TO THE FELLOW PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS

 being illuminated super-cosmically by them for the hymns of the Godhead and being conformed to the sacred hymnologies, so as to see the divine lights

 For all knowledges are of things that are and have their limit in things that are, but It is beyond all essence and is removed from all knowledge. <5>

 <7> Thus, therefore, to the Cause of all and which is above all, both the nameless will apply and all the names of the things that are, so that it may

 the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will, and that It is the Spirit that gives life? That the ent

 to the one-principled Trinity also is common the super-essential existence, the super-divine divinity, the super-good goodness, the identity beyond al

 has partaken of the Word, unless someone might say according to the good-pleasing and man-loving common will and according to all the transcendent and

 Jesus, he says in his compiled Theological Outlines: <10> The all-causing and fulfilling Godhead of the Son, which preserves the parts in harmony with

 <III.> <1> And first, if you please, let us investigate the name Good, which reveals the whole procession of God's emanations, invoking the Good-Pri

 to the hierarchs, when we too, as you know, both yourself and many of our sacred brethren, had gathered for the sight of the life-originating and God-

 communions, the unconfused distinctions, the powers of the subordinate that lead up to the superior, the providences of the senior for the secondary,

 moves and nourishes and increases and perfects and purifies and renews. And light is the measure and number of hours, of days, and of all our time. Fo

 impartations and as calling all things to itself, whence it is also called Beauty, and as gathering all in all into one, and Beautiful as being All-Be

 the beautiful and the good is that which is beyond all rest and motion. Wherefore every rest and motion and that from which and in which and to which

 <12> And yet it has seemed to some of our sacred writers that the name 'eros' is even more divine than that of 'agape'. And the divine Ignatius also w

 an eternal circle through the Good, from the Good and in the Good and to the Good, moving about in an unerring convolution and in the same and accordi

 Whence then is evil? one might say. For if evil does not exist, virtue and vice are the same thing, and the whole is the same as the whole, and the pa

 irrational desire, in this it neither exists nor desires existing things, but it nevertheless partakes of the good by virtue of the faint echo itself

 simply nor in respect to time. <22> But neither is evil in angels. For if the good-like angel proclaims the divine goodness, being secondarily by part

 <24> But would someone say that souls are evil? If, because they associate with evil things providentially and for salvation, this is not evil, but go

 <30> To speak concisely The good is from one and the whole cause, but the evil from many and partial deficiencies. God knows evil, insofar as it is g

 goodnesses. <34> Therefore evil is not a being, nor is evil in beings. For evil, as evil, is nowhere. And the coming-to-be of evil is not according to

 manifestation of the all-perfect providence of the one God, and those of the more universal and the more particular things of the same. <3> And yet on

 <6> Therefore, the Essential Super-Goodness, putting forth the first gift, that of being itself, is praised by the first and most ancient of participa

 For if our sun, although the substances and qualities of sensible things are many and various, yet it, being one and shining a uniform light, renews a

 godlike and unchangeable immortality and the unwavering and unswerving perpetual motion, extending through an abundance of goodness even to the life o

 and is the cause of being of Wisdom itself, both of the whole and of each particular. <2> From it the intelligible and intellectual powers of the ange

 the cause of all things. Therefore God is known both in all things and apart from all things. And God is known through knowledge and through unknowing

 to be power-in-itself, both by being beyond-power and by bringing forth other powers, infinitely many times the infinite number of existing powers, an

 of the age, as having fallen away from none of the things that are, but rather both surpassing and pre-eminent over all beings according to a supra-es

 is defined and all inequality, which is a privation of the equality in each of them, is banished. For if anyone were to take inequality to mean the di

