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§ 4. This is true also of angels: That things concerning God are incomprehensible even to angels, and that even the lowest of the angels contemplates more about God than all the theologians in the Church, and therefore also than the apostles.

And if there is anything of equivalent power. That, even if other divine names of equivalent power are found in Scripture, it is necessary to understand these also according to the same revelatory methods.

And to you and to other holy men: That the mystical things are not to be imparted to all without inquiry, but to capable and holy men, which is what the divine Paul writes to this holy man Timothy.

We who are able to speak: The father says these things with befitting modesty, and likewise all that follows. (14S_380> To symbolic theology: That he calls symbolic theology that which is not for the present time brought forth, as he also says in another chapter; but if you wish to know the difference between the theological outline and symbolic theology, read the third chapter of the work On Mystical Theology.

ON MYSTICAL THEOLOGY

ON CHAPTER 1 (14S_384> § 1. Where the simple things are: Simple and absolute are those things without symbols

understood and contemplated as they are, not indeed parabolically. Therefore, he called absolute those things which are not spoken by an unfolding of names or symbols, but are gathered by the cessation and release from all beings and from thoughts, which inactivity of the sacred motion in the things before this he called unknowing, but here a most dark gloom and invisible according to the Psalmist, “cloud and gloom are round about him,” and, “he made darkness his hiding place.”

The eyeless minds: For they are not full of perceptible eyes, but their essence, being a living mind, is entirely a most sharp-sighted eye, whence they are also called many-eyed in Scripture.

And leave behind the senses: The same thing is declared in parallel; for the ancients call the perceptible things themselves non-beings, as partaking of all change and not always existing in the same way; but the intelligible things, as always existing immortal by the will of the maker and not changing their essence, they call beings. These things we have often set forth in the work On the Divine Names.

Beyond all being: The simplicity and beyond all unity. But how one is raised up unknowingly to God is stated both in the (14S_386> fifth chapter of On the Divine Names, and you will find it here after a little.

To the unrelated and absolute: He calls unrelated ecstasy the withdrawal of all relation, meaning, so that one might be held by no relation, neither to himself, nor to any of the created things.

a ray of darkness: And here he called darkness the complete incomprehensibility. § 2. None of the uninitiated: Note that he calls uninitiated those who are

without a share in the mysteries, but are wrapped up in perceptible things and imagine nothing to be beyond beings. Indeed, concerning the completely uninitiated he speaks immediately below. And note that he speaks of the uninitiated as one group and the uninitiable, that is, those who cannot be initiated, as another.

But if they are beyond these: The things before these he said concerning those who believed in the name of Christ, but have not yet come to the more perfect knowledge, but

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§ 4. Τοῦτο γάρ ἀληθῶς καί ἄγγελοι: Ὅτι καί ἀγγέλοις τά περί Θεοῦ ἀκατάληπτα, καί ὅτι καί ὁ κατώτατος τῶν ἀγγέλων μείζων πάντων τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ θεολόγων περί Θεοῦ θεωρεῖ, οὐκοῦν καί τῶν ἀποστόλων.

Καί εἴ τι τῶν ὁμοδυνάμων. Ὅτι, κἄν ἕτεραι ὁμοδύναμοι θεωνυμίαι ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ εὑρεθῶσι, χρή καί ταύτας κατά τάς αὐτάς ἐκφαντορικάς μεθόδους προσυπακούειν.

Καί ὑμῖν καί ἑτέροις ἱεροῖς ἀνδράσιν: Ὅτι οὐ πᾶσιν ἀζητήτως μεταδοτέον τῶν μυστικῶν, ἀλλά τοῖς ἱκανοῖς καί ἱεροῖς ἀνδράσιν, ὅπερ καί ὁ θεῖος Παῦλος τούτῳ τῷ ἱερῷ ἀνδρί Τιμοθέῳ γράφει.

Ἡμεῖς τε εἰπεῖν ἱκανοί: Ταῦτα ἁγιοπρεπῶς μετριάζων φησίν ὁ πατήρ, ὡσαύτως καί τά ἑξῆς πάντα. (14S_380> Ἐπί δέ τήν συμβολικήν θεολογίαν: Ὅτι θεολογίαν συμβολικήν λέγει τέως μή φερομένην, ὡς καί ἐν ἄλλῳ κεφαλαίῳ φησίν· εἰ δέ βούλει τήν διαφοράν εἰδέναι τῆς θεολογικῆς ὑποτυπώσεως καί τῆς συμβολικῆς θεολογίας, ἀνάγνωθι τό τρίτον κεφάλαιον τοῦ Περί μυστικῆς θεολογίας λόγου.

