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Powers: Most powerful. Of the epithets: Because their epithet signifies what their property is.

Middle triadic order: Dominions, Powers, Authorities

Unenslaved: Because every intellectual power is unyieldingly disposed towards what is worse. § 2. As an unyielding dominion: Here by an error of the Greek

philosophers he piously mocks, who named certain three powers of their own "unyielding," which came into existence from certain other three powers before them; not indeed as lights from God, created in their own right. And they say that these unyielding ones are subject to the intellectual powers that project them (14E_272>, holding back and as it were resisting and checking those before them and themselves, so as not to fall into matter, and for this reason are weaker than those projecting them, insofar as they need to be restrained to keep themselves from falling. These, then, are their views in summary; but the great Dionysius wisely says all the opposite things to them; for he says that they subsist creatively from God, of whom they also bear a resemblance with respect to dominion, just as we who were created in his likeness. And he says that they themselves possess unyieldingness against every debasement by the principle of dominion, cutting off as it were and severing and not allowing the desire for sensible things to prevail, but not holding back those before them; and the sensible and corporeal things he calls servility and lack of freedom and vain opinion. And 'enslavement' instead of 'servility', since they do not allow one to conceive the things that truly are, but lead down from unwavering stability to the prostration of vanities. And again he calls the material things 'dissimilarity', as never remaining in sameness, but always changing.

Of sovereign rule: He called the divinity sovereign rule, because it has become the origin and cause of all dominion.

They do not fail: Note how everywhere he says that the transcendent powers impart of their own to those after them and that the powers empower those subordinate; and we know that it is also written that an angel strengthened Daniel, and others; and what is greatest of all, even our Lord Jesus Christ, inasmuch as he was also man, as it is stated in the Gospel according to Luke.

Good order: These things must also be construed with what is written above; for "I think" indicates it in common.

Of being assimilated: Because the intellectual powers, being angels, also impart to those after them as much of authority as is lawful for them (14E_274>.

For it is purified: How and by whom the middle orders are purified and illuminated and perfected; and that Scripture has it, how one angel conveys the divine symbols to another.

And through the middle: Because the perfections through intermediaries are dimmer than those first-manifestly effected by God, which are the first.

That which is said through another: According to the things stated in the prophets Zechariah and Daniel and Ezekiel.

Of being dimmed: He said "of being dimmed," not on account of its own weakness, but the inferiority of the recipients; for this is what saying 'a seconding of perfection' indicates, that is, that the secondary things are perfected more dimly.

The skilled ones: Note, that priests handed these things down to the great Dionysius; and he called the first divine powers 'self-manifest', since they receive the divine illuminations from themselves; for the remaining powers do not receive the divine gifts of knowledge through themselves, but through those above them.

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∆υνατά: Ἰσχυρότατα. Ἐπωνυμίας: Ὅτι ἡ ἐπωνυμία αὐτῶν σημαίνει, τίς ἡ ἰδιότης αὐτῶν.

Μέση τριαδική τάξις Κυριότητες, ∆υνάμεις, Ἐξουσίαι

Ἀδούλωτον: Ὅτι πᾶσα νοητή δύναμις ἀμειλίκτως πρός τό χεῖρον ἔχει. § 2. Ὡς ἀμείλικτον κυριότητα: Ἐνταῦθα σφάλματι τῶν ἑλληνικῶν

