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Therefore he calls these things temporal and eternal; for he said beforehand that the things remaining are signified by eternity, that is, (14S_340> as many things as are also said concerning God, but the things in generation by time; even if hearing 'eternal' and 'temporal,' one must not take these things so simply, but he speaks according to the modes cognate to them, that is, those clearly believed.

ON CHAPTER 11

§ 1. A peace that is head of the synagogue: Note that he called God

head of the synagogue, but understand the 'divisible multitude' as the sensible. Into the whole unity: Some took 'whole unity' to be the simple and indivisible

cause of beings, to which all things have been turned back, as subsisting in it, while others took it to be the harmony of the universe, blended from elements of different kinds; for which reason he also called 'civil war' the opposition of the qualities in them, of hot against cold, and of moist against dry, and of the others similarly, which are united for the completion of one cosmos.

Being in a uniform cohabitation: Do not think, like the atheistic Manicheans, that matter, being in sedition against itself, brought forth these demons, but that by nature the moist is hostile to the dry, and the cold to the hot; for God joins even things so disposed for the friendship and constitution of the universe. Therefore, understand 'civil' as 'innate'.

The elder, therefore: He says 'elder powers' not simply of the taxiarchy of the Seraphim, but of the one that holds the primacy for gathering, that is, joining, the subordinate ones to the divine illuminations; for they themselves receive the first theophany; indivisibly, however, that is, not in some part, but all at once to the whole.

To be poured out into the infinite: He now refutes great errors of the (14S_342> Greek philosophers and converts them to piety; for since many among them are in dissension, with some saying that all things are generated from opposition and war through strife and battle, and others that all things are created from friendship and concord alone, while not taking thought for God as is worthy, he, transferring their coinages of terms to orthodoxy, establishes God as ruler of the universe and creator and unifier, understanding the civil war of the universe as the natural discord of the incorporeal and immaterial and intelligible with the corporeal and material and sensible; for these are dissimilar in their essences and discordant; «for the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh». Not only this, but also with some saying that all sensible things, that is bodies, are infinite and are destroyed into infinity, and that the mixture of all things, which he calls infinity, being turned into difference and separation and parts, is distinguished and separated into generations, and that from this, as the division increases more and more, and not only purges the things mixed from the uncongenial and foreign, but also is now carried to the cutting and shattering of congenial things, and leads the compounds into all dissimilarity and difference, all things are dissolved and destroyed, except for the simple things, that is the elements, and with them calling this war the fact that the wholes are not allowed to be united; the great Dionysius, being a friend of the truth, says that God resolves such a natural war, as I said (for he calls this natural, the civil, just as he calls the congenial, of the same tribe), bestowing upon the universe peace and harmony and concord instead of the civil war, and holding all things together in himself and reconciling them, as the Apostle says, he will also reconcile the heavenly things with the earthly things, through (14S_344> which, on the one hand, he unites the powers set over each and ministerially governing by love for their subordinates, and on the other hand, he turns all things back to himself, steering and holding all things together.

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διό ταῦτα ἔγχρονα καί αἰώνιά φησι· προεῖπε γάρ τά μένοντα τῷ αἰῶνι δηλοῦσθαι, τουτέστιν (14S_340> ὅσα καί περί Θεοῦ λέγεται, τά δέ ἐν γενέσει τῷ χρόνῳ· εἰ καί ἀκούοντας αἰώνια καί ἔγχρονα, οὐχ ἁπλῶς οὕτω ταῦτα λαμβάνειν χρή, ἀλλά κατά τούς συνεγνωσμένους αὐτοῖς τρόπους φησιν, ἤγουν τούς σαφῶς πιστευομένους.

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΙΑ'

§ 1. Ἀρχισυνάγωγον εἰρήνην: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι τόν Θεόν ἐκάλεσεν

ἀρχισυνάγωγον, τό δέ 'μεριστόν πλῆθος' νόησον τό αἰσθητόν. Εἰς τήν ὅλην ἑνότητα: Ὅλην ἑνότητα οἱ μέν ἔλαβον τήν ἁπλῆν καί ἀμερῆ

τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν, πρός ἥν τά πάντα ἐπέστραπται, ὡς ἐν αὐτῇ συνιστάμενα, οἱ δέ τήν τοῦ παντός ἁρμονίαν ἐξ ἑτεροφυῶν τῶν στοιχείων συγκεκραμένην· διό καί πόλεμον ἐμφύλιον ὠνόμασε τήν τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς ποιοτήτων ἐναντιότητα, θερμοῦ πρός ψυχρόν, καί ὑγροῦ πρός ξηρόν, καί τῶν ἄλλων ὁμοίως, ἅπερ εἰς ἑνός κόσμου συμπλήρωσιν ἥνωται.

