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of all-luminous and simple and complete wisdom is granted to those worthy of deification, toward the cause of beings, leading them up immediately in every way, as is possible for a human being, being known only from the divine properties of goodness, according to which knowing themselves from God, and God from themselves, with no intervening partition; for there is no medium between wisdom and God; they will possess unalterable immutability, when all the media have been entirely traversed for them, in which there once existed the danger of erring in knowledge. And by media he means the substance of intelligible and sensible things, through which the human mind is naturally led up to God as the cause of beings.

4.80 (80) Practical philosophy, fear, piety, and knowledge produce; but natural contemplation in spirit, strength and counsel and understanding achieve; but mystical theology, divine wisdom alone bestows.

4.81 (81) Just as without oil, it is impossible for a lamp to be kept unextinguished, so without a state of being, which nurtures good things with appropriate words and ways and customs, and again with fitting thoughts and reasonings, it is impossible for the light of the charisms to be kept unextinguished. For every spiritual charism requires a suitable state of being, which unceasingly pours into it, as if it were oil, the intelligible matter, so that it may remain, being maintained according to the state of being of the one who received it.

4.82 (82) Just as without the olive tree, it is in no way possible to find by nature truly genuine oil; and without a vessel to hold it, the oil that is received cannot be contained; and not being fed with oil, the lamp's light is certainly extinguished; so without the holy Scriptures, there is not in truth a power of thoughts befitting God; and without a state of being, like a vessel receptive of thoughts, a divine thought could in no way be constituted (15∆_246>; and not being fed with divine thoughts, the light of knowledge in the charisms is not kept unextinguished by those who have them.

4.83 (83) The Old Testament, I take to signify the olive tree on the left, as being more concerned with practical philosophy; and the one on the right, the New Testament, as the teacher of the new mystery, and productive of the contemplative state of being in each of the faithful. For the one provides ways of virtue, while the other, 1341 principles of knowledge to those who philosophize on divine things; and the one, snatching the mind away from the mist of visible things, leads it up to what is kindred, having become pure of all material imagination; while the other purifies it from material passion, with the intensity of courage, as with a hammer driving out the nails of relational disposition toward the body.

4.84 (84) The Old Testament leads the body, reckoned toward the soul, up through the medium of the virtues, preventing the mind from being brought down toward the body; while the New Testament leads the mind, winged with the fire of love, up to God. And the one makes the body the same as the mind according to its disposition and motion; while the other makes the mind the same as God according to the state of grace, having such a likeness to God that God is known through it, He who by nature from Himself is in no way at all known to anyone, as an archetype from some image.

4.85 (85) The Old Testament, being a symbol of action and virtue, prepares the body to be in harmony with the mind in its movement; while the New Testament, being productive of contemplation and knowledge, brightens the mind that mystically adheres to it with divine thoughts and characteristics; and the Old Testament furnishes the gnostic with the ways of the virtues; while the New Testament bestows upon the practical man principles of true knowledge.

(15∆_248> 4.86 (86) God is said to be and becomes by grace the Father of those who have only the volitional birth according to virtue in spirit; according to which, like the face of the soul, the character of God who has begotten in virtues

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τῆς παμφαοῦς καί ἁπλῆς καί ὁλοσχεροῦς σοφίας χαρίζεται τοῖς ἀξίοις θεώσεως, πρός τήν τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν, ἀμέσως αὐτούς ἀνάγον κατά πάντα τρόπον, ὡς ἔστιν ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατόν, ἐκ μόνων τῶν θείων τῆς ἀγαθότητος ἰδιωμάτων γνωριζομένους, καθ᾿ ἥν ἐκ Θεοῦ μέν ἑαυτούς, ἐξ ἑαυτῶν δέ γινώσκοντες τόν Θεόν, οὐκ ὄντος τινός μέσου διατειχίζοντος· σοφίας γάρ μέσον οὐδέν πρός Θεόν· τήν ἀναλλοίωτον ἕξουσιν ἀτρεψίαν, τῶν μέσων αὐτοῖς ὁλικῶς πάντων διαβαθέντων, ἐν οἷς ὑπῆρχεν ὁ περί τήν γνῶσιν ποτε τοῦ σφάλλεσθαι κίνδυνος. Μέσα δέ καλεῖ, τήν τῶν νοητῶν καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν οὐσίαν, δι᾿ ὧν πρός Θεόν ὡς αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων, ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς ἀνάγεσθαι πέφυκεν.

4.80 (π΄ Τήν μέν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν, φόβος, εὐσέβειά τε καί γνῶσις ἐργάζονται· τήν δέ φυσικήν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν, ἰσχύς καί βουλή καί σύνεσις κατορθοῦσι· τήν δέ μυστικήν θεολογίαν, σοφία θεία μόνη χαρίζεται.

