Theological words

Contents 1st theological word against those who call the Father first [in the Trinity] 2nd theological word against those who undertake to theologize without having the Spirit 3rd theological word that if the Father is something, then the Son is the same, and if the Son is something, then the Holy Spirit is the same, and that they are one spirit of equal honor, consubstantial and co-throne List of references to notes 1st theological word against those who call the Father first [in the Trinity] To reason or speak about God, to investigate what relates to Him, to discover the hidden and to declare that which is incomprehensible to no one is comprehensible would be a sign of a daring and presumptuous soul. But this suffers not only from those who dare to say anything about God on their own, but also from those who memorize and carefully examine what was once spoken and handed down to us through the scriptures from divinely inspired theologians [as a weapon] against heretics, 1 not in order to receive some spiritual benefit, but so that those who listen to them in drinking parties and meetings would be amazed at them and proclaim them theologians. I am very tormented and trembling, thinking about this terrible enterprise and about the judgment prepared [for it] for the daring. This is how someone who encroaches on the divine says roughly: for one reason the Father is greater than the Son (cf. John 14:28) 2 that He is the cause of His existence. And to the question: “How do you consider the Father greater than the Son?” he answers: “Precisely because the Father is greater than the Son,” I say in other words, “because [the Son] is from the Father.” Such is their new vanity and reckless theology, who do not know for what reason these [words] were used by theologians against heretics. Not having sufficient ability to comprehend what is written, they stumble in what they speak of as solid and true, and, remaining in such [error], they become rooted in it. It is against such, not by themselves, but by Those who teach man understanding (Ps. 93:10), secretly taught and certified by the Spirit inspiring from above, let’s say. If the All-Holy Trinity, which brought everything from the non-existent into being, always was, and is, and will be inseparable, who proposed, who invented the measures and degrees, the first and second, the greater and the lesser in It? Who applied this to invisible, unknowable and completely inexplicable and incomprehensible [things]? For those who are always united and always exist in the same way cannot be one before the other. If you want to say that the Father is before the Son, [since the Son] was born of Him, and therefore [the Father] is greater and older than [the Son], then I will also tell you that the Son is before the Father. After all, if the Son had not been born, the Father would not have been called Father. If you put the Father ahead of the Son in every sense and call Him first as the cause of the Birth of the Son, then I deny that He is the cause of the Son. After all, by doing so you are forcing us to assume that the Son did not exist before His birth, that He was born either willingly, or unwillingly, either from a willing Father, or from an unwilling one, and that [the Son] at some point learned that he was born, learned how he was born, or was not born at all. You see what absurdities, not to say blasphemy, we have arrived at as a result of such reasoning. Therefore, either avoid saying that the Father is before the Son, and then we will agree with your calling the Father the cause [of the Son] 3, or, if you say this, we, “rulers of the word in judgment” (cf. Ps. 112:5), here’s how we will refute you: as has already been said, those who are always united and always exist in the same way cannot be the cause of each other. Do not think that the Father ever existed before the Son, and do not call Him either first or greater than the Son, for the first would also be called pre-existent because of what was begotten, or happened, or created. If He did not exist before and did not arise at a certain moment or became first in relation to the co-eternal and co-originate Son, but remained whole in the whole equal Son, just as the Son in the whole consubstantial Father, how can He be called first in relation to the co-eternal [Him]? I would agree with you if you called the Father the cause and in no way implied that there was once God alone, but there was no Son [yet] and that [the Father] begat Him later, becoming the cause of His existence 4 . However, it is precisely such [reasonings] that lead you far away from God and from the truth, as an ungodly person, and [rank you] among those who wickedly say that the Son was created by the Father. Just the thought of this is complete atheism and wickedness. We call the father the cause of the son who is born at physical birth. In the case of divine non-existent existence, unborn birth, non-hypostatic hypostasis, super-essential realization - I don’t know what else to say - the one who says “first” must say both “second” and “third” [i.e. e. use] precisely that method of description that cannot be applied to the All-Holy Trinity. After all, measuring the immeasurable, expressing the ineffable, and explaining the inexplicable is meaningless and dangerous. That is why, in the case of the divine birth of God the Word, we call the Father the cause of the Son, just as the mind is the [cause of] the word, the source is the stream, and the trunk is its branches, but in no case the first, so as not to multiply the number of gods by dividing the indivisible and one Divinity into three. And so as not to think or say that in the indivisible and unmerged Trinity there is a first, a second and a third, greater or lesser. After all, the divine and super-essential nature is completely inexplicable, ineffable, unthinkable and incomprehensible to the human mind. If you want to practice the word differently and comprehend how incomprehensible God is, who brought everything from existence into being, then you can, perhaps, put the Spirit - if such theology is generally permissible - before the Son and the Father, and you will find in Him the perfect fusion of the coeternal [hypostases], since they are consubstantial. And look how incomprehensible the divine nature is for us humans! God, says [Jesus], is Spirit (John 4:24). And here [the words of the Apostle Paul]: But the Lord is Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). So, if God is Spirit and the Lord is Spirit, then where is fatherhood and sonship, on the basis of which, new theologian, you deduce, name and enumerate the first and greater things in the Divine and incomprehensible nature? In the beginning, says John the Theologian, there was the Word (John 1:1), and not the Father. But you, thanks to your perfect wisdom deeper than Him, Jesus, initiated into the mystery, present to us and to the whole world the Father as the first, in order to declare the Son second after Him, and the third the Holy Spirit, proclaiming to us, as if some other theologian, deeper than the previous one, a different gospel, more worthy of the Son of God (cf. Gal. 1:6)? Blasphemy! Why, tell me, who slyly teaches us tritheism, did not the theologian, a close friend of Christ, say: “In the beginning was the Father,” but in the beginning was the Word? Is it because he said not “the Son,” but “the Word,” or in order to teach us that neither [God] the Son nor God the Father was known by anyone before the coming and incarnation of God the Word? Not because there was no Trinitarian Deity who created everything, but because the mystery of the economy had not yet been learned 5 . After the incarnation of the Word of God, God the Father as Father was known by us, the faithful, and God the Word, who became incarnate for our sake, as the Son of God, according to what was announced from above from the Father. For the Father says: This is My Beloved Son... Listen to Him (Matthew 17:5). The son says: Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; and I knew You (John 17:25), and continues: I have revealed Your name to them (John 17:26), and again: Father... glorify Your Son, that Your Son also will glorify You (John 17:1), and: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Therefore, if even after the incarnation of the Word of God the Son and the Father are one, then even more so before the incarnation. Let's carefully consider the meaning of the words. [The Son] says: I and the Father are one and puts himself ahead of the Father. For what? In order to show Himself in everything equal in honor and equal in glory with the Father, and also that neither the Father - even if He is the cause of the Son - is first, nor the Son second, although He [is born] from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit third, even if He proceeds from the Father. If the Trinity from the beginning is One and therefore is called Trinity according to its hypostases, then the One cannot exist either before itself or before the hypostases [being] with Him. But one [hypostasis] did not exist before the other, so that the pre-existing would not be first in relation to what shone from it. The One Trinity is the One Deity, and, as has already been said, it is called so because of the Persons and Hypostases, since it is divided inseparably and united unmerged. Therefore, God is called the One Trinity, because not one of the [hypostases] existed in any way before the other, neither the Father [before] his Son, nor the Son - his Father, nor both of them - before the Spirit, so that one became first in relation to the other. Together They have a beginningless and co-eternal beginning. So, the One God Trinity is indescribable, beginningless, uncreated, incomprehensible, immeasurable, and He cannot be either thought or expressed. But so that, due to long silence, we would not become infected with complete oblivion of God and would not be like some kind of “godless in the world” (cf. Eph. 2:12), He condescended to us, allowing human nature to speak about God and the divine in the way that we were taught from the divine apostles and our God-inspired fathers, so that, immersed in constant remembrance of Him, we would glorify His goodness and His love for mankind. housebuilding is about us. We, dust and ashes (cf. Gen. 18:27), as if having lost our edges, as if not remembering ourselves, are not afraid to explore and study in every possible way, to comprehend with the help of the mind, reason