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Lord, or at evening and morning and midday is by necessity, as one who has already fulfilled all that we pray and sing according to the rule and at appointed times and hours. So also the one who has knowingly acquired within himself God who gives knowledge to men, has gone through all of Holy Scripture and has reaped all the benefit from reading, and will no longer need the reading of books. For how, as one who possesses as a companion him who inspired those who wrote the divine Scriptures and is initiated by him into the secrets of the hidden mysteries, but this one will be a God-inspired book to others, bearing new and old mysteries written by the finger of God in him, as having completed all things and rested in God in the original perfection from all his works?

End of the 225 chapters.

DIALOGUE OF A SCHOLASTICUS WITH SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN. (454) 1. Quest. What was in the world before the world came to be? Ans. God, the one who made the world. 2. Quest. When the world did not yet exist, how was he in the world? Ans. Because, even before it came to be, the world certainly existed in God as if it had come to be

just as also the men not yet brought forth are in the world, as if already born in the sight of God. For in him all things consist, even those not yet created, even if they are not comprehended by us.

3. Quest. If then, as you say, God was in the world before the world was made by him, what happened to God when he brought this world forth? Was he separated from the world? Or is he again in the world?

Ans. God who made these things was not separated from his creations by place; for where will he who is present everywhere and fills all things with his own divinity be removed to? But in nature and essence and hypostasis and the other (455) properties he is above all created nature; and he is immeasurably and incomprehensibly separate from it.

4. Quest. How, not being separated by place but, as you say, being present everywhere, is he separate from all things?

Ans. The question is hard to understand, but not hard to express; but with God nothing is impossible; whence he is able also to fully inform you about these things. But listen with understanding: just as our human mind is neither contained by walls nor limited by place, but while the body is enclosed in a little house and bound fast with chains, the mind itself is outside these things and freely ranges everywhere, being neither separated from the body nor becoming far from the house, but as it were is both with these things while separated, and is separated while united to them, so also God is everywhere and in all things and outside of all things; and nowhere in his nature and essence and glory is he; for he is uncircumscribable.

5. Quest. How then does the uncircumscribable one fill all things? And he who fills all things, how is he uncircumscribable and nowhere?

Ans. God is then, by confession, everywhere and fills all things, but not at all commingled with visible things but separated in the manner we have said; but he is nowhere according to our understanding. For no one knows, not even the angels, where God is; for if you hear that they stand by, it is by the throne of glory; and not being strong enough to look at the radiance sent forth, in fear their own

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Κύριον ἤ ἑσπέρας καί πρωΐ καί μεσημβρίας ὑπ᾿ ἀνάγκην ἐστίν, ὡς ἤδη πάντα πεπληρωκώς ὅσα ἄν κανονικῶς καί ἐν ἀφωρισμένοις καιροῖς καί ὥραις εὐχόμεθά τε καί ψάλλομεν. Οὕτω καί ὁ τόν διδόντα ἀνθρώποις γνῶσιν Θεόν γνωστῶς ἐν ἑαυτῷ κτησάμενος, πᾶσαν ἁγίαν διῆλθε Γραφήν καί πᾶσαν τήν ἐκ τῆς ἀναγνώσεως ὠφέλειαν ἐκαρπώσατο καί οὐκέτι βιβλίων ἀναγνώσεως δεηθήσεται. Πῶς γάρ, ὁ τόν ἐμπνεύσαντα τοῖς τάς θείας γεγραφόσι Γραφάς συνόμιλον κεκτημένος καί παρ᾿ ἐκείνου μυούμενος τά τῶν ἀποκεκρυμμένων μυστηρίων ἀπόρρητα, ἀλλά βίβλος οὗτος τοῖς ἄλλοις θεόπνευστος ἔσται, καινά τε καί παλαιά φέρουσα μυστήρια γεγραμμένα δακτύλῳ Θεοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ, ὡς πάντα τελέσας καί καταπαύσας ἐν Θεῷ τῇ ἀρχικῇ τελειότητι ἀπό πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ;

Τέλος τῶν κεφαλαίων σκε'.

