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15

to work together with the Son of God on the divine signs. Note these things especially against the Nestorians and the Acephali and the Phantasiasts.

It has been distinguished: This is for that which is according to us and from us to be separated from the triadic and theological Word, being wholly and truly incarnate, that is, the Word of the incarnation and enfleshment of Christ, and to do and suffer as many things as are distinct to His human aspect. He says unpreserved and exceptional, that is, pure and blameless things of his human nature, which are birth, infancy, growth, thirst, toil, grief, a tear, spittle, blood, piercing, corruption, flow, voluntary death, speechlessness, motionlessness, and the like. For in these the Father and the Spirit have in no way or manner partaken, unless someone should say by good pleasure and will.

14S_074 The unchangeable having become: How he says the Word suffered, just as we set forth regarding, "our hands have handled," concerning the Word of life.

§ 7. And to those as mystical things: According to the power existing in the bread and the cup.

Beyond intellectual energy: Concerning things said about God, the sacred mind develops, that is, interprets the thought, the mind being wholly occupied with divine things and remaining untroubled by earthly and passible things, but it does not otherwise attain to divine things themselves, except by a cessation of all intellectual motion concerning beings; for this is what is meant by saying "beyond intellectual energy," that is, when it is encompassed on all sides by the incomprehensibility of God, then it comprehends what is sought.

By participations alone: names are to be understood. And he speaks of participations, of which we partake the provision from God himself.

Hiddenness: Because the name God does not denote essence, nor what God is, but a certain benefaction toward us; and because from the participations granted to us by God, we also make the names concerning God, but what God is, is inconceivable to all; for the divine existence will thus be hymned in some worthy way, when released by us from all energy, even the most active, which is intellectual, it will receive us through holy silence, as we attain to the gifts proceeding from thence; for by will He produces beings, when we stand firmly in the non-distinction of our mind, which he just now called 'knowledge in unknowing.'

Again, that it is fount-like: Note the revered and awesome names concerning the immaculate Trinity, that the Father is fount-like divinity, while the Son and the Holy Spirit are shoots of the God-bearing 14S_076 divinity, that is, of the Father, God-planted, and flowers, and superessential lights. Rather, he says that "shoots" is spoken of in Scripture from the vision of the olive trees of Zechariah, the eleventh of the prophets; for the Seventy say two branches of the olive tree, but the other interpreters, ears of grain and shoots; and "lights," in those things in which it is said, "Father of lights" and "Light from Light." And he calls fatherhood a kind of paternity. At any rate sonship follows; and at any rate the Apostle says, "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named"; for to be and be named fathers and sons flowed from above, from the Father who is by nature Father of the Son, and Father of all creatively and didactically; whence also there are bodiless and intelligible fathers and sons of gods didactically and transcendently among angels and righteous men, as the Apostle also indicates, the proper Father ruling over all fathers, since he also gave such participation, and the Son ruling over all sons, since he also becomes participated in this, as he himself says, "I have manifested your name to men"; because he who has him as Son, the one who said these things, is called Father.

15

συνεργάζεσθαι τῷ Υἱῷ Θεῷ τάς θεοσημείας. Σημείωσαι δέ ταῦτα μάλιστα κατά Νεστοριανῶν καί Ἀκεφάλων καί Φαντασιαστῶν.

∆ιακέκριται: Τοῦτ' ἔστι κεχωρῆσθαι τοῦ τριαδικοῦ καί θεολογικοῦ Λόγου τό καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἡμῶν ὁλικῶς καί ἀληθῶς σαρκωθῆναι, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ὁ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως καί σαρκώσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ Λόγος, καί δρᾶσαι καί παθεῖν ὅσα τῆς ἀνθρωπικῆς αὐτοῦ θεωρίας ἐστίν ἔκκριτα. Ἀδιατήρητά φησι καί ἐξαίρετα, τοῦτ' ἔστιν καθαρά καί ἀδιάβλητα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης αὐτοῦ φύσεως, ἅτινά ἐστι τόκος, νηπιότης, αὔξησις, δίψα, κόπος, λύπη, δάκρυον, πτύελος, αἷμα, τρῆσις, φθορά, ρύσις, ἑκούσιος νέκρωσις, ἀφθεγξία, ἀκινησία, καί τά ὅμοια. Τούτοις γάρ ὁ Πατήρ καί τό Πνεῦμα κατ' οὐδένα τρόπον ἤ λόγον κεκοινώνηκεν, εἰμή τις φαίη κατ' εὐδοκίαν τε καί βούλησιν.

14S_074 Γεγονώς ὁ ἀναλλοίωτος: Πῶς λέγει τόν Λόγον παθεῖν, ὡς καί τό, «αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν» περί τοῦ Λόγου τῆς ζωῆς, ἐξεθέμεθα.

§ 7. Τοῖς δέ ὡς μυστικοῖς: Κατά τήν δύναμιν τήν ἐνυπάρχουσαν ἐν τῷ ἄρτῳ καί τῷ ποτηρίῳ.

