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And the good-giving principle: In what way is God the principle of every manifestation of light, and what are the manifestations of light and transformations.

Resurrection: This is what Simeon says, when he saw the Christ: "This one is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel"; the fall, on the one hand, of what is worse in us, and the rising, on the other, of what is better.

The illumination of those being enlightened: Gradually, as if proceeding to greater things, he says, first being enlightened, then being initiated. To be initiated is to be led to perfection through the progress of a good life after 14S_026 baptism, so that one might be able to say, "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." The adorable Trinity, therefore, presiding over such an initiation, as the initiatress who is also productive of all perfection, is reasonably conceived. Those, then, who are perfected by progress are certainly deified, becoming partakers of the divine nature, of whom God, the Godhead, is analogously the principle, being a certain principle of those who have become gods. After this ascent, then, they advance to simplicity, becoming equal to the angels through the resurrection, and no longer having a psychic body, according to the Apostle, that is, one composed and moved by the soul, but a spiritual one, because of the All-Holy Spirit poured out greatly upon them, freed from the multifaceted variety of thoughts and from the senses; whence also they are unified, being led into a monad of simplicity, as we have said before; for he also says elsewhere: "for," he says, "the heart and soul of those who believed was one."

The life of the living: God in Himself is not conceived; but since He is the cause and principle of all beings, He is the simplicity of the simple, the life of the living, super-essential to essences, and simply the bestower of all good things.

§ 4. Manifestly: Manifestors were properly called those who symbolically revealed the ineffable things of the mysteries.

As a monad, then: Here he clarifies what 'henad' and 'monad' especially mean when said of God, and says that this is said by the theologians in order to represent the impartibility of God; for that which is comprised of mass and magnitudes, this, being also a body, is divided, but that which is without parts is also ungraspable by a body, and is even beyond all incorporeality. Moreover, since God, having conceived 14S_028 them, by His will substantiated all things, He was not multiplied like some mind divided into thoughts, but remaining and staying, he says, in the henad, without parts and without being scattered, He both substantiated and substantiates the things in creation; "for God is at work until now," as is said in the Gospels; He is therefore super-extended beyond all simplicity, transcending without parts.

And of the divisible things: In the case of the super-celestial worlds and this visible one, the lower things are turned towards the things above them, and the corporeal is established in the living; "for in His hand are all the ends of the earth"; but also the heavens; "in whom," for, he says, "are all things"; but in the case of our mortal selves, the opposite of what has been said is true; for the soul is turned towards the spirit in which the senses and the thoughts are established, through which we reason about things in our reflection, "which spirit knows the things in man," according to the Apostle. The soul, therefore, being turned towards this spirit, is turned also towards the senses in it, and through them towards the body; and in the mind the thoughts are, as it were, divided, and proceed dispersedly into othernesses from first thoughts to second, to better ones, or to base ones. He says, therefore, that, being stretched up towards God, we become by that henad one impartible thing, our many-parted othernesses being gathered from dispersion into a folding-together, and being unified super-cosmically, that is, not sensibly but noetically, we being no longer inconsistent with ourselves, but becoming one single form, as He Himself "is one," as he says in the Gospels.

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Καί τήν ἀγαθοδότιν ἀρχήν: Κατά τί ἐστιν ὁ Θεός ἀρχή πάσης φωτοφανείας, καί τίνες αἱ φωτοφάνειαι καί ἀναμορφώσεις.

Ἀνάστασις: Τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ λέγει Συμεών, ὅτε τόν Χριστόν εἶδεν· «Οὗτος κεῖται εἰς πτῶσιν καί ἀνάστασιν πολλῶν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ»· πτῶσιν μέν τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν χείρονος, ἀνάστασιν δέ τοῦ βελτίονος.

Τῶν φωτιζομένων ἔλλαμψις: Βαθμηδόν, ὥσπερ ἐπί τά μείζονα προϊών, φησί, πρῶτον φωτιζομένους, εἶτα τελουμένους. Τελεῖσθαι δέ ἐστι, τό εἰς τελειότητα ἄγεσθαι διά τῆς μετά 14S_026 τό βάπτισμα δι' εὐζωίας προκοπῆς, ἵνα δύνηταί τις εἰπεῖν, «τόν δρόμον τετέλεκα, τήν πίστιν τετήρηκα». Ἡ οὗν προσκυνητή Τριάς, τῆς τοιαύτης τελετῆς ἄρχουσα, ἅτε καί πάσης τελειώσεως ποιητική τελετάρχις, εἰκότως νοεῖται. Οἱ γοῦν τῇ προκοπῆ τελειούμενοι θεοῦνται πάντως, θείας κοινωνοί φύσεως γινόμενοι, ὧν ἀναλόγως ἡ θεαρχία ὁ Θεός, θεῶν γεγενημένων ἀρχή τις ὤν. Μετά γοῦν τήν ἀνάβασιν ταύτην εἰς ἁπλότητα προκόπτουσιν, ἰσάγγελοι διά τῆς ἀναστάσεως γινόμενοι, καί οὐκέτι ψυχικόν ἔχοντες σῶμα, κατά τόν Ἀπόστολον, τουτέστι διά ψυχῆς συνεστός τε καί κινούμενον, ἀλλά πνευματικόν, ἀντί τοῦ διά τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος ἐπί μέγα χυθέντος ἐπ' αὐτούς τῆς πολυσυνθέτου τῶν λογισμῶν ποικιλίας, καί τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἀπηλλαγμένοι· ὅθεν καί ἑνίζονται εἰς ἑνάδα ἁπλότητος ἀγόμενοι, καθά προέφημεν· λέγει γάρ καί ἀλλαχοῦ· «ἦν» γάρ, φησί, «τῶν πιστευσάντων καρδία καί ψυχή μία».

