103

through their refutation of objects of worship by means of argumentative reasoning, the ascent to right division becomes easiest for them, and moreover, so that none of them may be dragged down by false opinion, because the deception is readily manifest and easily detected by all, concealing the hidden evil with nothing that appears honorable.

102 (102). ..».WHERE THERE IS PURIFICATION, THERE IS ILLUMINATION, AND ILLUMINATION IS THE FULFILLMENT OF DESIRE, FOR THOSE

OF THE GREATEST THINGS..». From the same discourse, on the text, "Where there is purification, there is illumination, and illumination is the fulfillment of desire,

for those aspiring to the greatest things, or the greatest thing, or what is beyond the great." The experts in the divine mysteries say that where there is purification of the soul through

the virtues, there also appears an illumination of knowledge after the pious consideration of existing things, leading the soul up 1304 to the comprehension of the divine, and nailing its desire to the ultimate object of desire, which is God, who properly exists and is known in the greatest things, and in the greatest thing, and beyond the great; "in the greatest things," that is, as in three consubstantial and co-powerful hypostases, unconfused (14∆_422> by the precise and immutable property of each, I mean unbegottenness and begottenness and procession; "in the greatest thing," because of the one and the same and monadic nature of the Godhead according to essence; and "beyond the great," because the divine "is not circumscribed by any quantity or magnitude or size" nor contained by any limits. For every magnitude is finite, but the divine alone is infinite, as the great David says, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and of his greatness there is no end," as being terminated by no boundary, and therefore infinite, or having any concept of time and nature reaching it, according to which the technical method of logical arguments was devised for those who study such things, by which especially and with which they were proven unapproved in the discovery of truth, believing that whatever has not been captured by their own reasonings, does not exist at all.

The teacher makes clear the aforesaid things by saying them, since he also used the same words in other places. Thus he says in his discourse "On the Voyage Down from Egypt," discoursing theologically in this way about the uncreated and divine essence, and about the created nature that received a beginning of being: " The one is called God, and stands in three greatest things: in the Cause and Creator and Perfecter, I mean the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And again in his discourse "On Baptism," discussing the one and the same holy Godhead in three holy hypostases, he says, "Equal from every side, the same from every side, as one beauty and magnitude of heaven, an infinite concrescence of three infinites." The teacher has therefore become his own interpreter for those who do not casually encounter his divinely spoken words.

103 (103). ..».NATURES ARE MADE NEW, AND GOD BECOMES MAN»

(14∆_424> From the same discourse, on the text, "Natures are made new, and God becomes man."

The saints who received many of the divine mysteries from the followers and ministers of the Word, who were immediately initiated from the source into the knowledge

of existing things, passed down through succession from those before them to them, say that the substance of all created things is comprehended in five divisions; of which they say the first is the one that divides the created nature as a whole, which received its being through generation, from the uncreated nature. For they say that God made existing things through goodness 1305

103

ἐπιχειρηματικῶν λόγων αὐτοῖς γενομένῃ τῶν σεβασμάτων ἀνασκευῇ ῥᾴστη γένηται αὐτοῖς πρός ὀρθοτομίαν ἡ ἄνοδος, προσέτι γε μήν καί μηδέ τινα τούτων κακοδοξίᾳ κατασυρῆναι, διά τό τήν ἀπάτην ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου πᾶσιν εὔδηλον εἶναι καί εὐφώρατον, μηδενί τιμίῳ δοκοῦντι συγκαλύπτουσαν τό λανθάνον κακόν.

ΡΒ (102). ..».ΟΥ ∆Ε ΚΑΘΑΡΣΙΣ, ΕΛΛΑΜΨΙΣ, ΕΛΛΑΜΨΙΣ ∆Ε ΠΟΘΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΣΙΣ, ΤΟΙΣ

ΤΩΝ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΩΝ..». Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Οὗ δέ κάθαρσις, ἔλλαμψις, ἔλλαμψις δέ πόθου

πλήρωσις, τοῖς τῶν μεγίστων, ἤ τοῦ μεγίστου, ἤ ὑπέρ τό μέγα ἐφιεμένοις». Φασίν οἱ τῶν θείων ἐπιστήμονες μυστηρίων ὅτι ἔνθα κάθαρσις ψυχῆς ἡ διά

