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Of habits: Note that the divine powers possess the godlike by habit. And a habit is an abiding quality.

From this, therefore, it is shown that they are of free will, acquiring the virtues by habit. Ammon of Adrianople presents this more broadly, (14E_254> in the discourses written by him Against Origen On the Resurrection.

Of the most high: Why they are called thrones. Of walking about: Instead of, of the base towards what is on the ground. And note, what is the

purpose of every hierarchy. Of subsidence: A certain most high nature and, immediately after God, ranked by Him

indicates the thrones, paying no attention to material things, as is signified by their having nothing of a walking-about subsidence, that is, of a yielding, and of an inclination downwards, but rather the ascendant towards God, looking upwards. And he well added 'supercosmically', instead of incorporeally and immaterially and intelligibly, that is, intellectually; for lest you should think the upward path to be a corporeal one, he added immaterially.

God-bearing: Note that he also called the order of the holy thrones 'God-bearing', as bearing God intelligibly resting upon them. See then, since the blessed Basil the Cappadocian called the flesh God-bearing, it must be considered how it is said. But the flesh of the Lord himself is united to God the Word in essence and in hypostasis, wherefore He himself is said by the Fathers to bear flesh and to be clothed in flesh; what is strange then if his flesh is also called God-bearing, as bearing God the Word in an inseparable union, being and being called His flesh properly and in truth? But these, having God in themselves by grace, in an ineffable way and incomprehensibly to the mind, are themselves also for this reason called God-bearing (a.), because the first powers partake of God first, and so they transmit to the inferior ones the illumination that has come to them.

§ 2. b. To the first: Thus the reading must be understood by hyperbaton; one must think that the hierarchy, which is like them in all things, is proper to the first essences, and the rest in between.

(14E_256> Of the invisible: Note that these first three orders are greater than every invisible and visible power.

c. Having become: That is, created. Of phantasies: That they are unreceptive of and unmixed with every phantasy attached to matter

and every subsidence, that not only are these divine powers themselves freed from stains and defilements, but also from every lessening, and knowing not at all diminution towards what is worse. But understand this, not that they are immutable by nature, but that, being self-determined through their intense desire for the good, having inclined toward the Divine they remained so, possessing immovability as if by habit. For only God is immutable by nature, but as for these, if they had been created so, the devil would not have fallen. But also all these are of one and the same rank; for that which is good by nature has no subordination.

d. Of same-movement: This holy one says that their movement is a "same-movement", as being unvarying and unchanging, and holding in the same way. And their movements are the ceaseless activities around their intellections; for they are minds that are never silent. And note the immutable in a God-loving manner, and read the fourth chapter of the discourse On the Divine Names, and the eighth chapter of the present discourse.

e. Contemplative: Note how these holy orders are called contemplative, and that they do not acquire the knowledge of God through symbols or theorems of Scripture, as we do.

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Ἕξεων: Σημειωσαι, ὅτι αἱ θεῖαι δυνάμεις καθ' ἕξιν ἔχουσι τό θεοειδές. Ἕξις δέ ἐστι ποιότης ἕμμονος.

Ἐντεῦθεν οὖν δηλοῦται, ὅτι αὐτεξούσιοί εἰσιν ἕξει τάς ἀρετάς κτώμεναι. Τοῦτο πλατύτερον παριστᾷ Ἄμμων ὁ Αδριανουπολίτης, (14Ε_254> ἐν τοῖς Περί ἀναστάσεως αὐτῷ κατά Ὠριγένους γεγραμμένοις λόγοις.

Ὑψηλοτάτων: ∆ιά τί λέγονται θρόνοι. Περιπεζίας: Ἀντί τοῦ, τῆς πρός τό χθαμαλόν βάσεως. Σημείωσαι δέ, τίς ὁ

σκοπός πάσης ἱεραρχίας. Ὑφέσεως: Ἀνωτάτην τινά φύσιν καί μετά Θεόν εὐθύς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τεταγμένην

δηλοῖ τούς θρόνους, οὐδέν ἐπί τά ὑλικά προσέχοντας, ὡς σημαίνει τό μηθέν αὐτούς ἔχειν περιπεζίας ὑφέσεως, ἤτοι ἐνδόσεως, καί τῆς πρός τό κάτω νεύσεως, ἀλλά τό ἐπί Θεόν ἀναβατικόν, ἀνωφερῶς προσέχον. Καλῶς δέ ἐπήγαγεν 'ὑπερκοσμίως', ἀντί τοῦ ἀσωμάτως καί ἀΰλως καί νοητῶς, ἤτοι νοερῶς· ἵνα γάρ μή νομίσῃς τό ἄναντες ὁδόν εἶναι σωματικήν, ἐπήγαγε τό ἀΰλως.

