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

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 sense of 'Equal,' it must be said that God is Equal not only as being without parts and without deviation, but also as pervading all things and through all things equally, and as the Subsistence of Equality itself, by which He equally works the like procession of all things through one another, and the equal participation of those who partake according to the fitness of each, and the equal gift distributed to all according to worth, and because He has pre-conceived in Himself transcendently and uniformly every equality—intelligible, intellectual, rational, sensible, essential, natural, volitional—according to the power that creates all equality, which is above all. <Χ.> <1> It is now time for our discourse to praise the God of many names as Almighty and as Ancient of Days. For the one is said because He is the all-powerful foundation of all things, sustaining and embracing the whole, and establishing and grounding and binding it together, and rendering the universe unbreakable in Himself, and bringing forth the whole from Himself as from an all-powerful root, and turning all things back to Himself as to an all-powerful base, and holding them together as the all-mighty foundation of all, securing all that is held together by a single, all-transcending cohesion, and not allowing them, having fallen away from Him as from a perfect hearth, to be moved and perish. And the Godhead is called Almighty also as ruling over all things, and unmixedly sufficient for those who are governed, and as being desirable and lovely to all, and imposing on all the willing yokes and the sweet pangs of the divine and almighty and painless love of His goodness. <2> But God is praised as 'Ancient of Days' because He is of all things both age and time, and before days and before age and time. And yet we must also appropriately call Him time and day and season and age, as being changeless and motionless in every motion, and remaining in Himself while ever moving, and as the cause of age and time and days. Wherefore also in the sacred theophanies of the mystical visions He is depicted as both grey-haired and young; the elder signifying the ancient and He who is 'from the beginning,' and the younger signifying the ageless, or both teaching that He proceeds from the beginning through all things to the end, or, as our divine initiator says, that each signifies the divine antiquity, the elder what is first in time, and the younger what is more ancient in number, since the monad and the numbers near the monad are more archetypal than those which have proceeded far. <3> But it is necessary, I think, to understand the nature of both time and age from the Oracles. For not everywhere does it call 'eternal' things that are altogether and absolutely uncreated and truly everlasting, but also things that are incorruptible and immortal and unchangeable and existing in the same