beings and irrationally living things and we rational beings have come to be in participation of the divine bestowal. For, intelligibly impressing themselves after the divine likeness and looking supermundanely toward the divine resemblance and aspiring to form their own intellectual being, they reasonably have more abundant communions with it, being attentive and ever straining upward, as is right, in the intensity of divine and unwavering love, and receiving the primal illuminations immaterially and unmixedly, and being ordered toward them and having their entire life as intellectual. These, then, are the ones who first and in many ways come to be in participation of the divine and who first and in many ways are manifestors of the divine hiddenness, wherefore also they have been especially deemed worthy, beyond all others, of the angelic title, because the divine illumination first comes to be in them and through them the manifestations which are above us are conveyed to us. Thus, then, the Law, as theology says, was given to us through angels, and angels led up our renowned fathers, both before the Law and after the Law, to the divine, either by showing them what was to be done and leading them from error and an unholy life to the straight road of truth, or by revealing sacred orders or secret visions of supermundane mysteries or certain divine prophecies prophetically. <3> And if anyone should say that theophanies also happened directly to some of the saints, let him learn this clearly from the most sacred oracles, that what the hidden reality of God is, “No one has seen” nor shall see, but theophanies have occurred to the holy ones, in manifestations befitting God, through certain sacred visions analogous to those who see them. The all-wise theology reasonably calls that vision a theophany which revealed the divine likeness figured in itself, as a shaping of the shapeless, from the uplifting of the seers to the divine, since through it a divine illumination comes to be in the seers and they are sacredly initiated into some of the divine things. And our renowned fathers were initiated into these divine visions through the medium of the heavenly powers. Or does not the tradition of the oracles say that the sacred legislation of the Law was given directly from God to Moses, so that it might truly initiate us into its being a divine and sacred pattern, yet theology also teaches this clearly, that it came to us through angels, as the divine ordering ordains this, that the second be led up to the divine through the first? For not only among the superior and inferior minds, but also among those of the same order has this law been established by the supra-essential Ruler of all, that in each hierarchy there be first, middle, and last orders and powers, and that the more divine be initiators and guides of the lesser unto the divine access and illumination and communion. <4> I see, moreover, that angels were first initiated into the divine mystery of Jesus' love for humanity, and then through them the grace of that knowledge passed to us. Thus, the most divine Gabriel initiated Zacharias the high priest into the mystery that the son to be born to him against hope by divine grace would be a prophet of the manly divine work of Jesus which was to appear to the world in a manner befitting goodness and for its salvation, and Mary, how the divine mystery of the ineffable divine-formation would take place in her. And another of the angels instructed Joseph how truly

