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Which the holy Justus calls voicelessness: Note concerning Justus, that he names the divine peace voicelessness and motionlessness. The Acts of the holy apostles mention this holy Justus, saying that he was also called Joses. Therefore, he either wrote something, or he used unwritten teachings. And this, therefore, establishes the antiquity of the holy Dionysius, and that he flourished with the apostles themselves and apostolic men. But note that those divine men also used philosophical terms, calling the peace of God voicelessness and motionlessness.

It leaves its own union: He says union here means that which is simple and unitary, that is, indivisible.

Remaining wholly within: That is, going out from and leaving its own hiddenness.

Its intelligible and expressible: He means intelligible and expressible participations, as many things as we are permitted to understand through what is said in Scripture.

§ 2. According to their unconfused union: That he also calls things that come into composition a union, even if they are dissimilar; and what kind he means, which he previously called a civil war.

Nevertheless unadulterated: Even if the elements, he says, have an indivisible relation and mixture and interweaving with one another, yet nevertheless their qualities do not destroy their purity, such as the hot, the dry, and the rest in the mixture of different kinds, which is observed in the universe.

Toward the opposites of the mixture: Mixture here must be understood not as the blending as of a liquid, and that which makes the substrates disappear, but the concord and mutual sequence, which in harmony (14S_346> preserves the things set over and the things set under, I mean intelligible and sensible things, that is, things in generation, and the opposites themselves, being at peace, for instance, with one another, like the water and the earth, by which the surrounded earth is not dissolved, and the heaven being from water, and the ether not dissolving the heaven; and this is the civil war, which not only did the creator wisely discover, but also more wisely leads all things into friendship and harmony through the simple elements themselves, according to what is said, “summer and spring you have made.”

And unmixed: He said unmixed and blended according to the aforementioned interpretation. Through which the divine minds being united: We said also above that the divine minds and themselves

understand, and those above them, and those below; and that they remain in themselves, when they energize their own powers, being united by their own intellections, but they seem to go forth to external things, when they understand the things below and the things above, and thus, as far as is possible, they ascend to the understanding of the cause of all things. So understanding, the divine minds are admittedly united with the things they understand; for that which understands is united by knowledge with what is known and understood, just as he who is ignorant is scattered, not having apprehended what he was ignorant of. Therefore, such a mind, by understanding, returns to itself, not being scattered outside of itself, but being united to itself, through those things by which it has returned to itself. But other than the holy minds, there is that which is the intellective union of the soul; for they are intelligible, but it is intellective, being subordinate to all the angels. But it is only intellective, for the reasons we have stated above, where we also discussed at length concerning the things said here in the first chapter.

(14S_348> Through the immaterial and impartible: That even in our souls an impartible and immaterial intellection may be found, when they gather their manifold thoughts toward one intellective purity; for then they proceed toward the union beyond intellection in a way and order proper to themselves.

By a perfect symphony and concord: He calls perfect peace the perfection of all good things, that is, God.

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Ἥν ὁ ἱερός Ἰοῦστος ἀφθεγξίαν καλεῖ: Σημείωσαι περί Ἰούστου, καί ὅτι τήν τοῦ θείου εἰρήνην ἀφθεγξίαν καί ἀκινησίαν ὀνομάζει. Τούτου δέ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰούστου μέμνηνται αἱ Πράξεις τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων, φάσκουσαι αὐτόν καί Ἰωσῆν καλεῖσθαι. Μᾶλλον οὖν καί συνέγραψέ τι, ἤ καί ἀγράφοις διδασκαλίαις ἐχρήσατο. Καί τοῦτο οὖν παρατίθεται τοῦ ἁγίου ∆ιονυσίου τήν ἀρχαιότητα, καί ὅτι τοῖς ἀποστόλοις αὐτοῖς καί ἀποστολικοῖς ἀνδράσι συνήκμασε. Σημείωσαι δέ ὅτι καί οἱ θεῖοι ἐκεῖνοι ἄνδρες φιλοσόφοις λέξεσιν ἐχρῶντο, ἀφθεγξιαν καί ἀκινησίαν τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ εἰρήνην ὀνομάζοντες.

Ἀπολείπει τήν ἑαυτῆς ἕνωσιν: Ἕνωσιν ἐνταῦθα τό ἁπλοῦν καί ἑνιαῖον, ἤγουν ἀδιαίρετον, φησίν.

Ἔνδον ὅλη μένουσα: Τουτέστι τήν ἑαυτοῦ κρυφιότητα παρεξιοῦσα καί ἀπολείπουσα.

Τάς νοητάς αὐτῆς καί ρητάς: Νοητάς καί ρητάς μετουσίας φησίν ὅσα διά τῶν εἰρημένων τῇ Γραφῇ ἐφεῖται νοεῖν ἡμᾶς.

§ 2. Κατά τήν ἀσύγχυτον αὐτῶν ἕνωσιν: Ὅτι καί τά εἰς σύνθεσιν ἰόντα ἕνωσιν καλεῖ, κἄν ᾖ ἀνόμοια· καί ποῖόν φησιν, ὅν προέφη ἐμφύλιον πόλεμον.

