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He also says again: (19) to these the godlike minds, imitating the angels as far as possible, are united, that is, to the divine powers of the angels, since such a union of the deified minds to the super-divine light comes about through a cessation of all intellectual activity, they hymn it most properly through the removal of all beings, having been truly and supernaturally illumined by this from their most blessed union with it: that it is the cause of all beings, but is itself nothing, as being super-essentially removed from all.

13. Knowing this, therefore, the divine father Symon, as a wise theologian, both hymned the divine and super-natural nature as nameless and theologized it as the cause of every name that is named and as anonymously established above all things: now, as much as belongs to the present treatise, gathering from the theologies and using what has been said as a kind of rule, with a view to them he proceeded to the exposition of the intelligible divine names; now, with a God-seeing mind contemplating the God-manifested appearances and visions, setting before the holy the holy things according to the divine tradition of the Apostle, he set in order and what divine visions were sacredly contemplated by him he duly showed to those after him, as the first to the second and subordinate, generously he showed them in proportion to their capacity and according to their worth he imparted the sacred things to those who have partaken scientifically and completely in the priestly perfection, protecting them from the laughter and mockery of the uninitiated, or rather, delivering those very ones, if there are any such men, from the war against God on this account, by not making these things public to the many, as long as he was among the living and was seen, (20) and in this obeying the great Dionysius who wrote thus to Timothy: "See to it," he says, "that you do not divulge the holy of holies, but you shall revere and honor the things of the hidden God with intelligible and invisible knowledge, keeping them unpartaken and undefiled for the uninitiated, but communicating the sacred things only to the sacred, in a sacred manner with sacred illumination."

14. For thus, as theology has also delivered to us its devotees, these things we too, as having been his disciples and knowing the height and depth and breadth of his wisdom, through what has been said and through the present discourse, distinguish from the completely coarse and uninitiated and wish them to be incommunicable to these, clearly expounding these things, that is, only to those who have their ears sacredly opened through diligence in their ways and divine understanding and are openly holy both from their life and from the knowledge from above: for this the divine Paul also wishes, writing thus to Timothy: "Entrust these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

15. Therefore, let those who have ascended from philosophical practice to contemplation and have risen to the depth of theological conceptions give the investigation of their soul to these things with faith, and from there, I know well, they will harvest much benefit; but the rest, whose mind has been scattered into many diversities and is darkened with the gloom of ignorance, who do not even know what practice and contemplation and the revelation of divine mysteries are, let them be alienated from the reading of what is written here; for having a mind incapable of high and verbal revelations (21) they are accustomed to trample on and profane divine things, being unable to aspire to anything beyond us.

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αὐτός καί αὖθις φησι˙ (19) ταύταις οἱ θεοειδεῖς ἀγγελομιμήτως, ὡς ἐφικτόν, ἑνούμενοι νόες, ταῖς θείαις δηλονότι τῶν ἀγγέλων δυνάμεσιν, ἐπειδή κατά πάσης νοερᾶς ἐνεργείας ἀπόπαυσιν ἡ τοιάδε γίνεται τῶν ἐκθεουμένων νόων πρός τό ὑπέρθεον φῶς ἕνωσις, ὑμνοῦσιν αὐτό κυριώτατα διά τῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀφαιρέσεως, τοῦτο ἀληθῶς καί ὑπερφυῶς ἐλλαμφθέντες ἐκ τῆς πρός αὐτό μακαριωτάτης ἑνώσεως˙ ὅτι πάντων μέν ἐστι τῶν ὄντων αἴτιον, αὐτό δέ οὐδέν, ὡς πάντων ὑπερουσίως ἐξῃρημένον.

