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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 if these revelations and these utterances are not the voices of God, nor of a soul that has been deified and has come to be wholly outside all conscious perception of the world and entirely holy, then scarcely could anything else — among things human, accomplished by us with all diligence — be shown acceptable to God and praiseworthy to men, which does not derive its glory and splendor from the highest wisdom and knowledge of God.
These things, then, have been set forth by us before the hymns of divine love and the divine hymns of the teacher, for the sake of those held fast by envy toward good things, and by unbelief and ignorance, so that either, upon their very first encounter with these, they might become better () and at some point rise above envy and malice, and might glorify, as far as attainable, him who glorified God in deed and word and contemplation, and who sanctified in his own members the name that is above every name; or else, as being untasted of good things and altogether incapable of containing the lofty visions, they might, on account of the coarseness attaching to them in their approach, refrain from the curious investigation of what is written here.
Concerning divine radiance and the illumination of the Holy Spirit; and that God is the one place in which, after death, all the Saints have their rest; and that he who falls away from God will not have his rest in another place in the life to come.
What change occurred in this father, and how, having been purified to the utmost, he was united to God, and what he became from what he had been — his discourses of love toward God make clear from here on; and he also, theologizing, speaks toward the end concerning angels.
Teaching for monks who have just renounced the world and the things in the world; and concerning what kind of trust one ought to have toward one's own spiritual father.
An Alphabet of the same author, doubled by letter, exhorting and guiding one who has just withdrawn from the world to ascend to the perfection of life.
That he who has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, being seized by its light and power, is borne above all the passions, without being harmed by their proximity.
論凡成為聖靈之分享者的人，被聖靈的光與能力所攫奪，便被高舉於一切情之上，即使情靠近，也不因之受害。
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Ὅτιὁθάνατοςτῇλύπῃκαίτῶνστερροτέρωνκαθάπτεται
That death, through grief, lays hold even of the more steadfast.
Theology concerning the oneness in all respects of the tri-hypostatic Godhead; and by the things which, employing humility, he says about himself, he puts to shame the conceit of those who suppose themselves to be something.
Thanksgiving to God on account of the gifts of which he was deemed worthy from Him; and that the dignity of priesthood and abbatial leadership is fearsome even to angels.
...graspable, yet ungraspable, to the worthy; and that we are the house of David; and that Christ our God, though coming to be present in many members, is one and the same, remaining undivided and unchangeable.
Precise theology concerning the incomprehensible and uncircumscribed Godhead; and that the divine nature, being uncircumscribed, is neither within nor outside the universe, but is both within and outside it, as the cause of all things; and that the Divine is graspable by man's mind only ungraspably, just as the sun's rays are to the eyes.
By what he writes, confessing in the present discourse, he shows the depth of his own humility, and as he proceeds he teaches it — he who had attained to the measure of perfection and had been deemed worthy of such revelations in contemplation, imitating in this too the divine Paul, who called himself a sinner and unworthy to be called an apostle.
Concerning the contemplation of the divine light that occurred to him; and how the divine light is not overtaken by darkness; in which, being also astonished on account of the excess of the revelations, he recalls human weakness and condemns himself.
That he who still lives in ignorance of God is dead in the midst of those living in the knowledge of God; and that for those who partake of the mysteries unworthily, the divine body and blood of Christ becomes ungraspable.
To one of the disciples: that when the divine fire of the Spirit touches souls purified through tears and repentance, it seizes hold of them and purifies them further, illuminating the parts of them darkened by sin, and, healing their wounds, brings them to complete scarring-over, so that they shine forth surpassingly with divine beauty.
That the glorious ones of the earth and those haughty in wealth wander about the shadow of visible things, while those who have despised present things come to be in unerring participation of the Divine Spirit.
Concerning theology; and that those who have kept what is according to the image trample down the evil powers of the ruler of darkness, while the others, whose life is subject to passion, are held fast and ruled by him.
That the union of the All-Holy Spirit with souls that have been purified takes place in clear conscious perception, that is, in full knowledge, and, in whatever souls it occurs, it renders them light-formed, like itself, and makes them light.
That longing and love toward God surpass every love and every human longing; and the mind of those being purified, dyed in the light of God, is wholly deified, and is thenceforth called the mind of Christ.
An acknowledgment of the grace of the gifts of God; and how the father who writes these things was worked upon by the Holy Spirit; and teaching from God as to what one must do in order to obtain the salvation of the saved.
Thanksgiving to God for the benefactions that have come from Him, and a request to learn for what reason those who have become perfect are permitted to be tempted by demons; and teaching, and a pattern spoken by God, concerning those who renounce the world.
