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The intelligible and the intellectual: In the proper sense, intelligible is one thing, and intellectual is another. For the intelligible is a kind of nourishment for the intellectual, since that which is understood, which is intelligible, is greater than and pre-conceived by that which understands, which is intellectual. Therefore, the orders that are superior and near to God should properly be called intelligible, and the subordinate ones intellectual, since they understand the superior ones; but not because the things understood are intelligible, must it be thought that they themselves do not understand; for they themselves also understand, since they are minds and essences of life and of the highest mind, having been created, but also there the energies are hypostatic and essences; for every motion and rest there are indeed hypostatic, and living powers, and superior to fluid and bodily alterations; therefore they are understood, as immaterial, but they understand existing things, as incorporeal and supermundane minds illumined from above with the principles of existing things and transmitting them mystically to the subordinate angels, intelligibly and revealingly. But you can also understand 'powers' and 'energies' in another way; for 'powers,' because even before things appeared in creation, all things pre-existed in potentiality in God, destined to be brought into being by him; and 'energies,' because creation was also brought forth to action. And note also the matter of fluid alteration as I have interpreted it, since angels are also mutable, that is, according to will, and not essence, as the devil and his order testify, having fallen from heaven, as we also have it in Job.

Of corruption and death: For these are properties of bodies. They are fittingly illumined: Because the incorporeal and heavenly beings are understood and understand. Both guard and hearth: Abode and hearth, in parallel, signify the same thing.

Philo the Jew, in his discourse On the flaming sword and the cherubim, says thus: But the abode, standing firm among the parts of the world, was aptly named hearth by the ancients. And this he also says above, around the end of the first chapter, in the sixth paragraph.

§ 2. From there to them: Note the things concerning the angels, and that immaterial things both move within one another without confusion and move away, and that there are, as it were, first and second degrees and orders, and that 14S_102 the divine minds there revolve around themselves, not with some bodily spiral motion, but a supermundane and intellectual one, and of such a kind as mind is wont to revolve, proceeding from itself into conceptions and returning to itself, not indeed moving outside itself in a scattered and divided manner; this is also alluded to by the many-eyed wheels from the divine Ezekiel; and that concerning divine love they are in sameness and extremity; and sameness must be understood as the unceasing attention to God, and extremity, understand it as the progression of their understanding and essence somehow already into deification; and the unions, those of the intelligible beings with one another, understand it as the God-befitting love for one another, which, being divine and unitive, joins them, not heaping them up together, but lovingly binding them. And of existing things and of intelligible things, as well as of intelligible things, as well as of sensible things spoken of homonymously, some are united and interpenetrated, while others are divided and in juxtaposition, as if in a heap; and of intelligible things, the united are, for example, a living being and light and the intelligible world and such things, but the divided and in juxtaposition are, for example, an army, an order, a family, a choir; and in the case of sensible things, union is a living being, a tree, the world, and division by accumulation is a flock, a people, a pile, a choir.

In the work On the angelic: Behold, another work of Dionysius is sought, On the angelic properties and orders.

The angel-befitting: He speaks of angel-befitting purifications, such as that of Isaiah and that of Ezekiel eating the scroll of the book in ecstasy. And he speaks of the perfecting work of angels, as in the case of Daniel and the angel who interpreted it for him, and concerning the shepherd who perfected Hermas, as we have read there in the 14S_104

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Αἱ νοηταί καί νοεραί: Κατά κυριότητα ἕτερόν ἐστι νοητόν, καί ἕτερον νοερόν. Τό γάρ νοητόν τροφή οἷά τις τοῦ νοεροῦ ἐστιν, εἴπερ τό νοούμενον, ὅ ἐστι νοητόν, μεῖζόν ἐστι καί προεπινοούμενον τοῦ νοοῦντος, ὅ ἐστι νοερόν. Τά μέν οὖν ὑπερκείμενα καί προσεχῆ τῷ Θεῷ τάγματα νοητά κυρίως λεκτέον, τά δέ ὑποβεβηκότα νοερά, ἅτε νοοῦντα τά ὑπερκείμενα· οὐχ ὅτι δέ νοητά ἐστι τά νοούμενα, νομιστέον αὐτά μή νοεῖν· νοεῖ γάρ καί 14S_100 αὐτά, ἐπειδή νόες εἰσί καί οὐσίαι ζωῆς καί νοῦ ἀνωτάτου δημιουργηθεῖσαι, ἀλλά καί ἐνέργειαι ἐκεῖ ἐνυπόστατοί εἰσι καί οὐσίαι· πᾶσα γάρ κίνησις καί ἠρεμία ἐκεῖ μέντοι ἐνυπόστατοί εἰσι, καί δυνάμεις ζῶσαι, καί τῶν ρευστῶν καί σωματικῶν ἀλλοιώσεων ὑπέρτεραι· διό νοοῦνται μέν, ὡς ἄϋλοι, νοοῦσι δέ τά ὄντα, ὡς νόες ἀσώματοι καί ὑπερκόσμιοι ἄνωθεν ἐλλαμπόμενοι τούς περί τῶν ὄντων λόγους καί διαβιβάζοντες αὐτούς μυστικῶς εἰς τούς ὑποβεβηκότας ἀγγέλους νοητῶς καί ἀποκαλυπτικῶς. ∆ύνῃ δέ καί ἄλλως νοῆσαι τό 'δυνάμεις' καί 'ἐνέργειαι'· δυνάμεις μέν γάρ, ὅτι, καί μήπω τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει φανέντων, δυνάμει πάντα ἐν τῷ Θεῷ προϋφεστήκει, μέλλοντα παράγεσθαι δι' αὐτοῦ εἰς τό εἶναι· ἐνέργειαι δέ, ὅτι καί πρός ἔργον ἡ δημιουργία παρήχθη. Σημείωσαι δέ καί τό τῆς ρευστῆς ἀλλοιώσεως ὡς ἡρμήνευσα, ἐπειδή τρεπτοί καί οἱ ἄγγελοι, κατά γνώμην δηλονότι, καί οὐκ οὐσίαν, ὡς μαρτυρεῖ ὁ διάβολος καί τό τάγμα αὐτοῦ, πεσών ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ὡς καί ἐν τῷ Ἰώβ ἔχομεν.