and imagination things that are incomprehensible and hidden for the angels and all the heavenly powers. We, like some unfaithful people who are completely uninitiated in the mysteries of Christ, think this way and fearlessly, having lost shame, chatter about God. So, tell me, you, who do not hesitate to explore the divine nature, do you believe that there is a Trinitarian God, without beginning, uncreated, unknowable, unsearchable, invisible, neither comprehended by the mind nor expressible in words, and that He has always been the same, not having received any beginning of days (cf. Heb. 7:8), times or centuries, but always existing? Yes, he answers. So, if you believe that - and this is so - the Holy Trinity is the One God and, when it wished, brought heaven and earth and everything that is on them from the non-existent into being, created all the heavenly powers and, finally, after all this created man, and there is nothing in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth that is not brought and would not arise from the non-existent, but one of these [things] is the Creator and Maker - uncreated, without beginning, always existing and above all existing God, then why do you, like all heavenly powers, in silence and fear, not honor the Creator, but having abandoned observing yourself, having a daring and self-confident soul, are you occupied in vain with His incomprehensible nature? Aren't you afraid that lightning from the sky will somehow turn you into ashes? If the uncreated, beginningless, trinitarian God the Unit always and first of all existed, and everything visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, cognizable by us and incognizable, was produced by the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity [hypostases] of the one Deity, how, say, what is produced can perfectly know the Producer - what He is, how great and what is His origin, what has arisen - always existing, created - Uncreated, and that which subsequently received existence from Him - Beginningless? No way, unless the Creator Himself, as He gives them breath, life (cf. Acts 17:25), soul, mind and word (ψυχήν τε καί νοῦν καί λόγον), will humanely give knowledge of Himself and to the extent that this will bring benefit. And how, tell me, in fact, otherwise can something created by God know its Creator? There is no other way for something to happen that is completely impossible for everyone. After all, He gave the measure of knowledge to us who believe in Him, according to the measure of faith, so that knowledge would be confirmed by faith without knowledge, and with the help of knowledge, he who was taught the word and believed that there is a God, in whom he believed through the teaching word, was strengthened [in faith]. The faithful receive such [knowledge] from various and varied signs, riddles, reflections, through mysterious and ineffable energies (ἐνεργειῶν), divine revelations, obscure illuminations, contemplation of the logoi of creation 8 and many other [things], thanks to which their faith daily increases and reaches the love of God. But not only that, because God also authenticates them, like the apostles, through the message and presence of the Holy Spirit. Enlightened, they achieve greater perfection and learn through light that God is ineffable, inexpressible, uncreated, outside of time, eternal and incomprehensible. All knowledge and understanding, every word of wisdom and the word of higher occult knowledge, as well as the working of miracles and the gift of prophecy, diversities of tongues and interpretation of tongues (cf. 1 Cor. 12:8-10), [skills in] the care and management of states and people (cf. 1 Cor. 12:28), knowledge of future blessings, attainment of the Kingdom of Heaven, adoption, the very putting on of Christ, contemplation of Him sacraments and knowledge of the mystery of His economy about us and in general everything that the unfaithful do not know, we, who are worthy to be faithful, can learn, think and express, instructed only by the Spirit 9. So, these and precisely such [sources] give firm knowledge and certify that He is the God who created everything, who created us, taking dust from the earth, gave us mind, speech and a rational soul, created us in His image and likeness (cf. Gen. 1:26) and dispelled the darkness of our ignorance, [certify] that He was pleased to show us - unclearly, as if in the shadows - that which is above us, through what suits us. With this we have learned, with the help of this we see, thanks to this we believe that, like our mind, soul and our very innate word, when creating our body He immediately produced (after all, the words And the Lord God created man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul (Gen. 2:7)) mean that our mind and our word exist together with the soul and not one of these [things] was the first and did not precede [the others] 10, since three are one and are given to us at once in a single breath of life), just as with these things neither [something] single was the beginning, nor one [of them], existing [each] in a single essence and nature, did not precede the other, so in the Holy, Consubstantial and Equal Trinity one does not exist before the other. After all, God, the Creator of the image, being Trinitarian, never possessed the unity that precedes the Three, but the Three are at the same time one God, and one in the same way is always Three. Therefore, confessing this, we believe and before all others who do not [consider it] impudent to speak about divine things and investigate them, we solemnly testify that there is a Trinitarian God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the Holy Trinity into which we were baptized. [There is a God] in whom we are firmly established through the workings and gifts of the Spirit in us, through sacred ordinances and through the gospel. How, in what time, in what quality the Trinity, which created everything, exists and from where it [comes] we, the created ones, have not known. If we didn’t know, as we still don’t know, what kind of punishment do we deserve for saying that we don’t know? How can we, visible and created, corruptible, sensible, blind and unenlightened, cognize that whose being in no way [belongs] to anything that began to be - neither to the visible nor to the invisible? It’s like a wall [made up] of our sins, lying between us and God and separating us from Him. If we do not destroy [this wall] or bypass it through repentance, then not only will we not be able to know God, but we will also not know that we are human. After all, [while] this barrier stands and separates us from the light, how can we, living in darkness, carefully examine ourselves and understand exactly what we are and what kind, how and where we come from, where we are heading, in general, who we are? 11 If we do not know ourselves, then much less do we not know that being that is incomparably higher than us. If we knew ourselves, we would not speak impudently about God. After all, when we, unenlightened and deprived of the Holy Spirit, talk about God and the divine, we reveal ignorance of ourselves. And, of course, if we knew ourselves exactly, we would never consider ourselves worthy either to look at heaven, or to see the light of this world (John 11:9), or to trample this earth, but would want to hide under it. So tell me: who is more wicked than the one who, with conceit and arrogance, undertakes to teach the things of the Spirit, without having the Spirit? Who is more wicked than someone who has not repented and not been purified, but has neglected this and wants to theologize, relying not on wisdom, but on false knowledge alone (cf. 1 Timothy 6:20), and boldly talk about things that exist and those that ever and ever changelessly exist? Even if he has not sinned in anything else, which is impossible, this alone condemns such [a person] to eternal condemnation, because everyone who is high-hearted is unclean before the Lord (Prov. 16:5). And some of these [heretics] are so mad that they do not call themselves and do not consider themselves to have sinned 12. Oh madness! No one is sinless except God alone; For all have sinned, says the divine apostle, and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace (Rom. 3:23-24). If, according to the sacred word, no one is sinless except God alone (cf. Matt. 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19), and everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, then the one who claims that he has not sinned is likened to the one who says: “I will set my throne on the clouds and will be like the Most High” (cf. Is. 14:13–14). If you confess yourself to have sinned, show me a true confession of the sins you have committed, complete trust in the spiritual father who receives thoughts from you, obedience, obedience [even] in insignificant things, service to the least of the brothers, caring for the sick, as well as sincere humility, a simple, unsophisticated and unhypocritical disposition. And when, according to the inner disposition of your soul, you place yourself lower than everyone else, which is why constant contrition and joyful tears are born, from which and through which virtue comes with purification of the soul and knowledge of the mysteries of God, then you will talk about divine and human objects, and I will see the value of your words. For all this is the fruit and work of repentance, which both drives away ignorance and gives knowledge. By knowledge, first of all, I understand knowledge about ourselves and about what concerns us, and secondly about what is above us, invisible and incomprehensible to those who have no repentance, the divine sacraments - [the sacraments of] our faith, which no one can be enriched with until he has accomplished what is said above, even if he has mastered all the philosophical disciplines. If enrichment by faith does not occur, he will spend the time of his life in the deepest darkness of ignorance. After all, although divine and divine things are written down and can be read by everyone and for everyone, they are revealed only to those who have ardently repented and have been well purified through pure repentance, and in the proportion and extent to which repentance and purification have penetrated into them. It is to them that the depths of the Spirit are shown (cf. 1 Cor. 12:10), it is from them that the word of God’s wisdom and knowledge flows like a deep river drowning mental enemies (cf. Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 12:8). For all others [the depths of the Spirit] remain unknown, hidden and completely closed (cf. Matt. 13:13) To those who open the minds of the faithful to understand the Scriptures (cf. Luke 24:45). Truly: “My Sacrament is Mine and Mine” 13. Therefore, being unable to feel what they read, without seeing, they imagine that they see, and without hearing at all, [they imagine] that they hear and, without understanding, [they imagine] that they understand. Just as every non-believer thinks that he understands, without understanding, and knowing absolutely nothing, he thinks that he has known something - and even if he has known something, he has known it poorly, which is worse than any ignorance - so, I think, these too. Thought they were wise, in reality they became fools (cf. Rom. 1:22). And as if they had lost their minds and were distraught, they spend their miserable days and do not really know anything of the mysteries of Christ. May the God of Israel deliver us from their conceit and arrogance and deign us to become imitators of His humility. How, I say, one who deviates from this path of blessed humility, walking somewhere outside it, on the right or, perhaps, on the left, walking not in the footsteps of Jesus and God, will enter His bridal chamber with Him? How, without seeing this [path], will he tell others about what is on this [path] and next to him? How could he even dare to talk about something he never knew or saw? And if, nevertheless, he decided to teach about such and such great [things], then would there really be anyone on earth [someone] more unreasonable than such a person? Will he not turn out to be more senseless than even four-legged animals and in all respects even more of a beast [than they]? After all, it is obvious that every dumb life retains its nature and order and never exceeds its own limits 14. But this one, created by the hands of God, honored by Him with word and freedom, did not properly dispose of his dignity, and did not recognize his own weakness, and did not maintain himself in the blessings of God, established by Him by nature, and did not stand within his own limits, that is, he did not comprehend himself. But as a morning star [i.e. e. Satan] and subsequently Adam, one being an angel, the other a man, having exalted themselves before the Creator, desired to be gods, so, alas, this one too, having transgressed the limits of his own nature, desiring what was higher than him, and imagining himself, decided to ascend to the pinnacle of spiritual knowledge not through humility and a Christ-like life, but through arrogance and exaltation. As if he had collected bricks from everywhere (cf. Gen. 11:3) of false knowledge (cf. 1 Tim. 6:2), tempered them in incessant exercises and built them with pride in the name of ambition and man-pleasing, he decided to build a tower of theology (cf. Gen. 11:4) and spiritual knowledge. Moreover, believing that he is on the way to heaven or in heaven, and [even] imagining that he has overcome them, he talks about who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. Can he be called a man or, with the same right, an animal or in general [a being] possessing sensuality? If man, created in the image of God (cf. Gen. 1:26) and awarded equal angelic and immortal life, because of the transgression of the only commandment of God, was rightly deprived not only of that angelic existence, but also of eternal life, being condemned to death, corruption and damnation, then what will all those who came from him be subjected to, who still bear in themselves the image of earthly (1 Cor. 15:49) and are taken ungodly theologize? But tell me, everyone who undertakes not to study, but to teach about God and the Divine, if you first came out of the underworld and found yourself on earth, then how did this happen to you, with the help of what devices, in what ways, by whose, what kind of collaborators and assistants through the efforts [your] ascension took place. If, when you came out, you stank and exuded corruption, or rather, you were under the power of death, you were still dead, how then did you come to life, become stronger than death and were able to escape its embrace? Tell us, more clearly, how, after leaving the underworld and coming to earth, you got rid of corruption and freed yourself from the curse. Then teach us how you rose above the earth, along what steps, on what wings you took off and rose to heaven, what chariot you entered, whether in the body [or] outside the body (cf. 2 Cor. 12:3), passed them, what cloud caught you. Explain this to us, teach us these things, and then with what humility, with what fear and trembling we will listen to your reasoning about God. If these words do not sound - with those who have come to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13) the situation is always mysterious - and [it turns out] that you dared to chatter before fulfilling the divine commandments, then we will turn away from you as a madman, insane and possessed of demons, since neither Elijah was ascended bodily into heaven without a chariot of fire (cf.: 2 Kings 2:11), nor our Master and God without the cloud of the Spirit that caught Him (cf. Acts 1:9). Although Elijah himself, like Enoch, could have been transported from earth to heaven (cf. Gen. 5:24) without a visible chariot, and the Lord himself was able to ascend to heaven without a cloud and the angels accompanying Him, but he acted differently. For what? In order to teach us that our mind also needs the One who will definitely take it to heaven, show it the views there and reveal the secrets of God. After all, just as a bird cannot rise high without wings, so a person’s mind is not able to ascend to those [peaks] from which it fell, without someone who will lead and raise it. And also in order to be convinced from the deeds themselves of the ascension and ascent into heaven of the servant and his Master, in order to teach us not to be content with mere words, not to trust every person who calls himself spiritual, but being convinced first of all by his life and deeds, if his words and deeds are completely consistent with the instructions of the Lord, the apostles and holy fathers, to favorably accept and listen to his words as the words of Christ. Otherwise, even though he raised the dead and showed many other miracles, [we should] run away from him as from a demon and hate him, especially if we see that the one being admonished does not want to correct his reasoning, but still remains in false knowledge and thinks to have residence in heaven (cf. Phil. 3:20) and bliss. This is how we, the apostles of Christ and our divine fathers, mysteriously initiated from above into the divinely inspired teaching, turn away from the vain idle talk of those who spend their time on nothing else, except in vain to inquire and find out what is inaccessible even to the angels (cf. Acts 17:21). We hold to the intact and unshakable confession of our faith (cf. Heb. 4:14), which we received from them from above, [we hold to the confession of] the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in one Godhead, the unfused and indivisible Trinity, into which we are baptized, through which we live, know and think, from which we are and forever and ever will be, since we have received from Her, all things wisdom that brought forth from nothing, being and goodness 15, together with which we would move from here to the quiet havens of an immaculate life, where the dwelling of all those who rejoice (cf. Ps. 86:7) and the land of those who celebrate in the Spirit, to which belongs all glory, honor and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. 2nd theological word against those who undertake to theologize without having the Spirit Having received an inspiration from above to constantly spread the praise of God with his lips (cf.: Ps. 33:2), opening his lips and attracting the Spirit of Life (cf.: Ps. 119:131), with all his might he hastens to do this at every hour for the most abundant tasting of the Word of Life, which is the Bread that comes down from heaven (cf.: John 6:50), about which it is said: Open your lips, and I will fill them (Ps. 80:11). Therefore, the one whom God has deemed worthy of such a fate, with the help of the dominating spiritual power 16 can have the thought of God once perceived as an imprint and seal 17 in the soul constantly, can, according to the apostolic instruction, always rejoice, pray unceasingly, give thanks for everything (cf. 1 Thess. 5:16-18), do everything for the glory of God, whether he eats or drinks (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31), of course, constantly feeding and strengthening with the bread of life. When he sleeps, his heart is awake (cf. Song 5:2) and, since he is awake, he is never separated from God in any way. Explaining this, the apostle says: “He who has intercourse with a woman becomes one body [with her], and he who unites himself with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (cf. 1 Cor. 6:16-17). God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Therefore, one who is spiritually united with God cannot sin 18, since he has become one spirit with Him. After all, the voice of the theologian says: “For this purpose the Son of God appeared to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin; everyone who abides in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him” (cf. 1 John 3:5-6). And again: Whoever is born of God commits no sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). So, if everyone who sins has not seen God and has not known Him, and he who is born of God does not commit sin, being called His child, then I am surprised at the numerous people who, before being born of God and being called His children, do not tremble to theologize and talk about God. Therefore, when I hear about some who philosophize and impurely theologize about these divine and inaccessible things and talk about God and the divine without the instructive Spirit, my spirit trembles and I seem to go beyond myself, observing and comparing the complete incomprehensibility of the Divine and how we, not knowing either what is under our feet or ourselves, without the fear of God and with audacity, strive to philosophize about inaccessible [things]. And therefore, they, deprived of the Spirit who enlightens them and gives revelation, sin precisely by saying anything about God. If it is not easy for a person to even know himself, and very few people make this a