all good things, which, while it emanates, pre-exists in Him according to [the mode of] cause. ^C Indeed, even the excess of sense which accompanies drunkenness must be understood as that pre-eminence of God which surpasses all sense, through which He is separated from the faculty of understanding, since He is above that which understands and is understood, and indeed above being itself. And when God is simply said to be inebriated with all the good things that are, and to exceed all things—inasmuch as He, by the pre-eminence of His whole immensity, is more than full, and dwells on high, outside all things and above all things—induced by these modes of speech, we shall interpret in the same way the banquets of the saints in the kingdom of God. For, He says, the King himself will pass, and will cause them to recline, ^D and will serve them; which things indeed declare a certain common and concordant participation of the saints in the divine goods, and the Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and the spirits of the just perfected in all good things, and filled with all good things. And we think of this reclining as a rest, [as]

a life free from harm, and a divine mode of life in the light and in the land of the living, filled with every holy pleasure; and as an abundant supply of all manner of blessed goods, by which they are filled with every joy, as Jesus himself gladdens them, and makes them recline, and ministers to them, and confers upon them eternal rest, and distributes and provides for them the fulfillment of good things. ^B § VI. ^C You will also seek, I am well aware, to have the celebrated sleep and wakefulness of God explained; and when we say that a divine sleep is that which in God is hidden and incommunicable to things governed by Providence, and that wakefulness is His attention to those who stand in need of instruction or salvation, you will [then] pass on to other theological symbols. Therefore, thinking it superfluous to keep repeating the same things to the same people, as if intending to say something different, and at the same time knowing that you are readily persuaded by what is good, we end the letter here, having presented, as I think, more than I needed to in my writing to you. We are sending you our entire Symbolic Theology, in which you will find, together with the house of Wisdom, the seven pillars explained, and its solid food, divided into sacrifices and loaves; and what is the mixing of the wine, and again, what is the drunken spree proceeding from the intoxication of God; and even the very things we have now mentioned are set forth there more thoroughly. And it is, as I think, a good discoverer of all symbolic theologies, and one consistent with the holy traditions and truths of the Oracles.

ANNOTATIONS OF CORDERIUS. § I. Pachymeres notes that this Titus is the same one to whom the holy apostle Paul wrote a letter, whom he had appointed bishop of Crete. He shows that symbols generate absurd images for the unlearned. Thus also St. Basil the Great says: "He who does not ascend to higher notions from words, but remains fixed on the very delineations of bodies made by the composition of words, will hear from Moses that God is fire, and will be twisted toward other opinions by the wise Daniel; and so it will come to pass that he collects not only false cognitions, but ones that are repugnant to one another from those very things." For, says Dionysius, are not its exteriors (that is, symbolic theology) full of unbelievable and invented monsters? Such is the "womb of God" (Ps. CIX, 3): "Out of the womb before the day-star I have begotten thee." "The heart of man belching" (Ps. XLIV, 1): "My heart hath uttered a good word." "Spirit breathing from the mouth" (Ps. XXXII, 6): "By the word of his mouth all their power." The "bosom of God" (John I, 18): "The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." In these things is, as it seems to me, the mystical theology of the generation of the Son from the substance of the Father as if from a womb and bosom; and of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son, as if from the mouth of the Father, and consequently of the procession from the Father and the Son. It is called, and is, mystical because it is covered either by the figuration of a thing or the translation of a word. And trees (Prov. III, 18): "The tree of life, etc.," and (Apoc. II, 7): "To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree." And shoots (Gen. XLIX, 22): "From the sprout, my son, thou hast ascended." (Isa. LIII, 2): "He shall grow up as a tender plant." And flowers and roots (Isa. XI, 1): "A rod shall come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower, etc." Fountains (Jer. II, 13): "They have forsaken the fountain of living water"; and (Ps. XXXV, 10): "With thee is the fountain of life." Splendors, as in Paul (Heb. I, 3), concerning the Son: "Who being the splendor of glory." Of God's providence (Deut. XXXII, 11): "As an eagle provoking its young to fly, etc.," and (Exodus XIX, 4): "As I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, etc." That also pertains to providence, namely, to punish the impious (Osee XIII, 8): "I will meet them as a bear that has lost her cubs, etc." His gifts (Ps. CXLIV, 16): "Thou openest thy hand, etc." Offenses, as when in the ...