φιλοσόφων εὐσεβῶς ἐπισκώπτει, οἵτινες ἰδικάς τρεῖς δυνάμεις τινάς ἀμειλίκτους προσηγόρευσαν, προελθούσας εἰς ὕπαρξιν ἔκ τινων πρό αὐτῶν ἑτέρων τριῶν δυνάμεων· οὐ μήν ἐκ Θεοῦ φῶτα, δημιουργηθείσας ἰδικῶς. Καί φασιν εἶναι τούς ἀμειλίκτους τούτους ὑποπεζίους τῶν προβαλλομένων αὐτούς (14Ε_272> νοητῶν δυνάμεων, ἀναστέλλοντας καί ὥσπερ ἀντιβαίνοντας καί ἐφεκτικούς τῶν πρό αὐτῶν καί ἑαυτῶν, τοῦ μή πεσεῖν εἰς ὕλην, καί ἀσθενεστέρους κατά τοῦτο τῶν προβαλλομένων ἑαυτούς, καθ' ὅ δέονται τοῦ κατέχειν εἰς τό ἄπτωτον ἑαυτούς. Ταῦτα μέν οὖν ὡς ἐν ἐπιτομῇ τά ἐκείνων· ὁ δέ μέγας ∆ιονύσιος σοφῶς τά ἐναντία πάντα αὐτοῖς φησιν· ἐκ Θεοῦ γάρ αὐτάς δημιουργικῶς ὑποστῆναί φησιν, οὗ καί τήν ἐμφέρειαν ἔχουσιν εἰς κυριότητα, ὥσπερ καί ἡμεῖς οἱ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν κτισθέντες· αὐτούς δέ τό ἀμείλικτον κατά πάσης ὑφέσεως τῷ λόγῳ τῆς κυριότητος ἔχειν λέγει, κόπτοντας ὥσπερ καί διατέμνοντας καί οὐκ ἐῶντας κρατεῖν τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά ἐπιθυμίαν, οὐ μήν τούς πρό αὐτῶν ἀναστέλλοντας· τά δέ αἰσθητά καί σωματικά δουλοπρέπειάν φησι καί ἀνελευθερίαν καί εἰκαίαν δόξαν. '∆ουλοποιίας' δέ ἀντί τοῦ 'δουλοπρεπείας', ἐπεί μή συγχωροῦσι τά ὄντως ὄντα ἐννοεῖν, ἀλλά κατάγουσιν ἐκ τῆς ἀκλινοῦς ἑδραιότητος ἐπί τήν τῶν ματαιοτήτων ὑποκατάκλισιν. Ἀνομοιότητα δέ αὖθις καλεῖ τά ὑλικά, ὡς μηδέποτε μένοντα ἐπί ταὐτότητος, ἀλλά ἀεί μεταβάλλοντα.

Κυριαρχίας: Κυριαρχίαν τήν θεότητα ἔφη, ὅτι πάσης κυριότητος ἀρχή καί αἰτία καθέστηκεν.

Οὐκ ἀπολείπουσιν: Σημείωσαι πῶς πανταχοῦ φησι τάς ὑπερβεβηκυίας δυνάμεις μεταδιδόναι τῶν οἰκείων ταῖς μετ' αὐτάς καί τάς δυνάμεις δυναμοῦν τάς ὑποκειμένας· ἴσμεν δέ, ὅτι καί τόν ∆ανιήλ γέγραπται ἄγγελος ἐνισχύων, καί ἄλλους· καί τό δή πάντων μεῖζον, καί αὐτόν τόν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, ἅτε καί ἄνθρωπον, ὡς ἐν τῷ κατά Λουκᾶν Εὐαγγελίῳ κεῖται.

Εὐταξίαν: Πρός τῷ ἀνωτέρω κειμένῳ καί ταῦτα συντακτέον· κατά κοινοῦ γάρ τό οἶμαι δηλοῦν.

Ἀφομοιωμένης: Ὅτι καί τῆς ἐξουσίας ὅσον αὐταῖς θεμιτόν, (14Ε_274> ὡς ἀγγέλοις οὖσιν, αἱ νοηταί δυνάμεις τοῖς μετ' αὐτούς μεταδιδόασι.

Καθαίρεται γάρ: Πῶς καί διά τίνος καθαίρονται καί φωτίζονται καί τελεσιουργοῦνται αἱ μέσαι τάξεις· καί ὅτι ἔχει ἡ Γραφή, ὡς ἄλλος ἄλλῳ ἄγγελος διαπορθμεύει τά θεῖα σύμβολα.

Καί διά μέσης: Ὅτι αἱ διά μέσων τελειώσεις ἀμυδρότεραι τῶν πρωτοφανῶς ὑπό Θεοῦ ἐνεργουμένων, αἵτινές εἰσι πρῶται.

Τήν δι' ἄλλου λεγομένην: Κατά τά ἐν τῷ Ζαχαρίᾳ καί ∆ανιήλ καί Ἰεζεκιήλ τοῖς προφήταις κείμενα.

Ἀμυδρουμένης: Ἀμυδρουμένης ἔφη, οὐ παρά τήν οἰκείαν αὑτῆς ἀτονίαν, ἀλλά τό ὑφειμένον τῶν δεχομένων· τοῦτο γάρ δηλοῖ τό εἰπεῖν 'δευτέρωσιν τελειώσεως', τουτέστι τό ἀμυδρότερον τελειοῦσθαι τά δεύτερα.

Οἱ δεινοί: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι ἱερεῖς ταῦτα παραδεδώκασι τῷ μεγάλῳ ∆ιονυσιῳ· 'αὐτοφανεῖς' δέ ἐκάλεσε τάς πρώτας θείας δυνάμεις, ἐπειδή ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν τάς θείας δέχονται ἐλλάμψεις· αἱ γάρ λοιπαί δυνάμεις οὐ δι' ἑαυτῶν τά θεῖα δέχονται δῶρα τῆς γνώσεως, ἀλλά διά τῶν ὑπερκειμένων.