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which he heard concerning His incarnation and His appearance upon the earth. For this very act of saying, ‘Lord,’ while seeing Him and speaking has power. For who addresses someone he does not see as if seeing him? Is one who does not see the earthly king able to say to him, ‘O king, I have heard the decrees of your kingdom’? By no means. For he does not only say he heard His report, but also says that You will be known, and You will be recognized and You will be revealed, as one who has clearly learned His will with all certainty and is somehow saying to Him, ‘You will do such and such things, as has been decreed by Your kingdom, O Master’? And all the prophetic words hint at more than this.

Thus, therefore, the divine Scripture customarily sets the vision of God as hearing, and hearing in place of vision. (159) Thus also the divine Paul fittingly called the unutterable visions and illuminations and the teachings and revelations, which are beyond the measure of human nature and power, ‘words,’ and said that he heard these things and handed it down in writing. Wherefore he also said, ‘And because of the abundance of the revelations, that I should not be exalted, a thorn in the flesh was given to me.’ If, therefore, he heard before, how afterwards did he call what he heard ‘revelations,’ unless it is as we have said? For so also David prays that his eyes be unveiled in order to understand the wondrous things of God from His law. He who had previously said, ‘Whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body, I was caught up,’ how does he later say that ‘I heard,’ unless it is as we have declared in detail above and the truth of the matter itself holds? Therefore, through being caught up he first indicated the vision, but the things within the vision and the most manifest things of the more clearly flashing glory and divinity, as things that produce knowledge and teach the one seeing and declare what is secret and incomprehensible to all, he said he heard, as if the auditory and visionary sense, clearly, are one in spiritual matters. Whence he is able to say neither what one of the things seen or heard is like, as he sees and hears them, nor what they are like; for this reason he added that it is impossible to speak these things with the tongue.

But let us be zealous to purify ourselves through repentance and humility and to unite all the senses as one to the good and supremely good God; and then you will be taught all these things at once, which we are not able to speak and present through many words, hearing in the sight and seeing in the hearing, learning in the vision and again hearing in the revelation. And there is also another hearing among the exceedingly spiritual. (160) And what is this? The promise of the good things that are to be given. For just as the first coming of the Lord was announced through the prophets, and even if it was seen by them and was known exactly, yet because it had not yet occurred in their days, but was to be afterwards, they said they heard the things revealed and shown to them concerning it, because these things were to be brought to pass afterwards; so also Paul, having seen the good things laid up for the righteous who struggle, and having known and learned exactly that after the second coming of the Lord and the resurrection from the dead, those who have loved God with their whole soul will receive these things, putting these things in the order of a promise and a pledge, cried out: ‘I heard,’ he says, ‘unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.’ But in what way words? Because those good things are truly certain strange words and discourses in which every rational nature delights in the truly inexhaustible and ever-living delight, and is divinely quickened and rejoices. For if God is the Word of God the Father, the illuminations of the Word of God would rightly be called words; for a word extended to the length of a narrative is no longer a word, but is called the words of a narrative, as in ‘Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my cry; attend to the voice of my supplication.’

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ἥν περί τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως καί ἐπί τῆς γῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ ἤκουσε. Καί γάρ καί αὐτό τοῦτο τό εἰπεῖν· "Κύριε", ὁρῶντος αὐτόν καί λαλοῦντος ἔχει δύναμιν. Τίς γάρ ὅν οὐ βλέπει ὡς βλέπων τούτῳ προσομιλεῖ; Μή ὁ μή βλέπων τόν ἐπίγειον βασιλέα δύναται λέγειν πρός αὐτον· "Ὦ βασιλεῦ, ἤκουσα τά δεδογμένα τῇ βασιλείᾳ σου"; Οὐδαμῶς. Οὐχί γάρ ἀκοῦσαι μόνον λέγει τήν ἀκοήν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλά καί ὅτι γνωσθήσῃ φησί, καί ἐπιγνωσθήσῃ καί ἀναδειχθήσῃ, ὡς τήν αὐτοῦ βουλήν μετά πληροφορίας πάσης δηλονότι μαθών καί οἱονεί πως λέγων αὐτῷ· "Τά καί τά ποιήσεις, καθά τῇ βασιλείᾳ σου, δέσποτα, δέδοκται"; Πλεῖον δέ τούτου καί πάντα τά προφητικά αἰνίττονται ῥήματα.