Φθορᾶς καί θανάτου: Ταῦτα γάρ σωμάτων ἴδια. Οἰκείως ἐλλάμπονται: Ὅτι τά ἀσώματα καί οὐράνια νοοῦνται καί νοοῦσι. Καί φρουρά καί ἑστία: Μονή καί ἑστία ἐκ παραλλήλου ταὐτόν σημαίνουσι.

Φίλων ὁ Ἰουδαῖος ἐν τῷ Περί τῆς φλογίνης ρομφαίας καί τῶν χερουβίμ λόγῳ φησίν οὕτως· Ἡ δέ μονή, τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν ἑστῶσα παγίως, ἑστία πρός τῶν παλαιῶν εὐθυβόλως ὠνόμασται. Τοῦτο δέ καί ἄνω φησί, περί τό τέλος τοῦ πρώτου κεφαλαίου, ἐν τῇ ἕκτη παραγραφῇ.

§ 2. Ἐκεῖθεν αὐταῖς: Σημείωσαι τά περί τῶν ἀγγέλων, καί ὅτι τά ἄϋλα καί ἐν ἀλλήλοις χωρεῖ ἀσυγχύτως καί ἀποχωρεῖ, καί οἱονεί βαθμός καί τάξεις εἰσίν πρῶται καί δεύτεραι, καί ὅτι 14S_102 οἱ θεῖοι νόες ἐκεῖ περί ἑαυτούς ἑλίσσονται, οὐχ ἕλιξίν τινα σωματικήν, ἀλλ' ὑπερκόσμιον καί νοεράν, καί οἵαν πεφυκε νοῦς ἑλίττεσθαι, ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ προϊών εἰς ἐπινοήσεις καί εἰς ἑαυτόν ἀναστρέφων, οὑ μήν ἕξω ἑαυτοῦ χωρῶν σκεδαστῶς καί μεριστῶς· τοῦτο αἰνίττονται καί οἱ παρά τοῦ θεσπεσἰου Ἰεζεκιήλ τροχοί πολυόμματοι· καί ὅτι περί τόν θεῖον ἔρωτα ἐν ταὐτότητί εἰσι καί ἀκρότητι· ταὐτότητα δέ νοητέον τήν ἀναπόστατον πρός Θεόν προσοχήν, ἀκρότητα δέ, τήν τῆς νοήσεως αὐτῶν καί οὐσίας ἤδη πως εἰς θέωσιν πρόοδον νόησον· καί τάς ἑνώσεις δέ, τάς πρός ἀλλήλας τῶν νοητῶν, τόν πρός ἀλλήλους θεοπρεπῆ νόησον ἔρωτα, ὅς, θεῖος ὤν καί ἑνοποιός, συνάπτει αὐτούς, οὐ σωρηδόν συγκομίζων, ἀλλ' ἀγαπητῶς συνδεσμῶν. Τῶν δέ ὄντων καί τῶν νοητῶν, ὡς καί τῶν νοητῶν, ὡς καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὁμωνύμως λεγομένων, τά μέν ἔστιν ἡνωμένα καί ἀλληλουχούμενα, τά δέ διῃρημένα καί ἐν παραθέσει, οἷον σωρηδόν· καί νοητῶν μέν ἡνωμένα, οἷον ζῶον καί φῶς καί νοητός κόσμος καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα, διῃρημένα δέ καί ἐν παραθέσει, οἷον στρατιά, τάξις, πατριά, χορός· ἐπί δέ αἰσθητῶν ἕνωσις, ζῶον, δένδρον, κόσμος, διαίρεσις δέ κατά σωρείαν, ποίμνη, δῆμος σωρός, χορός.

Ἐν τῷ Περί τῶν ἀγγελικῶν: Ἰδού ἄλλο πόνημα ∆ιονυσίου ζητεῖται, Περί τῶν ἀγγελικῶν ἰδιοτήτων καί τάξεων.

Αἱ ἀγγελοπρεπεῖς: Ἀγγελοπρεπεῖς καθάρσεις φησίν, οἷον τήν Ἠσαΐου καί τήν Ἰεζεκιήλ φαγόντος ἐν ἐκστάσει τήν κεφαλίδα τοῦ βιβλίου. Τελεσιουργίαν δέ ἀγγέλων λέγει, ὡς ἐπί τοῦ ∆ανιήλ καί τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ ἑρμηνεύσαντος αὐτό, καί περί τοῦ ποιμένος τόν Ἑρμᾶν τελειώσαντος, ὡς ἐκεῖ ἀνέγνωμεν ἐν τῷ 14S_104