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A second type of image is the concept in God of the things that will be by Him, that is, His pre-eternal will which is always the same; for the divine is unchanging, and His will is without beginning, according to which, as He pre-eternally willed, in the time preordained by Him, the ordained things come to be; for the concept concerning each of them are images and paradigms of the things that will be by Him, which are also called predeterminations by Saint Dionysius. For in His will were characterized and imaged before their coming into being the things preordained by Him and which would unalterably come to be. A third type of image is that which came to be by God through imitation, that is, man. For how shall the created be of the same nature as the uncreated, except by imitation? For just as mind (the Father) and word (the Son) and the Holy Spirit are one God, so also mind and word and spirit are one man, and according to free will and the capacity to rule; for God says: “Let us make man in our image and after our likeness,” and immediately added: “And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air,” and again “and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over all the earth and subdue it.” A fourth type of image is of Scripture, fashioning shapes and forms and types of the invisible and incorporeal things that are represented corporeally for a faint understanding of God and of angels, because we are unable to contemplate incorporeal things without shapes analogous to us, as Dionysius the Areopagite, so great in divine matters, says. For one might say that the reason why types of the untyped and shapes of the unshaped are fittingly set forth is not only our own analogy, which is unable to ascend directly to intelligible contemplations and is in need of fitting and connatural elevations. If, therefore, the divine Word, in providing for our analogy, procuring for us from all sides that which elevates, also applies certain types to simple and formless things, how will it not image things that are formed with shapes according to their own nature and are longed for, but cannot be seen because they are not present? Indeed, Gregory the Theologian says that the mind, though it struggles much, is altogether unable to go beyond corporeal things; “But even the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” And we see in created things images revealing to us faintly the divine manifestations, as when we say the super-essential Holy Trinity is imaged by the sun and light and ray, or by a gushing spring and the flowing stream and the outflow, or by our own mind and word and spirit, or by a rose plant and flower and fragrance. A fifth type of image is said to be that which prefigures and foreshadows future things, as the bush and the rain on the fleece prefiguring the Virgin and Theotokos, and the rod and the jar; and the serpent, those who abolished the bite of the primeval serpent through the cross; and the sea, the water, and the cloud, the spirit of baptism. A sixth type of image is for the memory of past events, whether of a miracle or of virtue for the glory and honor and inscription on a monument of those who have excelled and distinguished themselves in virtue, or of vice for the triumph over and shame of the most wicked men, for the future benefit of those who behold them, so that we might flee evils and emulate virtues. And this is twofold: both through word inscribed in books—for the letter images the word, as God carved the law on the tablets and commanded the lives of God-loving men to be recorded—and through sensible contemplation, as when he commanded the jar and the rod to be placed in the ark for an eternal memorial, and as he ordered the names of the tribes to be engraved on the stones of the shoulder-piece, and not only that but also the twelve stones to be taken up from the Jordan as a type of the priests—O the mystery, how great in truth for the faithful!—of those carrying the ark and

