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and speaking thus and teaching in a friendly way to one utterly perplexed and seeking to learn. I am the sweet star, which you once heard will rise out of Jacob, do not doubt, and I am shown to you as a sun rising from afar, who is unapproachable light for all the just in the future life and in eternal life. I am shown also as radiance and am seen by you as light, burning without consuming the passions of your heart and with the dew of sweetness and of my divine grace washing away your filth and completely extinguishing (165) the coals of the body, of the pleasures of sin, and working all things by my love for mankind, things which I have also long since done in all the saints. Have mercy on one who is grieving, pity one who is afflicted, be not angry with me for wanting to speak again. How are you a star from Jacob, you who are in every way uncontainable, and how do you become this for all even until now? And how are you shown rising like a sun, you who are nowhere and everywhere and above all creation, and are proclaimed invisible to all? And how do you become radiance and are seen by me as a flame and burn up matter, being immaterial in essence? How do you bedew and wash the filth of my body, being wholly a fire unapproachable and unbearable to angels? How do you embrace the corruptible substance of my body and mingle unmingledly with a human soul? How, through it, being unconfusedly in the whole body, you who are intangible, do you deify me wholly? I said also: do not send me away sullen and afflicted, O audacity, O madness, O words of foolishness! How do you not shudder to ask these things so abruptly? And how do you not perceive, asking things which you know, but you dare to speak with God as if testing him, and things which you know, pretending not to know, you ask me and wish to write for all, showing off your knowledge? But nevertheless, being benevolent, I bear with you and I teach you again, telling you these things thus: I by nature am ineffable, uncontainable, without need, unapproachable, invisible to all, intangible, ungraspable, immutable in substance, alone in the one all and alone with all those who know me in the darkness of this life; (166) but outside of the whole world, outside of things seen, outside of perceptible light, of both sun and darkness, and of the place of punishments and of the dreadful condemnation, into which have fallen the proud servants who wickedly stiffened their necks against me, the Master. I am immovable - for where do I not exist,

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καί οὑτωσί φθεγγόμενον καί φιλικῶς διδάσκον ἀπορουμένῳ παντελῶς καί μαθεῖν ἐκζητοῦντι. Ἐγώ τό ἄστρον τό γλυκύ, ὅπερ ποτέ ἀκούεις ἀνατελεῖν ἐξ Ἰακώβ, ὑπάρχω μή διστάσῃς, καί ἥλιός σοι δείκνυμαι μακρόθεν ἀνατέλλων, ὁ τοῖς δικαίοις ἅπασι φῶς ἀπρόσιτον εἶναι ἐν τῇ μελλούσῃ βιοτῇ καί ζωῇ αἰωνίᾳ. Ἐγώ καί αἴγλη δείκνυμαι καί φῶς σοι καθορῶμαι, ἀκαταφλέκτως φλέγων σου τά πάθη τῆς καρδίας καί δροσισμῷ γλυκύτητος καί χάριτός μου θείας ἀποπλύνων τόν ῥύπον σου καί εἰς ἅπαν σβεννύων (165) ἄνθρακας τούς τοῦ σώματος, ἡδονῶν ἁμαρτίας, καί πάντα ἐργαζόμενος ἐμῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ, ἅ καί πάλαι πεποίηκα ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις. Ἐλέησον λυπούμενον, οἴκτειρον τεθλιμμένον, μή ὀργισθῇς, λαλῆσαί μοι καί πάλιν βουλομένῳ. Πῶς ἄστρον ἐκ τοῦ Ἰακώβ, ὁ ἀχώρητος πάντῃ, ὑπάρχεις τε καί γίνῃ σύ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν τοῖς πᾶσι; Πῶς δέ καί ὥσπερ ἥλιος δείκνυσαι ἀνατέλλων, ὁ μηδαμοῦ καί πανταχοῦ καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν κτίσιν ὧν τε καί κηρυττόμενος ἀόρατος τοῖς πᾶσι; Πῶς δέ καί αἴγλη γίνῃ σύ καί φλόξ μοι καθορᾶσαι καί φλέγεις ὕλην, ἄϋλος ὑπάρχων κατ᾿ οὐσίαν; Πῶς δροσίζεις καί πλύνεις μου τοῦ σώματος τόν ῥύπον, ὅλος πῦρ ὤν ἀπρόσιτον καί ἄστεκτον ἀγγέλοις; Πῶς περιπλέκεσαι φθαρτῇ οὐσίᾳ σώματός μου καί ἀναμίγνυσαι ψυχῇ ἀμίκτως ἀνθρωπίνῃ; Πῶς δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἐν τῷ παντί σώματι ἀσυγχύτως γινόμενος, ὁ ἀναφής, ὅλον θεοποιεῖς με; Εἶπον καί˙ μή ἐκπέμψῃς με στυγνόν καί τεθλιμμένον, Ὤ τόλμη, ὤ παράνοια, ὤ ἀφροσύνης λόγοι! Πῶς οὕτως ταῦτα ἐρωτᾶν οὐ φρίττεις ἀποτόμως; Πῶς δέ καί οὐκ αἰσθάνῃ, ἐρωτῶν ἅ γινώσκεις, ἀλλά τολμᾷς μετά Θεοῦ λαλεῖν ὡς ἐκπειράζων, καί ἅ οἶδας, ὡς μή εἰδώς προσποιῇ ἐρωτᾶν με καί γράφειν θέλεις ἅπασιν ἐνδεικτικῶς σήν γνῶσιν; Ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως σοῦ ἀνέχομαι φιλανθρώπως ὑπάρχων καί πάλιν ἐκδιδάσκω σε, λέγων σοι ταῦτα οὕτως˙ ἐγώ τῇ φύσει ἄφραστος, ἀχώρητος ὑπάρχω, ἀνενδεής, ἀπρόσιτος, ἀόρατος τοῖς πᾶσιν, ἀναφής, ἀψηλάφητος, ἄτρεπτος τήν οὐσίαν, μόνος ἐν μόνῳ τῷ παντί καί μόνος μετά πάντων τῶν ἐπιγινωσκόντων με ἐν τῷ τοῦ βίου σκότει˙ (166) ἔξω δέ κόσμου τοῦ παντός, ἔξω τῶν ὁρωμένων, ἔξω τοῦ φωτός τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ, ἡλίου τε καί σκότους, τόπου τε τῶν κολάσεων καί φρικτῆς καταδίκης, ἐν ᾧ περιπεπτώκασιν ὑπερήφανοι δοῦλοι κακῶς τραχηλιάσαντες κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ, τοῦ ∆εσπότου. Ἐγώ ἀμετακίνητος - ποῦ γάρ καί οὐχ ὑπάρχω,