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΕΡΙ ΜΥΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Α' (14S_384> § 1. Ἔνθα τά ἁπλᾶ: Ἁπλᾶ καί ἀπόλυτά εἰσι τά δίχα συμβόλων

νοούμενα καί ἐποπτευόμενα ὡς ἔχουσιν, οὐ μήν παραβολικῶς. Ἀπόλυτα οὖν ἔφη τά μή κατά ἀνάπτυξιν ὀνομάτων ἤ συμβόλων λεγόμενα, ἀλλά τῇ ἐκ πάντων τῶν ὄντων καί τῇ τῶν νοήσεων ἀποπαύσει καί ἀπολύσει συναγόμενα, ἥντινα ἀνενεργησίαν τῆς ἱερᾶς κινήσεως ἐν μέν τοῖς πρό τούτου ἀνοησίαν ἐκάλεσεν, ἐνταῦθα δέ σκοτεινότατον γνόφον καί ἀόρατον κατά τόν Ψαλμῳδόν, «νεφέλη καί γνόφος κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ», καί, «ἔθετο σκότος ἀποκρυφήν αὑτοῦ».

Τούς ἀνομμάτους νόας: Οὐ γάρ αἰσθητῶν ὀφθαλμῶν εἰσι μεστοί, ἀλλ' ἐστίν αὐτῶν ἡ οὐσία, ἅτε ζῶν νοῦς, ὅλη ὀφθαλμός ὀξυδερκέστατος, ὅθεν καί πολυόμματοι λέγονται ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ.

Καί τάς αἰσθήσεις ἀπόλειπε: Εκ παραλλήλου τό αὐτό δηλοῦται· τά γάρ αἰσθητά αὐτά καλοῦσιν οἱ παλαιοί μή ὄντα, ἅτε μεταβολῆς ἁπάσης μετέχοντα καί μή ὡσαύτως ἀεί ὄντα· τά δέ νοητά, ὡς ἀεί ὄντα ἀθάνατα βουλήσει τοῦ ποιήσαντος καί τήν οὐσίαν μή μεταβάλλοντα, λέγουσιν ὄντα. Ταῦτα δέ πολλάκις παρατεθείκαμεν ἐν τῷ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων λόγῳ.

Ὑπέρ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν: Τήν ἁπλότητα καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν ἑνάδα. Πῶς δέ ἀγνώστως ἀνατείνεταί τις πρός Θεόν καί ἐν τῷ (14S_386> Περί θείων ὀνομάτων κεφαλαίῳ πέμπτῳ εἴρηται, καί ἐνταῦθα μετά βραχέα εὑρήσεις.

Ἀσχέτῳ καί ἀπολύτῳ: Ἄσχετον ἔκστασίν φησι τήν ἀναχώρησιν πάσης σχέσεως, ἀντί τοῦ, ἵνα μηδεμιᾷ κατέχοιτο σχέσει, μήτε πρός αὐτόν, μήτε πρός τι τῶν κτισμάτων.

Σκότους ἀκτῖνα: Καί ἐνταῦθα σκότος τήν παντελῆ ἀκαταληψίαν ἔφη. § 2. Μηδείς τῶν ἀμυήτων: Σημείωσαι, ὅτι ἀμυήτους φησί τούς μέν τῶν

μυστικῶν ἀμετόχους, τοῖς δέ αἰσθητοῖς ἐνειλουμένους καί οὐδέν ὑπέρ τά ὄντα εἶναι φανταζομένους. Ἀμέλει περί τῶν καθόλου ἀμυήτων εὐθύς παρακατιών φησι. Καί σημείωσαι, ὅτι ἄλλους τούς ἀμυήτους λέγει καί ἄλλους τούς ἀμύστους, ἤγουν ἀμυσταγωγήτους.

Εἰ δέ ὑπέρ τούτους εἰσί: Τά μέν πρό τούτων ἔφη περί τῶν πιστευσάντων μέν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, μή μήν ἐπί τήν τελειοτέραν ἐλθόντων γνῶσιν, ἀλλά