That those who, already from this present life, have been united to God through participation in the Holy Spirit, when they depart from this life, will be with Him forever from that time onward; but if not, then the opposite will happen at that time to those who are otherwise disposed here.
That it is better to be well shepherded than to shepherd those who are unwilling; for there will be no profit to him who is eager to save others, but who loses himself through his leadership of them.
What "according to the image" is, and how man is fittingly understood as the image of the archetype; and that he who loves his enemies as benefactors is an imitator of God, and, having thereby become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, becomes god by adoption and by grace — known only to those who are worked upon by the Holy Spirit.
That for every man who is insulted and suffers ill for the sake of a commandment of God, the dishonor endured for the sake of that very commandment of God is glory and honor; and a dialogue with his own soul, teaching the unemptied wealth of the Spirit.
That there are times when, even through care and correction directed toward one's neighbor, the teacher is dragged down along with him into the weakness of passion inherent in that person.
Concerning the contemplation of God and of divine things, and the paradoxical working of the Holy Spirit; and concerning the properties of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity; and that he who has not managed to enter into the kingdom of heaven will be profited nothing, even if he escapes the punishments of Hades.
That when the Holy Spirit shines within us, all the things of the passions are put to flight, as darkness by light; but when it withdraws its rays, we are struck by these and by evil thoughts.
Concerning theology; and that it is not permitted for one who has not been transformed through participation in the Holy Spirit, and has not become god by adoption in knowledge, to teach divine things to men.
Concerning speech with God, and the discourse of the father's own words; and how this divine father, illumined by the Holy Spirit, conversed with God, and was initiated by Him into things divine and human.
That God has given to each of men, fittingly and for their benefit, the gift through the Holy Spirit to work, not as he himself wills, but as he has been foreordained by Him, so that the midst of His church may not be empty.
Come, true light; come, eternal life; come, hidden mystery; come, unnameable treasure; come, ineffable thing; come, incomprehensible person; come, everlasting exultation; come, unsetting light; come, true expectation of all who are to be saved; come, awakening of those who lie in death; come, resurrection of the dead; come, mighty one, who ever makes and remakes and transforms all things by will alone!
Come, O invisible one, untouchable, wholly intangible; come, thou who ever remainest unmoved and yet at every hour art wholly moved and comest to us who lie in Hades, thou who art above all the heavens; come, the name so longed for and so much spoken of, yet wholly incapable of being uttered by us — what thou art — or known — of what kind or manner thou art.
Come, eternal joy; come, the unfading crown; come, the purple of our great God and King; come, the crystalline and bejewelled girdle; come, the unapproachable sandal; come, the royal purple robe and the truly imperial right hand!
Come, thou who hast separated me from all and made me alone upon the earth; come, thou who thyself hast become desire in me and hast made me long for thee, who art utterly unapproachable!
I thank thee, that thou hast become one spirit with me — without confusion, without change, without alteration, thou who art God over all — and thou thyself hast become to me all things in all: food ineffable and forever unconsumed, ever overflowing upon the lips of my soul and welling up in the fountain of my heart; a garment radiant and consuming the demons; a purification, washing me clean through incorruptible and holy tears, which thy presence bestows upon those to whom it comes.
I thank thee, thou who hast become for me the unsetting light and the sun that never goes down, having nowhere to hide, thou who fillest the universe with thy glory.
Now therefore, Master, tabernacle in me and dwell and remain without interval, inseparably, until the end, in me thy servant, O Good One, that I too may be found, at my departure and after my departure, in thee, O Good One, and may reign together with thee, God over all!
Remain, Master, and do not leave me alone, so that my enemies, coming, who always seek to devour my soul, and finding thee abiding in me, may flee entirely and have no power against me, seeing thee, the mightiest of all, seated within, in the house of my humble soul.
Yea, Master, as thou didst remember me when I was in the world, and, while I was ignorant, thou thyself didst choose me, and didst separate me from the world, and didst set me before the face of thy glory — so also now keep me standing within, forever and unmoved, in this dwelling of thine in me, that I, being dead, by ever seeing thee may live, and I, being poor, by having thee may ever be rich, and shall be richer than all kings; and eating and drinking thee at every hour, and being clothed in things ineffable, I shall delight in good things, for thou art every good and all glory and all delight; and to thee belongs the glory, to the Holy and Consubstantial and Life-giving Trinity, worshipped in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, revered and known and worshipped and served by all, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Concerning divine illumination and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; and that God is the one place in which, after death, all the saints have their rest; and that he who falls away from God will not have rest in any other place in the life to come.
For if the things now being accomplished in me, the prodigal, are ineffable and unutterable, how, tell me, does he — the giver and maker of such things — need to receive praise or glory from us?
