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Of the deep-green jasper, or of amethyst, a purple statue, a strong black hyacinth. For all these things show the great learning of this holy man. But it is necessary, I think, for the abstractions: The present passage in the following sections he himself the

father clarifies. Affirmations, therefore, are all that is properly said of God that He is, such as Being, Life, (14S_396> Light, and the others, but abstractions are all that is denied of God as foreign to him; for instance, that God is not a body, not a soul, nor any of the things known or falling under the intellect. Alternatively; What affirmations and abstractions are, we have learned in various ways in the treatise *On the Divine Names*.

In all things that are: The knowledge of existing things, he says, does not uncover and bring to manifestation the unknown concerning God, but rather conceals and hides it. But the light in existing things is to be understood as knowing beings as they are beings, as we also find in what follows.

ON CHAPTER III

How the divine and good nature: What the treatise of the Theological

Outlines contains. Behold, the principles and starting points of theology, possessing all divine and enlightened knowledge and orthodoxy: to know how the divine nature is one, which some of the later Fathers called consubstantial; how it is triadic, which we say is of three hypostases, and to know the properties of the persons, and what they signify, such as paternity and sonship, and what is the sanctifying power and theology of the divine Spirit; and how it is said, 'My heart has uttered a good word', and how it is said concerning the adorable Spirit, that which proceeds from the Father; and how in the Father and in them and in one another the Son and the Spirit are co-eternally and unseverably and indivisibly in an abiding that cannot be departed from. But it is necessary to know that abiding and rest (14S_398> are the same, while motion is different from abiding. He says, therefore, that, even in an unmoved abiding, the divine nature, ever being, seems to be moved in its indwelling in one another.

And of that in him and in them: This is the meaning of what has been said; the existence of the Holy Trinity, he says, is co-eternal, and it did not exist in one way, and then afterward was established in another, or had any separation or change, but at the same time and identically the Son and the Holy Spirit are from the Father, and not after him.

How the super-essential Jesus: Note against the Nestorians and the Acephali. How good: What the treatise *On the Divine Names* contains. For it was necessary: Why the *Theological Outlines* and the *On the Divine Names*

treatise are briefer than the *Symbolic Theology*. Of the symbolic: He speaks of the first principles of the Symbolic Theology. By the summaries of the intelligibles: He called summaries of the intelligibles the contemplations befitting their immaterial

simplicity, and he used 'are wrapped' instead of 'are contracted'.

But complete speechlessness: He calls speechlessness the inability to represent by speech things beyond speech, and mindlessness, therefore, the un-thinkable and what one cannot think, as being beyond mind.

And there indeed from above: Since the intelligible and supra-intelligible things of God are unities, and God is one, or rather even beyond the one, it is reasonably contracted, being both indivisible and not a multitude. But the things after God, the more they descend to sensible things, the more they converse with the divisible and scattered, and with the multiplied are multiplied with them towards the division and manifold nature of sensible things. But towards the last things, that is, from the theological outline. (14S_400> From the

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Τῆς βαθυχλοάοντος ἰάσπιδος, ἤ ἀμεθύστου Πορφυρόεντος ἄγαλμα, μελαγκρατέτης ὑάκινθος. Ταῦτα γάρ πάντα δείκνυσι τό πολυμαθές τοῦ ἁγίου τούτου ἀνδρός. Χρή δέ, ὡς οἶμαι, τάς ἀφαιρέσεις: Τό παρόν χωρίον ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς αὐτός ὁ

πατήρ σαφηνίζει. Θέσεις μέν οὖν εἰσιν ὅσα οἰκείως ἐπί Θεοῦ λέγεται ὅτι ἐστίν, οἷον τό ὤν, τό ζωή, τό (14S_396> φῶς, καί τά ἄλλα, ἀφαιρέσεις δέ ὅσα ὡς ἀλλότρια Θεοῦ ἀποφάσκεται· οἷον ὅτι οὐ σῶμα ὁ Θεός, οὐ ψυχή, οὐδέ τι τῶν γνωστῶν ἤ τῇ νοήσει ὑποπιπτόντων. Ἄλλως· Τί εἰσι θέσεις καί αἱ ἀφαιρέσεις, ἐν τῷ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων λόγῳ διαφόρως ἔγνωμεν.

Ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν: Αἱ τῶν ὄντων γνώσεις, φησί, τό περί Θεοῦ ἄγνωστον οὐκ ἐκκαλύπτουσι καί εἰς φανέρωσιν ἄγουσιν, ἀλλά μᾶλλον συγκαλύπτουσι καί ἀποκρύπτουσι. Τό δέ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι φῶς ὑποληπτέον τό γνῶναι τά ὄντα ᾖ ὄντα ἐστί, καθώς καί ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς εὑρίσκομεν.

