being led up to the super-essential principle of all things, and becoming partakers of the initiating purifications and illuminations and perfections, so far as is permitted to them. For this has been divinely legislated for the divine order as a whole, that the second ranks should partake of the divine illuminations through the first. You will find this expressed in many places by the theologians. For when the divine and paternal philanthropy, having chastened Israel for conversion for the sake of his holy salvation, and having given him over to punishing and unruly nations for correction, by the manifold leading to what is better of those things for which it provides, both released him from captivity and mercifully led him back to his former well-being, one of the theologians, Zechariah, sees one of the first Angels, as I suppose, and who are about God (for, as I said, the name of Angel is common to them all), having learned from God Himself the “Comforting words,” as it is said, concerning this, and another of the subordinate Angels going before to meet the first, as for the reception and participation of illumination, then being initiated by him into the divine will, as by a Hierarch, and being commissioned to initiate the theologian, that “Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a fruitful land by reason of the multitude of men.” But another of the theologians, Ezekiel, says that this was most sacredly legislated by the all-glorious Divinity itself who is borne upon the Cherubim. For, leading Israel, as has been said, by paternal philanthropy through chastening to what is better, with a justice befitting God, he ordained that the innocent be separated from the guilty; into this is first initiated, after the Cherubim, the one girded about the loins with sapphire, who had put on the robe reaching to the feet as a hierarchical symbol, but the remaining angels, who had the axes, the divine order commands to be initiated by the former into the divine judgment concerning this matter. For to the one he said to go through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the innocent men, but to the others, “Go ye into the city after him, and smite, and let not your eyes spare,” and “come not near any man upon whom is the mark.” What might one say concerning the Angel who said to Daniel, “The word went forth,” or concerning the first one himself who took the fire from the midst of the Cherubim, or, what is greater than this for a demonstration of angelic good order, that the Cherubim puts the fire into the hands of him who was clothed in the holy robe, or concerning him who called the most divine Gabriel and said to him, “Make this man to understand the vision,” or whatever else has been said by the sacred theologians concerning the Godlike good order of the celestial Hierarchies, to which the good order of our hierarchy, being assimilated as far as possible, will possess the angelic comeliness as in images, being formed by it and led up to the super-essential order of every hierarchy? IΧ. 1 There remains for our sacred contemplation the order which concludes the angelic hierarchies, that which is formed by the Godlike Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. And first, I think it necessary to speak, as far as I am able, of the explanations of their holy names. For the name of the celestial Principalities signifies their Godlike ruling and leading quality, with a sacred order most suited to the ruling powers, and that they are wholly turned to the principle above all principles, and of others

αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὴν πάντων ὑπερούσιον ἀρχὴν ἀναγομένων καὶ τῶν τελε ταρχικῶν καθάρσεων καὶ φωτισμῶν καὶ τελειώσεων ἐν μετουσίᾳ κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῖς θεμιτὸν γινομένων. Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι καθόλου τῇ θείᾳ ταξιαρχίᾳ θεοπρεπῶς νενομοθετημένον τὸ διὰ τῶν πρώτων τὰ δεύτερα τῶν θεαρ χικῶν μετέχειν ἐλλάμψεων. Eὑρήσεις δὲ τοῦτο καὶ πολλαχοῦ τοῖς θεο λόγοις ἐκπεφασμένον. Ἡνίκα γὰρ ἡ θεία καὶ πατρικὴ φιλανθρωπία τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἐπιστρεπτικῶς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἱερᾶς αὐτοῦ σωτηρίας παιδεύσασα καὶ τιμωροῖς καὶ ἀτιθάσοις ἔθνεσιν εἰς ἐπανόρθωσιν ἐκδεδωκυῖα τῇ παντοίᾳ τῶν προνοουμένων ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταγωγῇ καὶ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἠφίει καὶ πρὸς τὴν προτέραν ἐπιεικῶς ἐπανῆγεν εὐπάθειαν, ὁρᾷ τῶν θεολόγων εἷς ὁ Ζαχαρίας ἕνα τῶν πρώτων ὡς οἶμαι καὶ περὶ θεὸν ἀγγέλων (κοινὸν γὰρ ὡς ἔφην ἐστὶ πᾶσι τὸ τῆς ἀγγελικῆς ἐπωνυμίας) πρὸς αὐτοῦ θεοῦ μαθόντα τοὺς περὶ τούτου «Παρακλητικοὺς» ὡς εἴρηται «λόγους», ἕτερον δὲ τῶν ὑφειμένων ἀγγέλων πρὸς ὑπάντησιν τοῦ πρώτου προ πορευόμενον ὡς πρὸς ἐλλάμψεως ὑποδοχὴν καὶ μετάληψιν, εἶτα πρὸς αὐτοῦ τὴν θείαν βουλὴν ὡς πρὸς ἱεράρχου μυούμενον καὶ τὸ μυῆσαι τὸν θεολόγον ἐπιτρεπόμενον ὅτι «Κατακάρπως κατοικηθήσεται Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀπὸ πλήθους ἀνθρώπων.» Ἕτερος δὲ τῶν θεολόγων Ἰεζεκιὴλ καὶ πρὸς αὐτῆς φησι τοῦτο πανιέρως νενομοθετῆσθαι τῆς τοῖς Χερουβὶμ ἐπιβεβη κυίας ὑπερενδόξου θεότητος. Τὸν γὰρ Ἰσραὴλ ὡς εἴρηται πατρικῇ φι λανθρωπίᾳ διὰ παιδείας ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μετάγουσα δικαιοσύνῃ θεοπρε πεῖ τῶν ὑπευθύνων ἀποκρίνεσθαι τοὺς ἀνευθύνους ἐδικαίωσε· τοῦτο μυεῖται πρῶτος μετὰ τὰ Χερουβὶμ ὁ τὴν ὀσφῦν σαπφείρῳ διεζωσμένος ὃς τὸν ποδήρη κατὰ σύμβολον ἱεραρχικὸν ἐνδεδύκει, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς ἀγγέλους, οἳ τοὺς πελέκεις εἶχον, ἡ θεία ταξιαρχία κελεύει πρὸς τοῦ προτέρου μυεῖσθαι τὴν περὶ τούτου θεοκρισίαν. Τῷ μὲν γὰρ ἔφη μέσην διελθεῖν τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ δοῦναι σημεῖον εἰς τὰ μέτωπα τῶν ἀνευθύνων ἀνδρῶν, τοῖς ἄλλοις δὲ «Πορεύεσθε εἰς τὴν πόλιν ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ καὶ κόπτετε καὶ μὴ φείδεσθε τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑμῶν», «ἐπὶ δὲ πάντας ἐφ' οὕς ἐστι τὸ σημεῖον μὴ ἐγγίσητε.» Τί ἄν τις εἴποι περὶ τοῦ φήσαντος ἀγγέλου τῷ ∆ανιὴλ «Ἐξῆλθεν ὁ λόγος» ἢ περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ πρώτου τὸ πῦρ ἐκ μέσου τῶν Χερουβὶμ ἀνειληφότος ἢ τὸ τούτου περισσότερον εἰς εὐταξίας ἀγγελικῆς ἀπόδειξιν ὅτι τὰ Χερουβὶμ ἐμβάλλει τὸ πῦρ εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ τὴν ἁγίαν στολὴν ἐνδεδυκότος ἢ περὶ τοῦ κεκληκότος τὸν θειότατον Γαβριὴλ καὶ φήσαντος αὐτῷ «Συνέτισον ἐκεῖνον τὴν ὅρασιν» ἢ ὅσα ἄλλα πρὸς τῶν ἱερῶν θεολόγων εἴρηται περὶ τῆς τῶν οὐρανίων ἱεραρχιῶν θεοειδοῦς εὐκοσμίας, πρὸς ἣν ἡ τῆς παρ' ἡμῖν ἱεραρχίας εὐταξία κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἀφομοιουμένη τὴν ἀγγελικὴν εὐπρέπειαν ὡς ἐν εἰκόσιν ἕξει, τυπουμένη δι' αὐτῆς καὶ ἀναγομένη πρὸς τὴν ὑπερούσιον ἁπάσης ἱε ραρχίας ταξιαρχίαν; <IΧ.> <1> Λοιπὸς ἡμῖν εἰς θεωρίαν ἱερὰν διάκοσμος ὁ τὰς ἀγγελικὰς συγ κλείων ἱεραρχίας ὁ πρὸς τῶν θεοειδῶν ἀρχῶν ἀρχαγγέλων τε καὶ ἀγ γέλων διακοσμούμενος. Καὶ πρώτας μὲν εἰπεῖν ἀναγκαῖον οἶμαι κατὰ τὸ ἐμοὶ δυνατὸν τὰς τῶν ἁγίων αὐτῶν ἐπωνυμιῶν ἐκφαντορίας. Ἐκφαίνει γὰρ ἡ μὲν τῶν οὐρανίων ἀρχῶν τὸ θεοειδῶς ἀρχικὸν καὶ ἡγεμονικὸν μετὰ τάξεως ἱερᾶς καὶ ταῖς ἀρχικαῖς πρεπωδεστάτης δυνάμεσι καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὴν ὑπεράρχιον ἀρχὴν αὐτάς τε ὁλικῶς ἐπεστράφθαι καὶ ἑτέρων