Οὕτω τοίνυν ἡ θεία Γραφή καί τήν θεωρίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀκοήν καί τήν ἀκοήν ἀντί θεωρίας συνήθως τίθησιν. (159) Οὕτω καί Παῦλος ὁ θεῖος, τάς ἀνεκλαλήτους θεωρίας καί ἐλλάμψεις καί τάς ὑπέρ τό μέτρον τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως καί δυνάμεως διδασκαλίας καί ἀποκαλύψεις, ῥήματα εἰκότως ἐκάλεσε καί ἀκοῦσαι ταῦτα εἶπε καί γραφῇ παραδέδωκε. ∆ιό καί ἔλεγεν· "Ἐν δέ τῇ ὑπερβολῇ τῶν ἀποκαλύψεων, ἵνα μή ἐπαίρωμαι, ἐδόθη μοι σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί". Εἰ οὖν ἤκουσε πρότερον, πῶς μετά ταῦτα ἀποκαλύψεις εἶπεν ἅ ἤκουσεν, εἰ μή καθώς εἴπομεν; Οὕτω γάρ καί ὁ ∆αβίδ ἀποκαλυφθῆναι τούς ὀφθαλμούς εὔχεται εἰς τό κατανοῆσαι τά θαυμάσια τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ τοῦ νόμου αὐτοῦ. Ὁ πρότερον εἰπών· "Εἴτε ἐν σώματι οὐκ οἶδα, εἴτε ἐκτός τοῦ σώματος, ἡρπάγην", πῶς ὕστερον φησιν ὅτι "ἤκουσα", εἰ μή ὡς ἀνωτέρω λεπτομερῶς ἐδηλώσαμεν καί αὐτῇ τοῦ τοῦ πράγματος ἡ ἀλήθεια ἔχει; Τοιγαροῦν καί διά μέν τῆς ἁρπαγῆς τήν θεωρίαν πρῶτον ἀδήλωσε, τά δέ ἐντός τῆς θεωρίας καί τά ἐκφαντικώτερα τῆς τρανότερον ἐξαστραπτούσης δόξης τε καί θεότητος, ὡς γνῶσιν ἐμποιοῦντα καί τόν ὁρῶντα διδάσκοντα καί δηλοῦντα τά πᾶσιν ἀπόρρητά τε καί ἀκατάληπτα, ἀκοῦσαι εἶπεν, ὡς ἕν οὔσης τῆς τε ἀκουστικῆς καί θεωρητικῆς δηλονότι αἰσθήσεως ἐπί τῶν πνευματικῶν. Ὅθεν οὐδέ ἕν τῶν βλεπομένων ἤ ἀκουομένων, καθώς ταῦτα ὁρᾷ καί ἀκούει, οἷόν ἐστι καί οἷα εἰπεῖν ποτε δύναται" διά τοῦτο καί γλώσσῃ ταῦτα λαλῆσαι ἀδύνατον εἶναι προσέθηκεν.

Ἀλλά σπουδάσωμεν ἑαυτούς ἐκκαθᾶραι διά μετανοίας καί ταπεινώσεως καί τάς αἰσθήσεις πάσας ὡς μίαν τῷ ἀγαθῷ καί ὑπεραγαθῷ ἑνῶσαι Θεῷ· καί τότε ταῦτα πάντα, ἅ διά πολλῶν λόγων εἰπεῖν ἡμεῖς καί παραστῆσαι οὐκ ἐξισχύομεν, ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ ὁμοῦ ἅπαντα ὑμεῖς διδαχθήσεσθε, ἐν τῇ ὁράσει ἀκούοντες καί ἐν τῇ ἀκοῇ ὁρῶντες, ἐν τῇ θεωρίᾳ μανθάνοντες καί ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει πάλιν ἀκούοντες. Ἔστι δέ τις καί ἄλλη ἐν τοῖς ὑπέρ λίαν πνευματικοῖς ἀκοή. (160) Ποία δέ αὕτη; Ἡ ἐπαγγελία τῶν μελλόντων δίδοσθαι ἀγαθῶν. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἡ πρώτη παρουσία τοῦ Κυρίου διά τῶν προφητῶν καταγγελλομένη, εἰ καί ὡρᾶτο παρ᾿ αὐτῶν καί ἀκριβῶς ἐγινώσκετο, ἀλλά διά τό μήπω ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείνων γενέσθαι αὐτήν, μέλλουσαν δέ μετά ταῦτα, τά περί αὐτῆς ἀποκαλυπτόμενα αὐτοῖς καί δεικνύμενα ἔλεγον ἀκούειν ἐκεῖνοι διά τό μετά ταῦτα εἰς ἔργον μέλλειν αὐτά ἐξενεχθήσεσθαι, οὕτω καί ὁ Παῦλος, τά ἀποκείμενα τοῖς ἀγωνιζομένοις δικαίοις ἰδών ἀγαθά καί γνούς καί μαθών ἀκριβῶς ὅτι μετά τήν δευτέραν τοῦ Κυρίου παρουσίαν καί τήν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐξανάστασιν ταῦτα λήψονται οἱ τόν Θεόν ἐξ ὅλης ἠγαπηκότες ψυχῆς, ὡς ἐν τάξει ἐπαγγελίας καί ὑποσχέσεως ταῦτα θείς, ἐξεβόησεν. "Ἤκουσα, φήσιν, ἄρρητα ῥήματα ἅ οὐκ ἐξόν ἀνθρώπῳ λαλῆσαι". Τίνα δέ τρόπον ῥήματα, ἐπειδή τά ἀγαθά ἐκεῖνα ῥήματά τινα ξένα ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας εἰσί καί λόγοι δι᾿ ὧν πᾶσα λογική φύσις ἐντρυφᾷ τήν ὄντως ἀκένωτον καί ἀείζωον τρυφήν καί ζωοῦται θείως καί ἐπευφραίνεται. Εἰ γάρ Θεός ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός, δικαίως ἄν αἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου ἐλλάμψεις κληθήσονται ῥήματα· ὁ γάρ λόγος εἰς μῆκος διεκχυνθείς διηγήσεως οὐκέτι λόγος, ἀλλά διηγήσεως ῥήματα λέγεται, ὡς τό "Τά ῥήματά μου ἐνώτισαι Κύριε· σύνες τῆς κραυγῆς μου· πρόσχες τῇ φωνῇ τῆς δεήσεώς μου.