475

no longer acting or being acted upon in him according to sense, and a transcendence of the natural gnostic contemplation in spirit concerning them; but "assumption" means the abiding and establishment that occurred for him in God after these things, which the teacher fittingly called "assumption," showing that the Apostle suffered the assumption rather than performed it. For assumption is a passion of the one being assumed, but an energy of the one assuming. Of which natural and relative names the Apostle was therefore lord, he transcended the calling according to both nature and relation, having become beyond human nature and virtue and knowledge.

(1240) And of which he infinitely proved himself more worthy than a divine name, of this he partook in the calling by grace, both becoming and being called God by his assumption, instead of every other existing name, both natural and relative. Or again, thus: "Procession" is the complete denial of nature according to virtue; "ascent" is the transcendence of those things in which nature exists—I mean place and time, in which is the subsistence of beings; and "assumption" is the restoration by grace to the one from whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things, as to the end of all. And to speak in another way, "procession" is the guidance of his disciples into virtue through practical philosophy by the Apostle as teacher; for in everything the teacher must go before the disciples toward the activity of their duties; "ascent" is the scientific comprehension of the principles in beings through natural contemplation; "assumption" is the pious, ineffable initiation into true and theological wisdom. And I think by conjecture that the "third heaven" is the defining limits of both practical philosophy and natural contemplation, and the most sublime principles of theological mystagogy, that is, their ends, since there is a certain measure of comprehension of virtue and nature and the theology upon both, fitted by God to each of beings analogously according to nature, in which limits and ends the blessed Apostle was, having passed, as far as was possible, beyond the principles of the aforementioned things. For if heaven is by nature the boundary of the things contained within it, and the limit of all things under perception, it is clear that according to the anagogical principle, every cessation that defines the principles concerning some virtue or knowledge, as a limit of the things being defined, and an end of the things being circumscribed, is tropically named heaven. Or again, Scripture perhaps says "third heaven" are the three orders of holy angels above us in upward sequence, which Saint Paul perhaps reached, being initiated into their affirmations by the negations of his own knowledges, and imitating their states by the transcendent privations of his own. For every rational nature, according to its own order and power, is initiated into and imitates the gnostic states and affirmative propositions of the essence and order above it privatively by its own abstractive negations, and the affirmation in knowledge of the superior things is the negation of the subordinate, and conversely, the negation in knowledge of the subordinate things is the affirmation of the superior, proceeding apophatically up to the highest nature and order, which transcends all, which after all orders and powers is succeeded by the immediate negation concerning God in knowledge, which is in no way affirmed by any of beings, there being no further limit or end which contains this negation. For just as the intelligible things are by nature the negation of the sensible, so also in the essences and powers that complete the world above, the excellences of the first in the knowledge concerning God are negated by those after them on account of their inferiority.

475

οὐκ ἔτι ἐνεργούντων ἤ ἐνεργουμένων παρ᾿ αὐτῷ κατά τήν αἴσθησιν, καί τῆς περί αὐτά κατά φύσιν ἐν πνεύματι γνωστικῆς θεωρίας ὑπέρβασιν· "ἀνάληψις" δέ τήν ἐν τῷ Θεῷ γενομένην αὐτῷ μετά ταῦτα μονήν τε καί ἵδρυσιν, ἥν προσφόρως "ἀνάληψιν" ὁ διδάσκαλος εἶπεν, ὡς παθόντα μᾶλλον ἤ δράσαντα τόν Ἀπόστολον τήν ἀνάληψιν ἐνδεικνύμενος. Ἡ ἀνάληψις γάρ πάθος ἐστί τοῦ ἀναλαμβανομένου, ἐνέργεια δέ τοῦ ἀναλαμβάνοντος. Ὧν τοιγαροῦν φυσικῶν τε καί σχετικῶν ὀνομάτων ὑπῆρχε Κύριος ὁ Ἀπόστολος, κατά τε φύσιν καί σχέσιν ὑπερέβη τήν κλῆσιν, ὑπέρ φύσιν καί ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ἀνθρωπίνην γενόμενος.