way, as when it says, 'Be lifted up, you everlasting gates,' and similar things. Often it also characterizes the most ancient things by the name of 'age,' and again, it sometimes calls the whole extension of our time 'age,' inasmuch as it is a property of 'age' to be ancient and unchangeable and to measure the whole of being. But 'time' it calls that which is in generation and corruption and alteration, and at different times is in different states. Wherefore theology says that we who are here defined by time will partake of eternity when we attain to the incorruptible and ever-same age. But in the Oracles, sometimes an age in time is glorified, and a time that is eternal, although we know more properly that for them beings are said and signified by 'age' and things in generation by 'time'. Therefore, one must not think that things called eternal are simply co-eternal with God who is before age, but following unswervingly the most revered Oracles, we should understand things eternal and temporal according to the modes familiar to them, as being intermediate between beings and things that come to be, insofar as they partake in one way of age, and in another of time. But we should praise God both as age and as time, as the cause of all time and age and as the Ancient of Days, as being before time and above time and changing 'seasons and times' and again as being before the ages

αὐτὸν τῶν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ προεληλυθότων ἐπιστροφήν. <10> Eἰ δέ τις τὴν ταὐτοῦ τῶν λογίων ἢ τὴν τῆς δικαιοσύνης θεωνυμίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἴσου λαμβάνοι, ῥητέον ἴσον τὸν θεὸν οὐ μόνον ὡς ἀμερῆ καὶ ἀπαρέγκλιτον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ πάντα καὶ διὰ πάντων ἐπ' ἴσης διαφοιτῶντα καὶ ὡς τῆς αὐτοϊσότητος ὑποστάτην, καθ' ἣν ἰσουργεῖ τὴν δι' ἀλλήλων ἁπάντων ὁμοίαν χώρησιν καὶ τὴν τῶν μεταλαμβανόντων ἐπ' ἴσης μετοχὴν κατὰ τὴν ἑκάστων ἐπιτηδειότητα καὶ τὴν ἴσην κατ' ἀξίαν ἐπὶ πάντα νενεμημένην δόσιν καὶ κατὰ τὸ πᾶσαν ἰσότητα νοητήν, νοεράν, λογικήν, αἰσθητικήν, οὐσιώδη, φυσικήν, θελητὴν ἐξῃρημένως καὶ ἑνιαίως ἐν ἑαυτῷ προειληφέναι κατὰ τὴν ὑπὲρ πάντα πάσης ἰσότητος ποιητικὴν δύναμιν. <Χ.> <1> Ὥρα δὴ τῷ λόγῳ τὸν πολυώνυμον θεὸν ὡς παντοκράτορα καὶ ὡς παλαιὸν ἡμερῶν ὑμνῆσαι. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ λέγεται διὰ τὸ πάντων αὐτὸν εἶναι παντοκρατορικὴν ἕδραν συνέχουσαν καὶ περιέχουσαν τὰ ὅλα καὶ ἐνιδρύουσαν καὶ θεμελιοῦσαν καὶ περισφίγγουσαν καὶ ἀῤῥαγὲς ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸ πᾶν ἀποτελοῦσαν καὶ ἐξ ἑαυτῆς τὰ ὅλα καθάπερ ἐκ ·ίζης παντοκρατορικῆς προάγουσαν καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὴν τὰ πάντα καθάπερ εἰς πυθμένα παντοκρατορικὸν ἐπιστρέφουσαν καὶ συνέχουσαν αὐτὰ ὡς πάντων ἕδραν παγ κρατῆ, τὰ συνεχόμενα πάντα κατὰ μίαν ὑπερέχουσαν πάντα συνοχὴν ἀσφαλιζομένην καὶ οὐκ ἐῶσαν αὐτὰ διεκπεσόντα ἑαυτῆς ὡς ἐκ παντελοῦς ἑστίας κινούμενα παραπολέσθαι. Λέγεται δὲ παντοκράτωρ ἡ θεαρχία καὶ ὡς πάντων κρατοῦσα καὶ ἀμιγῶς