123

he speaks of the indwelling, but clearly in a contradictory way, [saying that] the manifestation [comes] not from the commandments, but from knowledge, and from a knowledge which he previously declared by no means comes from the keeping of the divine commandments. He has made his own mind full of such light and truth. And not only has he previously said that the divine commandments are unable to provide this knowledge, but he also called this a philosophy supplied through philosophical studies and said it was foolishness before God; what he then called foolishness, (p. 562) he now declares to be God, and the only-begotten Word of the Father Himself with the Father; he has made his own mind full of such light and truth.

But since the perception of opposites is the same, you, O philosopher, when are you hot, when your body is disposed according to this quality, or when, having it chilled, you might know the opposite, heat? Surely you both bear and perceive the heat in yourself at that time when you are disposed according to it. Then, therefore, you will truly have God in yourself, when you have the divine state in yourself according to the soul; and the truly divine state is love for God; and this is acquired only through the sacred practice of the divine commandments; for if it is also their beginning, it is also the middle and the summit; for God is love, Who in this alone has promised His own coming and abiding and manifestation. Then, therefore, you will truly use yourself for the correction of others, when you shall have such a disposition from such states; for now, pretending to be a corrector, you are clearly a perverter and a slanderer. But how you pervert while professing to correct, will be more manifest as the argument proceeds. A clear proof of your eagerness to slander under the guise of correction is that you took the greatest pains that these writings, which seemed to you to tend to our correction, should not come into our sight, just as if some physician were to say that he had prepared a most beneficial potion for a sick man, but altogether forbade him to use it. Whence it has become quite clear that you yourself knew this beforehand, which has now been revealed, that the so-called medicines have the power of poison; and so you knew this beforehand, that you would not escape notice as a thief, if these things were shown to us.

So now these writings of yours have come into our (p. 564) hands against your will, in which you say at the end that it is blameless to use for correction what one of your friends has said incorrectly about the knowledge of God. And what was said incorrectly by the friend, you say is this: "Those who have been purified in heart know through the sacred manifestation of light that comes to them that God is, and what kind of light He is, or rather a source of intelligible and immaterial light; but those who have not ascended to this contemplation perceive the common provider from His providence over all things, from those who are made good the absolute goodness, from those who are made alive the absolute life, and simply from all things Him who is all things and established above all things." This is what the philosopher says is incorrect. And I know that he was ill-disposed towards it at another time also; for, not knowing that the word 'oion' was attached to 'light' in a comparative sense, he said that we claimed to know what kind of light God is. But when we showed the adjacent phrase "source of light," and read it together as "God is like a source of light," we asked him what then does the 'oion' mean here; and he reluctantly confessed his ignorance and asked for pardon; for it is not possible for it to be taken otherwise than as "as if." But now he has attacked it in another way; "For since it is manifest," he says, "that even to the most contemplative, God is known from existing things alone, the knowledge of God handed down here through an intelligible manifestation of light, being other than that which is from existing things, is in no way true." It is necessary then to object to this, as having been made manifest through many of the

123

φησί τήν ἐνοίκησιν, ὑπεναντίως δέ σαφῶς, οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ἐντολῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ γνώσεως τήν ἐμφάνειαν, καί γνώσεως, ἥν ἐκ τῆς τηρήσεως τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν μηδαμῶς προσγίνεσθαι πρότερον ἀπεφήνατο. Τοιούτου φωτός καί ἀληθείας τόν οἰκεῖον νοῦν ἔμπλεων κατεσκεύασεν. Οὐ μόνον δέ τάς θείας ἐντολάς ἀδυνάτως ἔχειν τήν γνῶσιν ταύτην πορίζειν πρότερον εἴρηκε, ἀλλά καί φιλοσοφίαν ταύτην ἐκάλει διά τῶν κατά φιλοσοφίαν μαθημάτων χορηγουμένην καί μωρίαν εἶναι παρά τῷ Θεῷ ταύτην ἔφασκεν˙ ἥν οὖν μωρία τότε προσεῖπε, (σελ. 562) Θεόν αὐτήν εἶναι νῦν ἀποφαίνεται καί αὐτόν μετά τοῦ Πατρός τόν τοῦ Πατρός μονογενῆ Λόγον˙ τοιούτου φωτός καί ἀληθείας τόν οἰκεῖον νοῦν ἔμπλεων κατεσκεύασεν.

Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεί καί τῶν ἐναντίων ἡ αὐτή ἐστιν αἴσθησις, σύ, ὦ φιλόσοφε, πότ᾿ ἄρ᾿ εἶ θερμός, ὅταν κατά τήν ποιότητα ταύτην διακέηταί σου τό σῶμα, ἤ ὅτε κατεψυγμένον τοῦτ᾿ ἔχων τήν ἐναντίαν εἰδείης θερμότητα; Πάντως τότε καί τήν θερμότητα ἐν σεαυτῷ φέρων αἰσθάνῃ, ὅτε κατά ταύτην διάκεισαι. Τότε τοίνυν καί τόν Θεόν ἕξεις ἐν σεαυτῷ ἀληθῶς, ὅτε τήν θείαν ἕξιν ἐν σεαυτῷ κατά ψυχήν ἔχεις˙ θεία δέ ὄντως ἕξις ἡ πρός τόν Θεόν ἀγάπη ἐστί˙ προσγίνεται δ᾿ αὕτη διά μόνης τῆς τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν ἱερᾶς ἐργασίας˙ εἰ γάρ καί ἀρχή τούτων ἐστίν, ἀλλά καί μέσῃ καί κορυφαία˙ ὁ Θεός γάρ ἀγάπη ἐστίν, ὅς ἐν τούτῳ μόνῳ καί τήν οἰκείαν ἔλευσιν καί μονήν καί ἐμφάνειαν ἐπηγγείλατο. Τότε τοίνυν καί σαυτῷ χρήσῃ πρός διόρθωσιν ἑτέρων ἀληθῶς, ὅτε τήν τοιαύτην σχήσεις ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων διάθεσιν˙ νῦν γάρ, τόν διορθοῦντα ὑποκρινόμενος, διαστρέφων καί διασύρων δῆλος εἶ. Ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μέν διαστρέφεις διορθοῦν ἐπαγγελόμενος, ἐκδηλότερον ἔσται προϊόντος τοῦ λόγου. Τοῦ δ᾿ ἐν σχήματι διορθώσεως διασύρειν προθυμεῖσθαι δεῖγμα σαφές τό διά μεγίστης σε σπουδῆς ποιήσασθαι μή ἐλθεῖν ἡμῖν εἰς ὄψιν τά πρός ἡμετέραν διόρθωσιν ἐπιστρεπτικά σοι δοκοῦντα ταυτί συγγράμματα, ὥσπερ ἄν εἴ τις ἰατρῶν πόμα μέν σκευάσαι τῷ νοσοῦντι λυσιτελέστατον ἔφασκε, χρήσασθαι δέ παντάπασιν ἀπηγόρευσεν. Ὅθεν καί τοῦτο γέγονεν δήπου δῆλον, ὡς καί αὐτός τοῦτ᾿ οἶσθα, πρότερον, ὅ νῦν ἐξεφάνη, δηλητηρίων ἔχοντα δύναμιν τά κεκλημένα φάρμακα˙ καί τοῦτ᾿ ἄρα προσεγίνωσκες ὡς οὐ λήσῃ κλέπτων, τούτων προφανέντων ἡμῖν.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί νῦν οὐχ ἑκόντος εἶναι καί πρός τάς ἡμετέρας (σελ. 564) ἥκει χεῖρας ταυτί σου τά γράμματα, ἐν οἷς τελευτῶν φής ὡς ἀνεμέσητον ἐπί διορθώει χρήσασθαι σαυτῷ, ὧν οὐκ ὀρθῶς περί θεογνωσίας εἴρηκέ τις τῶν σῶν φίλων.Τό δέ μή ὀρθῶς εἰρημένον τῷ φίλῳ τοῦτο λέγεις εἶναι˙ «ἴσασιν οἱ κεκαθαρμένοι τήν καρδίαν διά τῆς ἐγγινομένης αὐτοῖς ἱερᾶς φωτοφανείας, ὅτι ἔστι Θεός καί οἷον φῶς ἐστι, μᾶλλον δέ πηγή φωτός νοεροῦ τε καί ἀΰλου˙οἱ δέ μή πρός τοῦτο θεωρίας ἀναβεβηκότες ἐκ τῆς περί πάντα προμηθείας τόν κοινόν προμηθέα συνορῶσιν, ἐκ τῶν ἀγαθυνομένων τήν αὐτοαγαθότητα, ἐκ τῶν ζωοποιουμένων τήν αὐτοζωήν, καί ἁπλῶς ἐκ πάντων τόν τά πάντα ὄντα καί ὑπερανιδρυμένον πάντων». Τοῦτό ἐστιν ὅ φησιν ὁ φιλόσοφος οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἔχειν. Οἶδα δέ αὐτόν καί ἄλλοτε κακῶς πρός αὐτό διατεθέντα˙ 'γνοήσας γάρ ὅτι τό "οἷον" παραδειγματικῶς τῷ φωτί προσήρτηται, τόν Θεόν ἔλεγε φάσκειν ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι, ὁποῖον φῶς ὑπάρχει. ∆είξαντες δέ ἡμεῖς προσπαρακείμενον τό "πηγή φωτός" , καί συνημμένως ἀναγνόντες ὅτι «ἔστι Θεός οἷον πηγή φωτός», ἠρωτῶμεν αὐτόν, τί βούλεται λοιπόν ἐνταυθοῖ τό "οἷον"˙ ὁ δ᾿ ἄκων ὡμολόγησε τήν ἄγνοιαν καί ἤτησε συγγνώμην˙ οὐδέ γάρ δυνατόν ἄλλως ἤ ἀντί τοῦ ὡσανεί παραληφθῆναι. Νῦν δ᾿ ἄλλως ἐπελάβετο˙ «φανεροῦ γάρ ὄντος», φησίν, «ὡς καί τοῖς θεωρητικωτάτοις ἐκ μόνων τῶν ὄντων ὁ Θεός γινώσκεται, ἡ ἐνταῦθα παραδιδομένη γνῶσις Θεοῦ διά νοερᾶς φωτοφανείας, ὡς ἑτέρα τῆς ἐκ τῶν ὄντων οὖσα, οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν ἀληθής». Ἀνθυπενεγκεῖν δή πρός τοῦτο δεῖ, ὡς φανεροῦ γενομένου διά πλείστων τῶν