1

 2

 3

 4

 5

 6

 7

 8

 9

 10

 11

 12

 13

 14

 15

 16

 17

 18

 19

 20

 21

 22

 23

 24

 25

 26

 27

 28

 29

 30

 31

 32

 33

 34

 35

 36

 37

 38

 39

 40

 41

 42

 43

 44

 45

 46

 47

 48

 49

 50

 51

 52

 53

 54

 55

 56

 57

 58

 59

 60

 61

 62

 63

 64

 65

 66

 67

 68

 69

 70

 71

 72

 73

 74

 75

 76

 77

 78

 79

 80

 81

 82

 83

 84

 85

 86

 87

 88

 89

 90

 91

 92

 93

 94

 95

 96

 97

 98

 99

 100

 101

 102

 103

 104

 105

 106

 107

106

as the Logos Who could be separated, having fulfilled as a man in deed and in truth, through an inviolable obedience, all that He Himself as God predestined to come to be, and having perfected every counsel of God the Father on behalf of us who had rendered useless by misuse the power given to us by nature for this purpose from the beginning, and first uniting us to ourselves in Himself through the removal of the difference between male and female, and instead of men and women, in whom the mode of division is especially observed 1312, showing them to be only human beings, properly and truly, wholly formed according to Him and bearing His sound and completely unadulterated image, which none of the marks of corruption touches in any way, and with us and for us embracing the extremes of the whole of creation through the means as His own parts and binding them indissolubly to each other around Himself—paradise and the inhabited world, heaven and earth, sensible and intelligible things—as having, in our respect, a body and sensation and soul and mind, by which, as parts, He appropriated in each case the extreme that is universally akin to each in the manner previously described, He divinely recapitulated all things in Himself, showing the whole of creation to be one, like another human being, completed by the coming together of its own parts with one another and inclining (14∆_434> toward itself in the totality of its existence, according to the one and simple and indeterminate, and indifferent concept of its production from non-being, according to which all of creation can receive one and the same completely undifferentiated principle, having its "it was not" as prior to its "to be."

For according to the true principle, all things that are after God and have their being from God through generation coincide with one another in some way at least, if not in every way, with none of the beings at all, not even the most honorable and transcendent, being completely released by nature from a general relationship to what is most disparate, nor, indeed, is the most dishonorable among beings completely left behind and deprived of a general relationship by nature to the most honorable things. For all things that are distinguished from one another by their own particular differences are united by universal and common general identities, and are brought together toward the one and the same by some general principle of nature, for example, genera united to one another according to substance have what is one and the same and indivisible. For nothing of what is universal and containing and general is completely divided along with what is particular and contained and specific. For that cannot be general which does not gather together things naturally divided, but is divided along with them, and departs from its own monadic unity. For every general thing according to its own principle exists indivisibly as a whole in all the things under it as in a unity, and the whole is observed generally in each particular. And the species, according to the genus, being in like manner freed from the variety in their difference, receive identity with one another. But individuals, according to the species, receiving their agreement with one another, are established as one and the same with each other in every way, having in their common nature what is unvarying and free from all difference. And accidents, when compared with one another according to the subject, have what is unitary, not being at all scattered with the subject.

(14∆_436> And an unfailing witness to these things is the true divine speaker, the great and holy Dionysius 1313 the Areopagite, in the chapter on the perfect and the one of his treatise *On the Divine Names*, speaking thus: "For there is no multitude that does not in some way partake of the one, but many in parts are one in the whole, and many in accidents are one in the subject, and many in number or in powers are one in the species, and many in species are one in the genus, and many in their processions are one in their principle, and there is nothing among beings that does not in some way partake of the one.” And simply, to speak concisely, the principles of all divided and particular things are contained, as they say, in the principles of universal and general things, and the principles of the more general and more universal

106

ὡς Λόγος χωρισθῆναι δυνάμενος, πληρώσας ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἔργῳ καί ἀληθείᾳ καθ᾿ ὑπακοήν ἀπαράβατον ὅσα προώρισεν αὐτός ὡς Θεός γενέσθαι, καί τελειώσας πᾶσαν βουλήν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός ὑπέρ ἡμῶν τῶν ἀχρειωσάντων τῇ παραχρήσει τήν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἡμῖν φυσικῶς πρός τοῦτο δοθεῖσαν δύναμιν, καί πρῶτον ἑνώσας ἡμῖν ἑαυτούς ἐν ἑαυτῷ διά τῆς ἀφαιρέσεως τῆς κατά τό ἄῤῥεν καί τό θῆλυ διαφορᾶς, καί ἀντί ἀνδρῶν καί γυναικῶν, οἷς ὁ τῆς διαιρέσεως ἐνθεωρεῖται μάλιστα τρόπος 1312, ἀνθρώπους μόνον κυρίως τε καί ἀληθῶς ἀποδείξας, κατ᾿ αὐτόν δι᾿ ὅλου μεμορφωμένους καί σώαν αὐτοῦ καί παντελῶς ἀκίβδηλον τήν εἰκόναν φέροντας, ἧς κατ' οὐδένα τρόπον οὐδέν τῶν φθορᾶς γνωρισμάτων ἅπτεται, καί σύν ἡμῖν καί δι' ἡμᾶς τήν ἅπασαν κτίσιν διά τῶν μέσων ὡς μερῶν ἰδίων τά ἄκρα περιλαβών καί περί ἑαυτόν ἀλύτως ἀλλήλοις διασφίγξας παράδεισον καί οἰκουμένην, οὐρανόν καί γῆν, αἰσθητά καί νοητά, ὡς σῶμα καί αἴσθησιν καί ψυχήν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἔχων καί νοῦν, οἷς ὡς μέρεσι καθ᾿ ἕκαστον τό ἑκάστῳ καθόλου συγγενές οἰκειωσάμενος ἄκρον κατά τόν προαποδοθέντα τρόπον θεοπρεπῶς τά πάντα εἰς ἑαυτόν ἀνεκεφαλαιώσατο, μίαν ὑπάρχουσαν τήν ἅπασαν κτίσιν δείξας, καθάπερ ἄνθρωπον ἄλλον, τῇ τῶν μερῶν ἑαυτῆς πρός ἄλληλα συνόδῳ συμπληρουμένην καί πρός ἑαυτήν (14∆_434> νεύουσαν τῇ ὁλότητι τῆς ὑπάρξεως, κατά τήν μίαν καί ἁπλῆν καί ἀπροσδιόριστον, τῆς ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος παραγωγῆς καί ἀδιάφορον ἔννοιαν, καθ᾿ ἥν ἕνα καί τόν αὐτόν πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις ἐπιδέξασθαι δύναται λόγον παντελῶς ἀδιάκριτον, τό "Οὐκ ἦν" τοῦ "εἶναι" πρεσβύτερον ἔχουσα.

