forming certain trees and shoots and flowers and putting forth roots, or springs of water bubbling up, or productive radiances bringing forth light, or certain other sacred descriptions revelatory of super-essential theologies; but in the case of the intelligible providences of God, or gifts, or manifestations, or powers, or properties, or allotments, or abidings, or processions, or distinctions, or unions, ascribing to God the fashioning of a man and the varied forms of beasts and other living creatures and plants and stones, and assigning to Him female adornments or barbarian armor, and setting before Him pottery and a foundry, as if to some craftsman, and placing under Him horses and chariots and thrones, and preparing for Him certain culinary feasts, and representing Him as having drunk and being intoxicated and sleeping and suffering from a hangover. What could one say of the angers, the griefs, the various oaths, the repentances, the curses, the wraths, the manifold and devious sophisms of sin and of the promises; the battle with the giants in Genesis, according to which He is said to plot out of fear against those mighty men, and that, although they had devised the building not for the injury of others, but for their own salvation; and that council in heaven contrived for the guile and deceit of Ahab; and the materialistic and wanton passions of the songs, and whatever else are the sacred symbols of the all-daring theology-fashioning, which appear set forth from the hidden things, and are multiplied and divided from the unified and indivisible, and are typical and multiform from the formless and typeless; if anyone could see the beauty hidden within these things, he will find them all mystical and godlike, and filled with much theological light. For let us not suppose that the visible symbols have been fashioned for their own sake, but that they have been set forth from the knowledge that is ineffable and unseen by the many, so that the most sacred things might not be easily accessible to the profane; but are revealed only to the true lovers of the divinity, who cast aside all childish fantasy concerning the sacred symbols and are capable of passing over, with simplicity of mind and fitness of contemplative power, to the simple and supernatural and transcendent truth of the symbols. And besides, it is necessary to understand this, that the tradition of the theologians is twofold: one part ineffable and mystical, the other manifest and more knowable; and one symbolic and initiatory, the other philosophical and demonstrative; and the unspoken is interwoven with the spoken. And the one persuades and establishes the truth of what is said, while the other acts and establishes one in God through unlearned initiations. And indeed not even in the rites of the most holy mysteries did the hierophants of our tradition or of the Law abstain from God-befitting symbols; but we see even the most holy angels mystically setting forth divine things through enigmas, and Jesus Himself theologizing in parables, and transmitting the divine mysteries through a typical meal. For it was fitting not only that the holy of holies be preserved undefiled from the many, but also that human life itself, being at once indivisible and divided, should be illumined by the divine knowledge in a manner appropriate to itself, and that the impassible part of the soul should be set apart for the simple and innermost sights of the godlike images, while its passible part should be at once naturally healed and lifted up to the most divine things by the pre-devised