^A figure of man He appeared to the ancients, as in Gen., ch. 17, and in the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit. Or powers, as eyes which have the power of seeing so that nothing in good or evil may lie hidden (Ps. XXXIII, 16): "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just." Feet, which have the power of walking, to bring aid or to punish (Gen. III, 8): "And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise." Similarly regarding the names of other parts of the body. Or properties, as in the prophet Amos ch. 6, God is called adamant, which signifies that God cannot suffer, nor be tamed. And fire (Deut. 4), because it has the power of consuming evil habits. Or a state, which signifies that the nature of God is immutable. Or dwellings, which signify His immobility. Both are signified by the foundation stone (Isa. 28). Or emanations, which signify the communication of divine goodness, which is mystically signified when God is called lily and flower, on account of the communication of scent, as Cant. 2, 1: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys." Or secretions. What, saith the Apostle (II Cor. 6, 14), is the participation of justice with iniquity? or what society of light with darkness? or what convent of Christ with Belial? This secretion or separation which God makes, Scripture mystically signifies, when in it fire is also mentioned: for this property belongs to fire, to be discrete, for it separates lead from silver, and ash from coal. Unions, that God unites creatures with Himself, and turns them to Himself, is mystically signified when God is called the cornerstone (Ephes. 2), the form of a man, as: "The Ancient of days sat" (Dan. 7, 9). Indeed, the various figures of wild beasts, such as the lion, lioness, leopard, bear (Osee 13), and of other animals, as John 1, 32: "I saw descending as if a dove"; and of plants (Isa. 53, 2): "He shall grow up as a tender plant"; and John 15, 1: "I am the true vine." Nay, even feminine ornaments, such as in Isaias, ch. 3, and Ezechiel 16, by which is described every manner of divine Providence, by which God hedged in His people, and by which He laid them bare; and that (Ps. 44, 10): "In gilded clothing, surrounded with variety, etc."; and of barbaric armor (Ps. 44, 4): "Gird thyself with thy sword." Pottery and smelting signify these things mystically in God: the providence reforming and reshaping, or the power and faculty of separating and purging (Isa. 29, 64; Jer. 9; Malach. 2). Horses. The horses of God signify mystically in the prayer of Habacuc 3, the holy apostles: "Who shall ascend upon thy horses, and thy chariots are salvation." Horses, saith Cyril in that place, are the apostles and evangelists in all ways subject to the divine will, and obedient to the reins, swift and prompt for every duty, having Christ as their charioteer, of whom was one Paul, of whom Christ Himself saith (Acts 9, 15): "He is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before the nations." And "thy riding is salvation." For they ran, not in vain, but that they might save ^B cities and regions. Thus far Cyril. Chariots are the angels, whom Scripture figures in the manner of a chariot, on account of the communion of orders which are of the same hierarchy, as the same Dionysius says in the last chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy. Ps. 67, 18: "The chariot of God is ten thousand fold, thousands of them that rejoice." Seats, by these is signified the judgment of God (Dan. 7). Banquets (Luke 15), as when the calf is killed at the return of the prodigal son, and Luke 22, 30: "That you may eat and drink at my table, etc." Sleep and drunkenness (Ps. 77, 65): "The Lord was awakened as one asleep, as a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine." Wraths (Exodi 15, 7): "Thou hast sent thy wrath, etc."; and Ps. 6, 1: "Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, etc." Sorrows (Judic. 10, 16): "He was grieved upon their miseries." Various oaths (Gen. 22, 16): "By my own self have I sworn, etc."; and Isa. 45; Ps. 95, 11: "I swore in my wrath"; Ezech. 18, 1: "As I live, saith the Lord, etc." Jer. 44, 26: "I have sworn by my great name." Penitence (Gen. 6, 6): "It repented Him that He had made man," and concerning Saul (I Reg. 15). Curses (Malach. 2, 2): "I will curse your blessings"; Habac. 2, 14: "I have cursed his scepters." Inveterate wrath (Jer. 44, 21): "The Lord has remembered these things, etc."; and Exod. 20, 5: "I am the Lord thy God, strong, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, etc."; Gen. 42, 22: "Behold his blood is required." As if keeping wrath until that time. Multiplied and oblique reasons for frustrating promises. He calls these "frustrations of promises" here, when those things which were promised are not seen to be brought to an issue, as far as the sense appears. Yet they are according to the perfect intelligence of the spirit, as that which was promised to Jacob (Gen. 27, 29): "Be thou lord of thy brethren," was fulfilled in Christ from his seed; just as the promises made to Abraham concerning the possession of the land, and the blessing of the nations, and those made to David and Solomon concerning the perpetuity of the kingdom. He calls such reasons for frustrating promises "oblique," therefore, because they were not referred directly to those who seem frustrated; but to Christ, of whom they themselves were figures. About the fight with the giants, God is called "insidious," that is, to have taken counsel against them, as if He feared, that He might teach us thus, that although we are injured, and are more powerful, we should nevertheless use mutual apologies, and excuse ourselves before those who inflict injuries upon us. Behold, He says (Gen. 11, 6): "The people is one, and all have one tongue; and they have begun to do this, neither will they desist from their cogitations ^C until they complete them by deed. Come ye, therefore, let us descend, and there confound their language," that is, let no one complain that I make this division, for because they did not rightly use harmony (*homophonia*), that is, one speech, it is necessary to make it so that they use *diaphonia*, that is, diversity of tongue. Thus, therefore, God figured fear, that He might mystically teach what I have said. And that council: That fiction of persons, which is written in the book of III Kings, ch. 22, 20. Of God asking in that council: "Who shall deceive Achab the king?" and of the evil spirit standing before God upon the earth, and answering: "I will deceive him, etc.," that fiction of persons, I say, teaches mystically that the spirit of fallacy uses impious and wicked men as instruments, and through them promises victory falsely, and that this is done by the permission of God; because when He could forbid it, He does not forbid it, because he who is deceived is unworthy of custody and defense, as Achab was then. Nor indeed should we think that the signs of the appearing forms were produced for their own sake only; that is, that they are to be understood as they appear externally according to the naked letter. For they are not to be taken in this way but rather according to the senses which the symbols have deeply hidden within.