Πάντα γάρ κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον ἀλλήλοις συνεμπίπτει καθ᾿ ὁτιοῦν πάντως, εἰ καί μή πάντη, τά μετά Θεόν ὄντα καί ἐκ Θεοῦ τό εἶναι διά γενέσεως ἔχοντα, μηδενός καθόλου τῶν ὄντων, μηδέ τῶν ἄγαν τιμίων καί ὑπερβεβηκότων τῆς πρός τό ἄγαν ἄσχετον γενικῆς σχέσεως, παντάπασι φυσικῶς ἀπολελυμένου, μήτε μήν τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἀτιμωτάτου τῆς πρός τά ἀτιμιώτατα κατά φύσιν γενικῆς παντελῶς ἀπολιμπανομένου καί ἀμοιροῦντος σχέσεως. Πάντα γάρ τά ταῖς οἰκείαις ἰδίως διαφοραῖς ἀλλήλων διακεκριμμένα ταῖς καθόλου καί κοιναῖς γενικῶς ταὐτότησιν ἥνωνται, καί πρός τό ἕν καί ταὐτόν ἀλλήλοις γενικῷ τινι λόγῳ φύσεως συνωθοῦνται, οἷον τά μέν γένη κατά τήν οὐσίαν ἀλλήλοις ἑνούμενα τό ἕν ἔχει καί ταὐτόν καί ἀδιαίρετον. Οὐδέν γάρ τῶν καθόλου καί περιεχόντων καί γενικῶν τοῖς ἐπί μέρους καί περιεχομένοις καί ἰδικοῖς παντελῶς συνδιαιρεῖται. Οὐ γάρ ἔστι γενικόν εἶναι δύναται τό μή συνάγον τά διῃρημένα φυσικῶς, ἀλλά συνδιαιρούμενον αὐτοῖς, καί τῆς οἰκείας μοναδικῆς ἑνότητος ἐξιστάμενον. Πᾶν γάρ γενικόν κατά τόν οἰκεῖον λόγον ὅλον ὅλοις ἀδιαιρέτως τοῖς ὑπ᾿ αὐτό ἑνικῶς ἐνυπάρχει, καί τό καθ᾿ ἕκαστον ὅλον ἐνθεωρεῖται γενικῶς. Τά δέ εἴδη κατά τό γένος ὡσαύτως τῆς ἐν τῇ διαφορᾷ ποικιλίας ἀπολυθέντα τήν πρός ἄλληλα ταὐτότητα δέχεται. Τά ἄτομα δέ κατά τό εἶδος τήν πρός ἄλληλα δεχόμενα σύμβασιν ἕν καί ταὐτόν ἀλλήλοις πάντη καθέστηκε, τῇ ὁμοφυΐᾳ τό ἀπαράλλακτον ἔχοντα καί διαφορᾶς πάσης ἐλεύθερον. Τά δέ συμβεβηκότα κατά τό ὑποκείμενον ἀλλήλοις συγκριθέντα τό ἑνιαῖον ἔχει, τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ παντελῶς μή σκεδαννύμενον.

(14∆_436> Καί μάρτυς τούτων ἀψευδής ὁ ἀληθής θεηγόρος, ὁ μέγας καί ἅγιος ∆ιονύσιος 1313 ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης, ἐν τῷ περί τελείου καί ἑνός κεφαλαίῳ τῆς Περί θείων ὀνομάτων πραγματείας οὑτωσί φάσκων· "Οὐδέ γάρ ἐστι πλῆθος ἀμέτοχόν πη τοῦ ἑνός, ἀλλά τό μέν πολλά τοῖς μέρεσιν ἕν τῷ ὅλῳ, καί τό πολλά τοῖς συμβεβηκόσιν ἕν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ, καί τά πολλά τῷ ἀριθμῷ ἤ ταῖς δυνάμεσιν ἕν τῷ εἴδει, καί τό πολλά τοῖς εἴδεσιν ἕν τῷ γένει, καί τό πολλά τοῖς προόδοις ἕν τῇ ἀρχῇ, καί οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν ὄντων ὅ μή μετέχει πη τοῦ ἑνός». Καί ἁπλῶς, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, πάντων τῶν διῃρημένων καί μερικῶν οἱ λόγοι τοῖς τῶν καθόλου καί γενικῶν, ὥς φασι, περιέχονται λόγοις, καί τούς μέν τῶν γενικωτέρων καί καθολικωτέρων