 We said the neck was opinion, as between the rational and irrational the breast, spirit the belly, desire the legs and feet, nature, using the name

 the return to him of those who have proceeded from him. <10> But if one should take the divine name 'Same' from the Oracles, or 'Justice,' in the sens

 beings, inasmuch as He is both before eternity and above eternity and His kingdom is a kingdom of all the ages. Amen. <ΧI.> <1> Come now, let us c

 and would never willingly wish to be at rest. And if he who says these things says that otherness and distinction are the particularity of each of the

 self-deification, of which beings, partaking according to their own nature, both are and live and are divine, and are and are called, and the others l

 It is therefore Perfect not only as being self-complete and defined in itself by itself in a single form and most perfect whole through whole, but als

 And not even the name of Goodness do we offer to It as being applicable, but from a yearning to conceive and speak something about that ineffable Natu

goodnesses. <34> Therefore evil is not a being, nor is evil in beings. For evil, as evil, is nowhere. And the coming-to-be of evil is not according to power, but through weakness. And for the demons, what they are is both from the Good and is good. But what is evil in them is from the falling away from their proper goods, and the alteration concerning their identity and state is a weakness of the angelic perfection proper to them. And they desire the good, insofar as they desire to be and to live and to think. And if they do not desire the good, they desire non-being. And this is not a desire, but a failure of true desire. <35> But the oracles call those who sin "in knowledge" those who are weak concerning the unforgettable knowledge or practice of the good, and those who know "the will" and do not do it, those who have heard, but are weak in faith or in the activity of the good. And for some, "to understand so as to be good" is unwilling, according to the perversion or weakness of their will. And in general, evil, as we have often said, is a weakness and powerlessness and lack, whether of knowledge, or of unforgettable knowledge, or of faith, or of desire, or of the activity of the good. And yet one might say: Weakness is not punishable, but on the contrary, pardonable. If indeed it were not possible to be able, the argument would be sound. But if the power to be able is from the Good which gives to all, according to the oracles, what is fitting, then the failure and perversion and turning away and falling away from the possession of one's own goods from the Good is not praiseworthy. But let these things have been said by us sufficiently according to our ability in the *On Justice and the Divine Tribunal*, in which sacred treatise the truth of the oracles slapped down the sophistical and deranged arguments of those who speak injustice and falsehood against God. But now, the Good has been sufficiently praised by us as truly admirable, as beginning and end of all things, as the container of beings, as the form-giver of non-beings, as cause of all goods, as guiltless of evils, as providence and goodness complete and surpassing beings and non-beings and making good both evils and its own privation, desired and yearned for and loved by all, and whatever else the true account, as I think, has demonstrated in what has gone before. <V.> <1> But we must now proceed to the truly existing divine name of essence of Him Who Truly Is. But let us recall this much, that the purpose of our account is not to reveal the super-essential essence, insofar as it is super-essential—for this is ineffable and unknowable and completely unrevealable and transcends union itself—but to praise the essence-creating procession of the divine essence-principle into all beings. For the divine name of the Good, revealing the whole processions of the Cause of all, both extends to beings and to non-beings, and is beyond beings and beyond non-beings. But that of Being extends to all beings and is beyond beings. And that of Life extends to all living things and is beyond living things. And that of Wisdom extends to all intelligent and rational and sensible things and is beyond all these. <2> Our account, therefore, longs to praise these revelatory divine names of Providence. For it does not profess to express the self-superessential goodness and essence and life and wisdom of the self-superessential Godhead which, as the oracles say, is established in secret places beyond all goodness and godhead and essence and life and wisdom, but it praises the revealed goodness-making Providence as transcendently Goodness and Cause of all goods, and as Being and Life and Wisdom, the essence-creating and life-creating and wisdom-giving Cause of those things which have partaken of essence and life and mind and reason and sense. And it does not say that the Good is one thing and Being another and Life or Wisdom another, nor that there are many causes and different productive divinities, some superior and some subordinate, but that the whole good processions are of one God, and the divine names praised by us, and that one is