subject of philosophizing, almost no one in this century and in this kind, when the love for philosophy was extinguished by a strong storm, the headwind of negligence and everyday cares that engulfed us, exchanging the eternal for something worthless, for something that no longer exists or did not exist at all, for something constantly changing from one thing to another and not having an invariable result, then how much more difficult it is to know God, and even more so to explore completely ineffable and incomprehensible His nature and essence. So why do you, having refused to allow goodness to come from exploring yourself, do you explore God and the divine? First, it is necessary for us to pass from death into life (cf. John 5:24), and then immediately from above to accept into ourselves the seed of the living God and be born of Him in order to be called His children and to breathe the Spirit into the womb (cf. Ps. 50:12; 119:131) and, having been enlightened, speak about God in the same way as and to what extent we are enlightened by Him. Now you, who have so decided to theologize, believe in the One God, who did not come from anyone else (after all, before Him there was no one older and did not appear), and did not create Himself, as some very foolish people believed (after all, something that is not cannot be born by itself), [but] has always existed and pre-existed, eternally existed, the One God in Three Hypostases. No one who truly honors the truth would imagine that the hypostatic and the three-hypostatic are non-hypostatic (ἀνυπόστατον), but from what is proportionate to him, learning what is above him, he worships the one Divinity in the Three Consubstantial Hypostases. After all, if he did not mix with passions and did not cloud with them [what was created] in the image [of God], then, having first known himself, he sees that he received from the Creator [him] a living and hypostatic soul (ἐνυπόστατον). The soul is tripartite, having accompanying mind and word. Thus, with the help of what is peculiar to him, [man] thinks what relates to God with a wiser and more enlightened mind. By the Spirit who created him, he is moved from above to think of God and the Father, who brought everything out of nothing with his own Word, and by the power of his Spirit, who owns everything and holds everything, [as well as] outside of time and eternally begotten of the consubstantial Son, in no way separated from the Father, with whom the Divine Spirit bows down, being consubstantial with the Son and [proceeding] from the consubstantial Father. By thinking correctly and confessing God, [man] discovers that the soul - in the image of its Creator - remains verbal, rational and immortal, created by the consubstantial and hypostatic Mind and Word. Otherwise, he speaks of himself as completely insane and dumb. Indeed, where else will someone who has fallen away from the divine properties get [intelligence] from, if not from the characterizing characteristics of the One who created [man] in [his own] image? If someone testifies in his own favor and rightly ascribes to himself these qualities, but foolishly deprives his Creator and God of what he speaks about himself, then for me he is no different from the pagans, it’s scary to say, cattle, reptiles and wild beasts. So, I believe that, just as the soul did not exist and does not exist before the mind and the mind before the word proceeding from it, but they together have existence from God, and the mind generates the word and through it produces the desire of the soul, so the Father and God did not exist before the Son or the Spirit, but just as the mind abides in the soul and contains the word in itself, in the same way God and the Father abides in the whole Holy Spirit, and in Himself contains the whole begotten God the Word. And just as it is impossible for a word or mind to be without a soul, so it is impossible to talk about the Son and Father without the Holy Spirit. For how can God be alive without life? After all, the Holy Spirit is both life and the creator of life (cf. John 6:63). Therefore, confess with me the Father who begets, but does not pre-exist [the Son], the Son who is begotten, but not after [the Father] came into being, the Holy Spirit who proceeds, coeternal and consubstantial with the Son to the Father himself. Honor the whole Holy Spirit in the whole and the one co-eternal Father, and the whole Father in the whole and the one co-eternal Son, and the whole Son in the whole and the one Father and Spirit, the one trinity, co-eternal and consubstantial, indivisible and unfused essence and nature, as the one beginning of the whole and the one God the Creator of everything, since in the whole mind innate to you, so that from the fact that in accordance with you, to that which is above you, secretly guided, you have not forgotten the image with which He honored you, the whole word and spirit are inseparably and unmerged [one] in two souls τοῖς δυσίν ἡ ψυχή). For this is an image, and with it we have been enriched from above, in order to become like God the Father and bear the image of Him who begat and created us. Therefore, when we honor a person, we offer him the same honor, as having a mind, an animate and a verbal one, without dividing [him] and without preferring one of these three [something], since in himself he has three inseparable and unmerged [realities]. We worship [him] and honor him for the sake of the common image of the Creator, not as three, but as one man. So, with the help of the divine properties that you might attribute to me, understanding God, who bestowed them on you, as the One God, piously honor the Holy, Consubstantial and Co-original Trinity and observe with what blessings God, who created you in His image and glorified you with His properties, has honored you. We confess the equal, consubstantial and equal Father with the Son and the Spirit, the Holy Trinity, as a single principle, power and dominion. Know in yourself a mind of equal glory, equal honor and consubstantiality with the word and soul, since it exists in the same essence and nature with them. After all, this is honor and existence from God, so that those who originated and received being from Him know and reverently honor God as Father and Creator. So, if you deprive a person of one of these three [elements], he cannot exist. If you take away the mind, then, having lost the word along with it, it will become insane and wordless. If the soul, then [the person will lose] the mind and word that accompany it 19. If you take away only the inner word, you will make the whole living [being] inactive. After all, a mind that does not produce a word will not receive a word from another. For how [is this possible for one] who once became deaf and disturbed his nature? Just as we are by nature capable of breathing and [allowing] air into ourselves, and if this were not so, perhaps we would die immediately, the mind by nature not only possesses within itself the verbal ability, but actually generates the word. And if he were deprived of [the ability] for natural generation, then, finding himself, as it were, cut off and cut off from the word inherent in him, he would die and become useless for anything 20. And in order to clarify what I have said, I will imagine [the origin of] the word as a bodily process, in the image of a [woman] suffering from childbirth. So, just as a woman who has conceived a child, if she gives birth not at the time allotted by nature, dies along with the fetus, 21 and our mind, which has received from God the natural ability to generate a word that exists with it inseparably, if it is deprived of this [word], then it is also deprived of its parent [i.e. e. himself]. So, if you wish, mentally ascend to the prototypes and find out exactly that he who denies the Son of God denies His Parent. And whoever denies the Father and the Son will not come, without wanting to, to deny the Holy Spirit? Therefore, whoever calls one of the persons greater or lesser than the other [persons] has not yet pulled out the head of the mind from the abyss of passions in order to see with rational eyes, to know oneself correctly and thereby learn that just as the mind is not more than the soul, the soul [is not more] than the mind, and the word is neither more nor less than both of them, so the Father is neither more nor less than the Son, the Son is the Father, and the Holy Spirit is [both] these co-originating and equally honorable [hypostases]. After all, all this cannot be thought of at all in the Holy and Equal Trinity. Know, O man, that which is above you, that which is in accordance with you, and in which the image of God is revealed. Honored in contrast to all other creatures by the dignity of the word, through which you control and reign over them, know that, just as the human mind through the word (it is good to follow the same thing always and in every word, so that your sensitive [abilities] become clearer and you would well know the secrets of the Kingdom hidden in you), and the soul is known through both, so God and the Father through the only begotten Son and His Word, and the Holy Spirit through the co-originating Father and Son by us, the faithful, have been and are being known 22. If the mind gives birth to the word, then the will in the soul, being common to both [i.e. e. the mind and the word], becomes known to the listeners either through a living voice, or through the writings, of course, when they are not mixed or divided into three, but in unity in each of the three [elements] are thought and contemplated in a single essence and in a single will. In the same way, you should think and piously confess regarding the holy, consubstantial and indivisible Trinity, that the Father inexpressibly gives birth to God the Word, whom at first he had in himself (cf. John 1:2) and [now] has inseparably and above the word begotten, that the Son is always born inseparably from the begetting Father, being co-eternal with the Father and in no way separated from Him, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, being co-natural and united with the consubstantial Father and Son, worshiped with Them and glorified with every breath. Know Their one and identical will, since for all those who are enlightened from above and for us, the humble, it becomes cognizable and is revealed in the Holy Spirit by the favor of the Father through the Son. Believe that Their super-essential trinitarian essence of the one Divinity and Kingdom - so