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and the things with Him, God, and at other times the hypostasis of these, that is, the one who gave them hypostasis; for He, as the cause of these things and a principle beyond principle, is so called these things; but the beings that partake of these are called from them living and being and divine. Indeed, the life-giving, the substantializing instead of the things, God has given hypostasis. First, therefore, we conceive of the thing itself, then thus its universal concept, such as life or substance contemplated in every way, and then the particulars, that is, we receive the concept of the form of each individual, such as of angelic or human life, and of the rest with which it contributes, and the memory of the participants themselves. Then, having introduced the participants of all these things, he showed that not all things partake of all things; for some partake of substance alone, others of life, others also of intellection or even intellectuality, and others in addition to these, also of deification.

Which the beings [partake of] according to their own capacity: What seems rather obscure must be clarified thus: God, pre-containing all things for salvation in Himself in a super-unified and uncompounded way, and as a fount-like principle through an excess of goodness, and to those who have been given hypostasis creatively from Him, (14S_358> as if sending forth certain rays, remaining wholly in Himself, He imparts in a participated manner to each according to its capacity His great pre-eminences; therefore, the illuminations from the goods within Him for impartation are prototypically called also self-being and self-vivifications and self-deifications and all such things in imitation of the principles, that is, of those very things that are of God, I mean of self-divinity and self-goodness and self-life; and secondarily, it is said that all these things receive hypostasis, through the substances which have received hypostasis from Him in procession, being essentially lives and being given in a participated manner to the worthy; and thirdly, of these particular impartations; for some partake of vivification alone, and some also of deification, and some also of all these things together, as the highest intelligible powers.

Of the particulars: He calls the successions of the genera particulars. And of self-goodness: That the super-good and super-divine is the one who gives hypostasis both to self-goodness and divinity

Note, therefore, that such things are not the essence of God. Read in the second epistle to Gaius.

Providences and goodnesses: He calls providences and goodnesses those things he mentioned before: substantialization, vivification, goodness, divinity, beauty, and the like.

From God the unparticipated: Having said a short while ago that God is participated, now he says He is unparticipated; God is, therefore, participated according to His bounteous impartations, but unparticipated according to His being the same cause, and having this uniquely beyond all things, of which all things appropriately partake; for this is similar to what was said above in the fifth chapter, that being is both in all things (14S_360> and is none of all things; for because He contains and vivifies and preserves, He is said to be in all things, but He is none of the beings; inasmuch as He is the cause of the production of all things, the cause could not be from among the effects. So also here, God is participated inasmuch as all beings partake of Him, and through Him they subsist; for that which does not partake of Him, neither is, nor will be, nor was. But again, He is unparticipated, since none of the beings partakes of His essence; for God is beyond beings according to His own nature.

ON CHAPTER 12

§ 1. By the doubling of the names: He calls doubling of names the superlative with respect to

the simple, such as Holy of holies, Lord of lords, God of gods, and King of kings, and things similar to these.

§ 2. Wherefore also lordship: These things the two Gregories say, both the Theologian and of Nyssa.

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καί τά σύν αὐτῷ τόν Θεόν, ποτέ δέ τούτων ὑποστάτην, ἤγουν ταῦτα ὑποστήσαντα· ὅτι ὁ μέν, ὡς αἴτιος τούτων καί ἀρχή ὑπεράρχιος, οὕτω ταῦτα λέγεται· τά δε ὄντα τούτων μετέχοντα, καλοῦνται ἐξ αὐτῶν ζῶντα καί ὄντα καί ἔνθεα. Τήν ζώωσιν γοῦν, τήν οὐσίωσιν ἀντί τοῦ τά πράγματα, ὑπέστησεν ὁ Θεός. Πρώτως οὖν ἐννοούμεθα αὐτό τό πρᾶγμα, εἶθ' οὕτω τήν καθολικήν αὐτοῦ ἔννοιαν, οἷον τήν παντοίως θεωρουμένην ζωήν ἤ οὐσίαν, καί τότε τά μερικά, τουτέστι τήν τοῦ καθ' ἕκαστον εἶδος ἔννοιαν λαμβάνομεν, οἷον τῆς ἀγγελικῆς ἤ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς, καί τῶν λοιπῶν οἷς συνεισβάλλει, καί αὐτῶν τῶν μετεχόντων ἡ μνήμη. Ἐπαγαγών δέ εἶτα τῶν ὅλων αὐτῶν μετεχόντων, ἐδήλωσεν ὡς οὐ πάντα πάντων μετέχουσι· τά μέν γάρ οὐσίας μόνης, τά δέ ζωῆς, τά δέ καί νοήσεως ἤ καί νοερότητος, τά δέ πρός τούτοις καί θεώσεως.