ὄντα καὶ ἀλόγως ζῶντα καὶ τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς λογικὰ τῆς θεαρχικῆς μετα δόσεως ἐν μετουσίᾳ γεγόνασιν. Νοητῶς γὰρ ἐπὶ τὸ θεομίμητον ἑαυτὰς ἀποτυποῦσαι καὶ πρὸς τὴν θεαρχικὴν ἐμφέρειαν ὑπερκοσμίως ὁρῶσαι καὶ μορφοῦν ἐφιέμεναι τὸ νοερὸν αὐτῶν εἶδος, ἀφθονωτέρας εἰκότως ἔχουσι τὰς πρὸς αὐτὴν κοινωνίας, προσεχεῖς μὲν οὖσαι καὶ ἀεὶ πρὸς τὸ ἄναντες ὡς θεμιτὸν ἐν συντονίᾳ τοῦ θείου καὶ ἀκλινοῦς ἔρωτος ἀνατει νόμεναι καὶ τὰς ἀρχικὰς ἐλλάμψεις ἀΰλως καὶ ἀμιγῶς εἰσδεχόμεναι καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰς ταττόμεναι καὶ νοερὰν ἔχουσαι τὴν πᾶσαν ζωήν. Aὗται γοῦν εἰσιν αἱ πρώτως καὶ πολλαχῶς ἐν μετουσίᾳ τοῦ θείου γινόμεναι καὶ πρώτως καὶ πολλαχῶς ἐκφαντορικαὶ τῆς θεαρχικῆς κρυφιότητος, διὸ καὶ παρὰ πάντα τῆς ἀγγελικῆς ἐπωνυμίας ἐκκρίτως ἠξίωνται διὰ τὸ πρώτως εἰς αὐτὰς ἐγγίνεσθαι τὴν θεαρχικὴν ἔλλαμψιν καὶ δι' αὐτῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς διαπορθμεύεσθαι τὰς ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ἐκφαντορίας. Oὕτω γοῦν ὁ νόμος, ὡς ἡ θεολογία φησί, δι' ἀγγέλων ἡμῖν ἐδωρήθη καὶ τοὺς κλεινοὺς γὲ πρὸ νόμου καὶ μετὰ νόμον ἡμῶν πατέρας ἄγγελοι πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀνῆγον ἢ τὸ πρακτέον εἰσηγούμενοι καὶ πρὸς εὐθεῖαν ἀληθείας ὁδὸν ἐκ πλάνης καὶ ζωῆς ἀνιέρου μετάγοντες ἢ τάξεις ἱερὰς ἢ μυστηρίων ὑπερκοσμίων κρυφίας ὁράσεις ἢ θείας τινὰς προαναρρήσεις ὑποφητικῶς ἀναφαίνοντες. <3> Eἰ δέ τις φαίη καὶ αὐτόθεν ἀμέσως ἐγγενέσθαι τισὶ τῶν ἁγίων θεοφανείας, μανθανέτω καὶ τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐκ τῶν ἱερωτάτων λογίων ὡς αὐτὸ μὲν ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ κρύφιον «Oὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν» οὐδὲ ὄψεται, θεοφάνειαι δὲ τοῖς ὁσίοις γεγόνασι κατὰ τὰς πρέπουσας θεῷ διὰ δή τινων ἱερῶν καὶ τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ἀναλόγων ὁράσεων ἐκφαντορίας. Ἡ πάνσοφος δὲ θεολογία τὴν ὅρασιν ἐκείνην, ἥτις ἐν ἑαυτῇ διαγεγραμμένην ἀνέφαινε τὴν θείαν ὡς ἐν μορφώσει τῶν ἀμορφώτων ὁμοίωσιν, ἐκ τῆς τῶν ὁρώντων ἐπὶ τὸ θεῖον ἀναγωγῆς εἰκότως καλεῖ θεοφάνειαν ὡς δι' αὐτῆς τοῖς ὁρῶσι θείας ἐγγινομένης ἐλλάμψεως καί τι τῶν θείων αὐτῶν ἱερῶς μυουμένων. Ταύτας δὲ τὰς θείας ὁράσεις οἱ κλεινοὶ πατέρες ἡμῶν ἐμυοῦντο διὰ μέσων τῶν οὐρανίων δυνάμεων. Ἢ οὐχὶ καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν τοῦ νόμου θεσμοθεσίαν ἡ τῶν λογίων παράδοσις ὡς αὐτόθεν μέν φησιν ἐκ θεοῦ τῷ Μωϋσῇ δεδωρημένην, ὅπως ἂν ἡμᾶς ἀληθῶς μυήσῃ τὸ θείας αὐτὴν εἶναι καὶ ἱερᾶς ὑποτύπωσιν, διδάσκει δὲ καὶ τοῦτο σαφῶς ἡ θεολογία τὸ δι' ἀγγέλων αὐτὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς προελθεῖν ὡς τῆς θεονομικῆς τάξεως ἐκεῖνο θεσμοθετούσης τὸ διὰ τῶν πρώτων τὰ δεύτερα πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀνάγεσθαι; Καὶ γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπερκειμένων τε καὶ ὑφειμένων νοῶν, ἀλλὰ κἀν τοῖς ὁμοταγέσιν οὗτος ὁ θεσμὸς ὥρισται παρὰ τῆς πάντων ὑπερουσίου ταξιαρχίας τὸ καθ' ἑκάστην ἱεραρχίαν πρώτας καὶ μέσας καὶ τελευταίας εἶναι τάξεις τε καὶ δυνάμεις καὶ τῶν ἡττόνων εἶναι τοὺς θειοτέρους μύστας καὶ χειραγωγοὺς ἐπὶ τὴν θείαν προσαγωγὴν καὶ ἔλλαμψιν καὶ κοινωνίαν. <4> Ὁρῶ δὲ ὅτι καὶ τὸ θεῖον τῆς Ἰησοῦ φιλανθρωπίας μυστήριον ἄγγελοι πρῶτον ἐμυήθησαν, εἶτα δι' αὐτῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἡ τῆς γνώσεως χάρις διέβαινεν. Oὕτω γοῦν ὁ θειότατος Γαβριὴλ Ζαχαρίαν μὲν τὸν ἱεράρχην ἐμυσταγώγει τὸ προφήτην ἔσεσθαι τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ παρ' ἐλπίδα χάριτι θείᾳ γενησόμενον παῖδα τῆς ἀγαθοπρεπῶς καὶ σωτηρίως τῷ κόσμῳ ἐπιφανησομένης ἀνδρικῆς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ θεουργίας, τὴν δὲ Μαριὰμ ὅπως ἐν αὐτῇ γενήσεται τὸ θεαρχικὸν τῆς ἀφθέγκτου θεοπλαστίας μυστήριον. Ἕτερος δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων τὸν Ἰωσὴφ ἐξεπαίδευεν ὅπως ἀληθῶς