filled with good things. And we consider the reclining a repose from many labors and a life free from harm and a divine way of life in the light and land of the living, filled with every sacred well-being and an abundant supply of all kinds of blessed good things, according to which they are filled with all gladness, from this Jesus who makes them rejoice and reclines them and ministers to them and bestows eternal rest and distributes the fulfillment of good things while also bestowing it abundantly. But you will seek, I know well, for the praised sleep of God and His waking to be explained; and when we say that divine sleep is the transcendence of God and His having no communion with the things of which He has providence, but that waking is His attention to providing for those in need of instruction or salvation, you will move on to other theological symbols. Therefore, thinking it superfluous to seem to say other things by repeating the same things to the same people, and at the same time having resolved to be persuaded by you in good things, we cease the matters of the letter up to what has been said, having set forth, as I think, even superfluous things beyond what was owed to your letters. But we are sending our entire Symbolic Theology, in which you will find, along with the house of wisdom, the seven pillars clearly explained, and its solid food divided into sacrifices and loaves; and what the mixture of the wine is, and again, what the resulting intoxication from the drunkenness of God is, and the very things now mentioned have been more thoroughly articulated in it. And it is, I think, a good discoverer of all symbolic theologies and is in agreement with the sacred traditions and truths of the oracles.

TO JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST, EXILED TO THE ISLAND OF PATMOS

I greet you, the sacred soul, beloved, and this for me is something special towards you, beyond the many. Hail, truly beloved, greatly beloved by Him who is truly the lover, the desired, and the beloved. What wonder is it, if Christ speaks the truth, and the unjust drive the disciples out of the cities, they themselves assigning to themselves what is according to their worth, and the accursed are separated and depart from the saints? Truly the visible things are manifest images of the invisible. For not even in the ages to come will God be the cause of the just separations from Himself, but those who have completely separated themselves from God. Just as we see others from this point on already becoming with God, since being lovers of truth, they withdraw from attachment to material things, and in complete freedom from all evils and in divine love for all good things they love peace and sanctification and from the present life they offer the first fruits of the life to come, conducting themselves in a manner worthy of angels in the midst of men with all impassibility and divine-naming and holiness and the other good things. Therefore, I would never be so mad as to think that you are suffering anything, but I believe that you perceive the sufferings of the body only in judging them. But as for those who wrong you and think to incorrectly confine the sun of the Gospel, I, justly accusing them, pray that, having desisted from these things which they do against themselves, they may turn to the good and you to themselves

ἀγαθῶν ἀποπεπλησμένα. Καὶ τὴν ἀνάκλισιν ἀνάπαυλαν οἰόμεθα τῶν πολλῶν πόνων καὶ ζωὴν ἀπήμονα καὶ πολιτείαν ἔνθεον ἐν φωτὶ καὶ χώρᾳ ζώντων, ἁπάσης εὐπαθείας ἱερᾶς ἀναπεπλησμένην καὶ παντο δαπῶν καὶ μακαρίων ἀγαθῶν ἄφθονον χορηγίαν, καθ' ἣν εὐφροσύνης ἁπάσης ἀναπίμπλανται, τούτου δὴ τοῦ εὐφραίνειν Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἀνακλί νοντος αὐτοὺς καὶ διακονοῦντος καὶ τὴν αἰωνίαν ἀνάπαυλαν δωρουμένου καὶ τὴν ἀποπλήρωσιν τῶν καλῶν διανέμοντος ἅμα καὶ ἐπιῤῥέοντος. Ἐπιζητήσεις δέ, εὖ οἶδα, καὶ τὸν εὐφημούμενον ὕπνον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν ἐγρήγορσιν ἀναπτυχθῆναι· καὶ ὅταν φῶμεν θεῖον μὲν ὕπνον εἶναι τὸ ἐξῃρημένον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀκοινώνητον ἀπὸ τῶν προνοουμένων, ἐγρή γορσιν δὲ τὴν εἰς τὸ προνοεῖν αὐτοῦ τῶν παιδείας ἢ σωτηρίας δεομένων προσοχήν, ἐπ' ἄλλα θεολογικὰ σύμβολα μετελεύσῃ. ∆ιὸ καὶ περιττὸν οἰηθέντες εἶναι τὸ τὰ αὐτὰ τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπανακυκλοῦν τας ἕτερα δοκεῖν λέγειν, ἅμα δὲ καὶ ὑμῖν εἰς τὰ καλὰ πείθεσθαι συνεγνω κότες, τὰ μὲν τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ἄχρι τῶν εἰρημένων ἀποπαύομεν ἐκτεθεικότες, ὡς οἶμαι, καὶ περιττὰ τῶν τοῖς ὑμετέροις γράμμασιν ἐπωφλημένων. Aὐτὴν δὲ ὅλην ἡμῶν τὴν Συμβολικὴν Θεολογίαν ἀποστέλλομεν, καθ' ἣν εὑρήσεις μετὰ τοῦ τῆς σοφίας οἴκου καὶ τοὺς στύλους τοὺς ἑπτὰ διηυκρινημένους καὶ τὴν στερεὰν αὐτῆς τροφὴν εἰς θύματα καὶ ἄρτους διῃρημένην· καὶ τίς ἡ τοῦ οἴνου κρᾶσις, αὖθίς τε, τίς ἡ ἀπὸ τῆς μέθης τοῦ θεοῦ κραιπάλη, καὶ αὐτὰ δὲ τὰ νῦν εἰρημένα διεξοδικώτερον ἐν αὐτῇ διήρθρωται. Καὶ ἔστιν, ὡς οἶμαι, πασῶν τῶν συμβολικῶν θεολογιῶν εὑρέτις ἀγαθὴ καὶ συμβαίνουσα ταῖς τῶν λογίων ἱεραῖς παραδόσεσι καὶ ἀληθείαις.