In the same place, a little after: "And there is a mystery or mystical thing implicated with a symbol." For there is (as St. Maximus says) in a symbol, as it were, truth hidden in a shadow, as in the Mosaic pasch, the true pasch, as it is written (I Cor. 5, 7): "Our pasch, Christ, is sacrificed." Hither pertains that (to the Galat. 4, 22): "Abraham had two sons, etc."; for these are the two Testaments; and that (I Cor. 10, 4): "And they drank of the spiritual [rock] that followed them; and the rock was Christ," and similar things. But that symbol term, according to Turrianus, following the interpretation of St. Maximus, Dionysius calls *to rēton*, that is, not silent or [not] said; because what lies mystically in a symbol is *aporrhēton*, that is, secret and silent. And so the mysteries which are signified in symbols are *aporrhēta en rhētois noumena*, that is, occult things understood in symbols. The same is declared also by those who, hearing of open theology, fashion in themselves a certain type, etc. Let there be an example of what is written in Jeremias ch. 13, concerning those things which the Lord said openly without any type or covering, how He had joined to Himself the people of Israel, and how on account of their sins it was to be punished. And concerning the girdle, in which as in a type He willed that Jeremias should understand more fully, and explain better to others, the punishment to be taken from the people of Israel and His own conjunction with that people. See Jeremias, ch. 13, verse.

^A: Surge et vade ad Euphratem, etc. Frequent examples of this kind appear in the Prophets regarding clear theology, and regarding the symbols applied to it.

§ II. Furthermore, the very fabric of the visible world also occupies the place of symbols in a certain way, as St. Maximus has noted. And the truth itself bears witness to this. He speaks of Christ, who in the Gospel did not speak of those things which pertain to clear and demonstrative theology, except through symbols and parables. Whence He said to Nicodemus, as Pachymeres observed (John iii, 12): "If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" Which is to say, as it seems to me, as if He were saying: If I have told you of celestial and divine things through corporeal symbols, which are related and familiar to your nature, and you do not believe so that by believing you may understand, how will you believe if I speak of heavenly things without those images known to you? For the Lord had taught Nicodemus, by the example of the wind, concerning the hidden operation and the creature being regenerated from water and the Holy Spirit. Where we hear only the sound: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," but we do not know how it works, or where it begins, or where it ends; or as in the wind, which is, as Dionysius says in chapter 15 of the *Celestial Hierarchy*, an image and type of divine operation, on account of the properties of the wind which Dionysius noted in the same place, where he also cites the passage from the Gospel: "The Spirit blows where it wills" (John iii, 8). Below in the same place: God is called fire, and the utterances of God are fiery, and the orders of the angels, etc. How the image of fire conforms to divine precepts, and how to the angels, see what we have noted at chapter 13 of the *Celestial Hierarchy*. Moreover, fire is also said concerning providence, as in Luke xii, 49: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth." And concerning words, Jer. xxiii, 29: "Are not my words like fire?"

See the Scholions of St. Maximus and the Paraphrase of Pachymeres on Epistle 9, vol. II.

EPISTLE X

TO JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST, EXILED ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS

SYNOPSIS OF THE EPISTLE. He foretells prophetically to the blessed apostle and evangelist John, the beloved disciple of Christ, who is exiled on the island of Patmos, a speedy liberation from exile and a return to Asia, where he will be of profit to many by his example.

^A I greet you, holy soul, O beloved one, since I am permitted this more intimately with you than with the many. Hail, O truly beloved, and most beloved to Him who is truly to be loved, and desired, and cherished. What is surprising if Christ speaks the truth, and the unrighteous drive the disciples out of the cities, attributing to themselves what they deserve, and the unholy separate themselves and depart from the saints? Truly, visible things are manifest images of things invisible; for God will not be the cause of righteous separations from Himself in the ages to come, but rather they themselves who have utterly separated themselves from God; just as, on the other hand, we already see others here becoming ^B with God, because, being lovers of truth, they depart from the craving for material things, and in the complete freedom from all evils and in divine love for all good things, they love peace, and partake of sanctification even from the present life, beginning the life to come in an angelic manner while living among men, with all apathy, and divine naming, and goodness, and other goods. For my part, therefore, I would never be so mad as to suppose that you suffer anything; but I believe that you perceive the sufferings of the body only insofar as to sense them. But as for those who do you wrong and think they can restrict you, ^C unjustly blaming the sun of the Gospel, I pray that, desisting from these things which they see they are bringing upon themselves, they may turn to the good, and by drawing you to themselves, may become partakers of the light. But we shall not, even in the contrary case, be deprived of John’s