(1240) Οὗ δέ μᾶλλον ἀπείρως ἀπέδει θείου ὀνόματος, τούτου κατά χάριν μετέσχε τῆς κλήσεως, Θεός ἀντί παντός ἄλλου προσόντος ὀνόματος φυσικοῦ τε καί σχετικοῦ τῇ ἀναλήψει καί γενόμενος καί καλούμενος. Ἤ καί πάλιν οὕτω· "Πρόοδος" μέν ἐστιν ἡ παντελής κατ᾿ ἀρετήν τῆς φύσεως ἄρνησις, "ἀνάβασις" δέ ἡ τῶν ἐν οἷς ἐστιν ἡ φύσις ὑπέρβασις, λέγω δέ τόπον καί χρόνον, ἐν οἷς ἡ τῶν ὄντων ἐστίν ὑπόστασις, "ἀνάληψις" δέ ἡ πρός τόν ἐξ οὗ τά πάντα καί δι᾿ οὗ καί εἰς ὅν, ὡς πρός πέρας τῶν ὅλων κατά χάριν ἀποκατάστασις. Καί ἄλλως δέ φάναι, " πρόοδός" ἐστιν ἡ διά τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας ὡς διδασκάλου τοῦ Ἀποστόλου τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν εἰς ἀρετήν προκαθήγησις· δεῖ γάρ ἐν παντί προπορεύεσθαι τῶν μαθητῶν τόν διδάσκαλον, πρός τήν τῶν καθηκόντων ἐνέργειαν· "ἀνάβασις" δέ ἡ διά τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας ἐπιστημονική τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι λόγων περίληψις, "ἀνάληψις" δέ ἡ εὐσεβής τῆς ἀληθοῦς καί θεολογικῆς σοφίας ἄῤῥητος μύσησις. Τρίτον δέ οὐρανόν κατά στοχασμόν εἶναι νομίζω τούς περιγράφοντα, ὅρους τῆς τε πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας καί τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας, καί τῆς θεολογικῆς μυσταγωγίας τούς ὑψηλοτάτους λόγους, ἤτοι τά τούτων πέρατα, ἐπειδή μέτρον ἐστί τι καταλήψεως ἀρετῆς καί φύσεως καί τῆς ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν θεολογίας, ἀναλόγως κατά φύσιν ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων παρά Θεοῦ προσηρμοσμένον, ἐν οἷς ὅροις καί πέρασιν ὁ μακάριος Ἀπόστολος τούς τῶν εἰρημένων κατα τό ἐφικτόν παρελθών λόγους ἐγένετο. Εἰ γάρ περιγραφή τῶν ἐντός διειλημμένων κατά φύσιν ἐστίν ὁ οὐρανός, καί ὅρος πάντων τῶν ὑπό αἴσθησιν, δηλονότι κατά τόν τῆς ἀναγωγῆς λόγον καί πᾶσα περιγράφουσα τούς περί τινος ἀρετῆς ἤ γνώσεως λόγους λῆξις, ὡς ὅρος τῶν ὁριζομένων, καί πέρας τῶν περιγεγραμμένων, τροπικῶς οὐρανός ὀνομάζεται. Ἤ πάλιν "τρίτον οὐρανόν" εἶναι τυχόν φησιν ἡ Γραφή τάς ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς πρός τό ἄνω καθ᾿ εἱρμόν τρεῖς τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων τάξεις, ἅσπερ ἔφθασεν ἴσως ὁ ἅγιος Παῦλος, ταῖς τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτόν γνώσεων ἀποφάσεσι τῶν κατ᾿ ἐκείνους τάς καταφάσεις μυούμενος, καί ταῖς καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν τῶν οἰκείων στερήσεσι τάς ἐκείνων ἕξεις μιμούμενος. Πᾶσα γάρ φύσις τῶν λογικῶν κατά τήν ἑαυτῆς τάξιν καί δύναμιν τῆς ὑπέρ αὐτήν οὐσίας καί τάξεως τάς γνωστικάς ἔξεις τε καί θέσεις καταφάσεις στερητικῶς ταῖς κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἀφαιρετικαῖς ἀποφάσεσι μυεῖταί τε καί μιμεῖται, καί ἔστιν ἡ κατά τήν γνῶσιν τῶν ὑπερκειμένων κατάφασις τῶν ὑποβεβληκότων ἀπόφασις, καί ἔμπαλιν τῶν ὑποβεβληκυιῶν ἡ κατά τήν γνῶσιν ἀπόφασις τῶν ὑπερεχουσῶν κατάφασις, μέχρι τῆς πασῶν καθ᾿ ὑπεροχήν ἀνωτάτης φύσεώς τε καί τάξεως ἀποφατικῶς προοδεύουσα, ἥν μετά πάσας τάξεις τε καί δυνάμεις ἡ ἄμεσος περί Θεόν διαδέχεται κατά τήν γνῶσιν ἀπόφασις, ὑπ᾿ οὐδενός παντελῶς καταφασκομένη τῶν ὄντων, μή ὄντος λοιπόν ὅρου τινός ἤ πέρατος τοῦ ταύτην περιλαμβάνοντος τόν ἀπόφασιν. Ὥσπερ γάρ τῶν αἰσθητῶν κατά φύσιν ἀπόφασίς ἐστι τά νοητά, οὕτω καί ἐν ταῖς συμπληρούσαις τόν ἄνων κόσμον οὐσίαις τε καί δυνάμεσιν αἱ τῶν πρώτων κατά τήν περί Θεόν γνῶσιν ὑπεροχαί διά τήν ὕφεσιν ταῖς με᾿ αὐτάς ἀποφάσκονται.