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§ 5. Since providentially to all: The syntax is by hyperbaton, having its resolution towards 'it is to be thought', so that the end is, 'it is to be thought, since God is providentially present to all', and the rest.

For as if the soul: See how it is possible to understand the soul corporeally, and how he understands parts of the soul to be corporeal; for he fashions it well in his discourse.

To the impartible: The soul is impartible not simply, but impartible in relation to the body; for he says its parts are also its powers, of which the parts of the body are sometimes taken as an image.

Unfoldings: But by unfolding he means an expansion, that is, a clarification of the meaning hidden in the word; but 'to be purified' is to free in every way from corporeal things that which is being contemplated.

The threefold figures of bodies: By threefold figures of bodies he means that which has three dimensions, as he immediately clarifies; and from this you will well understand what was said by the Apostle, «that (14S_318> you may know what is the depth, and what is the height», and the rest, which some have taken to refer to the saving cross. But note what length, and depth, and breadth are in relation to God.

But now this divine: The ancients called unity, and identity, and equality, and likeness, the cause of the sympathy and providence and salvation of all things, which they also called 'one'; but otherness and unlikeness they called the creative providence for divisible and changeable and sensible things, and also for existing things, that is, intelligible things, understanding the names also by analogy with the things signified, as we have also said in various ways above. But others said that identity and otherness, that is, the same and the other, are form and privation, and others, limit and the unlimited. (That he promises to compose a Symbolic Theology). But he calls it a unified multiplication for God, remaining in His own simplicity, to produce the various and manifold forms of creation; for by 'procession' he means that which is for the purpose of creating existing things, like a movement and an impulse.

§ 6. But God as like: Concerning us it is not possible to say 'like'; for our body is composed of homogeneous and heterogeneous parts, as Aristotle also shows at the beginning of his treatise *On the Generation of Animals*. But God, what He is, He is wholly in a like manner, since indeed holy Scripture says that He, as being always the same and unchangeable, is unlike all things, as in: «who among the gods is like you, Lord?»; and again: «to whom have you likened me, says the Lord»; and again: «I have multiplied visions, and by the hands of the prophets I was made like», that is, I myself to myself, as Irenaeus says in his *Against Heresies*.

(14S_320> By the imitation according to ability: It is possible to take 'imitation' in these matters with respect to the intellectual and rational nature turning back towards God, according to «be perfect, and be merciful, as your heavenly Father»; which in the case of God are so in the proper sense and beyond all limit and reason, but in the case of created things are so according to the ability of each, in proportion to its nature. It is also possible in these matters to understand 'imitation' as the participation in those things contemplated super-essentially in God, which the things that were made for generation have received, participating in being and the rest, which I have discussed in the preceding sections. But to say 'like God according to the divine image' is not to deny that this was said of man, but he has parodied the phrase for the rest as well, according to the principle of participation.

And according to the divine image: Here he says how «according to the image and likeness» is to be understood; that it is not according to form, but according to being turned towards and having the mind stretched up to God, the cause of being and well-being, which others have understood as free will, since God is not like rational beings according to substance; for neither are we like our images made, perhaps, of wax or bronze, which are of a different substance from us and are in some way like; for things of the same order, that is, of the same rank and substance, as

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§ 5. Ἐπειδή πᾶσι προνοητικῶς: Καθ' ὑπερβατόν ἐστιν ἡ σύνταξις πρός τό οἰητέον ἔχουσα τήν ἀπόδοσιν, ἵνα ᾖ τό τέλος, 'οἰητέον, ἐπειδή πᾶσι προνοητικῶς πάρεστιν ὁ Θεός', καί τά ἑξῆς.

Ὡς γάρ εἰ τήν ψυχήν: Ὅρα πῶς ἔνεστι τήν ψυχήν σωματικῶς νοῆσαι, καί πῶς νοεῖ μέρη ψυχῆς εἶναι σωματικῶς· καλῶς γάρ αὐτήν διαπλάττει τῷ λόγῳ.

Τῇ ἀμερεῖ: Ἀμερής ἡ ψυχή οὐχ ἁπλῶς, ἀλλ' ὡς πρός σῶμα ἀμερής· μέρη γάρ αὐτῆς καί τάς δυνάμεις φησίν, ὧν εἰς εἰκόνα τά μέρη τοῦ σώματος ἔσθ' ὅτε παραλαμβάνεται.

Ἀναπτύξεσιν: Ἀνάπτυξιν δέ λέγει ἐξάπλωσιν, ἤτοι σαφήνειαν τῆς ἐγκεκρυμμένης ἐν τῇ λέξει ἐννοίας, τό δέ 'ἀνακαθαίρεσθαι', τό παντοίως τῶν σωματικῶν ἀπαλλάξαι τό θεωρούμενον.

Τά τριττά τῶν σωμάτων σχήματα: Τριττά σχήματα τῶν σωμάτων φησί τό τριχῇ διαστατόν, ὡς εὐθύς σαφηνίζει· καί καλῶς ἐντεῦθεν νοήσεις τό εἰρημένον τῷ Ἀποστόλῳ, «ἵνα (14S_318> γνῶτε τί τό βάθος, καί τί τό ὕψος», καί τά ἑξῆς, ὅπερ τινές εἰς τόν σωτήριον σταυρόν ἐδέξαντο. Σημείωσαι δέ, τί μῆκος, καί βάθος, καί πλάτος ἐπί Θεοῦ.