ἀγαθότητας. <34> Oὐκ ἄρα ὂν τὸ κακόν, οὐδὲ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι τὸ κακόν. Oὐδαμοῦ γὰρ τὸ κακόν, ᾗ κακόν. Καὶ τὸ γίνεσθαι τὸ κακὸν οὐ κατὰ δύναμιν, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀσθένειαν. Καὶ τοῖς δαίμοσιν, ὃ μέν εἰσι, καὶ ἐκ τἀγαθοῦ καὶ ἀγαθόν. Τὸ δὲ κακὸν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς τῶν οἰκείων ἀγαθῶν ἀποπτώσεως, καὶ ἀλλοίωσις ἡ περὶ τὴν ταὐτότητα καὶ τὴν ἕξιν ἀσθένεια τῆς προσηκούσης αὐτοῖς ἀγγελοπρεποῦς τελειότητος. Καὶ ἐφίενται τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, καθ' ὃ τοῦ εἶναι καὶ ζῆν καὶ νοεῖν ἐφίενται. Καὶ εἰ οὐκ ἐφίενται τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, τοῦ μὴ ὄντος ἐφίενται. Καὶ οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο ἔφεσις, ἀλλὰ τῆς ὄντως ἐφέσεως ἁμαρτία. <35> Ἐν γνώσει δὲ ἁμαρτάνοντας καλεῖ τὰ λόγια τοὺς περὶ τὴν ἄληστον τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ γνῶσιν ἢ τὴν ποίησιν ἐξασθενοῦντας καὶ τοὺς εἰδότας «τὸ θέλημα» καὶ μὴ ποιοῦντας, τοὺς ἀκηκοότας μέν, ἀσθενοῦντας δὲ περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἢ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ. Καὶ ἀβούλητόν τισι τὸ «συνιέναι τοῦ ἀγαθῦναι» κατὰ τὴν παρατροπὴν ἢ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς βουλήσεως. Καὶ ὅλως τὸ κακόν, ὡς πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν, ἀσθένεια καὶ ἀδυναμία καὶ ἔλλειψίς ἐστιν ἢ τῆς γνώσεως ἢ τῆς ἀλήστου γνώσεως ἢ τῆς πίστεως ἢ τῆς ἐφέσεως ἢ τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ. Καίτοι φαίη τις· Oὐ τιμωρητὸν ἡ ἀσθένεια, τοὐναντίον δὲ συγγνωστόν. Eἰ μὲν οὐκ ἐξῆν τὸ δύνασθαι, καλῶς ἂν εἶχεν ὁ λόγος. Eἰ δὲ ἐκ τἀγαθοῦ τὸ δύνασθαι τοῦ διδόντος κατὰ τὰ λόγια τὰ προσήκοντα πᾶσιν ἁπλῶς, οὐκ ἐπαινετὸν ἡ τῆς ἐκ τἀγαθοῦ τῶν οἰκείων ἀγαθῶν ἕξεως ἁμαρτία καὶ παρατροπὴ καὶ ἀποφυγὴ καὶ ἀπόπτωσις. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς Περὶ δικαίου καὶ θείου δικαιωτηρίου κατὰ δύναμιν ἱκανῶς εἰρήσθω, καθ' ἣν ἱερὰν πραγματείαν ἡ τῶν λογίων ἀλήθεια τοὺς σοφιστικοὺς καὶ ἀδικίαν καὶ ψεῦδος κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ λαλοῦντας ἐπεῤῥάπισεν ὡς παράφρονας λόγους. Νῦν δὲ ὡς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀρκούντως ὕμνηται τἀγαθὸν ὡς ὄντως ἀγαστόν, ὡς ἀρχὴ καὶ πέρας πάντων, ὡς περιοχὴ τῶν ὄντων, ὡς εἰδοποιὸν τῶν οὐκ ὄντων, ὡς πάντων ἀγαθῶν αἴτιον, ὡς τῶν κακῶν ἀναίτιον, ὡς πρόνοια καὶ ἀγαθότης παντελὴς καὶ ὑπερβάλλουσα τὰ ὄντα καὶ οὐκ ὄντα καὶ τὰ κακὰ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῆς στέρησιν ἀγαθύνουσα, πᾶσιν ἐφετὸν καὶ ἐραστὸν καὶ ἀγαπητὸν καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ὁ ἀληθὴς ἀπέδειξεν, ὡς οἶμαι, λόγος. <V.