104

and You burn 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 unmingled with a human soul? How through it, being unconfusedly in the whole body, O intangible one, do You deify me wholly? I said also: do not send me away gloomy 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 what you know, but dare to speak with God as if testing, and what you know, as if not knowing you pretend to ask me and wish to write for all, ostentatiously displaying your knowledge? But nevertheless I bear with you, being philanthropic, and again I teach you, telling you these things thus: I by nature am ineffable, uncontainable, without need, unapproachable, invisible to all, intangible, untouchable, immutable in essence, alone in the whole alone and alone with all those who know me in the darkness of life; (166) but outside the entire world, outside of things seen, outside of perceptible light, of both sun and darkness, of the place of punishments and of dreadful condemnation, into which have fallen proud servants who wickedly became stiff-necked against me, the Master. I am immovable—for where do I not exist, that by my displacement I should occupy the place? I am also ever-moving uncircumscribably—for where will you go to seek me, that you may find me there? Heaven by my word was brought in as nothing, the sun, stars and the earth have become for me like a small side-work, and the rest, whatever you see, likewise. The angels, brought forth by me long before these, see the glory of glory, but not nature itself; for I only conceived to bring forth powers and immediately they stood by, hymning my dominion, But you, sitting below there, in exile, where all the first transgressors have fallen, both Adam and with him Eve, your foremother, and the evil devil, who deceived them, where the darkness is deep, where the great pit is,

104

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, ἵνα τῇ μεταστάσει μου τόν τόπον καταλάβω; Ἐγώ καί ἀεικίνητος εἰμί ἀπεριγράτως - ποῦ γάρ ἐλθών ζητήσεις με, ἵνα ἐκεῖ με εὕρῃς; Ὁ οὐρανός τῷ λόγῳ μου ὡς οὐδέν παρεισήχθη, ἥλιος, ἄστρα καί ἡ γῆ ὡς πάρεργον μικρόν μοι γεγένηνται καί τά λοιπά, ὅσα ὁρᾷς, ὡσαύτως. Οἱ ἄγγελοι μακρόθεν μοι πρό τούτων παραχθέντες δόξης τήν δόξαν βλέπουσιν, οὐχί δ᾿ αὐτήν τήν φύσιν˙ μόνον γάρ ἐνενόησα παραγαγεῖν δυνάμεις καί εὐθύς παρείστησαν ὑμνοῦσαί μου τό κράτος, Σύ κάτω δέ καθήμενος αὐτοῦ, ἐν ἐξορίᾳ, ὅπου πάντες πεπτώκασιν οἱ πρῶτοι παραβάται, ὅ τε Ἀδάμ καί σύν αὐτῷ Εὔα, ἡ σή προμήτωρ, καί ὁ κακός διάβολος, ὁ τούτους ἀπατήσας, ὅπου τό σκότος τό βαθύ, ὅπου λάκκος ὁ μέγας,