Ὅμως ἀκραιφνῆ: Εἰ καί τά στοιχεῖα, φησί, τήν πρός ἄλληλα καί μίξιν καί συμπλοκήν ἀδιαίρετον ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ' ὅμως αἱ τούτων ποιότητες τήν ἀκρότητα αὐτῶν οὐ παραπολλύουσιν, οἷον τό θερμόν, τό ξηρόν, καί τά λοιπά ἐν τῇ τῶν ἑτεροειδῶν κράσει, τήν ἐν τῷ παντί θεωρουμένην.

Πρός τά ἀντικείμενα κράσεως: Κρᾶσιν ἐνταῦθα νοητέον οὐ τήν ὡς ἐπί τοῦ ὑγροῦ φύρασιν, καί τήν ἀφανίζουσαν τά ὑποκείμενα, ἀλλά τήν σύμπνοιαν καί ἀλληλουχίαν, τήν ἐν ἁρμονίᾳ (14S_346> φυλάττουσαν τά ἐφεστῶτα καί τά ὑποτεταγμένα, νοητά φημι καί αἰσθητά, τουτέστι τά ἐν γενέσει, καί αὐτά δέ τά ἐναντία, οἷον εἰρηνεύοντα πρός ἄλληλα, ὡς τό ὕδωρ καί τήν γῆν, ᾧ περιβεβλημένη ἡ γῆ οὐ λύεται, καί ὁ οὐρανός ἐξ ὕδατος ὤν, καί ὁ αἰθήρ οὐ λύων τόν οὐρανόν· καί οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐμφύλιος πόλεμος, ὅν οὐ μόνον ὁ δημιουργός σοφῶς ἐξεῦρεν, ἀλλά καί σοφωτέρως εἰς φιλίαν καί ἁρμονίαν ἄγει τά πάντα δι' αὐτῶν τῶν ἁπλῶν στοιχείων, κατά τό εἰρημένον, «θέρος καί ἔαρ σύ ἐποίησας».

Καί ἀμιγῆ: Ἀμιγῆ καί συγκεκραμένα εἶπε κατά τήν προτεθεῖσαν ἐκδοχήν. ∆ι' ἥν οἱ θεῖοι νόες ἑνούμενοι: Εἴπομεν καί ἄνω τούς θείους νόας καί ἑαυτούς

νοεῖν, καί τούς ἐπαναβεβηκότας, καί τά ὑποδεέστερα· καί μένειν μέν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ὅταν τά ἑαυτῶν ἐνεργῶσι ταῖς ἑαυτῶν ἑνούμενοι νοήσεσιν, εἰς δέ τά ἔξω δοκεῖν προϊέναι, ὅταν δέ τά ὑποβεβηκότα νοῶσι καί τά ὑπερκείμενα, καί οὕτως ὡς ἐφικτόν εἰς τό νοεῖν, καί τῶν πάντων αἴτιον ἐπανίωσιν. Οὕτω δέ νοοῦντες οἱ θεῖοι νόες, ὁμολογουμένως ἑνοῦνται τοῖς νοουμένοις· τό γάρ νοοῦν τῇ γνώσει ἑνοῦται τῷ γνωσθέντι καί νοηθέντι, ὡς καί ὁ ἀγνοῶν σκεδάννυται, μή καταλαβών ὅ ἠγνόησε. Νοῶν οὖν ὁ τοιοῦτος νοῦς εἰς ἑαυτόν ἀνακάμπτει, οὐ σκεδαζόμενος ἔξω ἑαυτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἑνούμενος ἑαυτῷ, δι' ὧν εἰς ἑαυτόν ἀνέστρεψεν. Ἄλλη δέ παρά τούς ἁγίους νόας, ἥτις ψυχῆς ἐστι νοητική ἕνωσις· οἱ μέν γάρ νοητοί, ἡ δέ νοερά, πάντων ὑποβεβηκυῖα τῶν ἀγγέλων. Νοερά δέ μόνον ἐστί, δι' ἅς εἰρήκαμεν ἀνωτέρω αἰτίας, ἔνθα καί πλατέως διεξήλθομεν περί τῶν ἐνταῦθα λεγομένων ἐν κεφαλαίῳ πρώτῳ.

(14S_348> ∆ιά τῆς ἀΰλου καί ἀμεροῦς: Ὅτι καί ἐπί τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν ἐνδέχεται ἀμερῆ καί ἄϋλον εὑρεθῆναι νόησιν, ὅταν τούς παντοδαπούς αὐτῶν λογισμούς πρός μίαν νοεράν καθαρότητα συνάγωσι· τότε γάρ καί ἐπί τήν ὑπέρ νόησιν ἕνωσιν οἰκείως ἑαυταῖς ὁδῷ τινι καί τάξει προβαίνουσι.

Συμφωνίᾳ παντελεῖ καί ὁμονοίᾳ: Παντελῆ εἰρήνην λέγει τήν πάντων τελείαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τουτέστι τόν Θεόν.