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Γ'

Πῶς ἡ θεία καί ἀγαθή φύσις: Τί περιέχει ὁ λόγος τῶν Θεολογικῶν

ὑποτυπώσεων. Ἰδού θεολογίας ὑποθῆκαι καί ἀφορμαί, πάσης ἐχόμεναι θείας καί πεφωτισμένης γνώσεως καί ὀρθοδοξίας· τό εἰδέναι, πῶς ἑνική ἡ θεία φύσις, οἱ νεώτεροι Πατέρες τινές ὁμοούσιον προσεῖπον· πῶς τριαδική, ὅ φαμεν τρισυπόστατον, καί τό εἰδέναι τῶν προσώπων τάς ἰδιότητας, καί τί δηλοῦσιν, οἷον πατρότητα καί υἱότητα, καί τίς ἡ τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος ἁγιαστική δύναμις καί θεολογία· καί πῶς εἴρηται τό, «ἐξηρεύξατο ἡ καρδία μου λόγον ἀγαθόν», καί πῶς περί τοῦ προσκυνητοῦ Πνεύματος εἴρηται, ὅπερ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός ἐκπορεύεται· καί πῶς ἐν τῷ Πατρί καί ἐν αὐτοῖς καί ἐν ἀλλήλοις ὁ Υἱός καί τό Πνεῦμα συναϊδίως καί ἀσχίστως καί ἀδιαιρέτως ἐν μονῇ εἰσιν ἀνεκφοιτήτῳ. ∆εῖ δέ εἰδέναι, ὅτι μονή καί στάσις (14S_398> ταὐτόν εἰσι, κίνησις δέ ἕτερόν ἐστι τῆς μονῆς. Φησίν οὖν ὅτι, καί ἐν μονῇ ἀκινήτῳ, ἀεί οὖσα ἡ θεία φύσις, δοκεῖ κινεῖσθαι ἐν τῇ ἐν ἀλλήλοις χωρήσει.

Καί τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ καί ἐν αὐτοῖς: Οὗτος ὁ νοῦς τῶν εἰρημένων· συναΐδιος, φησίν, ἡ ὕπαρξις τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος, καί οὐχ ἑτέρως μέν ὑπῆρξεν, ἑτέρως δέ μετά ταῦτα κατέστη, ἤ χωρισμόν τινα ἤ μεταβολήν ἔσχηκεν, ἀλλ' ἅμα καί κατά ταυτόν τό τε ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός εἶναι τόν Υἱόν καί τό Πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον, καί οὐ μετ' αὐτόν.

Πῶς ὁ ὑπερούσιος Ἰησοῦς: Σημείωσαι κατά Νεστοριανῶν καί Ἀκεφάλων. Πῶς ἀγαθός: Τί περιέχει ὁ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων λόγος. Καί γάρ ἐχρῆν: ∆ιά τί αἱ θεολογικαί Ὑποτυπώσεις καί ὁ Περί θείων ὀνομάτων

λόγος ὁλιγόστιχοί εἰσι μᾶλλον ἤ ἡ Συμβολική θεολογία. Τῆς συμβολικῆς: Τῶν πρώτων τά τῆς Συμβολικῆς θεολογίας φησί. Ταῖς συνόψεσι τῶν νοητῶν: Συνόψεις τῶν νοητῶν τάς τῇ ἀΰλῳ αὐτῶν

ἁπλότητι πρεπούσας θεωρίας ἐκάλεσε, τό δέ «περιστέλλονται» ἀντί τοῦ 'συστέλλονται' τέθεικεν.

Ἀλλ' ἀλογίαν παντελῆ: Ἀλογίαν φησί τό μή δύνασθαι λόγῳ παραστῆσαι τά ὑπέρ λόγον, καί ἀνοησίαν οὖν τό ἀνεννόητον καί ὅ μή δύναταί τις νοῆσαι, ὡς ὑπέρ νοῦν.

Κακεῖ μέν ἀπό τοῦ ἄνω: Ἐπειδή τά νοητά καί ὑπέρ νοῦν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἑνάδες εἰσί, καί ἕν ὁ Θεός, μᾶλλον δέ καί ὑπέρ τό ἕν, εἰκότως συνέσταλται, ἅτε καί ἀμερές καί ἀπλήθυντον. Τά δέ μετά Θεόν, ὅσῳ μᾶλλον κάτεισιν ἐπί τά αἰσθητά, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ὁμιλοῦνται τοῖς μεριστοῖς καί σκεδαστοῖς, καί πεπληθυσμένοις συμπληθύεται αὐτοῖς πρός τόν μερισμόν καί τό πολυσχιδές τῶν αισθητῶν. Πρός τά ἔσχατα δέ, τουτέστιν ἀπό τῆς θεολογικῆς ὑποτυπώσεως. (14S_400> Ἀπό τοῦ