Νῦν δέ αὐτήν τήν θείαν: Τό ἑνότητα, καί ταυτότητα, καί ἰσότητα, καί ὁμοιότητα, τό αἴτιον τῆς τῶν ὅλων συμπαθείας καί προνοίας καί σωτηρίας αἴτιον ἐκάλεσαν οἱ παλαιοί, ὅπερ καί ἕν ἔλεγον ἑτερότητα δέ καί ἀνομοιότητα τήν εἰς τά μεριστά καί μεταβλητά καί αἰσθητά καί τήν εἰς τά ὄντα δέ, ἤτοι νοητά, δημιουργικήν πρόνοιαν ἐκάλουν, ἀναλόγως τοῖς δηλουμένοις νοοῦντες καί τά ὀνόματα, ὡς καί ἄνω διαφόρως εἰρήκαμεν. Ἄλλοι δέ τήν ταυτότητα καί ἑτερότητα, ἤτοι ταὐτόν καί ἕτερον εἶδος καί στέρησιν εἶπον, ἕτεροι δέ πέρας καί ἄπειρον. (Ὅτι συντάττειν ἐπαγγέλλεται Συμβολικήν θεολογίαν). Ἑνιαῖον δέ πολλαπλασιασμόν φησι τό ἐν οἰκείᾳ ἁπλότητι μένοντα τόν Θεόν, τά ποικίλα καί παντοδαπῆ εἴδη τῆς κτίσεως παραγαγεῖν· πρόοδον γάρ λέγει τήν πρός τό κτίσαι τά ὄντα, οἷον κίνησιν καί ὁρμήν.

§ 6. Ὅμοιον δέ τόν Θεόν: Ἐφ' ἡμῶν οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὅμοιον· τό γάρ σῶμα ἡμῶν ἐξ ὁμοιομερῶν καί ἀνομοιομερῶν συνέστηκεν, ὡς καί Ἀριστοτέλης δείκνυσιν ἐν τῇ ἀρχῇ τῆς Περί ζώων γενέσεως πραγματείας. Ὁ δέ Θεός, ὅ ἐστιν, ὅλως ὁμοίως ἐστίν, ἐπεί τοί γε ἡ θεία Γραφή, ὡς ἀεί τόν αὐτόν ἀναλλοιώτως ὄντα ἀνόμοιον πᾶσί φησιν, ὡς τό· «τίς ἐν θεοῖς ὅμοιός σοι, Κύριε;»· καί πάλιν· «τίνι με ὡμοιώσατε, λέγει Κύριος»· καί αὖθις· «Ἐγώ ὁράσεις ἐπλήθυνα, καί χερσί τῶν προφητῶν ὡμοιώθην», τουτέστιν, αὐτός ἐγώ ἐμαυτῷ, ὡς Εἰρηναῖος λέγει ἐν τοῖς Καθ' αἱρέσεων.

(14S_320> Τῇ κατά δύναμιν μιμήσει: Ἔστι μέν τήν μίμησιν λαβεῖν ἐν τούτοις ἐπί τῆς νοερᾶς καί λογικῆς φύσεως πρός τόν Θεόν ἐπιστρεφομένης, κατά τό «γίνεσθε τέλειοι, καί γίνεσθε οἰκτίρμονες, ὡς ὁ Πατήρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος»· ἅπερ ἐπί Θεοῦ μέν κυρίως καί ὑπέρ πάντα ὅρον καί λόγον, ἐπί δέ τῶν κτισμάτων κατά τήν ἑκάστου δύναμιν ἀναλόγως τῇ φύσει. Ἔστι δέ μίμησιν ἐν τούτοις νοῆσαι καί τήν μετοχήν τῶν ἐν Θεῷ θεωρουμένων ὑπερουσίως, ἥν τά πραχθέντα πρός γένεσιν εἴληφε, τοῦ εἶναι καί τῶν λοιπῶν μετέχοντα, ὧν διεξῆλθον ἐν τοῖς πρό τούτων. Τό δέ εἰπεῖν 'ὅμοια Θεῷ κατά τήν θείαν εἰκόνα', οὐκ ἀναιροῦντός ἐστι τό ἐπί τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τοῦτο εἰρῆσθαι, ἀλλά κατά τόν τῆς μετοχῆς λόγον καί ἐπί τῶν λοιπῶν τήν λέξιν παρῴδησε.

Καί κατά θείαν εἰκόνα: Πῶς τό «κατ' εἰκόνα καί ὁμοίωσιν» νοητέον, ἐνταῦθά φησιν· ὅτι οὐ κατ' εἶδος, ἀλλά κατά τό ἐπεστράφθαι καί τόν νοῦν ἀνατεταμένον ἔχειν πρός τόν Θεόν τόν αἴτιον τοῦ εἶναι καί εὖ εἶναι, ὅπερ ἕτεροι τό αὐτεξούσιον ἐνόησαν, ἐπεί οὐ κατά τήν οὐσίαν ὁ Θεός ὅμοιος τοῖς λογικοῖς· οὔτε γάρ ἡμεῖς ὅμοιοί ἐσμεν ταῖς εἰκόσιν ἡμῶν ταῖς ἐκ κηροῦ τυχόν ἤ χαλκοῦ, ἅτινα ἑτερούσια ἡμῖν ἐστι καί ποσῶς ὅμοια· τά μέν γάρ ὁμοταγῆ, τουτέστι τά τῆς αὐτῆς τάξεως καί οὐσίας, ὡς