τῶν ἀρετῶν, ἐκεῖ καί ἔλλαμψις γνώσεως μετά τήν εὐσεβῆ τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν ἀναφαίνεται, πρός τήν τοῦ θείου κατανόησιν 1304 τήν ψυχήν ἀναβιβάζουσα, καί τόν πόθον αὐτῆς προσηλοῦσα τῷ ἐσχάτῳ τῶν ὀρεκτῶν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ὁ Θεός, ὁ ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις καί ἐν τῷ μεγίστῳ καί ὑπέρ τό μέγα κυρίως ὑπάρχων καί γινωσκόμενος· "ἐν τοῖς μεγίστοις" μέν, ὡς ἐν τρισίν ὑποστάσεσιν ὁμοουσίοις καί ὁμοδυνάμοις, ἀσυγχύτοις (14∆_422> τε τῇ ἀκριβεῖ καί ἀμεταβόλῳ περί ἑκάστην ἰδιότητι, ἀγεννησίᾳ λέγω καί γεννήσει καί ἐκπορεύσει· "ἐν τῷ μεγίστῳ" δέ, διά τό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἕν καί ταὐτόν καί μοναδικόν τῆς θεότητος· ὑπέρ τό μέγα δέ, διά τό "μή ποσῷ τινι ἤ μεγέθει ἤ πηλικότητι περιγράφεσθαι" καί πέρασί τισι διαλαμβάνεσθαι τό θεῖον. Πᾶν γάρ μέγεθος πεπερασμένον ἐστί, τό δέ θεῖον μόνον ἀπέραντον, ᾗ φησιν ὁ μέγας ∆αβίδ, Μέγας Κύριος καί αἰνετός σφόδρα, καί τῆς μεγαλωσύνης αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστι πέρας, ὡς οὐδενί περιορισμῷ περατούμενον, διό καί ἄπειρον, ἤ ἔχον φθάνουσαν αὐτό τήν οἱανοῦν χρόνου καί φύσεως ἔννοιαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τεχνική τῶν λογικῶν ἐπιχειρημάτων μέθοδος τοῖς τά τοιαῦτα σπουδασταῖς ἐπενοήθη δι᾿ ἥν μάλιστα καί μεθ᾿ ἧς ἀδόκιμοι περί τήν τῆς ἀληθείας εὕρεσιν ἀπεδείχθησαν, πᾶν ὅ τοῖς σφῶν αὐτῶν λογισμοῖς μή γέγονεν ἁλωτόν, μήτε εἶναι τό παράπαν πιστεύσαντες.

∆ηλοῖ δέ τά προειρημένα λέγων ὁ διδάσκαλος ἐκ τοῦ καί ἐν ἄλλοις τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρήσασθαι λόγοις. Λέγει οὖν ἐν τῷ εἰς τόν Κατάπλουν τῶν ἀπό Αἰγύπτου λόγῳ, θεολογικῶς οὑτωσί διεξιών περί τῆς ἀκτίστου καί θείου οὐσίας, καί τῆς κτιστῆς καί ἀρχήν τοῦ εἶναι λαβούσης φύσεως· " Καλεῖται δέ ἡ μέν Θεός, καί ἐν τρισί τοῖς μεγίστοις ἵσταται, αἰτίῳ καί δημιουργῷ καί τελειοποιῷ τῷ Πατρί λέγω καί τῷ Υἱῷ καί τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι. Καί αὖθις ἐν τῷ περί Βαπτίσματος λόγῳ περί τῆς ἐν τρισίν ἁγίαις ὑποστάσεσι μίας καί τῆς αὐτῆς ἁγίας θεότητος διαλαμβάνων φησί, "Πάντοθεν ἴσην, τήν αὐτήν πάντοθεν, ὡς ἕν οὐρανοῦ κάλλος καί μέγεθος, τριῶν ἀπείρων ἄπειρον συμφυΐαν». Αὐτός οὖν ἑαυτοῦ καθέστηκεν ἑρμηνευτής ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῖς μή παρέργως ἐντυγχάνουσι τοῖς αὐτοῦ θεοφράστου λόγοις.

ΡΓ (103). ..».ΚΑΙΝΟΤΟΜΟΥΝΤΑΙ ΦΥΣΕΙΣ, ΚΑΙ ΘΕΟΣ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ ΓΙΝΕΤΑΙ»

(14∆_424> Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Καινοτομοῦνται φύσεις, καί Θεός ἄνθρωπος

γίνεται». Οἱ τά πολλά τῶν θείων μυστηρίων ἐκ τῶν ὀπαδῶν καί ὑπηρετῶν γενομένων

τοῦ Λόγου, καί αὐτόθεν ἀμέσως τήν τῶν ὄντων μυηθέντων γνῶσιν, κατά διαδοχήν διά τῶν πρό αὐτῶν εἰς αὐτούς διαδοθέντα λαβόντες ἅγιοί φασιν πέντε διαιρέσεσι διειλῆφθαι τήν πάντων τῶν γεγονότων ὑπόστασιν· ὧν πρώτην μέν φασιν εἶναι τήν διαιροῦσαν τῆς ἀκτίστου φύσεως τήν κτιστήν καθόλου φύσιν, καί διά γενέσεως τό εἶναι λαβοῦσαν. Φασί γάρ τόν Θεόν ἀγαθότητι 1305 πεποιηκότα τῶν ὄντων