> <1> Μετιτέον δὲ νῦν ἐπὶ τὴν ὄντως οὖσαν τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος θεωνυμικὴν οὐσιωνυμίαν. Τοσοῦτον δὲ ὑπομνήσωμεν, ὅτι τῷ λόγῳ σκοπὸς οὐ τὴν ὑπερούσιον οὐσίαν, ᾗ ὑπερούσιος, ἐκφαίνειν, ἄῤῥητον γὰρ τοῦτο καὶ ἄγνωστόν ἐστι καὶ παντελῶς ἀνέκφαντον καὶ αὐτὴν ὑπεραῖρον τὴν ἕνωσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν οὐσιοποιὸν εἰς τὰ ὄντα πάντα τῆς θεαρχικῆς οὐσιαρχίας πρόοδον ὑμνῆσαι. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ τἀγαθοῦ θεωνυμία τὰς ὅλας τοῦ πάντων αἰτίου προόδους ἐκφαίνουσα καὶ εἰς τὰ ὄντα καὶ εἰς τὰ οὐκ ὄντα ἐκτείνεται καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄντα καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ οὐκ ὄντα ἔστιν. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ ὄντος εἰς πάντα τὰ ὄντα ἐκτείνεται καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄντα ἔστιν. Ἡ δὲ τῆς ζωῆς εἰς πάντα τὰ ζῶντα ἐκτείνεται καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ζῶντα ἔστιν. Ἡ δὲ τῆς σοφίας εἰς πάντα τὰ νοερὰ καὶ λογικὰ καὶ αἰσθητικὰ ἐκτείνεται καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντα ταῦτα ἔστιν. <2> Ταύτας οὖν ὁ λόγος ὑμνῆσαι ποθεῖ τὰς τῆς προνοίας ἐκφαντορικὰς θεωνυμίας. Oὐ γὰρ ἐκφράσαι τὴν αὐτοϋπερούσιον ἀγαθότητα καὶ οὐσίαν καὶ ζωὴν καὶ σοφίαν τῆς αὐτοϋπερουσίου θεότητος ἐπαγγέλλεται τὴν ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἀγαθότητα καὶ θεότητα καὶ οὐσίαν καὶ ζωὴν καὶ σοφίαν ἐν ἀποκρύφοις, ὡς τὰ λόγιά φησιν, ὑπεριδρυμένην, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐκπεφασμένην ἀγαθοποιὸν πρόνοιαν, ὑπεροχικῶς ἀγαθότητα καὶ πάντων ἀγαθῶν αἰτίαν ὑμνεῖ καὶ ὂν καὶ ζωὴν καὶ σοφίαν, τὴν οὐσιοποιὸν καὶ ζωοποιὸν καὶ σοφοδότιν αἰτίαν τῶν οὐσίας καὶ ζωῆς καὶ νοῦ καὶ λόγου καὶ αἰσθήσεως μετειληφότων. Oὐκ ἄλλο δὲ εἶναι τἀγαθόν φησι καὶ ἄλλο τὸ ὂν καὶ ἄλλο τὴν ζωὴν ἢ τὴν σοφίαν, οὐδὲ πολλὰ τὰ αἴτια καὶ ἄλλων ἄλλας παρακτικὰς θεότητας ὑπερεχούσας καὶ ὑφειμένας, ἀλλ' ἑνὸς θεοῦ τὰς ὅλας ἀγαθὰς προόδους καὶ τὰς παρ' ἡμῶν ἐξυμνουμένας θεωνυμίας καὶ τὴν μὲν εἶναι