Ὅν τά ὄντα οἰκειως ἑαυτοῖς: Τό δοκοῦν ἀσαφέστερον σαφηνιστέον οὕτως· ὁ Θεός πάντα εἰς σωτηρίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ προέχων ὑπερηνωμένως καί ἀσυνθέτως, καί ὡς πηγαία ἀρχή δι' ἀγαθότητος ὑπερβολήν, καί τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ δημιουργικῶς ὑποστᾶσι, (14S_358> καθάπερ ἀκτῖνάς τινας ἀφιείς, μένων ὅλως ἐν ἑαυτῷ μεταδίδωσι μεθεκτῶς ἑκάστῳ οἰκείως τῶν μεγάλων αὐτοῦ προτερημάτων· αἱ οὖν ἐκ τῶν ἐνόντων αὐτῷ ἀγαθῶν εἰς μετάδοσιν ἐλλάμψεις πρωτοτύπως λέγονται καί αὐτοεῖναι καί αὐτοζωώσεις καί αὐτοθεώσεις καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα κατά μίμησιν τῶν ἀρχῶν, τουτέστιν τῶν αὐτοῦ δή τοῦ Θεοῦ ὄντων, φημί τῆς αὐτοθεότητος καί αὐτοαγαθότητος καί αὐτοζωῆς· δευτέρως δέ καί ὅλα αὐτά ὑποστῆναι λέγεται, διά τῶν κατά πρόοδον ὑποστασῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ οὐσιῶν, ζωῶν οὐσῶν οὐσιωδῶς καί διδομένων μεθεκτῶς τοῖς ἀξίοις· τρίτως δέ τῶν μερικῶν τούτων μεταδόσεων· τινά γάρ μετέχει ζωώσεως μόνης, τινά δέ καί θεώσεως, τινά δέ καί τῶν ὅλων ὁμοῦ τούτων, ὡς αἱ ἀνώταται νοηταί δυνάμεις.

Τῶν μερικῶν: Μερικά φησι τάς διαδοχάς τῶν γενῶν. Καί τῆς αὐτοαγαθότητος: Ὅτι καί τῆς αὐτοαγαθότητος καί θεότητος

ὑποστάτης ἐστίν ὁ ὑπεράγαθος καί ὑπέρθεος. Σημείωσαι οὖν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν οὐσία Θεοῦ τά τοιαῦτα. Ἀνάγνωθι ἐν τῇ β ' πρός Γάϊον ἐπιστολῇ.

Προνοίας καί ἀγαθότητας: Προνοίας καί ἀγαθότητάς φησιν, ἅπερ προεΐπεν οὐσίωσιν, ζώωσιν, ἀγαθότητα, θεότητα, κάλλος, καί τά ὅμοια.

Ἐκ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀμεθέκτου: Πρό βραχέος εἰπών μεθεκτόν τόν Θεόν, νῦν ἀμέθεκτον αὐτόν φησιν εἶναι· μεθεκτός μέν οὖν ὁ Θεός κατά τάς φιλοδώρους αὐτοῦ μεταδόσεις, ἀμέθεκτος δέ κατά τό αὐτόν αἴτιον ὄντα, καί τοῦτο ὑπέρ πάντα ἔχειν ἰδίως, ὧν πάντα προσφόρως μετέχει· ὅμοιον γάρ ἐστι τοῦτο τῷ εἰρημένῳ ἄνω ἐν κεφαλαίῳ πέμπτῳ, ὅτι τό ὄν καί ἐν τοῖς πᾶσίν (14S_360> ἐστι, καί οὐδέν τῶν πάντων ἐστί· διά γάρ τό συνέχειν καί ζωοῦν καί φυλάττειν λέγεται ἐν τοῖς πᾶσιν εἶναι, οὐδέν δέ τῶν ὄντων ἐστί· καθ' ὅ αἴτιον τῆς πάντων παραγωγῆς, οὐκ ἄν δέ τό αἴτιον ἐκ τῶν αἰτιατῶν εἴη. Οὕτω καί ἐνταῦθα, μεθεκτός μέν ὁ Θεός καθ' ὅ πάντα τά ὄντα αὐτοῦ μετέχει, καί δι' αὐτοῦ συνέστηκε· τό γάρ αὐτοῦ μή μετέχον, οὔτε ἔστιν, οὔτε ἔσται, οὔτε ἦν. Ἀμέθεκτος δέ πάλιν, ἐπειδή τῆς αὐτοῦ οὐσίας οὐδέν τῶν ὄντων μετέχει· ὑπέρ τά ὄντα γάρ ὁ Θεός κατά τήν ἰδίαν φύσιν.

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΙΒ'

§ 1. Τῷ διπλασιασμῷ τῶν ὀνομάτων: ∆ιπλασιασμόν ὀνομάτων φησί τό πρός

τό ἁπλοῦν ὑπερθετικόν, οἷον Ἅγιον ἁγίων, Κύριον κυρίων, Θεόν θεῶν, καί Βασιλέα βασιλέων, καί τά ὅμοια τούτων.

§ 2. ∆ιό καί κυριότης: Ταῦτά φασιν οἱ δύο Γρηγόριοι, ὅ τε Θεολόγος καί ὁ Νύσσης.