Greek original · 162 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1766–1:1927 (3767 verses in all)
ℹ️ This corpus has no verse-level morphological tagging. Lemmas come mainly from word-level tagging of other books in the same language (not from this verse), falling back to dictionary form-matching for the rest. Rare homographs can still be misread; verify against the original and a specialist lexicon where precision matters.
ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
For even if it should not befall us to depart from life by a violent death, yet by intention — as though we had already suffered and endured this in deed — it will be reckoned to us by our loving God and judge of the contest, according to the holy man who says:
Moreover, we also ought always to pray for all who, for whatever reason, grieve or revile us, and for those who are disposed toward us with hostility out of an evil intention, but also for all the faithful and unbelievers, that those in error may be delivered from it and come to the true faith.
No man has ever been able of himself to conceive these things, or to speak them, or to accept them by hearing — let alone to accomplish them in deed — unless the love of God had first been poured out richly in his heart, and through it he had come to have dwelling within him the one who said:
But no one has attained such grace and gift unless he first denied himself, as the Savior commanded — and we have explained this more precisely — that is, having served the Lord with a whole heart and willing readiness, and having loved him.
But if he has not received this as an inalienable possession, let no one deceive himself; rather let him know this: that he has never been deemed worthy, nor ever will be, of union with God that comes about in noetic perception and knowledge and contemplation.
For those men who have been called perfect through participation in the grace of God, and who have acquired the spiritual stature that is perfect according to the measure spoken of, become wholly united with God, seeing him to the same degree that they themselves are seen by him.
And whenever they shall have thus attained this state, having been rightly perfected, then also their heavenly Father gives what belongs to him into their hands.
immortality, incorruptibility, immutability, unchangeableness, eternity, the ineffable beauty of the glory which the Son had with God the Father before the world came to be, as the Word and Son of the Father himself says:
From this there springs forth the light which is inaccessible to all sinners, but accessible, rising within them, and becoming for them joy unspeakable, peace surpassing all understanding, delight and enjoyment and gladness in insatiable satiety, now and unto the endless ages.
And to sum up — or rather, being unable to say it, thus somehow being amazed myself — the firstfruits of all those good things, whose beauty an eye clouded by passions has not seen, nor an ear stopped up by ignorance heard, nor has it arisen upon the unclean heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him — these the one who is truthful and faithful already gives from here on as pledges to the faithful.
And thus, as you have heard, he gives these things to those who love him and pass their lives on earth as though in heaven, and who, though in death, are as those already honored with immortality, and who, walking in darkness, are as though in daylight and in unsetting light;
and though they breathe within this muddy body, it is as though they possessed, in the paradise of delight, the tree of life in its midst — yes, indeed, even the very food of angels, the heavenly bread, by which all the immaterial powers of the heavens are nourished and live incorruptibly;
'Our citizenship is in heaven' — there where holy love abides, keeping company with its own lovers and richly shining round about them, making them dispassionate and, indeed, truly angels.
He, then, who — before being joined to it and wholly blended with it — calls himself dispassionate, or teaches others so, or attempts to perform the works of the dispassionate, or again disbelieves the things done by such men, resembles a tender infant who, at an age unripe for it, takes up the weapons of grown men and professes to teach others about warfare; and not only this, but also seeks to make himself equal to and to insert himself among grown men and warriors, and attempts to march out to war together with them.
for he will certainly be entangled by the very weapons he carries, and be thrown down, and be crushed, and perhaps will not even be able to rise up again.
For he does not know that those who are struck and cast down in war rise up again and become more experienced, and fight back against their enemies more powerfully.
For if God commanded Moses that the fearful man should not go out to war, how much more fitting is it that one who is still an infant and not even able to walk or gird himself unaided should wait for the age of manhood, and not, before that, attempt things beyond his power.