4.81 (πα΄) Ὥσπερ ἐλαίου χωρίς, ἄσβεστον διατηρηθῆναι λύχνον ἀμήχανον, οὕτως ἕξεως χωρίς, προσφόροις καί λόγοις καί τρόποις καί ἤθεσι, νοήμασί τε αὖ καί λογισμοῖς τοῖς καθήκουσι τά καλά διατρεφούσης, ἄσβεστον φυλαχθῆναι τό φῶς τῶν χαρισμάτων ἀμήχανον. Πᾶν γάρ χάρισμα πνευματικόν προσφυοῦς χρῄζει τῆς ἕξεως, ἀπαύστως ἐπιχεούσης αὐτῷ καθάπερ ἔλαιον τήν ὕλην τήν νοεράν, ἵνα διαμείνῃ κατά τήν ἕξιν τοῦ δεξαμένου κρατούμενον.

4.82 (πβ΄) Ὥσπερ ἐλαίας χωρίς, οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδαμῶς εὑρεῖν φύσει κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν γνήσιον ἔλαιον· ἄγγους δέ δίχα κρατεῖσθαι τοῦ δεχομένου τό ἔλαιον οὐ δυνατόν· ἐλαίῳ δέ μή τρεφόμενον σβέννυται πάντως τό λυχναῖον φῶς· οὕτω τῶν ἁγίων Γραφῶν χωρίς, οὐκ ἔστι κατά ἀλήθειαν δύναμις νοημάτων θεοπρεπής· ἕξεως δέ δίχα, καθάπερ ἄγγους νοημάτων δεκτικοῦ, οὐδαμῶς ἄν συσταίη (15∆_246> νόημα θεῖον· θείοις δέ νοήμασι μή τρεφόμενον τό φῶς τῆς ἐν τοῖς χαρίσμασι γνώσεως, ἄσβεστον οὐ συντηρεῖται τοῖς ἔχουσι.

4.83 (πγ΄) Τήν μέν Παλαιάν ∆ιαθήκην, τήν ἐξ εὐωνύμων ἐλαίαν ὑπολαμβάνω σημαίνειν, ὡς τῆς πρακτικῆς μᾶλλον προνοουμένην φιλοσοφίας· τήν ἐκ δεξιῶν δέ, τήν Νέαν ∆ιαθήκην, ὡς καινοῦ μυστηρίου διδάσκαλον, καί τῆς ἐν ἑκάστῳ τῶν πιστῶν θεωρητικῆς ἕξεως ποιητικήν. Ἡ μέν γάρ, ἀρετῆς τρόπους, ἡ δέ, 1341 γνώσεως λόγους παρέχεται τοῖς τά θεῖα φιλοσοφοῦσι· καί ἡ μέν, τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων ὁμίχλης ὑφαρπάζουσα πρός τό συγγενές ἀνάγει τόν νοῦν, πάσης καθαρόν ὑλικῆς φαντασίας γεγενημένον· ἡ δέ, τῆς ὑλικῆς προσπαθείας αὐτόν ἀποκαθαίρει, τῷ τῆς ἀνδρίας τόνῳ, καθάπερ σφύρᾳ τινί τούς πρός τό σῶμα τῆς γνώμης κατά τήν σχέσιν ἐκκρουομένη ἥλους.

4.84 (πδ΄) Ἡ μέν Παλαιά, τό σῶμα πρός ψυχήν λογισθέν ἀναβιβάζει διά μέσων τῶν ἀρετῶν, κωλύουσα τοῦ πρός σῶμα τόν νοῦν καταβιβάζεσθαι· ἡ δέ Νέα, τόν νοῦν πρός τόν Θεόν ἀναβιβάζει, τῷ πυρί τῆς ἀγάπης πτερούμενον. Καί ἡ μέν, ταὐτόν ἐργάζεται τῷ νοΐ τό σῶμα κατά τήν θέσιν κίνησιν· ἡ δέ, ταὐτόν τῷ Θεῷ τόν νοῦν ἀποτελεῖ κατά τήν ἕξιν τῆς χάριτος τοσαύτην ἔχοντα πρός Θεόν τήν ἐμφέρειαν, ὥστε τόν Θεόν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ γνωρίζεσθαι, τόν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ κατά φύσιν οὐδαμῶς τό παράπαν οὐδενί γινωσκόμενον, ὡς ἔκ τινος εἰκόνος ἀρχέτυπον.

4.85 (πε΄) Ἡ μέν Παλαιά ∆ιαθήκη, πράξεως καί ἀρετῆς ὑπάρχουσα σύμβολον, συμφωνεῖν τό σῶμα τῷ νοΐ παρασκευάζει κατά τήν κίνησιν· ἡ δέ Νέα, θεωρίας οὖσα καί γνώσεως ποιητικήν, τόν μυστικῶς αὐτῆς ἀντεχόμενον νοῦν τοῖς θείοις νοήμασι καταφαιδρύνει καί τοῖς γνωρίσμασι· καί ἡ μέν Παλαιά, τῷ γνωστικῷ χορηγεῖ τούς τρόπους τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἡ δέ Νέα, τῷ πρακτικῷ γνώσεως ἀληθοῦς λόγους χαρίζεται.

(15∆_248> 4.86 (πστ΄) Ἐκείνων ὁ Θεός λέγεταί τε καί γίνεται κατά χάριν Πατήρ, τῶν μόνην ἐχόντων τήν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν γνωμικήν ἐν πνεύματι γέννησιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ὥσπερ ψυχῆς πρόσωπον, τόν ἐν ἀρεταῖς τοῦ γεννήσαντος Θεοῦ χαρακτῆρα