τοῖς διοικουμένοις ἐπαρκοῦσα καὶ ὡς πᾶσιν ἐφετὴ καὶ ἐπέραστος οὖσα καὶ ἐπιβάλλουσα πᾶσι τοὺς ἐθελουσίους ζυγοὺς καὶ τὰς γλυκείας ὠδῖνας τοῦ θείου καὶ παντοκρατορικοῦ καὶ ἀλύπου τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτῆς ἔρωτος. <2> «Ἡμερῶν» δὲ «παλαιὸς» ὁ θεὸς ὑμνεῖται διὰ τὸ πάντων αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ αἰῶνα καὶ χρόνον καὶ πρὸ ἡμερῶν καὶ πρὸ αἰῶνος καὶ χρόνου. Καίτοι καὶ χρόνον καὶ ἡμέραν καὶ καιρὸν καὶ αἰῶνα θεοπρεπῶς αὐτὸν προσρητέον ὡς ὄντα κατὰ πᾶσαν κίνησιν ἀμετάβλητον καὶ ἀκίνητον καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀεὶ κινεῖσθαι μένοντα ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ὡς αἰῶνος καὶ χρόνου καὶ ἡμερῶν αἴτιον. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἱεραῖς τῶν μυστικῶν ὁράσεων θεοφανείαις καὶ πολιὸς καὶ νέος πλάττεται τοῦ μὲν πρεσβυτέρου τὸν ἀρχαῖον καὶ ὄντα «ἀπ' ἀρχῆς», τοῦ νεωτέρου δὲ τὸν ἀγήρω σημαίνοντος ἢ ἀμφοῖν τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς διὰ πάντων ἄχρι τέλους αὐτὸν προϊέναι διδασκόντων ἤ, ὡς ὁ θεῖος ἡμῶν ἱεροτελεστής φησι, τοῦ ἑκατέρου τὴν ἀρχαιότητα τὴν θείαν ὑποδηλοῦντος, τοῦ μὲν πρεσβυτέρου τὸ πρῶτον ἐν χρόνῳ, τοῦ νεωτέρου δὲ τὸ κατ' ἀριθμὸν ἀρχαιότερον ἔχοντος, ἐπείπερ ἡ μονὰς καὶ τὰ περὶ μονάδα τῶν ἐπὶ πολὺ προεληλυθότων ἀριθμῶν ἀρχηγικώτερα. <3> Χρὴ δέ, ὡς οἶμαι, καὶ χρόνου καὶ αἰῶνος φύσιν ἐκ τῶν λογίων εἰδέναι. Καὶ γὰρ οὐ τὰ πάντη καὶ ἀπολύτως ἀγένητα καὶ ὄντως ἀΐδια πανταχοῦ φησιν αἰώνια, καὶ τὰ ἄφθαρτα δὲ καὶ ἀθάνατα καὶ ἀναλλοίωτα καὶ ὄντα ὡσαύτως, ὡς ὅταν λέγῃ τό· «Ἐπάρθητε, πύλαι αἰώνιοι», καὶ τὰ ὅμοια. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τὰ ἀρχαιότατα τῇ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐπωνυμίᾳ χαρακτηρίζει καὶ τὴν ὅλην δὲ αὖθις ἐσθ' ὅτε τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνου παράτασιν αἰῶνα προσαγορεύει, καθ' ὅσον καὶ ἰδιότης αἰῶνός ἐστι τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον καὶ τὸ καθόλου τὸ εἶναι μετρεῖν. Χρόνον δὲ καλεῖ τὸν ἐν γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ καὶ ἀλλοιώσει καὶ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἔχοντα. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐνθάδε κατὰ χρόνον ὁριζομένους αἰῶνος μεθέξειν ἡ θεολογία φησίν, ἡνίκα τοῦ ἀφθάρτου καὶ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος αἰῶνος ἐφικώμεθα. Τοῖς λογίοις δὲ ἐσθ' ὅτε καὶ ἔγχρονος αἰὼν δοξάζεται καὶ αἰώνιος χρόνος, εἰ καὶ μᾶλλον ἴσμεν αὐτοῖς καὶ κυριώτερον τὰ ὄντα τῷ αἰῶνι καὶ τὰ ἐν γενέσει τῷ χρόνῳ καὶ λεγόμενα καὶ δηλούμενα. Χρὴ τοιγαροῦν οὐχ ἁπλῶς συναΐδια θεῷ τῷ πρὸ αἰῶνος οἴεσθαι τὰ αἰώνια λεγόμενα, τοῖς σεπτοτάτοις δὲ λογίοις ἀπαρατρέπτως συνεπομένους αἰώνια μὲν καὶ ἔγχρονα κατὰ τοὺς συνεγνωσμένους αὐτοῖς προσυπακούειν τρόπους μέσα δὲ ὄντων καὶ γιγνομένων, ὅσα πῇ μὲν αἰῶνος, πῇ δὲ χρόνου μετέχει. Τὸν δὲ θεὸν καὶ ὡς αἰῶνα καὶ ὡς χρόνον ὑμνεῖν, ὡς χρόνου παντὸς καὶ αἰῶνος αἴτιον καὶ παλαιὸν ἡμερῶν, ὡς πρὸ χρόνου καὶ ὑπὲρ χρόνον καὶ ἀλλοιοῦντα «καιροὺς καὶ χρόνους» καὶ αὖθις πρὸ αἰώνων