∆ΙΑΛΟΓΟΣ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟΥ ΠΡΟΣ ΣΥΜΕΩΝ ΤΟΝ ΝΕΟΝ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΝ. (454) 1. Ἐρώτ. Τί ἦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πρό τοῦ τόν κόσμον γενέσθαι; Ἀπάντ. Θεός, ὁ τόν κόσμον ποιήσας. 2. Ἐρώτ. Μήπω ὄντος τοῦ κόσμου, πῶς ἦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ; Ἀπάντ. Ὅτι, καί πρό τοῦ γενέσθαι, ἐν τῷ Θεῷ πάντως ὡς γεγονώς ἦν ὁ κόσμος

καθό καί οἱ μήπω παραχθέντες ἄνθρωποι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, ὡς ἤδη γεγεννημένοι εἰσί παρά τῷ Θεῷ. Συνέστηκε γάρ ἐν αὐτῷ τά πάντα, καί τά μήπω κτισθέντα, εἰ καί μή καταλαμβάνονται παρ᾿ ἡμῶν.

3. Ἐρώτ. Εἰ οὖν, ὡς λέγεις, ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν ὁ Θεός πρό τοῦ τόν κόσμον γενέσθαι παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ, τί γέγονεν ὁ Θεός ὅτε τόν κόσμον τοῦτον παρήγαγεν; Ἆρα διέστη τοῦ κόσμου; Ἤ καί αὖθις ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐστίν;

Ἀπαντ. Τόπῳ μέν οὐ διέστη τῶν αὐτοῦ ποιημάτων ὁ ταῦτα ποιήσας Θεός˙ ποῦ γάρ ὁ πανταχοῦ παρών καί τά πάντα τῆς ἰδίας πληρῶν θεότητος μεταστήσεται; Τῇ δέ φύσει καί οὐσίᾳ καί τῇ ὑποστάσει καί τοῖς λοιποῖς (455) ἰδιώμασι πάσης κτιστῆς ὑπέρκειται φύσεως˙ καί ἀμετρήτως καί ἀκαταλήπτως ταύτης διέστηκεν.

4. Ἐρώτ. Πῶς, τόπῳ μή διεστηκώς ἀλλά πανταχοῦ, ὡς λέγεις, παρών, ἀποκεχωρισμένος τῶν πάντων ἐστίν;

Ἀπάντ. ∆υσνόητον μέν τό ἐρώτημα, οὐ μέντοι γε δύσφραστον˙ Θεῷ δέ ἀδυνατεῖ οὐδέν˙ ὅθεν δυνατός ἐστι καί περί τούτων πληροφορῆσαί σε. Ἀλλ᾿ ἄκουε συνετῶς˙ καθάπερ ὁ νοῦς ἡμῶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὔτε συνέχεται ὑπό τοίχων οὔτε τόπῳ περιορίζεται, ἀλλά τό μέν σῶμα οἰκίσκῳ ἐγκλείεται καί δεσμοῖς περισφίγγεται, αὐτός δ᾿ ἐκτός ἐστι τούτων καί ἐλευθερίως πανταχοῦ περίεισιν, μήτε τοῦ σώματος χωριζόμενος μήτε τῆς οἰκίας μακράν γινόμενος, ἀλλ᾿ οἱονεί καί σύνεστι τούτοις κεχωρισμένος καί κεχώρισται ἡνωμένος αὐτοῖς, οὕτω καί ὁ Θεός πανταχοῦ καί ἐν πᾶσίν ἐστιν καί ἔξω πάντων˙ καί οὐδαμοῦ τῇ φύσει καί τῇ οὐσίᾳ καί τῇ δόξῃ ἐστίν˙ ἀπερίγραπτος γάρ.

5. Ἐρώτ. Ὁ οὖν ἀπερίγραπτος πῶς τά πάντα πληροῖ; Ὁ δέ τά πάντα πληρῶν, πῶς ἀπερίγραπτος καί οὐδαμοῦ ἐστιν;

Ἀπάντ. Ἔστι μέν οὖν ὁμολογουμένως πανταχοῦ ὁ Θεός καί τά πάντα πληροῖ, οὐ συγκεκραμένος δέ ὄλως τοῖς ὁρωμένοις ἀλλά κεχωρισμένος τῷ τρόπῳ ᾧπερ εἰρήκαμεν˙ οὐδαμοῦ δέ ἐστι τό καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς˙ οὐδείς γάρ οἶδεν, οὐδέ οἱ ἄγγελοι, ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ Θεός˙ εἰ γάρ ἀκούεις παρεστάναι, ἀλλά τῷ θρόνῳ τῆς δόξης˙ καί πρός τήν ἐκπεμπομένην λαμπρότητα ἀντιβλέπειν μή ἐξισχύοντες, φόβῳ τά ἑαυτῶν