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6th. Beholders of intelligible things: Those who are spectators of the mysteries are called beholders; and these are revealed to the saints through the sensible things spoken symbolically about God, which is not to be understood in the case of the powers above.

Of the vision: Note the aforementioned threefold vision instead of the one tri-hypostatic divinity.

(14Ε_258> Of Jesus: By communion of Jesus he means the participation in the glory and the ineffable splendor of the body of Christ; for he sits with the Father in the flesh.

In images: And as for the statement, "in images they impress the likeness," when it ought to have been said ἀποτυπούσαις, let no one suppose it to be a solecism, as if the great Dionysius were ignorant, but let him know precisely that he says this as a true Athenian and a thorough Attic writer. For it is a characteristic of Attic writers to join masculine participles with feminine nouns, as Homer also does with Iris speaking from Zeus to Hera and Athena:

No longer upon your chariots, struck by the thunderbolt, may you two return to Olympus. For instead of πληγέντε, which is a masculine dual, it ought to have said πληγείσα,

the feminine dual. And the comic poets also say this, a feminine for a neuter, like a masculine for a feminine, and Plato and Euripides in the Bacchae:

Winking with running eyelids, For one would not call the eyelid running. And in Orestes: With raving madnesses. Theurgic: Note that the likeness to the Lord Jesus is theurgic,

that is, it makes gods of those who are made like him; and how these orders are made like Christ immediately and without symbols, having received this from him.

To the first-worker: Note that these powers (14E_260> are also first-created, and they possess the virtues of the Lord Jesus Christ as powers.

But having been perfected: Note how these divine powers are said to be perfected.

Analytic: He means the knowledge of the diversities, the interpretative and clarifying exposition of the intricate sacred tradition, which the subordinate orders also need, as he says next, and much more so human beings; for without expositions that analyze the manifold wisdom of the holy contemplations, it is not possible to understand them, neither for us, nor for those that have surpassed the first three orders. Whence he says that of the subordinate orders, the first hierarchy alone rules, and no other power, but of the hierarchy of these highest orders, God alone is hierarch, and no other power.

Being hierarchically ordered: That is, being initiated into the mysteries. This at least: Scriptural proofs of what has been said. § 3. To be taught: Note 'to be taught'; for it shows that it is not by nature

that they are such. But the highest of all: For since they are superior to all and have nothing higher than them, as far as other powers are concerned, they are rightly initiated first into the divine knowledge by God himself alone, as being superior.

Into the heavens: Note against the Basilidians, that is, the Nestorians, that Jesus Christ who was taken up as man is himself the Lord of all intelligible beings and the king of glory, as those being initiated learn from those who say, "lift up your gates, O ye rulers," and who ask, "who is this King of glory?," and again hear, "the Lord of powers" (14E_262> and so on. And against the Acephali and the Eutychians, that, even if he is Lord of powers, he is still flesh and clearly a man, so that the succeeding principalities are astonished at the strange sight.

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στ'. Νοερῶν θεωρούς: Θεωροί λέγονται οἱ τῶν μυστηρίων ἐπόπται· ταῦτα δέ τοῖς ἁγίοις διά τῶν συμβολικῶς λεγομένων περί Θεοῦ αἰσθητῶν ἐκκαλύπτονται, ὅπερ ἐπί τῶν ἄνω δυνάμεων οὐκ ἔστιν ἐννοεῖν.

Θεωρίας: Σημείωσαι τήν εἰρημένην τριφανῆ θεωρίαν ἀντί τοῦ τρισυπόστατον μίαν θεότητα.

(14Ε_258> Ἰησοῦ: Ἰησοῦ κοινωνίαν τήν μετοχήν τῆς δόξης καί τῆς ἀρρήτου λαμπρότητος τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγει· μετά σαρκός γάρ συνεδρεύει τῷ Πατρί.

Ἐν εἰκόσι: Τό δέ εἰρημένον ἐν εἰκόσιν ἀποτυποῦσι τήν ὁμοίωσιν, δέον εἰπεῖν ἀποτυπούσαις, μηδείς ὑπολάβοι σόλοικον, ὡς ἀγνοήσαντος τοῦ μεγάλου ∆ιονυσίου, ἀλλ' ἀκριβῶς ἴστω, ὅτι καί τοῦτο ὡς τῷ ὄντι Ἀθηναῖος καί λίαν Ἀττικός οὕτω φησίν. Ἀττικῶν γάρ ἐστι τό μετοχάς ἀρσενικάς θηλυκοῖς συντάττειν, ὡς καί Ὅμηρος ποιεῖ τήν Ἴριν ἐκ ∆ιός λέγουσαν πρός τήν Ἥραν καί τήν Ἀθηνᾶν·