For he who is already glorified will not be glorified further, just as the sun which is seen by us in the world will not be made brighter, nor will it receive light; it illumines, it is not illumined; it shines, it does not receive light.
If, then, God, the Creator of all, having made the sun, made it needing nothing, to shine forth its unstinting radiance and to need nothing more from anyone else, how could he receive glory from me, a humbled man?
In this too my tongue is utterly at a loss for words, and the mind sees the things being accomplished but does not interpret them; it sees and wishes to speak, and finds no word; for it beholds things invisible, wholly without form, simple, entirely without composition, infinite in magnitude.
For you kindle from the fire and take the whole fire, and that fire remains undivided, unfailing as before; yet that which is transmitted is separated from the first and becomes many torches; for it is corporeal.
But that light is spiritual, being indivisible, and is entirely inseparable and undivided; for, being transmitted, it is not divided into many, but remains undivided and exists within me; it rises within me, from within my wretched heart, as a sun, or as the disk of the sun, appearing spherical, light-formed — as light indeed.
I know not, as has been said, what to say concerning this, and I would wish to be silent — would that I were able! — but the awesome wonder moves my heart and opens wide my defiled mouth, and makes me speak and write even against my will.
...to relate to all thy wonders, and what today thou dost with us, thy servants, so that even those who sleep in the darkness of indolence, and say: 'It is impossible for sinners to be saved, and to be shown mercy as were Peter and the rest of the apostles, saints, holy and righteous ones' — may know and learn that this is, was, and shall be easy for thy goodness!
And let those who suppose that they have thee, the light of the whole world, yet say that they do not see thee, do not live in light, are not illumined, do not behold thee continually, O Savior, learn that thou hast not shone in their mind, nor dwelt in their impure heart, and that they vainly exult in empty hopes, imagining that they will see thy light after the end.
For the pledge is given from here, the seal certainly is given here by thee, O Savior, to the sheep on the right hand; for since each person's death is the closing of his account, after the end all is equally without further action for all, and no one can do either evil or good any more; my Savior, each one, just as he is found at death, so, without exception, shall he be.
This is what frightens me, Master, this makes me tremble, this melts all my faculties of perception: that one who dies blind and passes over to that other place will no longer perceptibly behold this sun again, even if, having risen, he should again receive the light of his eyes; so also he who has the blind mind, if he should die thus, will not behold thee, my God, the intelligible sun, but, going forth from darkness, will take up residence in darkness, and for ages will be separated from thee.
Let no one of men, Master, who believes in thee, let no one of those baptized into thy name, endure this great and dread burden of separation from thee, O compassionate one; for this affliction is terrible, terrible, unendurable, and eternal is the grief.
And what is more painful than to be sundered from life and to live thereafter as one dead, deprived of life, and to be deprived at once of all good things?
...here they even exult, leaping about like irrational beasts, possessing the things thou hast given for the enjoyment of this life, and seeing only these, they suppose that the things after the departure of the soul and of this life are likewise the same.
But they conjecture wrongly, but they think wrongly, those who say that one can be, not with thee, but in ease, and who prepare some other place — O folly!
...a place neither partaking of light nor free from darkness, outside the kingdom, yet also outside Gehenna, far both from the bridal chamber and from the fire of judgment — into which the wretched ones even pray to arrive, and say they have no need of thy eternal glory or the kingdom of heaven, but only wish to be in ease.
Nowhere is this written, for indeed this will not be; but those who have done divine deeds will be in the light of good things, while the workers of vile things will be in the darkness of punishments, and a fearful chasm will lie between, separating the two, as thou thyself hast taught, who hast prepared these things.
For to the person falling into the middle, this will be beyond every dread torment and punishment, falling wretchedly, tumbling headlong into the abyss of punishments, into the chaos of perdition, and being carried down; a place upon which it is difficult for those who are in torments to set foot, so as to cross over into the land of the righteous — such as those who choose rather to be dreadfully reduced to ashes in fire, than to hurl themselves into that dread chaos.
Those, then, who pray to come to be there after death, are worthy of many tears and lamentations, because, like irrational beasts, they are wholly without perception, and pray against themselves, and deceive themselves.
...of the All-Holy Spirit in all the saints, and thou, the unapproachable sun, wilt shine in their midst, and all will be illumined according to the proportion of their faith, their practice, hope and love, and the purification and illumination that comes from thy Spirit, O God, thou alone who art long-suffering and judge of all — for whom different dwellings and places will be accounted, according to the measures of brightness, the measures of love, and of thy contemplation, and how great again shall be the glory of its majesty, delight and renown, into the divisions of houses and wondrous dwelling-places.
Those, then, as has been said, who do not see thy light, who are not seen by thee, but are separated from the sight of thee, the all-good one, are deprived of good things.