13. Εἰδώς οὖν ὁ θεῖος τοῦτο πατήρ Συμών, οἷα δή σοφός θεολόγος, καί ὡς ἀνώνυμον τήν θείαν καί ὑπέρ φύσιν φύσιν ἀνύμνει καί ὡς παντός ὀνόματος ὀμοναζομένου αἰτίαν καί ἀνωνύμως ὑπεριδρυμένην τῶν πάντων ἐθεολόγει˙ νῦν μέν, ὅσα τῆς παρούσης ἐστί πραγματείας, ἐκ τῶν θεολογιῶν συνάγων καί ὥσπερ τινί κανόνι τοῖς εἰρημένοι χρώμενος πρός αὐτά σκοπῶν ἐπί τήν ἀνάπτυξιν τῶν νοητῶν θεωνυμιῶν προήρχετο˙ νῦν δέ θεοπτικῇ διανοίᾳ τάς θεοφανεῖς ἐποπτεύων ἐμφάσεις καί θεωρίας, τοῖς ἁγίοις τά ἅγια κατά τήν θείαν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου παράδοσιν παρατιθέμενος, ἀνετάττετο καί τά πρός αὐτοῦ ἱερῶς ἐποπτευθέντα θεῖα θεάματα τοῖς μετ᾿ αὐτόν χρεωστικῶς, ὡς πρῶτος πρός δευτέρους καί ὑφειμένους, ἀφθόνως ἐν συμμετρίᾳ τῇ κατ᾿ αὐτούς ὑπέδειξε καί κατ᾿ ἀξίαν τά ἱερά τοῖς ἐπιστημονικῶς καί ὁλοκλήρως μετασχοῦσι τῆς ἱερατικῆς τελειώσεως μετέδωκε, τῶν ἀμύστων αὐτά γελώτων καί ἐμπαιγμῶν ἐξαιρούμενος, μᾶλλον δέ αὐτούς ἐκείνους, εἴπερ τινές τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν ἄνθρωποι, τῆς ἐπί τούτῳ θεομαχίας ἀπολυτρούμενος, μή ἔκφορα ταῦτα ποιῶν τοῖς πολλοῖς, ἕως ἄν ἐν τοῖς ζῶσιν ἦν καί ἐφαίνετο, (20) κἄν τούτῳ τῷ μεγάλῳ ∆ιονυσίῳ πειθόμενος οὕτω πρός Τιμόθεον γράφοντι˙ ὅρα δή, φησίν, ὅπως οὐκ ἐξορχήσῃ τά ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, εὐλαβηθήσῃ δέ καί τά τοῦ κρυφίου Θεοῦ ταῖςνοεραῖς καί ἀοράτοις γνώσεσει τιμήσεις, ἀμέθεκτα μέν αὐτά καί ἄχραντα τοῖς ἀτελέστοις διατηρῶν, ἱεροῖς δέ μόνοις τῶν ἱερῶν μεθ᾿ ἱερᾶς ἐλλάμψεως ἱεροπρεπῶς κοινωνῶν.

14. Οὕτω γάρ ὡς ἡ θεολογία καί τοῖς θιασώταις ἡμῖν παραδέδωκε, ταῦτα καί ἡμεῖς, ὡς αὐτῷ μαθητευθέντες καί τό ὕψος καί βάθος καί πλάτος τῆς αὐτοῦ σοφίας εἰδότες, διά τῶν εἰρημένων καί τοῦ παρόντος λόγου τῶν πάντῃ χοντρῶν καί ἀμύστων διαστέλλομεν καί ἀνέκφορα τούτοις εἶναι βουλόμεθα, μόνοις ἐκείνοις ταῦτα δηλαδή σαφῶς ἀναπτύσσοντες τοῖς τά ὦτα πεπετασμένα ἱερῶς ἔχουσιν ἐξ ἐπιμελείας τῶν τρόπων καί συνέσεως θείας καί ἁγίοις ἄντικρυς οὖσιν ἔκ τε τοῦ βίου καί τῆς ἄνωθεν γνώσεως˙ τοῦτο γάρ καί Παῦλος ὁ θεῖος βούλεται πρός Τιμόθεν οὕτω γράφων˙ ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οἵτινες ἱκανοί ἔσονται καί ἑτέρους διδάξαι.

15. Ὁ γοῦν πρός θεωρίαν ἐκ φιλοσόφου πράξεως ἀναδραμόντες καί εἰς βάθος θεολογικῶν ἐννοιῶν ἀνελθόντες πίστει πρός ταῦτα τήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἔρευναν δότωσαν, καί πολλήν αὐτόθεν, εὖ οἶδα, τρυγήσουσι τήν ὠφέλειαν˙ οἱ δέ γε λοιποί, ὧν ὁ νοῦς εἰς πολλάς ἑτερότητας διεσκέδασται καί σκότει ἀγνωσίας ἐζόφωτοι, οἱ μηδέ ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι πρᾶξις καί θεωρίας καί θείων ἀποκάλυψις μυστηρίων εἰδότες, τῆς ἀναγνώσεως τῶν ἐνταῦθα γεγραμμένων ἀλλοτριούσθωσαν˙ ἀχώρητον γάρ τήν διάνοιαν ἔχοντες τῶν ὑψηλῶν καί λόγων ἀποκαλύψεων (21) τά θεῖα καταπατεῖν εἰώθασι καί κοινοῦν, πρός μηδέν τῶν ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς ἀνανεύειν δυνάμενοι.