Nevertheless, since our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, and our weapons are not fleshly and visible but spiritual and intelligible, and moreover this warfare is invisible, being waged invisibly against invisible enemies — for this reason all who think themselves to be something display themselves to men as bold and courageous in these matters, and as thoroughly experienced in the exposition of such conflict and counter-array, and indeed as wise and knowledgeable and skilled teachers concerning the defeat and victory over the evil powers.
Hence they hasten to make themselves known to all as certain champions and conquerors of the enemy through empty talk and the deceit of their reasonings;
and even when convicted and condemned by their own conscience as men of no accomplishment and inexperienced in such warfare, they are unable to agree and confess their own weakness and inexperience, being held fast by love of glory and man-pleasing;
For since they are not seen by their neighbors according to their soul, as they truly are, nor are they perceived by men to be in fact stripped of the weapons of the Spirit, nor to be still weak and infants, they hide themselves under the fleece of hypocrisy and the sheep's clothing;
and through smooth speech they wish to appear to all to be that which those who acquired the stature according to Christ through toils actually are — though they themselves have perhaps not even set the foundations of faith and hope firmly upon the rock, nor raised up the edifice of the virtues upon the foundation, Christ.
For this very reason, being still doubtful and unproven, driven by the onslaught of temptations and the storm of thoughts, they are entangled, and, tripped up, fall down pitifully.
and especially those who seem to surpass others in knowledge and speech, and who suppose that they bear the royal stamp within themselves, and who, though honored and revered by the many as wise and reverent and self-controlled, are nonetheless, in the hidden movements of the soul, no different from those extravagant in wickedness.
But come now, you who wish to be taught the glory of those who are truly holy and dispassionate men — that is, you who desire this and ardently long to acquire it —
for I will describe to you an image representing their armor and their splendor, and you shall know, each of you comparing himself to those saints, in what state you are, and how far all of us fall short of their courage together with their worth and power.
But come now, you who wish to be taught the glory of those who are truly holy and dispassionate men — that is, you who desire this and ardently long to acquire it —
for I will describe to you an image representing their armor and their splendor, and you shall know, each of you comparing himself to those saints, in what state you are, and how far all of us fall short of their courage together with their worth and power.
Consider, then, for me the sky, what it is like on a clear and cloudless night, and behold in it, for me, the disc of the moon, wholly filled with pure and most limpid light, and around it that halo which often forms about it;
But holy love is the all-working and all-powerful light, far greater than this light of the sun and incomparably more radiant; and it, touching their hearts — just as the light of the moon touches its disc — keeps them, not waxing and waning, but ever wholly luminous, through the zeal and good works of the saints.
And holy dispassion, like a circular crown, and like a tent surrounding and enfolding them in its midst, shelters them on every side, and guards them round about, and preserves them unwounded from every evil thought — let alone sin — and restores them unharmed and free from all enemies;
For in creation, the Word of God, the Craftsman, painted beforehand, as on a tablet, the things that were later to come to pass for our salvation and re-formation, so that, seeing the pattern appearing in perceptible things, we might not disbelieve that the true reality is also accomplished and brought to completion spiritually in what concerns us; but knowing that each of us is brought forth by God as a second world — great within this small and visible world — as also a certain theologian testifies together with me, let us not wish to appear in any way inferior to the irrational or even inanimate things that have been made by our loving God for our instruction, but let us zealously imitate all that is good, and flee, as far as we are able, the imitation of what is contrary.
...to be led up spiritually — just as, again through laziness and contempt and negligence, we fall back into our former evils and come to be under the night of sin.
For just as it never ceases to rise and to shine, but ever unceasingly fulfills the command of the Master, so let us too refuse, through negligence, to sit in the darkness of pleasures and passions.
For the kingdom of heaven is at hand — keeping watch, and being cleansed through daily and unceasing repentance and through the tears poured out from it and by it, and through every other good work, let us hasten to return to the never-setting light as sons of light.
For thus we too, in our turn, having the sun of righteousness shining within us, shall ourselves become for our neighbors, through our example, an immaterial day, a new earth, and new heavens, relating to them God's commandments and his glory not by empty and vain words but by deeds themselves, becoming practical teachers in everything and in every way to the more negligent of the brethren and rendering them without excuse.