that in them I, sanctified by memory and word, will be born again - is three-hypostatic, and, believing, confess clearly and without hesitation that the three Hypostases do not merge into one and united by nature are not divided into three. Indeed, in each of them both are mentally contemplated, in one essence, nature, glory and one will. So believe in the One God, Creator and Creator of everything visible and invisible 23. For he who believes that God is the Creator of everything, and that He brought everything from existence [into being], both that which is in heaven, and that which is on earth, and that which is under the earth, was created by God, and abides within His own limits, cognizing what has been created. And ascending from the beauty of creation to the Creator Himself (cf. Wis. 13:7; Rom. 1:20), he sings and glorifies Him as the Creator of everything and in no way explores His incomprehensible nature in vain. For he knows that he himself and everything else, as has already been said, is His creation, and He is the Creator of everything, uncreated, beginningless, incomprehensible, ineffable, unsearchable, always existing and pre-existing. After all, there was no time when there was no God - for He created the ages (cf. Heb. 1:2) and was before every beginning, so that we neither thought about His beginning nor inquired about the end - but He was without beginning, is the Beginning of everything and will be forever in boundless and endless centuries. He is Impregnable, Invisible, Inexpressible, Hidden, Incomprehensible to all who come from Him. He is the One whom we, having previously been deceived by many gods and serving creatures, did not know (cf. Rom. 1:25) and worshiping idols, while still earthly and low. He is the One who, compassionate with our ignorance, so condescended to our weakness that we knew that God is a perfect Trinity, [whom] in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we should piously worship. The incomprehensible of the super-essential nature, what He is in essence or appearance, where He is, how great, how - in addition or in unity - [exists], not only by people, but also by the highest powers. And don’t even think about referring to the theology of divine scripture. After all, those objections of theologians were directed against the blasphemies of heretics. But the thought is that the divine nature, being inaccessible, is obvious and incomprehensible, and that which is completely incomprehensible is also inexpressible. Indeed, often even what is spoken that we understand cannot be expressed in its entirety. And what about the invisible and incomprehensible things, which all God-inspired Scripture testifies to, which of men or angels is able to explain? Nobody! After all, something that never existed at all cannot be conceived by human thought and designated by a name. With all the words, thoughts and expressions about God, the Divine Scripture inspires what He is, and not what He is, 24 attributing to Him eternal existence and the fact that He exists (Ex. 3:14), God is eternally existing, Trinitarian, Almighty, Almighty, All-Seeing, Creator and Creator of everything, Having no need, Supernatural, as cognizable by us as anyone surveys the boundless abyss of sea waters, standing in the night on the seashore and holding a burning lamp. How much of these boundless sea [expanses] can such an [observer] see? Very little or none at all. He, however, clearly and distinctly sees some kind of water, although he cannot say what kind. He knows that what he sees is the sea, that it is a boundless abyss and that it is impossible for him to survey it entirely. However, [the observer] assumes that, although he does not see, he can somehow judge the whole from its parts and infer the infinity of water 25. If you wish, then for the benefit of the argument we will use a [less] accessible way. If some blind person, who had never seen a source of water or did not know that water is exactly like this, since he did not touch it or taste it, were to discover [such a source], then you yourself would begin to explain to him the nature of water, that it is beautiful, that it fills reservoirs, wells, seas and rivers. He, in turn, would ask to tell about the nature, type, quality of water, how much there is, how it moves, where it comes from, why it spills everywhere but does not dry up. How would you respond to this? I believe that even if [this person] had the most insightful and capable of contemplation mind, you would not be able to depict in words the beginning, essence and movement of water and would not be able to somehow teach what it is in quantity and quality to someone who has not had the experience of communion [with water] and its contemplation. If we cannot say anything about the fluid, visible and subservient essence and explain to those who ask us what its nature is, where it comes from and what elements it consists of, then how can [even] one of the angels and all the saints be able to fully teach what is the One who gave existence to all things, what relates to His essence and glory, those who do not know about God and what is characteristic of Him? This is completely impossible. But he who, even in the smallest measure, has been worthy to see God in the unapproachable glory of His infinite and divine light, in the way that we spoke about above, does not need teaching from another. After all, he has Him who is entirely within him, abiding, moving, speaking and secretly leading him to this hidden sacrament according to the most holy word spoken by Him: “My sacrament is for me and mine.” And it is impossible to see Him otherwise than through strict adherence to His commandments, when their fulfillment is never violated by negligence and oblivion, but is observed and carried out steadfastly and diligently. Therefore, those who act according to this rule (Gal. 6:16) “will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven” (cf. Mark 12:34), but to the extent of their efforts and the zeal and joy with which their work was, sooner or later, to a greater or lesser extent, they will receive the reward of the vision of God, will become sharers of the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1: 3-4) and gods by adoption, and they will be called sons of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. 3rd theological word that if the Father is something, then the Son is the same, and if the Son is something, then the Holy Spirit is the same, and that they are one spirit of equal honor, consubstantial and one-throne Always glorified and glorified by us, God, the beginningless Father, the co-beginning Son of the Father, the coeternal and consubstantial of the Father and the Son, the All-Holy Spirit, one nature, glory and fusion, consubstantial Trinity, one Divinity, equal-honorable and Tri-hypostatic Essence, the Beginning of everything, hypostatic and creative Power, one-throne, one-glorified, one power and omnipotent dominion and kingdom, the One God both in words and in reality, who is always contemplated as a Unity, [in whom we] believe and [whom] we honor individually, but [whom] we always confess as a Trinity, singing threefold in different hypostases, since we are initiated into the sacrament through our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, one of His Trinitarian Divinity, prompting us to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 28:19) and saying this: My Father is greater than I (John 14:28), showing that He Himself is different from the Father, and I do nothing of Myself (John 8:28), and also: I will pray the Father, and He will send you another Comforter (John 14:16), the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father (John 15:26), calling another Comforter of the Spirit. That is why He gives us the grace to think about the unity in everything of the Trinitarian and consubstantial Divinity and Kingdom, about the identity, about the identical existence of His Hypostases in eternal glory and inseparable unity, in order to know that the Father [abides] entirely in the Spirit, which is why the Son is called the whole God, and that the Son through the Spirit [exists] entirely, in them God and the Father is glorified, and that the Holy Spirit is whole, which is why the Father is completely honored and glorified along with the Son. So, we are initiated by the Spirit into the fact that these persons remain consubstantial and equal in honor and that Their hypostases are unmerged and inseparable in the single divine hypostatic nature and cause of these whole [persons]. When, [having realized this], we are raised up to the Father and God by the power of the Spirit who raises us up together [with Himself] through the Word, then we stretch out our hands and eyes to Him and say: Our Father who art in heaven (Matthew 6:9). When we turn with prayer 26 to the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the wise Spirit, we say: “The Only Begotten Son, the coeternal Word of God and the Father, One from One, God from God, Beginningless from the Beginningless, Eternal from the Eternal, Ever-Existing from the Ever-Existing, Light from Light, Life from Life, Unapproachable from the Unapproachable, Incomprehensible from the Incomprehensible, Inexpressible from the Inexpressible, Unchangeable from the Unchangeable, Unknowable from the Unknowable, forgive our sins.” Likewise, invoking the Holy Spirit, we say: “The Holy Spirit, who ineffably proceeds from the Father and through the Son appears to us, the faithful, the Spirit of life and knowledge, the Spirit of holiness and perfection, the good Spirit, wise, loving of mankind, sweet, glorious, nourishing and refreshing, merciful, enlightening, strengthening, the divine Spirit of patience, the Spirit generous in joy, cheerfulness, chastity, wisdom, knowledge, meekness, unforgettable malice, lack of concern for things below and contemplation of what is above, persecutor of idleness, enemy of negligence, vanity and wickedness, the Spirit who reveals secrets, the guarantee of the Kingdom of Heaven, the source of prophecy, the cup of teaching, the destruction of sin, the door of repentance, indicating, like a gatekeeper, the entrance to those who strive, the Spirit of love, peace, faith, self-control, the Spirit of attraction, producing attraction 27, come, and dwell, and abide in us inseparably and inseparably, sanctifying, transforming and enlightening our hearts, as consubstantial and equal in honor with the Son and the Father, and as creating gods