διαπλαττούσης καὶ δένδρα τινὰ καὶ βλαστοὺς καὶ ἄνθη καὶ ·ίζας προ βαλλομένης ἢ πηγὰς ὑδάτων ἀναβλυζούσας ἢ ἀπαυγασμάτων προαγω γικὰς φωτογονίας ἢ ἄλλας τινὰς ὑπερουσίων θεολογιῶν ἐκφαντορικὰς ἱερογραφίας· ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν νοητῶν τοῦ θεοῦ προνοιῶν ἢ δωρεῶν ἢ ἐκφάν σεων ἢ δυνάμεων ἢ ἰδιοτήτων ἢ λήξεων ἢ μονῶν ἢ προόδων ἢ διακρί σεων ἢ ἑνώσεων ἀνδροπλαστίαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ θηρίων καὶ ζῴων ἄλλων καὶ φυτῶν καὶ λίθων ποικιλομορφίαν περιπλαττούσης καὶ κόσμους αὐτῷ γυναικείους ἢ βαρβαρικὰς ὁπλοποιίας περιτιθείσης καὶ κεραμίαν καὶ χωνευτήριον, ὡς ἂν βαναύσῳ τινί, προτιθείσης καὶ ἵππους αὐτῷ καὶ ἅρματα καὶ θρόνους ὑποστρωννύσης καὶ δαῖτάς τινας ὀψοποιικὰς ἐπι σκευαζούσης καὶ πεπωκότα καὶ μεθύοντα καὶ ὑπνώττοντα καὶ κραι παλῶντα διαπλαττούσης. Τί ἄν τις εἴποι τὰς ὀργάς, τὰς λύπας, τοὺς παντοδαποὺς ὅρκους, τὰς μεταμελείας, τὰς ἀράς, τὰς μήνιδας, τὰ πολυειδῆ καὶ λοξὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν σοφίσματα· τὴν ἐν τῇ Γενέσει γιγαντομαχίαν, καθ' ἣν ἐπιβουλεύειν ἐκ φόβου λέγεται τοῖς δυνατοῖς ἐκείνοις ἀνδράσι, καὶ ταῦτα τὴν οἰκοδομὴν οὐκ ἐπ' ἀδικίᾳ τινῶν ἑτέρων, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας τῆς ἑαυτῶν μεμηχανημένοις· καὶ τὸ συμβούλιον ἐκεῖνο τὸ κατ' οὐρανὸν ἐπὶ δόλῳ καὶ ἀπάτῃ τοῦ Ἀχαὰβ σκευαζόμενον· καὶ τὰς τῶν σμάτων προσ ύλους καὶ ἑταιρικὰς πολυπαθείας, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς πάντα τολμώσης ἐστὶ θεοπλαστίας ἱερὰ συνθήματα φαινόμενα τῶν κρυφίων προβεβλημένα καὶ πεπληθυσμένα καὶ μεριστὰ τῶν ἑνιαίων καὶ ἀμερίστων καὶ τυπωτικὰ καὶ πολύμορφα τῶν ἀμορφώτων καὶ ἀτυπώτων· ὧν εἴ τις ἰδεῖν δυνηθείη τὴν ἐντὸς ἀποκεκρυμμένην εὐπρέπειαν, εὑρήσει μυστικὰ καὶ θεοειδῆ πάντα καὶ πολλοῦ τοῦ θεολογικοῦ φωτὸς ἀναπεπλησμένα. Μὴ γὰρ οἰώμεθα τὰ φαινόμενα τῶν συνθημάτων ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν ἀνα πεπλάσθαι, προβεβλῆσθαι δὲ τῆς ἀποῤῥήτου καὶ ἀθεάτου τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐπιστήμης, ὡς μὴ τοῖς βεβήλοις εὐχείρωτα εἶναι τὰ πανίερα· μόνοις δὲ ἀνακαλύπτεσθαι τοῖς τῆς θεότητος γνησίοις ἐρασταῖς, ὡς πᾶσαν τὴν παιδαριώδη φαντασίαν ἐπὶ τῶν ἱερῶν συμβόλων ἀποσκευαζομένοις καὶ ἱκανοῖς διαβαίνειν ἁπλότητι νοῦ καὶ θεωρητικῆς δυνάμεως ἐπιτηδειότητι πρὸς τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ὑπερφυῆ καὶ ὑπεριδρυμένην τῶν συμβόλων ἀλήθειαν. Ἄλλως τε καὶ τοῦτο ἐννοῆσαι χρή, τὸ διττὴν εἶναι τὴν τῶν θεολόγων παράδοσιν, τὴν μὲν ἀπόρρητον καὶ μυστικήν, τὴν δὲ ἐμφανῆ καὶ γνωριμωτέραν, καὶ τὴν μὲν συμβολικὴν καὶ τελεστικήν, τὴν δὲ φιλόσοφον καὶ ἀποδεικτικήν· καὶ συμπέπλεκται τῷ ·ητῷ τὸ ἄρρητον. Καὶ τὸ μὲν πείθει καὶ καταδεῖται τῶν λεγομένων τὴν ἀλήθειαν, τὸ δὲ δρᾷ καὶ ἐνιδρύει τῷ θεῷ ταῖς ἀδιδάκτοις μυσταγωγίαις. Καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἁγιωτάτων μυστηρίων τελετὰς οἱ τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἢ τῆς νομικῆς παραδόσεως ἱερομύσται τῶν θεοπρεπῶν ἀπέσχοντο συμβόλων· ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς πανιερωτάτους ἀγγέλους δι' αἰνιγμάτων τὰ θεῖα μυστικῶς προάγοντας ὁρῶμεν καὶ αὐτὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐν παραβολαῖς θεολογοῦντα καὶ τὰ θεουργὰ μυστήρια παραδιδόντα διὰ τυπικῆς τρα πεζώσεως. Καὶ γὰρ ἦν εἰκὸς οὐ μόνον ἄχραντα τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀποσεσῶσθαι τὰ ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ζωὴν ἀμέριστον ἅμα καὶ μεριστὴν ὑπάρχουσαν οἰκείως ἑαυτῇ τὰς θείας ἐλλάμπεσθαι γνώσεις καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀπαθὲς τῆς ψυχῆς εἰς τὰ ἁπλᾶ καὶ ἐνδότατα τῶν θεοειδῶν ἀγαλμάτων ἀφορίσαι θεάματα, τὸ δὲ παθητικὸν αὐτῆς συμφυῶς θεραπεύειν ἅμα καὶ ἀνατείνειν ἐπὶ τὰ θειότατα τοῖς προμεμηχανημένοις