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∆εύτερος τρόπος εἰκόνος ἡ ἐν τῷ θεῷ τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐσομένων ἔννοια, τουτέστιν ἡ προαιώνιος αὐτοῦ βούλησις ἡ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχουσα· ἄτρεπτον γὰρ τὸ θεῖον, καὶ ἡ βούλησις αὐτοῦ ἄναρχος, ᾗ, καθὼς προαιωνίως ἐβουλήθη, ἐν τῷ προορισθέντι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καιρῷ γίνεται τὰ ὁρισθέντα· εἰκόνες γὰρ καὶ παραδείγματα τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἐσομένων ἡ περὶ ἑκάστου αὐτῶν ἔννοια, οἳ καὶ προορισμοὶ παρὰ τῷ ἁγίῳ ∆ιονυσίῳ ὀνομάζονται. Ἐν γὰρ τῇ βουλῇ αὐτοῦ ἐχαρακτηρίζετο καὶ εἰκονίζετο πρὶν γενέσεως αὐτῶν τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ προωρισμένα καὶ ἀπαραβάτως ἐσόμενα. Τρίτος τρόπος εἰκόνος ὁ κατὰ μίμησιν ὑπὸ θεοῦ γενόμενος, τουτέστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Πῶς γὰρ ὁ κτιστὸς τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως ἔσται τῷ ἀκτίστῳ ἀλλὰ κατὰ μίμησιν; Ὥσπερ γὰρ νοῦς (ὁ πατὴρ) καὶ λόγος (ὁ υἱὸς) καὶ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον εἷς θεός, οὕτω καὶ νοῦς καὶ λόγος καὶ πνεῦμα εἷς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ κατὰ τὸ αὐτεξούσιον καὶ τὸ ἀρχικόν· λέγει γὰρ ὁ θεός· «Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν», καὶ εὐθέως ἐπήγαγε· «Καὶ ἀρχέτωσαν τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ», καὶ πάλιν «καὶ ἄρχετε τῶν ἰχθύων τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν πετεινῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὐτῆς.» Τέταρτος τρόπος εἰκόνος τῆς γραφῆς σχήματα καὶ μορφὰς καὶ τύπους ἀναπλαττούσης τῶν ἀοράτων καὶ ἀσωμάτων σωματικῶς τυπουμένων πρὸς ἀμυδρὰν κατανόησιν θεοῦ τε καὶ ἀγγέλων διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι ἡμᾶς τὰ ἀσώματα ἄνευ σχημάτων ἀναλογούντων ἡμῖν θεωρεῖν, καθώς φησιν ὁ πολὺς τὰ θεῖα ∆ιονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης. Ὅτι μὲν γὰρ εἰκότως προβέβληνται τῶν ἀτυπώτων οἱ τύποι καὶ τὰ σχήματα τῶν ἀσχηματίστων, οὐ μόνην αἰτίαν φαίη τις εἶναι τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀναλογίαν ἀδυνατοῦσαν ἀμέσως ἐπὶ τὰς νοητὰς ἀνατείνεσθαι θεωρίας καὶ δεομένην οἰκείων καὶ συμφυῶν ἀναγωγῶν. Εἰ τοίνυν τῆς ἡμῶν προνοῶν ἀναλογίας ὁ θεῖος λόγος, πάντοθεν τὸ ἀνατατικὸν ἡμῖν ποριζόμενος, καὶ τοῖς ἁπλοῖς καὶ ἀμορφώτοις τύπους τινὰς περιτίθησι, πῶς μὴ εἰκονίσει τὰ σχήμασι μεμορφωμένα κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν καὶ ποθούμενα μέν, διὰ δὲ τὸ μὴ παρεῖναι ὁρᾶσθαι μὴ δυνάμενα; Φησὶ γοῦν ὁ θεορήμων Γρηγόριος, ὅτι πολλὰ κάμνων ὁ νοῦς ἐκβῆναι τὰ σωματικὰ πάντη ἀδυνατεῖ· «Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα τοῦ θεοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται.» Ὁρῶμεν δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς κτίσμασιν εἰκόνας μηνυούσας ἡμῖν ἀμυδρῶς τὰς θείας ἐμφάσεις, ὡς ὅτε λέγομεν τὴν ἁγίαν τριάδα τὴν ὑπεράρχιον εἰκονίζεσθαι δι' ἡλίου καὶ φωτὸς καὶ ἀκτῖνος ἢ πηγῆς ἀναβλυζούσης καὶ πηγαζομένου νάματος καὶ προχοῆς ἢ νοῦ καὶ λόγου καὶ πνεύματος τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἢ ῥόδου φυτοῦ καὶ ἄνθους καὶ εὐωδίας. Πέμπτος τρόπος εἰκόνος λέγεται ὁ προεικονίζων καὶ προδιαγράφων τὰ μέλλοντα ὡς ἡ βάτος καὶ ὁ ἐπὶ πόκον ὑετὸς τὴν παρθένον καὶ θεοτόκον καὶ ἡ ῥάβδος καὶ ἡ στάμνος καὶ ὡς ὁ ὄφις τοὺς τὸ δῆγμα διὰ σταυροῦ καταργήσαντας τοῦ ἀρχεκάκου ὄφεως ἥ τε θάλασσα, τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ ἡ νεφέλη τὸ τοῦ βαπτίσματος πνεῦμα. Ἕκτος τρόπος εἰκόνος ὁ πρὸς μνήμην τῶν γεγονότων ἢ θαύματος ἢ ἀρετῆς πρὸς δόξαν καὶ τιμὴν καὶ στηλογραφίαν τῶν ἀριστευσάντων καὶ ἐν ἀρετῇ διαπρεψάντων ἢ κακίας πρὸς θρίαμβον καὶ αἰσχύνην τῶν κακίστων ἀνδρῶν, πρὸς τὴν εἰς ὕστε ρον τῶν θεωμένων ὠφέλειαν, ὡς ἂν τὰ μὲν κακὰ φύγωμεν, τὰς δὲ ἀρετὰς ζηλώσωμεν. ∆ιπλῆ δὲ αὕτη· διά τε λόγου ταῖς βίβλοις ἐγγραφομένου-εἰκονίζει γὰρ τὸ γράμμα τὸν λόγον, ὡς ὁ θεὸς τὸν νόμον ταῖς πλαξὶν ἐνεκόλαψε καὶ τοὺς τῶν θεοφιλῶν ἀνδρῶν βίους ἀναγράπτους γενέσθαι προσέταξε- καὶ διὰ θεωρίας αἰσθητῆς, ὡς τὴν στάμνον καὶ τὴν ῥάβδον ἐν τῇ κιβωτῷ τεθῆναι προσέταξεν εἰς μνημόσυνον αἰώνιον καὶ ὡς τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν φυλῶν ἐγκολαφθῆναι τοῖς λίθοις τῆς ἐπωμίδος ἐκέλευσεν, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς δώδεκα λίθους ἀρθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ Ἰορδάνου εἰς τύπον τῶν ἱερέων-βαβαὶ τοῦ μυστηρίου, ὡς μέγιστον τοῖς πιστοῖς ἐν ἀληθείᾳ- τῶν αἰρόντων τὴν κιβωτὸν καὶ