Οὐκ ἔτ' ἐφ' ὑμετέρων ὀχέων πληγέντε κεραυνῷ. Ἄψ ἐς Ὄλυμπον ἵκεσθον. Ἔδει γάρ ἀντί τοῦ πληγέντε, ἀρσενικοῦ ὄντος δυϊκοῦ, εἰπεῖν πληγείσα,

δυϊκόν θηλυκόν. Καί τοῦτό φασι καί κωμικοί, θηλυκόν ἀντ' οὐδετέρου, ὡς ἀρσενικόν κατά θηλυκόν, καί Πλάτων καί Εὐριπίδης ἐν Βάκχαις·

∆ιανεύων δρομάσι βλεφάροις, Τό βλέφαρον γάρ δρομάς οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι. Καί ἐν Ὀρέστη· Μανιάσι λυσσήμασι. Θεουργικήν: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι ἡ πρός τόν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν ὁμοίωσις θεουργική

ἐστι, τουτέστιν ἐργάζεται θεούς τούς ὁμοιουμένους· καί πῶς ἀμέσως καί δίχα συμβόλων αἱ τάξεις αὗται ὁμοιοῦνται Χριστῷ, παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦτο λαβοῦσαι.

Πρωτουργῷ: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι καί πρωτόκτιστοί εἰσι δυνάμεις (14Ε_260> αὗται, καί τάς ἀρετάς τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ὡς δυνάμεις αὗται ἔχουσι.

Τετελεσμένας δέ: Σημείωσαι, πῶς λέγονται τετελεσμέναι αἱ θεῖαι δυνάμεις αὗται.

Ἀναλυτικήν: Τήν τῶν ποικιλιῶν ἐπιστήμην φησί τήν ἑρμηνευτικήν καί σαφηνιστικήν ἐξήγησιν τῆς περιπεπλεγμένης ἱερᾶς παραδόσεως, ἦς δέονται καί αἱ ὑφειμέναι τάξεις, ὡς ἐφεξῆς φησι, πολλῷ δέ πλέον ἄνθρωποι· δίχα γάρ ἐξηγήσεων ἀναλυουσῶν τήν πολυποίκιλον σοφίαν τῶν ἁγίων θεωρημάτων οὐ δυνατόν αὐτά νοῆσαι, οὔτε ἡμᾶς, οὔτε τά ὑπερβεβηκότα τάς πρώτας τρεῖς τάξεις. Ὅθεν φησίν, ὡς τῶν μέν ὑποβεβηκυιῶν τάξεων ἑκάστη ἡ πρώτη ἱεραρχεῖ μόνον καί οὐκ ἄλλη δύναμις, τῆς δέ τῶν ἀνωτάτω τούτων διακόσμων ἱεραρχίας ὁ Θεός ἱεραρχεῖ μόνος, καί οὐκ ἄλλη δύναμις.

Ἱεραρχούμεναι: Τουτέστι μυσταγωγούμεναι. Τοῦτο γοῦν: Ἀποδείξεις γραφικαί τῶν εἰρημένων. § 3. Ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι: Σημείωσαι τό ἐκδιδάσκεσθαι· δηλοῖ γάρ μή κατά φύσιν

εἶναι αὐτάς τοιαύτας. Τάς δέ πασῶν ὑψηλοτέρας: Ἐπειδή γάρ πασῶν ἀνώτεραί εἰσι καί οὐδέν

ἔχουσι τό ὑπέρτερον, ὅσον εἰς ἑτέρας δυνάμεις, εἰκότως ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ μόνου πρῶται ὡς ἀνώτεραι μυοῦνται τήν θείαν γνῶσιν.

Εἰς οὐρανούς: Σημείωσαι κατά Βασιλειανῶν, ἤτοι Νεστοριανῶν, ὅτι ὁ ἀναληφθείς καθ' ὅ ἄνθρωπος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος τῶν νοητῶν πάντων καί βασιλεύς τῆς δόξης, ὡς μυούμενοι μανθάνουσι παρά τῶν λεγόντων, «ἄρατε πύλας, οἱ ἄρχοντες, ὑμῶν", καί πυνθανόμενοι, «τίς ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ Βασιλεύς τῆς δόξης;", καί αὖθις ἀκούοντες, «Κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων» (14Ε_262> καί τά ἑξῆς. Κατά δέ Ἀκεφάλων καί Εὐτυχιανιστῶν, ὅτι, κἄν Κύριος δυνάμεων, ἀλλ' οὖν σάρξ καί σαφής ἄνθρωπος, ὡς καί πρός τό ξένον ἐκπλήττεσθαι τάς ἑξῆς ἀρχάς.