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And super-celestial lights: Note that he calls both all souls and all intellects super-celestial lights, and says that all these living essences are united, as was said in the example of the many lamps in a certain house being united with one another both unmixedly and unconfusedly, being both godlike and partaking, in proportion to themselves, of the super-united union of God, which unions, that is, are among the incorporeal beings, which also pass through one another without confusion.

§ 5. Of super-essential theogony: Note that he calls the Father super-essential theogony and source, and that he does not reverse the names.

Both unions and distinctions: He now theologizes concerning the ineffable Trinity up to the procession of three hypostases, that God the Father, moved timelessly and lovingly, proceeded 14S_070 into a distinction of hypostases, remaining both impartibly and undiminishedly in His own totality, super-united and super-simplified, His own effulgence having proceeded into existence as a living image, and the all-holy Spirit proceeding from the Father in an adorable and super-eternal manner, as the Lord mystically teaches; and by goodness the cause and source of all was multiplied into a three-hypostatic thearchy. These things Gregory the Theologian also says in his treatises Against Eunomius. And there is also, according to another account, a divine distinction, the procession of God through the abundance of goodness into the multiplicity of the invisible and visible creation. And the creative providences and goodnesses are common to the three-hypostatic and distinct unity; for the all-sovereign Trinity comes to be in the participation of those able to participate both uncontainedly and unparticipatedly; for each indicates the same thing; for God is participated in uncontainedly, not being held in place by the participant, nor being participated in sensibly, but being whole in the participation of each and set apart from all; just as when a loud voice sounds, all who are present participate according to their own capacity, both man and infant and irrational creatures, but some more robustly, others more faintly, in relation to the activity of hearing, and the voice is participated in, while remaining in itself unparticipated.

From the participations and the participants: In essence, the divinity is not participated in, nor is it conceived; but it is participated in, in that all things are from it, and are held together by it so as to exist.

In each of the impressions: He speaks paradigmatically of how God is participated in unparticipatedly.

§ 6. The seal is not: Antithesis and resolution from the example of the seal.

14S_072 Impressions: Here he calls the imprints 'impressions'. And neither are they counter-types: Like stones and wood, or again things of a moist substance, none of which

accepts the seal from a ring. But it is distinguished: Note that the... of the holy Trinity is distinguished

incarnation of the Word wholly and truly. That which is according to us: Here, having again taken up the matter of the economy, to God the Word

he attributes this, with neither the Father nor the Spirit having communed in it, except by will alone. But note the precise account of the economy, that the super-essential God the Word was made substance unchangeably, since he remained God, and was made substance according to us from us wholly, that is, having truly possessed a body and a rational soul, and that God the Word is truly the one who suffered, that is, in the flesh, and that all the things in the economy are His human divine-work, and that the Father did not commune in these things, nor the Holy Spirit, except by the good pleasure and will for the incarnation and for the

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Καί ὑπερουράνια φῶτα: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι καί τάς ψυχάς καί τούς νόας ἅπαντας ὑπερουράνια φῶτα καλεῖ, καί φησιν ἑνοῦσθαι τάς ζωούσας οὐσίας ταύτας ἁπάσας, ὡς εἴρηται ἐν τῷ παραδείγματι τῶν ἐν οἴκῳ τινί πολλῶν λαμπτήρων ἀλλήλοις ἀμιγῶς τε καί ἀσυγχύτως ἑνουμένων, θεοειδεῖς τε οὔσας καί μετεχούσας ἀναλόγως ἑαυτοῖς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑπερηνωμένης ἑνώσεως, ἅστινας, ἑνώσεις δηλονότι, ἐπί τά ἀσώματα, ἅ καί δι' ἀλλήλων ἀσυγχύτως χωρεῖ.

§ 5. Ὑπερουσίου θεογονίας: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι ὑπερούσιον θεογονίαν καί πηγήν τόν Πατέρα καλεῖ, καί ὅτι οὐκ ἀντιστρέφει τά ὀνόματα.