for those who receive You, and destroying every sin without a trace and bringing every virtue with your coming, not bringing from the outside, but Himself appearing to be every kind of good. For those in whom You dwell essentially have in themselves every good thing.” That is why we do not sing a song to three gods, sharing the indivisibility of the whole Unit, and not to one alone, but as those who worship the Son and the Spirit in the Father, the Spirit and the Father in the Son, the Father and the Son in the Spirit. We glorify them and the one nature of the Trinitarian Deity, consubstantial, equivalent, self-powerful, omnipotent, self-willed, co-eternal, co-originating, super-essential, unmerged and indivisible. For we do not think, dividing the undivided unit and the deity, concentrating unreasonably on the isolating differences, that there is one, a second, a third of one and another nature, but we recognize the One God, inseparably divided by hypostases and unified by the unity of a single essence, completely abiding in the hypostases and completely dividing into three in the superessential unit. The One and the Same must be called Three according to persons and One according to the unity of essence or nature. For the Only Begotten Son of the Father Himself clearly showed to all of us His equality in all things, consubstantiality and one throne with the consubstantial Father and Spirit, saying: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). And in another place [the Lord] speaks thus of the Spirit, showing that He proceeds without change from the very essence [of the Father]: the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father (John 15:26). Just as water comes from an eye or a spring, so from God the Father comes God the Spirit, which is why [Jesus] says: God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). So, if the Father is a Spirit, then the Son begotten of Him is obviously a Spirit. Demonstrating this, Paul said: The Lord is Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Although He took on flesh, He deified it and made it spiritual. The Holy Spirit is Spirit, since He proceeds from the Father and through the Son is given to us, the unworthy, not as if He were sent and distributed against His will, but through one of the Trinity, the Son Himself, fulfilling what the Father intended as his own desire. After all, the Holy Trinity is inseparable by nature, essence and will, and in the Three Hypostases, according to persons, it is called Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God existing in them, His name is Trinity, Who is above every name that is named (Eph. 1:21), word and verb, existing, surpasses all understanding in comprehension, goes beyond, not existing at all. On this basis you can conclude how the Holy Scripture calls One Three. It is wonderful, again [and again], to comprehend and speak the same [things] in the same [words], since the enjoyment of the same thing always gives pleasure to the one who has divinely known its sweetness, and the divine word sanctifies his spiritual feelings. [Jesus] said “God is Spirit,” which is why the Son is called that. So, if “God is Spirit”, and “Spirit is Lord”, and the Lord is called Spirit in the Holy Scriptures, [it means] there is one Spirit in Three Persons, and, therefore, a cognizable God in the Hypostases (as I already said, explaining that the Son is “one” (cf. John 10:30; 17:22)), equal in power, equal in honor, of one nature, of one essence. For this reason, they are called one Spirit, so that you cannot conceive of any inequality of advantage or disadvantage in the Three Persons of the Trinity and in general any division in Them, and so that not through division, but through names alone, you learn to name the Persons, that is, the Hypostases themselves. Having been taught this and so fully devoted to what concerns God, examine these subjects, avoiding excessive curiosity in every possible way, but having received this [knowledge] by faith alone, stand there, and what is beyond this, affirm and confess to be completely incomprehensible. If you [want] to know what is inherent in the divine nature, how God is, and what is around God, 28 and what is from God, and what is in God, everything is one light, 29 worshiped in each of the hypostases and contemplated in all His properties and gifts, we will initiate you into these sacraments. God is light (1 John 1:5), and light is limitless and incomprehensible. Around Him the light is the persons [hypostases] united and inseparably separated. I, dividing the inseparable ones, will say about each of them: the Father is light, the Son is light, the Holy Spirit is light. They are one light, simple, uncomplicated, timeless, coeternal, equal in honor and equal in glory. Apart from Them, everything that is from Him is light, since it is given to us from the light. Life is light, immortality is light, the source of life is light, living water is light, love, peace, truth, the door of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven itself is light. The bridal chamber is light, abode, Paradise, the sweetness of Paradise, the land of the meek, the crowns of life, the very robes of the saints - light. Christ Jesus the Savior and King of all is light. The bread of His immaculate Flesh is light, the cup of His precious Blood is light, His Resurrection is Light, His face is Light. His hand, finger, mouth are light, His eyes are light. The Lord is light, His voice is Light, since it comes from light, the Comforter is light. Pearl, mustard seed, true vine, leaven, hope, faith - light. All this and so on, no matter what you hear from the prophets and apostles about the inexpressible and super-essential Divinity, thoughts such that everything in essence is the One super-initial principle of everything, worshiped in the unit of the Trinity light. For there is one God in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the unapproachable and eternal light, which, being many-named, is called by all these and many other [names]. And it is not only called, but also acts, as we learned from those who were taught by experience itself, who were convinced and strengthened by the contemplation of the inherent beauty of the most good God. In addition to what has been said, I will reveal to you some other lights of God: His goodness is light, His mercy, compassion, His kisses are light, His kindness is light, a rod, a staff, consolation (cf. Ps. 22:4) His is light. It is known that most of these things, or even all, are present in us, but in us [they are present] as in people, in Him as in God 30. Let me address some of these things right away. God is called Father, and many people are called fathers. Christ is the Son of God and God, and we, again, are the sons of men. The All-Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, and our souls are called spirits. God is life, and we are called living. God is love, even great sinners have love for each other. So, can you call God human love? Away with blasphemy! And could you call peace between anyone [which consists] of not fighting or attacking [each other] for any [goods] “peace that surpasses all understanding” (cf. Phil. 4:7)? Really, no. But the truth of God [is that] you should not lie to anyone? No way. Since human words are fluid and vain, but the Word of God is living, hypostatic and active (cf. Heb. 4:12), then God is the True God, just like truth, beyond thinking and beyond human words. He is unchanging, imperishable, hypostatic and living. Therefore, of course, our water is not like His living water, and our bread is not like His bread, but as was said above, all this is light, and God is the One Light. If someone communes with Him, then by communion with Him he becomes a twofold participant in all the benefits mentioned. He becomes meek and humble, and this, again, is light among those mentioned. It is better to say that along with the light, the one who receives this light also receives these [benefits]. But at the same time, God is also called watchful (Jer. 1:12), since He awakens the human soul in which He dwells to good, and Himself becomes for it every good (cf. Ps. 33:11). And such a soul, having God as its dweller, no longer needs any good, but is filled and always abounds with those unspeakable blessings of God, living and rejoicing along with the ranks of the heavenly powers. 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M., 2003 (Library of Fathers and Teachers of the Church). Gregory the Theologian 2007a – Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. Words // St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. Creations: in 2 volumes. T. 1: Words. App.: Holy N. Vinogradov. The dogmatic teaching of St. Gregory the Theologian. M., 2007 (Complete collection of the works of the holy fathers of the Church and church writers in Russian translation. Vol. 1). pp. 19–574. Gregory the Theologian 2007b – Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. Letters // St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople. Creations: in 2 volumes. T. 2: Poems. Letters. Will. Attachment: A.V. Govorov. St. Gregory the Theologian as a Christian poet. M., 2007 (Complete collection of the works of the holy fathers of the Church and church writers in Russian translation. Vol. 2). pp. 417–562. Dionysius 2002 – Dionysius the Areopagite. Essays. Maxim the Confessor. Interpretations / Transl. from Greek and entry Art. G. M. Prokhorova. St. Petersburg, 2002. John of Damascus 2002 – John of Damascus. Source of knowledge / Transl. from ancient Greek and comment. D. E. Afinogenova, A. A. Bronzova, A. I. Sagardy, N. I. Sagardy. M., 2002 (Patristic Heritage. Vol. 5). Macarius of Egypt 2004 – Venerable Macarius the Great. Spiritual conversations, messages and words. M., 2004 (Spiritual treasury). Mark the Ascetic 1995 – Spiritual and moral words of our venerable fathers Mark the Ascetic, Isaiah the Hermit, Simeon the New Theologian. M., 1995. P. 6–201. Nemesius of Emesa 2011 – Nemesius of Emesa. About human nature / Transl. from Greek F. S. Vladimirsky. Comp., afterword, general ed. M. L. Khorkova. M., 2011. Okhlupina 2013 – Okhlupina I. S. Images of mothers in Byzantine hagiography // News of the Ural Federal University. Series 2: Humanities. 