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the end of hierarchy, the proximate love for God and divine things, divinely and uniformly performed, and before this, the complete and irreversible departure from their contraries, the knowledge of beings as they are, the vision and science of the sacred truth, the deiform participation in the unitive perfection.” The philosopher, therefore, reasons from these things thus: “Hierarchy is the best of the things given to us by God; its end is the knowledge of beings, as this saying teaches; therefore, the best thing in us is the knowledge of beings, which is to say, philosophy.” He seems indeed to hear the sound of words (p. 554), but not the holy meaning. For the saint says this, that the true knowledge of beings is “the complete departure from their contraries,” that is, abstinence and inaction from evil, which is before the sacred work, which is deiform and unitive. For indeed he who is captured and led by wicked desires desires what seem to him to be good things and through his works shows he has an ignorance of the truly good, and he who is controlled by anger fights against that which opposes what seems to him good and beneficial, and simply everyone who holds to a worse life cleaves to it as seeming better to him, but not as being what it truly is, but only he who has departed from worse things, having cast off this false opinion, considers truly existing worse things as worse, and has true knowledge of beings as they are, not as they seem; for this reason, the departure from evils is “knowledge of beings as they are,” which is before the sacred work, which is deiform and unitive. And a sacred, unitive, and deiform work is the keeping of the commandments of God, accomplished by the flight from evil things and by the persistent and proximate love of God and of divine things. This, then, he says, is the end common to every hierarchy: to hate the things opposed to the commandments of God and to love them and God who gave them, and through love for him to live under them. This is “the knowledge of beings as they are,” this is the vision of truth, this is the participation in perfection, this is the feast of the spiritual vision, which is revealed according to the promise and illumines and deifies and nourishes intellectually all who through a pure heart dwell in it intellectually, or rather spiritually.

This, indeed, he himself makes clear when he says: for having advanced the argument a little, then taking it up again, becoming his own interpreter for those not willing to understand divine things in a divine manner, but who attempt to pervert them (p. 556) to their own evil opinions, he says, “it has been stated by us sacredly that this is the goal of our hierarchy, our assimilation to and union with God, as far as possible; and this, as the divine oracles teach, we will attain only by loving and sacredly performing the divine commandments; ‘For,’ He says, ‘he who loves me will keep my words, and the Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” Do you see what true knowledge of beings he speaks of? The practice of the virtues. And what is its end? Union with and assimilation to God. And how did he there call this assimilation love? Because love is the fullness of the virtues and this, having been added to the image, preserves a perfect resemblance to God. And by “divinely and uniformly” and “the sacred work” he alluded to the keeping of the divine commandments, the disposition that comes about solely for the sake of God and divine things; for the good is not good, unless it is also done for the sake of the good alone; and the perpetual departure from their contraries and the knowledge of beings and the sacred vision and science of truth represent the hatred for wicked passions and the condemnation of sin and the irreversible flight from it; and by the unitive perfection and the deiform participation of the one and by the intellectually nourishing and deifying vision the divine according to the promise

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ἱεραρχίᾳ τό πέρας, ἡ πρός Θεόν καί τά θεῖα προσεχής ἀγάπησις, ἐνθέως τε καί ἑνιαίως ἱερουργουμένη, καί πρό γε τούτου ἡ τῶν ἐναντίων παντελής καί ἀνεπίστροφος ἀποφοίτησις, ἡ γνῶσις τῶν ὄντων ᾗ ὄντα ἐστίν, ἡ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀληθείας ὅρασίς τε καί ἐπιστήμη, ἡ τῆς ἑνοειδοῦς τελειώσεως ἔνθεος μέθεξις». Συλλογίζεται τοίνυν ἐκ τούτων ὁ φιλόσοφος οὕτως˙ «τῶν ἡμῖν ὑπό Θεοῦ δεδομένων ἱεραρχία τό κράτιστον˙ τέλος δέ ταύτης ἡ γνῶσις τῶν ὄντων, ὡς ἡ ρῆσις αὕτη διδάσκει˙ τῶν ἐν ἠμῖν ἄρα τό ἄριστον ἡ γνῶσις τῶν ὄντων ἐστί, ταὐτόν δ᾿ εἰπεῖν ἡ φιλοσοφία». Ρημάτων ὄντως ἔοικεν (σελ. 554) ἤχου, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ διανοίας ἐπαΐειν ἁγίας. Τοῦτο γάρ φησιν ὁ ἅγιος, ὅτι ἡ ἀληθής τῶν ὄντων γνῶσις, «ἡ παντελής ἀποφοίτησίς ἐστι τῶν ἐναντίων», τουτέστιν ἡ ἀποχή καί ἀπραξία τῶν κακῶν, πρό τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐργασίας οὖσα, τῆς ἐνθέου καί ἑνιαίας. Ἐπεί γάρ καί ὁ πονηραῖς ἐπιθυμίαις ἁλισκόμενος καί ἀγόμενος τῶν αὐτῷ δοκούντων ἐφίεται καλῶν καί δι᾿ ἔργων ἄγνοιαν δείκνυσιν ἔχων τοῦ ὄντος καλοῦ, καί ὁ θυμῷ κρατούμενος τῷ ἀνθισταμένῳ πρός τά δοκοῦντα αὐτῷ καλά καί ἀγαθά μάχεται, καί ἁπλῶς πᾶς ὁ τοῦ χείρονος ἀντεχόμενος βίου ὡς αὐτῷ δοκοῦντι καλλίονι πρόσκειται, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς ὄντος ὄντι, μόνος δέ ὁ τῶν χειρόνων ἀποφοιτήσας, τήν ψευδοδοξίαν ταύτην ἀποβαλόμενος, τά ὄντως ὄντα χείρω καί χείρω ἡγεῖται καί γνῶσιν ἔχει τῶν ὄντων ἀληθῆ τήν οὖσαν, οὐ τήν δοκοῦσαν, διά τοῦτο ἡ τῶν κακῶν ἀποφοίτησις «γνῶσίς» ἐστι «τῶν ὄντων ᾗ ὄντα ἐστί», πρό τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐργασίας οὖσα, τῆς ἐνθέου καί ἑνιαίας˙ ἱερά δέ καί ἑνιαία καί ἔνθεος ἐργασία ἡ τήρησίς ἐστι τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῇ φυγῇ τῶν πονηρῶν καί τῇ ἐπιμόνῳ καί προσεχεῖ ἀγαπήσει Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων ἐκτελουμένη. Τοῦτο τοίνυν ἐστί, φησί, πάσῃ κοινόν ἱεραρχίᾳ τό πέρας, τό μισῆσαι τά ἀντικείμενα ταῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐντολαῖς καί ἀγαπῆσαι ταύτας καί τόν δόντα Θεόν καί διά τήν πρός αὐτόν ἀγάπην ὑπό ταύταις ζῆν. Τοῦτό ἐστιν «ἡ τῶν ὄντων ᾗ ὄντα γνῶσις», τοῦτο ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ὅρασις, τοῦτο ἡ τῆς τελειώσεως μέθεξις, τοῦτο ἡ τῆς πενυματικῆς ἐποψίας ἑστίασις, ἀποκαλυπτομένης κατά τήν ἐπαγγελίαν καί φωτιζούσης καί θεούσης καί τρεφούσης νοητῶς πάντα τόν διά τῆς καθαρᾶς καρδίας νοερῶς, μᾶλλον δέ πνευματικῶς, ἐνδιαιτώμενον αὐτῇ.