Ἑνώσεις τε καί διακρίσεις: Τά περί τῆς ἀφράστου Τριάδος μέχρι τριῶν ὑποστάσεων προόδου νῦν θεολογεῖ, ὅτιπερ ὁ Θεός καί Πατήρ, κινηθείς ἀχρόνως καί ἀγαπητικῶς, προῆλθεν 14S_070 εἰς διάκρισιν ὑποστάσεων, ἀμερῶς τε καί ἀμειώτως μείνας ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ ὁλότητι ὑπερηνωμένος καί ὑπερηπλωμένος, τοῦ οἰκείου ἀπαυγάσματος εἰς ὕπαρξιν προελθόντος, ὡς εἰκόνος ζώσης, καί τοῦ παναγίου Πνεύματος προσκυνητῶς καί ὑπεραεννάως ἐκπορευομένου ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, ὡς μυσταγωγεῖ ὁ Κύριος· ἀγαθότητι δέ ἐπληθύνθη ἐπί τρισυπόστατον θεαρχίαν ἡ αἰτία πάντων καί πηγή. Ταῦτα καί ὁ θεολόγος Γρηγόριος ἐν τοῖς Κατά Εὐνομίου λόγοις φησίν. Ἔστι δέ καί κατά ἄλλον λόγον θεία διάκρισις, ἡ διά πλῆθος ἀγαθότητος πρόοδος τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰς τήν πολυείδειαν τῆς δημιουργίας τῆς ἀοράτου καί ὁρατῆς. Κοιναί δέ εἰσι τῆς τρισυποστάτου καί διακεκριμένης ἑνάδος αἱ δημιουργικαί πρόνοιαί τε καί ἀγαθότητες· ἡ γάρ παμβασιλίς Τριάς ἐν μεθέξει τῶν δυναμένων μετέχειν γίνεται ἀσχέτως τε καί ἀμεθέκτως· ταὐτόν γάρ δηλοῖ ἑκάτερον· μετέχεται γάρ ὁ Θεός ἀσχέτως οὐ κατεχόμενος ἐν τόπῳ τῷ μετέχοντι, οὐδέ αἰσθητῶς μετεχόμενος, ἀλλ' ὅλος ἐν μετοχῇ ἑκάστου ὤν καί ἐξῃρημένος τῶν ἁπάντων· ὥσπερ φωνῆς μεγάλης γενομένης ἅπαντες μετέχουσιν οἱ παρόντες κατά τήν οἰκείαν δύναμιν, καί ἀνήρ καί νήπιον καί ἄλογα, ἀλλ' οἱ μέν ἐρρωμενέστερον, οἱ δέ ἀμυδρότερον, πρός τήν τῆς ἀκουστικῆς ἐνέργειαν, καί ἔστι μεθεκτή ἡ φωνή, καί ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς ἀμέθεκτος μείνασα.

Ἐκ τῶν μετοχῶν καί τῶν μετεχόντων: Τό κατ' οὐσίαν μέν ἡ θεότης οὐ μετέχεται, οὔτε νοεῖται· μεθεκτή δέ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ ἐξ αὐτῆς εἶναι τά πάντα, καί ὑπ' αὐτῆς συνέχεσθαι εἰς τό εἶναι.

Ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἑκτυπωμάτων: Παραδειγματικῶς φησι, πῶς ἀμεθέκτως μετέχεται ὁ Θεός.

§ 6. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ σφραγίς: Ἀντίθεσις καί λύσις ἐκ τοῦ παραδείγματος τῆς σφραγῖδος.

14S_072 Ἀπομόργματα: Ἀπομόργματα ἐνταῦθα τά ἐκτυπώματα λέγει. Καί μήτε ἀντίτυπα: Ὡς λίθοι καί ξύλα, ἤ πάλιν τά τῆς ὑγρᾶς οὐσίας, ὧν οὐδέν

ἐπιδέχεται τήν ἐκ δακτυλίου σφραγῖδα. ∆ιακέκριται δέ: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι διακέκριται τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος ἡ

ἐνανθρώπησις τοῦ Λόγου ὁλικῶς καί ἀληθῶς. Τό καθ' ἡμᾶς: Ἐνταῦθα περί τῆς οἰκονομίας πάλιν διαλαβών, τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῳ

ταύτην προσάπτει, μήτε Πατρός, μήτε τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐπικοινωνησάντων, πλήν κατά βουλήν μόνην. Σημείωσαι δέ τήν ἀκριβῆ τῆς οἰκονομίας διήγησιν, ὅτι οὐσιώθη ὁ ὑπερούσιος Θεός Λόγος ἀναλλοιώτως, ἐπεί μεμένηκε Θεός, καί οὐσιώθη καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἡμῶν ὁλικῶς, τουτέστι, σῶμα καί ψυχήν λογικήν κατά ἀλήθειαν ἐσχηκώς, καί ὅτι Θεός Λόγος ἐστί κατ' ἀλήθειαν ὁ παθών, δηλονότι σαρκί, καί ὅτι ἀνθρωπική αὐτοῦ ἐστι θεουργία πάντα τά ἐν τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ, καί ὅτι οὐκ ἐκοινώνησεν εἰς ταῦτα Πατήρ, οὔτε τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, εἰ μή τῇ εὐδοκίᾳ καί βουλήσει τῆς σαρκώσεως καί εἰς τό