That indeed many things are impossible for many people, I too agree — for those who, like me, are indolent and unwilling to despise the world and to count all things in it as refuse, who cling to vainglory and covet riches and delight in praises and honors from men, who are wretchedly held fast by conceit together with these things and by pride.
For I shall pass over, for the present, those who willingly wallow like swine in the muddy affairs of the evils of sin, who carry about the house of the soul empty of him who dwells in the faithful and who thus cries out each day:
For in those who through faith and self-denial have followed Christ and God with faith and love and humility, and who have gained him, together with the Father and the Spirit, within themselves, all things become possible and easy, according to him who said in the Spirit:
they hold him without touching, they comprehend incomprehensibly his formless form, his shapeless shape, and his figureless figure, adorned without adornment in an unseen sight and in a simple, uncompounded beauty.
They behold richly with their noetic eyes the simple light of the Godhead itself, which also, touching it with immaterial hands in uncontainable love, they eat without ceasing with the spiritual mouth of their mind and soul, and of the contemplation of whose beauty and sweetness they can never be wholly sated.
But if it should ever again not appear to them more clearly, they are disposed as though deprived of the whole; and if it should even wish to be hidden completely, even for a little while, it produces in them a sharp and unbearable pain of ineffable longing.
If, then, a maiden, extending only her hand adorned with gold outward through a small and very narrow opening, should give it to her lover, and he, grasping it and contemplating its inconceivable beauty, eagerly kisses it, expecting to reign together with her and to be joined to her — she having promised him this with oaths — and then the maiden should suddenly snatch her hand back from his hands, draw it to herself, and hide it completely, will she not thereby cause him unbearable grief, and will this not the more kindle in such a man an even greater inflammation of longing?
But if this is wont to happen thus among visible and perceptible bodies and things alike, which are corruptible and quickly passing away, how much more will this happen among intelligible, invisible things, which are incorruptible and eternal?
For by as much as eternal goods are superior to temporal ones, by so much, proportionally, do they produce a more intense love in the souls of those who love them.
For these men desire neither glory, nor luxury, nor riches; nor indeed are they permitted even to touch, in their minds, upon the love of bodies at all;
but just as a bridegroom, gazing upon the lifeless image of his bride fashioned out of colors, cleaves to it and gazes upon it continually and wishes to see her, kindling his longing and desire for her — but when he beholds that very bride herself, arrived in person, not in the form of the image, but possessing an incomparable and ineffable beauty, faultless in comeliness of appearance, and he kisses her and embraces her, he can no longer bear at all to look with attachment upon her image — the very same thing, and to a greater degree, is experienced also by those who, from the greatness and beauty of visible created things, contemplate the power and wisdom of their Maker and are led up, by progress, from these things to love and faith toward him and to a pure fear.
For once they are united substantially to that very God and are counted worthy of his vision and participation, they no longer cling with passion, or attachment, or affection to the image of created things, nor to the shadow of visible things.
"As to one untimely born, he appeared also to me" — so we too, cast off as we are, were, by the love of God for mankind and by his grace, through many supplications, counted worthy to experience this; through which, having been mystically taught, and having together received the experience of all that has been said, in sensation and vision and knowledge, we have committed these things to writing for the benefit and exhortation of those who wish to seek God and to find him.
Share, then, in our suffering and pray together with us, you who reap benefit from the present discourse and who choose to ascend practically to its height, so that through your acceptable supplications to God the torch of divine longing may not only be kept unquenched in us, but may be kindled to burn yet more fiercely than a flame, and so that he who has raised our human race from earth to heaven and has glorified it may keep us blameless, faultless, and spotless.
Yes indeed, he will bind us together yet more, and unite us clearly, and count us worthy to be mingled, knowingly, wholly me with his whole self and with you, in an unconfused mingling and ineffable union, according to his unfailing promises — to whom is due all glory, honor, and worship, together with the Father and his all-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the unending ages of ages.