Τοῦτο δή καί αὐτός ἑαυτόν δῆλον ποιεῖται λέγοντα˙ μικρόν γάρ προαγαγών τόν λόγον, εἶτ᾿ ἐπαναλαβών, ἐξηγητής αὐτός ἑαυτοῦ γενόμενος διά τούς μή θέλοντας νοεῖν τά θεῖα θείως, ἀλλά καί πρός τάς οἰκείας κακοδοξίας περιτρέπειν (σελ. 556) ἐγχειροῦντας, «εἴρηται τοίνυν ἡμῖν ἱερῶς», φησί, «ὡς οὗτός ἐστι τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἱεραρχίας ὁ σκοπός, ἡ πρός Θεόν ἡμῶν, ὡς ἐφικτόν, ἀφομοίωσίς τε καί ἕνωσις˙ ταύτης δέ, ὡς τά θεῖα διδάσκει λόγια, ταῖς τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν ἀγαπήσεσι καί ἱερουργίαις μόνως τευξόμεθα˙ "τηρήσει" γάρ, φησίν, "ὁ ἀγαπῶν με τούς λόγους μου, καί ὁ Πατήρ ἀγαπήσει αὐτόν καί ἐλευσόμεθα πρός αὐτόν καί μονήν παρ᾿ αὐτῷ ποιήσομεν"». Ὁρᾷς ποίαν λέγει γνῶσιν τῶν ὄντων ἀληθῆ; Τήν ἐργασίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν. Τί δέ τό ταύτης τέλος; Ἡ πρός Θεόν ἕνωσίς τε καί ἀφομοίωσις. Πῶς δέ ἐκεῖ ἀγάπην εἶπε ταύτην τήν ἀφομοίωσιν; Ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη ἐστί τῶν ἀρετῶν τό πλήρωμα καί αὕτη τῇ εἰκόνι προσχρωσθεῖσα τελείαν τήν πρός Θεόν ἀποσώζει ἐμφέρειαν. ∆ιά δέ τοῦ ἐνθέως καί ἐνιαίως καί τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐργασίας τήν τήρησιν τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν ἠνίξατο, τήν διά μόνην τήν πρός Θεόν καί τά θεῖα γινομένην διάθεσιν˙ τό γάρ καλόν οὐ καλόν, ἄν μή καί διά τό καλόν μόνον πράττηται˙ ἡ δέ διηνεκής τῶν ἐναντίων ἀποφοίτησις καί ἡ γνῶσις τῶν ὄντων καί ἡ ἱερά τῆς ἀληθείας ὅρασις καί ἐπιστήμη τό πρός τά πονηρά πάθη παρίστησι μῖσος καί τήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατάγνωσιν καί τήν ἀπό ταύτης ἀνεπίστροφον φυγήν˙ τῇ δέ ἑνοειδῆ τελειώσει καί ἐνθέῳ μεθέξει τοῦ ἑνός καί τῇ νοητῶς τρεφούσῃ καί θεούσῃ ἐποψίᾳ τήν κατ᾿ ἐπαγγελίαν θείαν