Ἡ τῶν ζώντων ζωή: Καθ' ἑαυτόν ὁ Θεός οὐ νοεῖται· ἐπεί δέ τῶν ὄντων πάντων ἐστίν αἰτία καί ἀρχή, τῶν ἁπλῶν ἁπλότης ἐστί, τῶν ζώντων ζωή, τῶν οὐσιῶν ὑπερούσιος, καί ἁπλῶς πάντων ἀγαθῶν μεταδότις ἐστίν.

§ 4. Ἐκφαντορικῶς: Ἐκφάντορες κυρίως ἐλέγοντο οἱ τῶν μυστηρίων τά ἄρρητα συμβολικῶς ἐκφαίνοντες.

Ὡς μονάδα μέν: Ἐνταῦθα τρανοῖ τί μάλιστα θέλει δηλοῦν 'ἑνάς' καί 'μονάς' ἐπί Θεοῦ λεγομένη, καί φησιν, ὅτι περ, ἵνα παραστήση τήν ἀμέρειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦτο λέγεται παρά τῶν θεολόγων· τό γάρ ὄγκοις καί πηλικότησι διειλημμένον, τοῦτο ἅτε καί σῶμα μερίζεται, τό δέ ἀμερές καί ἀνέμφατόν ἐστι σώματος, ἀλλά καί ὑπέρ πᾶσάν ἐστιν ἀσωματίαν· ἄλλως τε, ἐπειδή διανοηθείς 14S_028 ὁ Θεός βουλητικῶς τά πάντα ὑπέστησεν, οὐχ οἷά τις νοῦς εἰς νοήσεις μερισθείς ἐπολλαπλασιάσθη, ἀλλά μείνας καί μένων, φησίν, ἐν τῇ ἑνάδι ἀμερῶς καί ἀσκεδάστως καί ὑπέστησε καί ὑφίστησι τά ἐν τῇ κτίσει· «ἕως γάρ ἄρτι ἐργάζεται ὁ Θεός», ὡς ἐν Εὐαγγελίοις εἴρηται· ὑπερήπλωται οὖν πᾶσαν ἁπλότητα ἀμερῶς ὑπεραίρων.

Καί τῶν μεριστῶν: Ἐπί τῶν ὑπερουρανίων κόσμων καί τοῦδε τοῦ ὁρατοῦ τά κατώτερα ἔστραπται ἐπί τά ὑπερκείμενα, καί τό σωματικόν ἥδρασται ἐν τῷ ζῶντι· «ἐν γάρ χειρί αὐτοῦ πάντα τά πέρατα τῆς γῆς»· ἀλλά γάρ καί οἱ οὐρανοί· «ἐν ᾧ», γάρ, φησί, «τά πάντα»· ἐπί δέ τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς θνητοῦ τό ἀνάπαλίν ἐστι τῶν εἰρημένων· ἡ γάρ ψυχή ἔστραπται πρός τό πνεῦμα ἐν ᾧ εἰσιν ἐστηριγμέναι αἱ αἰσθήσεις καί οἱ λογισμοί, δι' ὧν τά ἐν τῇ σκέψει λογιζόμεθα, «ὅπερ πνεῦμα οἶδε τά ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ», κατά τόν Ἀπόστολον· ἐπεστραμμένη οὖν πρός τοῦτο τό πνεῦμα ἡ ψυχή, ἐπέστραπται καί πρός τάς ἐν αὐτῷ αἰσθήσεις, καί δι' αὐτῶν πρός τό σῶμα· καί ἐν τῷ νῷ αἱ νοήσεις οἱονεί μερίζονται, καί εἰς ἑτερότητας σκεδαστῶς προΐασιν ἀπό πρώτης νοήσεως εἰς δευτέρας, εἰς κρείττονας, ἤ εἰς φαύλους. Φησίν οὖν ὅτι, ἀνατεινόμενοι πρός Θεόν, γινόμεθα ὑπό τῆς ἑνάδος ἐκείνης ἕν ἀμερές, τῶν πολυμερῶν ἡμῶν ἑτεροτήτων ἐκ τοῦ σκεδασμοῦ εἰς σύμπτυξιν ἀθροιζομένων, καί ἑνοποιουμένων ὑπερκοσμίως, τουτέστιν οὐκ αἰσθητῶς, ἀλλά νοερῶς, οὐκ ἔτι ἀσυμβάτων ὄντων ἡμῶν πρός ἑαυτούς, ἀλλά γινομένων ἕν ἑνοειδές, ὡς καί αὐτός «ἕν ἐστιν», ὥς φησιν ἐν Εὐαγγελίοις.