Θεοφόρον: Σημειωσαι, ὅτι καί τό τῶν ἁγίων θρόνων τάγμα 'θεοφόρον' εἶπεν, ὡς φέρον ἐπαναπαυόμενον νοητῶς τόν Θεόν. Ὅρα οὖν, ἐπειδή ὁ μακάριος Βασίλειος ὁ Καππαδόκης τήν θεοφόρον εἶπε σάρκα, σκοπητέον πῶς εἴρηται. Ἀλλ' ἡ μέν σάρξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου κατ' οὐσίαν καί καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἤνωται αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῳ, διό καί σαρκοφορεῖν αὐτός λέγεται παρά τῶν Πατέρων καί σάρκα ἐνδύσασθαι· τί ἄτοπον οὖν εἰ καί ἡ σάρξ αὐτοῦ λέγεται θεοφόρος, ὡς φέρουσα τόν Θεόν Λόγον καθ' ἕνωσιν ἀδιάστατον, αὐτοῦ καί σάρξ καί λεγομένη ὑπάρχουσα κυρίως καί κατά ἀλήθειαν; Οὗτοι δέ κατά χάριν ἔχοντες ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τόν Θεόν ἀρρήτῳ τε λόγῳ καί ἀνεννοήτῳ τῇ διανοίᾳ θεοφόροι (α'.) καί αὐτοί διά τοῦτο λέγονται, ὅτι πρώτως μετέχουσιν αἱ πρῶται δυνάμεις τοῦ Θεοῦ, καί οὕτω μεταδιδόασι ταῖς ὑποδεεστέραις τήν γενομένην εἰς αὐτάς ἔλλαμψιν.

§ 2. β'. Ταῖς πρώταις: Οὕτω τήν καθ' ὑπέρβασιν ἀνάγνωσιν νοητέον· ταῖς πρώταις οὐσίαις οἰκείαν οἰητέον εἶναι ἱεραρχίαν τήν ὁμοειδῆ αὐταῖς κατά πάντα, τά δέ λοιπά διά μέσου.

(14Ε_256> Ἀοράτου: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι πάσης ἀοράτου καί ὁρατῆς δυνάμεως μείζους εἰσίν αἱ πρῶται τρεῖς αὗται τάξεις.

γ'. Γεγονυίας: Τουτέστι κτιστῆς. Φαντασιῶν: Ὅτι πάσης φαντασίας προσύλου ἀνεπίδεκτοί εἰσι καί ἀμιγεῖς

πάσης ὑφέσεως, ὅτι οὐ μόνον αἱ θεῖαι δυνάμεις αὐταί κηλίδων καί μολυσμῶν ἠλευθέρωνται, ἀλλά καί πάσης ἐλαττώσεως καί τήν ἐπί τά χείρω μείωσιν οὐδ' ὅλως εἰδυῖαι. Τοῦτο δέ νόησον, οὐχ ὅτι κατά φύσιν ἄτρεπτοί εἰσιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι, αὐτοπροαίρετοι οὖσαι διά τῆς εἰς τό ἀγαθόν ἄγαν ἐφέσεως, ἐπί τό Θεῖον ρέψασαι ἔμειναν οὕτως, ἕξιν ὥσπερ ἔχουσαι τό ἀμετακίνητον. Μόνος γάρ κατά φύσιν ἄτρεπτος ὁ Θεός, αὗται δέ, εἰ οὕτως ἐδημιουργήθησαν, οὐκ ἄν ἐξέπιπτεν ὁ διάβολος. Ἀλλά καί αὗται πᾶσαι μιᾶς καί ἴσης τάξεως· τό γάρ ἐκ φύσεως ἀγαθόν ὑπόβασιν οὐκ ἔχει.

δ'. Ταυτοκινήτου: Ταυτοκίνητόν φησιν ὁ ἅγιος οὗτος εἶναι τήν κίνησιν αὐτῶν, ὠς ἀπαράλλακτον καί ἀμετάβολον, ὡσαύτως δέ ἔχουσαν. Κινήσεις δέ εἰσιν ἐπ' αὐτῶν αἱ ἄπαυστοι περί τάς νοήσεις ἐνέργειαι· νόες γάρ εἰσιν ἀσίγητοι. Καί σημείωσαι τό κατά τό φιλοθέως ἄτρεπτον, καί ἀνάγνωθι τό τέταρτον κεφάλαιον τοῦ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων λόγου, καί τό ὄγδοον κεφάλαιον τοῦ παρόντος λόγου.

ε'. Θεωρητικάς: Σημείωσαι πῶς λέγονται θεωρητικαί αἱ ἅγιαι τάξεις αὗται, καί ὅτι οὐ διά συμβόλων ἤ θεωρημάτων τῆς Γραφῆς τήν θεογνωσίαν κτῶνται, ὡς ἡμεῖς.