DISCOURSE V. Concerning those who suppose that they possess the Holy Spirit within themselves without knowing it, while not perceiving at all the operation thereof;
and concerning those who say that no human being can, in the present life, behold his glory, together with a demonstration by way of citations concerning this.
And in what manner one sees God, and that he who has attained to such a measure as to see God, insofar as this is attainable, is already thereby initiated into the enjoyment that is to be given, in the age to come, to the saints.
And that whatever such a man says, or does, or writes, it is not he himself, but the Holy Spirit speaking within him, who says and writes these things:
Behold, once again I turn to those who say that they possess the Spirit of God without knowing it, and who suppose that they have acquired this from divine baptism, and who think that they have the treasure yet recognize themselves as entirely devoid of it; to those who confess that they perceived nothing at all in baptism, yet suppose that the gift of God has, without their knowing or perceiving it, dwelt within them from that time and continues to exist even now within the depths of their soul:
and not only so, but also to those who say that they have never at any time received any perception of it in vision and revelation, but who have accepted and hold this within themselves by faith and reasoning alone, and not by experience, as from the hearing of the divine oracles.
If, then, you confess that he is something, tell me also, first, what he is, so that thus you may teach yourselves to speak, not as unbelievers, but as believers.
Surely, as the divine Scriptures teach, and as the very events, both past and daily occurring, show — even if you, perhaps willfully deaf, remain ignorant of it — it was so that he might make man god.
If, then, by his own Godhead he first deified the flesh which he assumed, he likewise gives life to us all, not through his corruptible flesh, but through that which has been deified — so that we should no longer in any way know him as man, but as one perfect God in two natures (for God is one), inasmuch as the corruptible has been swallowed up by incorruption, and the body has not been annihilated by the incorporeal, but has been wholly transformed while remaining unconfused, ineffably commingled and united in an unmixed mingling with the triadic Godhead — so that the one God may be worshiped in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Trinity may neither receive any addition to its number from the economy, nor undergo any passion on account of the body.
So that you, knowing beforehand what you have confessed when questioned by me, may not, out of ignorance, swerve from the straight path of these concepts, and cause us trouble, and bring greater judgment upon your own soul.
True God and perfect man, having in all truth become so — and having for this reason become man, which he formerly was not, that he might make man god, which man had never before become — deifying us, that is, and making us god through his Godhead, and not through his flesh alone;
He who is naked in body, when he puts on clothing, perceives it and sees what sort of garment it is; shall then he who is naked in soul, having put on God, not know it?
For when we put on nothing, we perceive nothing; but when we put on something, whether given by another or put on by ourselves, we perceive it quite intensely — that is, if we possess sound senses;
"Do not quench the lamp," he says — surely he is not speaking at all about one already extinguished, but about one still burning and possessing a light that flashes forth.
他說「不要熄滅這燈」,絕不是在講一盞已經熄滅的燈,而是在講一盞仍在燃燒、發出閃耀之光的燈。
1:1887
Ἀλλάγάραὖθιςπρόςαὐτούςὦδεἀνθυποφέρομεν
But again, in this way let us bring a counter-objection against them:
And to this, not only do they make no reply at all, but their countenances immediately change and they turn away, and they are vexed as though they had heard blasphemy;
And thus there would be no difference or preference between unbelievers and believers, but all alike would obtain—and clearly would go on obtaining—the longed-for blessedness.
but if you say that the vision is after death, you will certainly also have to place purification after death, and thus it will come about for you that you will never see God, since after your departure you have no work by which you might find purification.
For wherever there is exact keeping of the commandments, there also will be the manifestation of the Savior; and after the manifestation, perfect love comes to be in us.
If, then, faith is yoked to hope, and hope follows upon love, he who does not have love does not possess hope; and he who is without hope is clearly also without faith.
and he who does not have love profits nothing from the rest of the virtues, or will be profited nothing apart from it, just as Paul himself testifies in writing.