For it is with thy countenance that the upright are made to dwell; for thou hast been formed also in their upright heart, and they dwell together with thy form in thee, my Christ.
That men should become in the form of God, and that there should be formed in them the one who is uncontainable to all, the unalterable God, the immutable by nature, who wills to dwell in all who are worthy — so that each one might have the whole king within, and the kingdom itself and the things of the kingdom, and might shine, just as my God shone forth when he rose, brighter than the rays of this visible sun — and thus, standing beside him who has glorified them, they will remain amazed, by the excess of glory and by the unceasing increase of divine brightness; for there will be no end of advancement unto the ages — for the cessation of increase would produce an end to that which is endless, and would produce comprehension, altogether, of the incomprehensible, and he who is insatiable to all would become surfeited.
But his fullness, and the glory of the light, will be an abyss of advancement, and an unending beginning; and just as, having Christ formed within, they stand before this very one who shines unapproachably, so the end in them proves to be the beginning of glory; and, that I may make the thought clearer to you — in the end they will have a beginning, and in the beginning, the end.
For if this visible heaven should pass away, and earth, and all things on earth, consider what I have said: there will be a comprehension of a place where you will find the end — I do not mean this bodily, but with the mind you will be able to comprehend the fullness of the bodiless world; and it is not even a world, but is air, as before; nor even air, but an unutterable space, which they call 'the All'; and it is an abyss unending in every respect, equally whole in every direction, on all sides; this All is filled with the divine Godhead.
It is impossible, and altogether beyond any means; for neither here, in the saints while in the flesh, nor there, in those who have departed to God, is such a notion able to enter into them at all; for indeed they are covered over with the light of the divine glory, they are illumined, and shine, and delight in these things, and they truly know with full assurance that their perfection will be unending, and that the advancement of glory will exist forever.
But those who fall away from God — I wonder where they will even stand, having removed themselves far from him who is everywhere; and truly, brethren, this is a matter full of great dread, a wonder requiring the reasoning of an illumined mind, so that one might understand this rightly and not fall into heresy, as though disbelieving the words of the Divine Spirit.
...thus in the All there is the divine light of the Trinity, and in the midst, sinners, shut up in darkness, not seeing, having no divine perception at all, but being consumed by their own conscience and condemned, they shall have inexpressible affliction and unspeakable pain forever.
II. What the transformation was that came upon this father, and how, having been purified to the utmost, he was united to God, and what kind of man he became from what kind he had been — his loving words to God set forth here declare; and he, also theologizing, speaks toward the end concerning angels.
For thy body, the immaculate and divine, flashes entirely with light, having been mingled and ineffably commingled with the fire of thy Godhead; this, then, thou hast also granted to me, my God.
For this defiled and corruptible tabernacle of mine, having been united to thy all-immaculate body, and my blood having been mingled with thy blood, I was united, I know, both to thee and to thy Godhead, and I have become thy most pure body — a member shining forth, a member truly holy, a member far-radiant and translucent and shining.
I see the beauty, I behold the radiance, I mirror in myself the light of thy grace, and I am astonished at the ineffable splendor, and I am beside myself, considering myself: from what sort of man I have become what sort of man I am now, O wonder!
For if I do not fulfill in deed what I speak, I have become as brass, sounding loudly in vain, and insensible to the noise of its own clanging. But do not abandon me, nor forsake me, nor let me go astray, my Savior — wretched as I am, poor and a stranger, who owe you ten thousand talents. Rather, just as of old, so now too you have separated me — sinful as I am, and more worthless than all these — from every paternal bond: from father, brothers, mother, kin, strangers, and all other relatives and friends alike, O Savior; and you have received into your undefiled arms the one who appeared ungrateful for your good gifts.
So now too have mercy on me, O compassionate one — thus, or rather even more greatly, O my God — and have compassion, and guard me round about, and calm the movements of my anger, and enable me to bear with patience every temptation and the grief of life: whatever I bring upon myself by evil-mindedness, whatever the envious nature of demons tempts me with, and whatever these weak brothers of mine occasion for me in deed and word. Alas, woe is me, that my own members consume me, and I am pained again because of these very things.
I who was allotted to be the head am led by feet; I go barefoot and am pierced by thorns, and I suffer greatly, unable to bear the pain. One of my feet walks forward, while another turns back again; from this side and that they drag and pull me, and I am tripped up and fall down.
I am not able, therefore, to keep up with all of them. To lie fallen is bad, but to journey on in this state is worse than lying fallen — a thing truly dreadful, surpassing every other misfortune.
Grant me, in the darkness of this life, and in this world — the place of sorrow — to serve you as a slave, to minister well, and to keep your holy commandments.