Ὑπέρ νοεράν ἐνέργειαν: Τῶν περί Θεοῦ λεγομένων τήν διάνοιαν μέν ἀναπτύσσει ὁ ἱερός νοῦς, ἤγουν ἑρμηνεύει, ὁ τοῖς θείοις διόλου ἐνασχολούμενος, καί τοῖς γηΐνοις καί ἐμπαθέσιν ἀνεπιθολώτως μένων, αὐτοῖς δέ τοῖς θείοις οὐκ ἄλλως ἐπιβάλλει, ἤ κατά ἀπόπαυσιν πάσης κινήσεως νοητικῆς τῶν ὄντων· τοῦτο· γάρ δηλοῖ τό ὑπέρ νοεράν ἐνέργειαν εἰπεῖν, τουτέστιν ὅταν τῷ ἀκαταλήπτῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ πάντοθεν περισχεθῇ, τότε καταλαμβάνει τό ζητούμενον.

Ταῖς μετοχαῖς μόναις: Προσυπακουστέον ὀνόματα. Μετοχάς δέ φησιν, ὧν μετέχομεν τήν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ παροχήν.

Κρυφιότητα: Ὅτι καί τό Θεός ὄνομα οὐ δηλοῖ οὐσίαν, οὐδέ τί ἐστιν ὁ Θεός, ἀλλ' εὐεργεσίαν τινά εἰς ἡμᾶς· καί ὅτι ἐκ τῶν μετοχῶν τῶν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ δωρουμένων ἡμῖν, καί τάς περί Θεοῦ ὀνομασίας ποιούμεθα, τό δέ τί ἐστιν ὁ Θεός, πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἀνεπινόητον· καί γάρ ἡ θεία ὕπαρξις, οὕτως ἀξίως ποσῶς ὑμνηθήσεται, ὅτε πάσης ἐνεργείας, καί τῆς δραστικωτάτης, νοερᾶς δέ, πάντως ὑφ' ἡμῶν ἀπολυθεῖσα, δέξεται ἡμᾶς διά σιγῆς ἁγίας, ἐπιβάλλοντας ταῖς ἐκεῖθεν ἐκφοιτώσαις δωρεαῖς· θελήματι γάρ τά ὄντα παράγει, στάντων ἡμῶν βεβαίως ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἡμετέρου νοῦ ἀδιακρισίᾳ, ἥν ἐκάλεσε πρό μικροῦ 'γνῶσιν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ'.

Πάλιν, ὅτι μέν ἐστι πηγαία: Σημείωσαι τά σεβάσμια καί φρικτά ἐπί τῆς ἀχράντου Τριάδος ὀνόματα, ὅτι πηγαία θεότης ὁ Πατήρ, ὁ δέ Υἱός καί τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον βλαστοί εἰσι τῆς θεογόνου 14S_076 θεότητος, τουτέστι τοῦ Πατρός, θεόφυτοι, καί ἄνθη, καί φῶτα ὑπερούσια. Μᾶλλον δέ βλαστούς φησιν εἰρῆσθαι ἐν τῇ Γραφῆ ἀπό τῆς τῶν ἐλαιῶν ὀπτασίας Ζαχαρίου τοῦ ἑνδεκάτου τῶν προφητῶν· δύο γάρ κλάδους τῆς ἐλαίας φασίν οἱ Ἑβδομήκοντα, οἱ δέ ἄλλοι ἑρμηνευταί στάχυας καί βλαστούς· φῶτα δέ, ἐν οἷς εἴρηται, «Πατρός τῶν φώτων» καί «Φῶς ἐκ φωτός». Πατριάν δέ λέγει τήν οἱονεί πατρότητα. Ἐπιφέρει γοῦν υἱότης· καί γοῦν φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος· «ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριά ἐν οὐρανῷ καί ἐπί γῆς ὀνομάζεται»· τό γάρ εἶναί τε πατέρας καί υἱούς ὀνομάζεσθαι ἄνωθεν ἔρρευσεν, ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός μέν φύσει τοῦ Υἱοῦ ὄντος, Πατρός δέ πάντων δημιουργικῶς καί διδασκαλικῶς· ὅθεν καί ἀσώματοι καί νοητοί θεῶν πατέρες καί υἱοί διδασκαλικῶς καί ὑπερκειμένως ἐν ἀγγέλοις καί δικαίοις, ὡς καί ὁ Ἀπόστολος δηλοῖ, πάντων τῶν πατέρων ἄρχοντος τοῦ κυρίως Πατρός, ἅτε καί τήν τοιαύτην μέθεξιν δόντος, καί πάντων τῶν υἱῶν ἄρχοντος τοῦ Υἱοῦ, ἅτε καί αὐτοῦ μεθεκτοῦ ἐν τούτῳ γινομένου, ὡς αὐτός φησιν· «ἐφανέρωσά σου τό ὄνομα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις»· ὅτι καλεῖται Πατήρ ὁ αὐτόν ἔχων Υἱόν, τόν ταῦτα εἰπόντα.