Ἐνούσης εἰς ἑνοειδῆ συνοικίαν: Μή νοήσης ὡς οἱ ἄθεοι Μανιχαῖοι, ὅτι στασιάζουσα πρός ἑαυτήν ἡ ὕλη ἀπεκύησε τά δαιμόνια ταῦτα, ἀλλ' ὅτι φύσει τῷ ξηρῷ τό ὑγρόν πολέμιον, καί τό ψυχρόν τῷ θερμῷ· Θεός γάρ καί τά οὕτως ἔχοντα συνάπτει πρός φιλίαν καί σύστασιν τοῦ παντός. Τό ἐμφύλιον οὖν ἔμφυτον νόησον.

Αἱ γοῦν πρεσβύτεροι: Πρεσβυτέρας δυνάμεις οὐχ ἁπλῶς τήν τῶν σεραφίμ ταξιαρχίαν φησίν, ἀλλά πρός τό συνάγειν, ἤγουν συνάπτειν, ταῖς θείαις ἐλλάμψεσι τάς ὑφειμένας τό πρεσβεῖον ἔχουσαν· τήν γάρ πρώτην αὐταί δέχονται θεοφάνειαν· ἀμερῶς δέ, τουτέστιν οὐκ ἐν μέρει τισίν, ἀλλ' ἀθρόως τοἷς ὅλοις.

Χυθῆναι πρός τό ἄπειρον: Μεγάλας πλάνας φιλοσόφων (14S_342> Ἑλλήνων διελέγχει νῦν καί πρός τήν εὐσέβειαν μετάγει· πολλῶν γάρ ἐν ἐκείνοις στασιαζόντων, καί τῶν μέν ἐξ ἐναντιώσεως καί πολέμου πάντα δι' ἔριδος καί μάχης λεγόντων γεννᾶσθαι, τῶν δέ, ἐκ φιλίας καί συμφωνίας μόνον δημιουργεῖσθαι τά πάντα, Θεοῦ δέ μή κατ' ἀξίαν δή φροντιζόντων, οὗτος, τάς ἐκείνων ὀνοματοποιίας εἰς ὀρθότητα μεταφέρων, Θεόν ἐφίστησι τοῦ παντός καί ποιητήν καί συναγωγέα, ἐμφύλιον μέν πόλεμον τοῦ παντός νοῶν τῶν ἀσωμάτων καί ἀΰλων καί νοητῶν πρός τήν τῶν σωμάτων καί ὑλικῶν καί αἰσθητῶν φυσικήν ἀσυμφωνίαν· ἀνόμοια γάρ ταῦτα ταῖς οὐσίαις καί ἀσύμφωνα· «ἡ γάρ σάρξ ἐπιθυμεῖ κατά τοῦ πνεύματος, καί τό πνεῦμα κατά τῆς σαρκός». Οὐ μόνον δέ τοῦτο, ἀλλά καί τά αἰσθητά πάντα, ἤτοι σώματα, ἄπειρα λεγόντων ἐνίων καί εἰς ἀπειρίαν φθείρεσθαι, καί τό μίγμα τῶν ἁπάντων, ὅπερ φησίν ἀπειρίαν, τρεπόμενον εἰς διαφοράν καί χωρισμόν καί μέρη, διακρίνεσθαι καί χωρίζεσθαι εἰς γενέσεις, καί ἐκ τούτου μᾶλλον αὐξανομένης τῆς διαστάσεως, καί μή μόνον τά μεμιγμένα τῶν ἀσυμφυῶν καί ἀλλοτρίων ἀποκαθαιρούσης, ἀλλά καί εἰς τομήν καί θραῦσιν ἤδη τῶν συμφυῶν φερομένης, καί εἰς ἀνομοιότητα πᾶσαν καί διαφοράν τά συγκρίματα ἀγούσης, λύεσθαι καί φθείρεσθαι πάντα, πλήν τῶν ἁπλῶν, ἤτοι στοιχείων, καί τοῦτο πόλεμον λεγόντων τό μή ἐᾶν ἡνῶσθαι τά ὅλα· ὁ μέγας ∆ιονύσιος, ἅτε τῆς ἀληθείας φίλος τυγχάνων, τόν τοιοῦτον, ὡς ἔφην, φυσικόν πόλεμον (τοῦτον γάρ φυσικόν καλεῖ, τόν ἐμφύλιον, ὡς καί σύμφυλον τόν ὁμοφυᾶ), λύειν φησί τόν Θεόν, ἀντί τοῦ ἐμφυλίου πολέμου, εἰρήνην καί ἁρμονίαν καί σύμπνοιαν τῷ παντί δωρούμενον, καί ἐν ἑαυτῷ συνέχοντα πάντα καί ἀποκαταλλάττοντα, ὥς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, καί ἀποκαταλλάξει τά ἐπουράνια τοῖς ἐπιγείοις, δι' (14S_344> ὧν, τάς μέν ἐπιτεταγμένας τοῖς καθ' ἕκαστον δυνάμεις καί διακονικῶς διοικούσας τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῶν ὑποτεταγμένων ἑνοῖ, τά δέ πάντα πρός ἑαυτόν ἐπιστρέφει, πηδαλιουχῶν καί συνέχων τά πάντα.