2013. No. 3 (117). pp. 54–67. Simeon the New Theologian 2001 – New translations of the works of St. Simeon the New Theologian / Trans. from Greek ig. Hilarion (Alfeev) // Hilarion (Alfeev), ig. Venerable Simeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition. St. Petersburg, 2001 (Byzantine Library. Research). pp. 503–667. Sherwood 2007 – Sherwood P. Early Ambigua of St. Maximus the Confessor and his refutation of Origenism // St. Maximus the Confessor: polemics with Origenism and monoenergism / Comp. G. I. Benevich, D. S. Biryukov, A. M. Shufrin. St. Petersburg, 2007 (Byzantine philosophy. Vol. 1; Smaragdos Philocalias). pp. 388–495. Per. from Greek and approx. T. A. Shchukina. In the notes, translations from Greek, if their source is not indicated, belong to T. A. Shchukin. In some cases, changes have been made to the already published translations according to the editions of the Greek. originals presented in TLG (indications of the critical editions of the sources used are given in the list of references at the end of the text). We are probably talking about the XXIX word of Gregory the Theologian (see introductory article). It is worth paying attention to the fact that Michael Psellus, interpreting the corresponding Gospel passage, also introduces the category of cause: “When the Lord in the Gospel said, “The Father is greater than I,” the Church indicated that the Father is greater only in the sense of cause. For we preach equality in three hypostases, and identical glory and radiance. And again, in other words, we say that the Father is greater than His Son and the Spirit, because They do not ascend to another principle, but He Himself is the first principle of all, so that They proceed from Him as the cause, abide in Him and ascend to Him. The Father is greater, because He is the cause of both: the Son by birth, and the spirit by procession” (Psellus Theologica I.13–21). It is very likely that a similar triadology with a Neoplatonic flavor was also characteristic of the ideological predecessors of Michael Psellus, who belonged to the circle of Stephen of Nicomedia. The logic of the monk as a whole fits into the consensus understanding of the term “cause” for Eastern theology, set forth by John of Damascus: “If we say that the Father is the beginning of the Son and is greater than Him, then we do not punish that He takes precedence over the Son in time or nature (John 14:28), - for through Him the Father created the worlds (Heb. 1:2), - or in any other respect except cause: that is, that the Son begotten of the Father, and not the Father from the Son, and that the Father is naturally the cause of the Son, just as we do not say that fire comes from light, but rather that light comes from fire. So, when we hear that the Father is the beginning and greater than the Son, let us understand this in the sense of cause” (Jo. D. Expositio fidei 8.147–154; John of Damascus 2002, 174). Compare: “...The Son and the Spirit are not without beginning in relation to the Author. It is known that the Culprit does not need to be more original than Those for Whom he is the Culprit; because the sun is not more original than light. And together the Son and the Spirit are without beginning, relative to time... For they are not under time from whom time” (Gr. Naz. Or. XXIX.3; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 352). Compare: “...The Old Testament clearly preached the Father, and not with such clarity the Son, the New Testament revealed the Son and gave instructions about the Divinity of the Spirit, now the Spirit abides with us, giving us the clearest knowledge of Him. It was not safe, before the Divinity of the Father was confessed, to clearly preach the Son, and before the Son was recognized (I will express myself somewhat boldly), to burden us with preaching about the Holy Spirit...” (Gr. Naz. Or. XXXI.26; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 387); “And just as a silent baby remains incomprehensible to people until a word is born through his mouth, so the birth in the flesh of God the Word put an end to the foolishness of our nature, for God the Word clearly showed the creation of the Father and the Holy Spirit” (Anast. S. Serm. Imag. 1.6; Anastasius Sinait 2003, 78). Compare: “Whoever has managed to know the dignity of his soul can know the power and secrets of the Divine and from this be even more humble, because with the help of God’s power he sees his fall” (Mac. Aeg. Hom. XXVII.1; Macarius of Egypt 2004, 183). About what faith is, St. Symeon the New Theologian writes in the XX Catechetical Sermon: “Faith is a gift from the Master and a natural advantage [of man], moreover, it is subject to our free will” (Sym. N. Th. Cat. XX.14–17). It turns out that faith is a certain ability that is actual or potential depending on human will. It is no coincidence that in “Theological and Practical Chapters” he describes it in the terminology of ascetic feat: “Faith is [the willingness] to die for the sake of Christ for His commandments. To believe means to be sure that such death brings life... Faith in Christ is [the ability] not only to despise worldly pleasures, but also to endure and endure every temptation that comes in sorrows, sorrows and accidents, as long as God wants it and until He visits us” (Sym. N. Th. Cap. 10-11; Simeon the New Theologian 2001, 508). In the commented passage, the saint points to the third aspect of faith - that it precedes knowledge, however, “in the active phase,” when it ceases to be just an ability, it is inseparable from knowledge. It is curious, however, that Simeon is clearly polemicizing with one of his favorite ascetic theologians, Mark the Ascetic, who argued: “He who does not know the truth cannot believe truly. For knowledge by nature precedes faith” (Marc. Er. Opusc. 1.112; Mark the Ascetic 1995, 20). The source of this terminology is Gregory the Theologian: “When I hold his [Basily the Great’s] “Sixth Day” in my hands and read it aloud, I find myself near the Creator, I comprehend the logoi of the creature and I marvel at the Creator more than before, when my mentor was only sight” (Gr. Naz. Or. XLIII.67; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 545). The knowledge of God as an ascent from the simple to the complex, that is, from the diversity of the created world to the Creator, is described in the XXVIII word of Gregory the Theologian. The same treatise expounds the idea of ​​knowledge of God through the descent of the Spirit, freeing the ascetic from the need for scientific studies: “Who has reached the final limit of wisdom? Who has ever been rewarded with so many gifts? Who “opened the mouth” of the understanding and “drew in the Spirit” (Ps. 119:131), that, with the assistance of this Spirit, who penetrates and knows everything, even the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10), he comprehended God, and he no longer needs to stretch further, because he has the last of what he desires, to which all life and all the thoughts of a high mind strive? (Gr. Naz. Or. XXVIII.6; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 336). Traditional for Eastern Christian tradology is the analogy “mind – word – spirit (=breath)”. For further development of this analogy, see Thunberg 1965, 137–139. However, the division “soul – mind – word”, “invented” by Simeon the New Theologian, is also present in the same Gregory the Theologian: “...I contain within me the soul, and the word, and the mind, and the Holy Spirit; and even before me, this world, that is, this totality of the visible and invisible, contained within itself the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Gr. Naz. Ep. 101, 38; Gregory the Theologian 2007b, 482). Perhaps the source for St. Simeon is Anastasius of Sinaiti, who uses the analogy of “soul - mind - reason”: “Let us move on to the most important thing, which constitutes “in the image and likeness”, in order to show, according to the promise, the one Divinity in the Trinity. What is this? It is clear that this is again the soul, its thinking mind and mind, which the Apostle called spirit when he exhorted us to be holy in soul, body and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). For the soul is unborn and uncaused in the impression of the unborn and uncaused God and Father, but its thinking mind, ineffably, invisibly, inexplicably and dispassionately born from it, is not unborn. The mind is neither uncaused nor born, but is outgoing, penetrating everything and considering everything in the image and likeness of the All-Holy and proceeding [from the Father] Spirit, of whom it is said: The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10). The soul is not outgoing as long as it [resides] in the body, for if it were so, then we would die overnight. But our mind is not unborn, for in such a case we would be unreasonable and like beasts” (Anast. S. Serm. imag. 1.3; Anastasius Sinait 2003, 47–49). Compare: “First of all, know yourself, consider what is in your hands. Who are you? How are you created and composed in such a way that you are both the image of God and associated with the worst? What got you going? What wisdom is revealed to you? What is the secret of nature? (Gr. Naz. Or. XXXII.27; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 403); “If you want to know God, first know yourself, from your structure, from your combination, from what is inside you. Immerse yourself in yourself and, as if into a mirror, look into your soul, discern its structure and see yourself as existing in the image and likeness of God” (Anast. S. Serm. Imag. 1.2; Anastasius Sinait 2003, 41). The doctrine of sinlessness in the era of Simeon the New Theologian was developed by the Bogomils (they also opposed church sacraments, including the sacrament of repentance), heretics like Constantine Chrysomal, who developed the doctrine of two souls - sinful and sinless - coexisting in a holy person. See: Gouillard 1978, 62. But the saint himself is fully subject to his own reproach, since at the beginning of the second “Theological Word” he asserts that a sinless state can be achieved during life. This is an agrapha (an unwritten saying of Jesus Christ in the Gospel) [Resch 1906, 108]. In a slightly different form, it is found in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria: “My sacrament is for Me and for the sons of My house” (Clem. Str. 5.10), as well as in the Pseudo-Clementines: “Keep the sacraments for Me and for the sons of My house” (Hom. Clem. 19.20). This agraph is quoted exactly in one of the conversations of John Chrysostom (Chrys. Hom. 7 in 1 Cor. 2, PG 61, 56), as well as in one of the letters of Nikita Stifat (Nic. Stet. Ep. 8.2). Compare: “...The nature of dumb