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alone with the alone alone, and none of the things seen, nor indeed of the things unseen, truly was before coming into being. Alone uncreated I, with my Father and my Spirit, alone without beginning I exist from my Father who is without beginning; but not yet one of the angels, nor indeed of the archangels, nor of the other orders has ever seen my nature, nor me myself, the creator, whole, just as I happen to be. (280) But they behold only a ray of glory and an effulgence of my light and are deified. For as a mirror of the sun having received the rays, or as a crystal stone illumined at midday, so do all receive the rays of my divinity. But to behold me whole no one has yet been deemed worthy, not of angels, not of men, not of holy powers. For I am outside of all things and invisible to all, not at all begrudging them that they not behold me, nor as being uncomely do I hide myself from being seen, but no one was found worthy of my divinity, nor has the creature become equal in power to the creator. For this is not even expedient; but seeing a small radiance they are initiated into my true being and know me as God, the one who brought them forth,

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μόνος μετά μόνου μόνος, καί οὐδέν τῶν ὁρωμένων, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ τῶν ἀοράτων ἦν πρό τοῦ γενέσθαι ὄντως. Μόνος ἄκτιστος ἐγώ σύν Πατρί καί Πνεύματί μου μόνος ἄναρχος ὑπάρχω ἐξ ἀνάρχου τοῦ Πατρός μου˙ ἀγγέλων δέ οὐδείς οὐδέπω, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ τῶν ἀρχαγγέλων, οὐ τῶν ἄλλων τε ταγμάτων εἶδέ μου ποτέ τήν φύσιν οὐδ᾿ αὐτόν ἐμέ τόν κτίστην ὅλον, οἷόσπερ τυγχάνω. (280) Μόνην δέ ἀκτῖνα δόξης καί ἀπόρροιαν φωτός μου καθορῶσι καί θεοῦνται. Ὡς γάρ ἔσοπτρον ἡλίου τάς ἀκτῖνας δεδεγμένον ἤ κρυστάλλινος ὡς λίθος ἐλλαμφθείς ἐν μεσημβρίᾳ, οὕτως δέχονται ἀκτῖνας τῆς θεότητός μου πάντες. Ὅλον δέ με κατιδέσθαι οὔπω τις κατηξιώθη, οὐκ ἀγγέλων, οὐκ ἄνθρώπων, οὐ δυνάμεων ἁγίων. Ἔξω γάρ εἰμι τῶν πάντων καί ἀόρατος τοῖς πᾶσιν, οὐ φθονῶν δέ τούτοις πάντως, ὅπως μή με καθορῶσιν, οὐδ᾿ ὡς ἀκαλλής ὑπάρχων κρύπτομαι τοῦ μή φανῆναι, ἀλλά ἄξιος οὐδείς μου τῆς θεότητος εὑρέθη, οὐδέ γέγονε τοῦ κτίστου ἰσοδύναμον τό κτίσμα. Τοῦτο γάρ οὐδέ συμφέρει˙ μικράν δ᾿ ὁρῶντες ἀπαυγήν ὄντως εἶναί με μυοῦνται καί γινώσκουσι Θεόν με τόν αὐτούς παραγαγόντα,