ΙΩAΝΝHι ΘEOΛOΓΩι, ΑΠOΣΤOΛΩι ΚAI EΥAΓΓEΛIΣΤHι ΠEΡIOΡIΣΘEΝΤI ΚAΤA ΠAΤΜOΝ ΤHΝ ΝHΣOΝ

Προσαγορεύω σε τὴν ἱερὰν ψυχήν, ἠγαπημένε, καὶ ἔστι μοι τοῦτο πρὸς σὲ παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἰδιαίτερον. Χαῖρε, ἀληθῶς ἠγαπημένε, τῷ ὄντως ἐραστῷ καὶ ἐφετῷ καὶ ἀγαπητῷ λίαν ἠγαπημένε. Τί θαυμαστόν, εἰ Χριστὸς ἀληθεύει καὶ τοὺς μαθητὰς οἱ ἄδικοι τῶν πόλεων ἐξελαύνουσιν αὐτοὶ τὰ κατ' ἀξίαν ἑαυτοῖς ἀπονέμοντες καὶ τῶν ἁγίων οἱ ἐναγεῖς ἀποδιαστελλόμενοι καὶ ἀποφοιτῶντες; Ἀληθῶς ἐμφανεῖς εἰκόνες εἰσὶ τὰ ὁρατὰ τῶν ἀοράτων. Oὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις αἴτιος ἔσται τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ δικαίων ἀφορισμῶν ὁ θεός, ἀλλ' οἱ τοῦ θεοῦ παντελῶς ἑαυτοὺς ἀφορίσαντες. Ὥσπερ καὶ θατέρους ὁρῶμεν ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη μετὰ τοῦ θεοῦ γιγνομένους, ἐπειδὴ ἀληθείας ὄντες ἐρασταί, τῆς προσπαθείας μὲν ἀναχωροῦσι τῶν ὑλικῶν, ἐν πάσῃ δὲ πάντων κακῶν ἐλευθερίᾳ καὶ ἔρωτι θείῳ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἁπάντων εἰρήνην ἀγαπῶσι καὶ τὸν ἁγιασμὸν κἀκ τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ἀπάρχονται τῆς μελλούσης ἀγγελοπρεπῶς ἐν μέσῳ ἀνθρώπων ἐμπολιτευόμενοι ξὺν ἀπαθείᾳ πάσῃ καὶ θεωνυμίᾳ καὶ ἁγιότητι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀγαθοῖς. Ὑμᾶς μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἄν ποτε οὕτω μανείην, ὡς ἡγήσασθαί τι πάσχειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ σώματος πάθη κατὰ μόνον τὸ κρίνειν αὐτὰ διαισθάνεσθαι πιστεύω. Τοὺς δὲ ἀδικοῦντας ὑμᾶς καὶ περιορίζειν οἰομένους οὐκ ὀρθῶς τοῦ Eὐαγγελίου τὸν ἥλιον ἐνδίκως αἰτιώμενος εὔχομαι τούτων ἀφεμένους, ὧν ἐφ' ἑαυτοὺς δρῶσιν, ἐπὶ τἀγαθὸν τραπέσθαι καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς ὑμᾶς