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of the stars conceived as incorporeal powers, excelling in the power and substance of intelligible light, there happens to be a great difference, incomprehensible to us, and innumerable tribes and kinds, 7.15.13 but not so to the Maker of all. Wherefore also, one of the theologians, setting forth that they are comprehensible to God alone, says: ‘Ten thousand times ten thousand ministered to him, and a thousand thousands stood before him,’ indicating by the number that they are comprehensible to God, but by the quantity that they are infinite to us; for which reason also we are accustomed to call the many and infinite things 'myriad,' by way of emphatic hyperbole. 7.15.14 But another prophet, discoursing on their substance, thus theologizes about the Maker of all things, saying: ‘O Lord my God, you have been magnified exceedingly; you have put on confession and majesty, clothing yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heaven as a curtain; who makes his angels spirits, 7.15.15 and his ministers a flame of fire.’ Do not think that the things mentioned partake of the substance of our mortal and earthly fire, nor indeed of the spirits of the air from an irrational nature; but just as they also name God himself, who is by nature incorporeal and immaterial and mind itself, or rather above mind and above all reason, but is called figuratively spirit and fire and light and by certain other names suitable for mortal ears, so indeed the divine oracles, having named the intelligible and rational substances angels and archangels and spirits and divine powers and heavenly hosts, principalities and authorities and thrones and dominions, as it were ten thousand upon ten thousand stars and luminaries, say that the 'Sun of 7.15.16 righteousness' and his consort, the Holy Spirit, rule over all and preside. And the divine and prophetic scripture exhorts us to render the fitting hymn and appropriate theology for all things at once—for him, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for intelligible and rational beings together with the visible things in heaven, for heaven itself and whatever it contains within itself—to the one God who is over all, the universal king and universal leader through all and in all, and the cause of all, as the creator, maker, and provider for all, saying: 7.15.17 ‘Praise God from the heavens, praise him in the highest, praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his powers, praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all the stars and the light, praise him, you heavens of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. He established them for ever and for ever and ever; he made a decree, and it shall not pass away.’ 7.15.18 Such are the doctrines of the Hebrews, which we have preferred to the polytheistic and demonic error of the Greeks, knowing the divine powers to be servants and ministers of the universal King, God, and honoring them as is fitting, but confessing only God and worshipping him alone, whom heaven itself and all things in heaven and beyond heaven were taught to worship and hymn and theologize; because even the only-begotten of God himself and firstborn of all, the beginning of all things, exhorts us to regard his own Father alone as true God and to worship him alone.

7.16.1 10. CONCERNING THE ADVERSARY POWERS

It follows to examine what the oracles of the Hebrews hand down concerning the adversary power. The divine powers, then, presiding over the whole world by the will of the Father, and the ‘ministering spirits for service