animals is connected; for example, a snake is by nature evil and poisonous, why are all snakes like that; the wolf is accustomed to stealing, and all wolves are of the same nature; the lamb is simply stolen, and they are all of the same quality; the pigeon is simple and innocent, all pigeons are of the same quality. But man is not like that. One is a predatory wolf, and the other is stolen like a lamb, and both come from the same human race” (Mac. Aeg. Hom. XV. 22; Macarius of Egypt 2004, 116). These favorite terms of the Venerable Maximus the Confessor (see for example: Sherwood 2007, 449 et seq.) are also most likely borrowed from Gregory the Theologian: “He appears for our sake... so that He who gave being would also give goodness, or better to say, so that we, who have fallen from goodness through sin, would be returned to it again through the incarnation” (Gr. Naz. Or. XXXVIII.3, PG 36, 313; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 443). Compare: “...Our mind is something perfect and sovereign, but not perfect in general, but in relation to the soul and body...” (Gr. Naz. Ep. 101, 43; Gregory the Theologian 2007b, 482). Compare: “...Whoever conquers his soul and is angry with himself and with the desires that are in him, is like one who conquers the city of his enemies and is honored to come to a good measure of the spirit, and by Divine power accepts a pure person into himself, and becomes something greater than himself, because such a one is already adored and becomes a son of God, receiving the heavenly seal into his soul” (Mac. Aeg. Hom. XV.33; Macarius of Egypt 2004, 120–121). This concept goes back to Macarius of Egypt (Pseudo-Macarius): “Question. Could the apostles have sinned if they wanted to, or was grace stronger than the will itself? Answer . They could not sin, because, being in the light, and with such grace, they did not exalt themselves. However, we do not say that grace was weak in them, but we affirm that grace allows even perfect spiritual men to have their own wills and the opportunity to do whatever they want and bow to whatever they please. And human nature itself, being weak, has the ability to evade the good that accompanies it. As those who are fully armed, in armor and other weapons, are already internally brought to safety, and enemies do not attack them; or they attack, but it is in their will to use weapons, resist the enemies, enter into a fight with them and win victory, or, having weapons, not fight with the enemies, but have fun with them and be in peace: so Christians, being clothed with perfect power and having heavenly weapons, if they want, enjoy together with Satan and are in peace with him, and do not fight; because nature is changeable, and man, due to the arbitrariness remaining in him, if he wants, becomes a son of God or also a son of destruction” (Mac. Aeg. Hom. XXVII.11; Macarius of Egypt 2004, 187–188). Wed. “If you separate and take away reason (λόγος) from your soul, then your soul will become unreasonable; if you cut off the spirit [=mind] from it, the soul will lose life and become dead. [Such an example is given] so that you, being in the image of God, through this image will learn that if you [dare] to deny the unity of God the Word with God the Father, then you will proclaim God to be unreasonable and bestial, and if you separate the [Holy] Spirit from God [the Father], then you will call God dead and not alive” (Anast. S. Serm. Imag. 1, 4; Anastasius Sinaite 2003, 65–66). It is curious that if Anastasius Sinaite interprets λόγος as reason, then Symeon the New Theologian uses this concept in its literal meaning - in the meaning of “word”. The doctrine of the internal and spoken word goes back to the Stoics, and it was adopted by the Byzantine tradition thanks to the treatise of Nemesius of Emesa “On the Nature of Man”: “... There is another division of the rational soul - a division in a different way - into the so-called internal word and the spoken word. The inner word (ένδιάθετος λόγος) is a movement of the soul that occurs in the mind - without any external expression. Hence, we often and silently carry on a whole reasoning with ourselves, and also talk during dreams: it is primarily by this ability that we are all considered reasonable, and precisely - not so much by the word spoken, but by the inner one. After all, those who are deaf and mute from birth, and those who have lost their voice due to some illness or passion, are no less intelligent. The spoken word (προφορικός λόγος) manifests itself in sound and conversation” (Nemes. Nat. hom. 14; Nemesius of Emesa 2011, 74). The actual teaching about the internal and external word was probably borrowed by Simeon from Anastasius Sinaite: “... The angels and we have an inner word, when it is pronounced mentally... there is [also] a word uttered by the tongue... The spoken word is a messenger of thought” (Anast. S. Hod. 2, 6; Anastasius Sinaite 2003, 252–253). What is meant, obviously, is not miscarriages, which constantly appear in canonical Byzantine texts without mentioning that they pose a mortal danger to a woman, but late-term births, which were often difficult and actually threatened the woman in labor with death, even if we were talking about women in labor of the royal family. See: Okhlupina 2013, 56. Compare: “When turning to your image and likeness, do not ignore the fact that through your bodily word, born from your lips, virtue, wisdom, prudence, strength, depth and knowledge of your soul and mind are known and made publicly available, showing you by this example that you are in the image and likeness of God” (Anast. S. Serm. Imag. 1, 6; Anastasius Sinait 2003, 77). This passage, which begins with a discussion of the human will as an image of the unified will of the three divine hypostases, can be explained by the influence of Anastasius the Sinaite. Compare: “...Turn from the Prototype to the imprint, which is our soul, [created] in the image and likeness of God, and see in us the same single and similar action. For the soul does not do anything without the mind, the mind does nothing without the soul, and the mind does nothing on its own, without the soul and the mind, since their common power and action are of the same nature, homogeneous and interconnected, being in the image and likeness of God” (Anast. S. Serm. Imag. 1, 5; Anastasius Sinait 2003, 75). But if in the case of Anastasius Sinaite this image is completely justified, since the theologian composed his treatise polemicizing with the Monothelites, in the context of Simeon’s reasoning the passage about the will looks somewhat artificial. Compare: “I call incomprehensible not that God exists, but that He is” (Gr. Naz. Or. XXVIII.5; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 335). This image is probably inspired by a passage from Gregory the Theologian: “Like a certain sea of essence, indefinable and endless, stretching beyond any idea of time and nature, with one mind (and this is very unclear and insufficient, not in reasoning what is in Himself, but in reasoning what is around Him), through sketching out some outlines, He is shaded into one kind of appearance of reality, fleeing before it is caught, and escaping before it is imagined, embracing with radiance the sovereign within us as much, if it is purified, as the speed of flying lightning illuminates the gaze with radiance” (Gr. Naz. Or. XXXVIII.7, PG 36, 317; Gregory the Theologian 2007a, 444). Next follow two prayers, which are the brightest, but not the only examples of the euchological creativity of Simeon the New Theologian. Wed: Cat. XXIII.65–94; Cat. XXX.70–97; Eth. VII.437–445; Eth. XI.161–166; Euch. II.338; Hymn XXXV.1–7; Hymn XLI.7–16; Hymn XLV.1–3; Hymn XLV.120–127; Hymn XLVI.7–10; Hymn XLVII.69–75; Hymn XLIX.17–19; Hymn XLIX.68–71; Hymn LII.149–153, etc. Compare: “The soul... is wounded by the love of the heavenly Spirit, with the help of grace it constantly arouses in itself a fiery desire for the heavenly Bridegroom, desires to be completely worthy of the mysterious and ineffable communion with Him in the shrine of the Spirit” (Mac. Aeg. Hom. X.4; Macarius of Egypt 2004, 83). The doctrine of the insatiable desire to commune with God is developed by Simeon in Hymns. See, for example: Hymn. I.180–206, VII.15–19, XXIII.326, etc. We are obviously talking about angelic powers. Compare: “...Let us think... about the first beings from God and around God (περὶ θεὸν), that is, about the angelic and heavenly powers who are the first to drink from the First Light and, enlightened by the word of truth, themselves are the light and reflections of the Perfect Light" (Gr. Naz. Or. 6, 12, PG 35, 737; Gregory Theologian 2007a, 131). Light is a key image in the mystical theology of Symeon the New Theologian. It is with light symbolism that the first vision described in the “Life” of Nikita Stifat is imbued: “...One night he stood in prayer and with a purified mind came into contact with the Primary Mind, he suddenly saw a light shining on him from heaven, transparent and immeasurable, illuminating everything and pure, as if turning the night into day, with which he himself was illuminated - and it seemed to him that the whole house with the cell where he stood had become immediately invisible and went into oblivion, while he himself, raptured into the air, completely forgot about the body...” (Nic. St. Vit. Sym. 5; Nikita Stifat 1999, 154). This and similar experiences are described more than once in various works of Simeon. In this case, the image of light is used rather as the most general visual description of the divine, which includes both the Divine-in-itself (the existence of hypostases) and the divine-outside itself, i.e., the external activity of the Trinity, and even being-in-another, i.e., various benefits that the righteous share in. The tendency towards light imagery is probably also due to the influence of Macarius of Egypt (see, for example, Mac. Aeg. Hom. I.2). Here and below we are dealing with a revised and simplified version of the Areopagitik teachings. Compare: “When we call the super-essential hiddenness God, Life, Essence, Light and Word, we mean nothing more than the forces emanating from It into our midst, idolizing, creating entities, producing life and bestowing wisdom. We come to Her only by abandoning all mental activity, not knowing any deification, neither life, nor essence, which would exactly correspond to the transcendental all-surpassing Cause” (Dion. Ar. DN 2.7; Dionysius 2002, 265).