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ἀσωμάτοις δυνάμεσιν ἐπινοουμένων ἄστρων, φωτὸς νοεροῦ δυνάμει τε καὶ οὐσίᾳ διαπρεπόντων, πολλή τις καὶ ἡμῖν ἀπερινόητος διαφορὰ τυγχάνει ἀνήριθμά τε φῦλα καὶ γένη, 7.15.13 ἀλλ' οὐ καὶ τῷ τῶν ὅλων ποιητῇ. διὸ καὶ τὸ καταληπτὸν αὐτῶν μόνῳ τῷ θεῷ παριστάς τις θεολόγων φησί· «Μύριαι μυριάδες ἐλειτούργουν αὐτῷ καὶ χίλιαι χιλιάδες παρειστήκεισαν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ,» διὰ μὲν τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ δηλῶν τὸ τῷ θεῷ καταληπτὸν αὐτῶν, διὰ δὲ τοῦ ποσοῦ τὸ ἡμῖν ἄπειρον· παρ' ὃ καὶ εἰώθαμεν ὀνομάζειν καθ' ὑπερβολῆς ἔμφασιν τὰ πολλὰ καὶ ἄπειρα μυρία. 7.15.14 ἄλλος δέ τις προφήτης περὶ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτῶν διεξιὼν ὧδέ πως τὸν ποιητὴν τῶν ἁπάντων θεολογεῖ, φάσκων· «Κύριε ὁ θεός μου, ὡς ἐμεγαλύνθης σφόδρα, ἐξομολόγησιν καὶ μεγαλοπρέπειαν ἐνεδύσω, ἀναβαλλόμενος φῶς ὡς ἱμάτιον, ἐκτείνων τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡσεὶ δέρριν· ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα 7.15.15 καὶ τοὺς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ πυρὸς φλόγα.» μή τοι νομίσῃς τοῦ παρ' ἡμῖν θνητοῦ καὶ γεώδους πυρὸς οὐσίας μετέχειν τὰ δηλούμενα μηδέ γε τῶν ἐξ ἀλόγου φύσεως ἀέρος πνευμάτων· ἀλλ' οἷόν περ καὶ αὐτὸν ὀνομάζουσι τὸν θεόν, ἀσώματον μὲν καὶ ἄϋλον καὶ αὐτόνουν, μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπὲρ νοῦν καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντα λόγον ὄντα τὴν φύσιν, τροπικώτερον δὲ καὶ πνεῦμα καὶ πῦρ καὶ φῶς καὶ ἄλλαις τισὶ προσηγορίαις θνηταῖς ἀκοαῖς καταλλήλοις ὀνομαζό μενον, ἀγγέλους δῆτα καὶ ἀρχαγγέλους καὶ πνεύματα καὶ θείας δυνάμεις καὶ στρατιὰς οὐρανίους ἀρχάς τε καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ θρόνους καὶ κυριότητας, ὡς ἂν μυρίους ἐπὶ μυρίοις ἀστέρας τε καὶ φωστῆρας τὰς νοερὰς καὶ λογικὰς οὐσίας οἱ θεῖοι λόγοι προσειπόντες, ἄρχειν ἁπάντων καὶ ἐπιστατεῖν τὸν τῆς 7.15.16 «δικαιοσύνης» φασὶν «ἥλιον» καὶ τὸ τούτου σύζυγον ἅγιον πνεῦμα. τὰ δὲ πάντα ἀθρόως αὐτῷ υἱῷ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, νοερά τε ζῷα καὶ λογικὰ σὺν καὶ τοῖς κατ' οὐρανὸν φαινομένοις οὐρανόν τε αὐτὸν καὶ ὅσα ἔνδον οὗτος ἐν αὑτῷ περιλαβὼν ἔχει, μόνῳ τῷ ἐπὶ πάντων θεῷ, τῷ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσι παμβασιλεῖ καὶ πανηγεμόνι καὶ αἰτίῳ τῶν ὅλων, ὡς ἂν δημιουργῷ πάντων ποιητῇ τε καὶ φροντιστῇ τὸν πρέποντα ὕμνον καὶ τὴν προσήκουσαν θεολογίαν ἡ θεία καὶ προφητικὴ γραφὴ νέμειν παρακελεύεται, φάσκουσα· 7.15.17 «Αἰνεῖτε τὸν θεὸν ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν πᾶσαι αἱ δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν πάντα τὰ ἄστρα καὶ τὸ φῶς, αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν οἱ οὐρανοὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν, καὶ τὰ ὕδατα τὰ ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν αἰνεσάτωσαν τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου, ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπε, καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο, καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν. ἔστησεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, πρόσταγμα ἔθετο, καὶ οὐ παρελεύσεται.» 7.15.18 Τοιαῦτα καὶ τὰ παρ' Ἑβραίων δόγματα, ἃ τῆς Ἑλλήνων πολυθέου καὶ δαιμονικῆς πλάνης προτετιμήκαμεν, θείας μὲν δυνάμεις ὑπηρετικὰς τοῦ παμβασιλέως θεοῦ καὶ λειτουργικὰς εἰδότες καὶ κατὰ τὸ προσῆκον τιμῶντες, μόνον δὲ θεὸν ὁμολογοῦντες καὶ μόνον ἐκεῖνον σέβοντες, ὃν καὶ αὐτὸς οὐρανὸς καὶ τὰ κατ' οὐρανὸν ἅπαντα τά τε ἐπέκεινα οὐρανοῦ σέβειν καὶ ὑμνεῖν καὶ θεολογεῖν ἐδιδάχθη· ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ μονογενὴς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πρωτότοκος τῶν ὅλων, ἡ πάντων ἀρχή, τὸν αὑτοῦ πατέρα μόνον ἡγεῖσθαι θεὸν ἀληθῆ καὶ μόνον σέβειν ἡμῖν παρακελεύεται.

7.16.1 ιʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΤΙΚΕΙΜΕΝΩΝ ∆ΥΝΑΜΕΩΝ

Ἕπεται καὶ περὶ τῆς ἐναντίας δυνάμεως τίνα ποτὲ τὰ Ἑβραίων λόγια παραδίδωσιν ἐπισκέψασθαι. τὰς μὲν οὖν θείας δυνάμεις, νεύματι τοῦ πατρὸς τῷ σύμπαντι ἐφεστώσας κόσμῳ, τά τε «λειτουργικὰ πνεύματα εἰς διακονίαν