Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 4 of 16 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 2, Section 1d
and Manifestations; and following the Holy Scripture they declare that some Attributes belong especially to Undifference, and some, on the other hand, to Differentiation.
190 190 The received text reads: Φᾶσι .
.
.
καὶ τῆς εἰρημένης ἑνώσεως ἴδια καὶ αὖθις τῆς διακρίσεως εἶνάι τινας ἰδικὰς καὶ ἱνώσεις καὶ διακρίσεις.
This, as it stands, must be translated: “They say that certain qualities belong to the said Undifference, and that to Differentiation, on the other hand, belong certain principles of Unity and principles of Differentiation.” This would mean that the Persons of the Trinity, though distinct from Each Other, yet have a Common Unity, or else that Each has a Unity of Its Own making It distinct from the Other Persons.
I have ventured, however, to emend the text by omitting the last six words and making the sentence end at εἶναι .
I believe the last six words have crept in from a marginal gloss or variant, which ran (I imagine) as follows:— εἶναί τινας ἰδικὰς κ.τ.λ.
.
If the MS.
belonged to a family having seventeen or eighteen letters to a column the εἶναι after διακρίσεως would end a line, since there are 571 letters from the beginning of the chapter to the end of that word.
Hence it would easily be confused with the εἶναι at the beginning of the gloss, which would thus creep into the text.
And, since the added words amount to thirty-four letters, they would exactly fill two lines, thus making the interpolation easier.
For the meaning, see Intr., p.
6f.
For instance, they say concerning the Divine Unity, or Super-Essence, that the undivided Trinity holds in a common Unity without distinction Its Subsistence beyond Being, Its Godhead beyond Deity, Its Goodness beyond Excellence; 70 the Identity, surpassing all things, of Its transcendently Individual Nature; Its Oneness above Unity; Its Namelessness and Multiplicity of Names; Its Unknowableness and perfect Intelligibility; Its universal Affirmation 191 191 Cf.
Myst.
Theo1.
I.
2.
This universal Affirmation is not pantheism because evil, as such, is held to be non-existent.
It is only all goodness that is affirmed of God, though He surpasses it.
God is present in all things, but not equally in all.
and universal Negation in a state above all Affirmation and Negation, 192 192 “Yes” implies the possibility of “No,” and “No” the possibility of “Yes.” Thus “Yes” and “No” belong to the relative world.
God’s absolute existence is beyond such antithesis.
See Intr., p.
4f.
and that It possesses the mutual Abiding and Indwelling (as it were) of Its indivisibly supreme Persons in an utterly Undifferentiated and Transcendent Unity, and yet without any confusion 193 193 The Persons, though fused, are yet not confused because the Godhead transcends unity.
See Intr., p.
5.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The passage states 'God is present in all things, but not equally in all' — a direct claim of the divine pervading all of creation while maintaining transcendence.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Evil is held to be non-existent in God's absolute existence beyond possibility of 'No'.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The passage presents the divine as 'Oneness above Unity' and 'Undifference' — an absolutely simple, undivided first principle that is beyond all multiplicity and differentiation.
The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.
The passage repeatedly presents the divine as beyond binary oppositions: 'beyond Being' and yet subsisting, 'Unknowableness and perfect Intelligibility,' 'universal Affirmation and universal Negation in a state above all Affirmation and Negation' — the dissolution of all antitheses at the summit of divine reality.
The doctrine that the one Godhead or first principle subsists as three co-equal aspects or persons rather than a bare unity — the Christian Father/Son/Holy Ghost invoked in the recurring liturgical formula 'In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' but structurally the same pattern as the Egyptian Amen/Ptah/Osiris, the Hindu Brahma/Vishnu/Siva, and the Kabbalistic Chochmah/Binah/Kether triads that esoteric writers explicitly map onto it as instances of one universal law. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about internal plurality) and divine_simplicity (God as having no parts or divisions at all) in asserting a definite three-aspected differentiation within a single divine essence.
The passage explicitly discusses 'the undivided Trinity,' 'Its indivisibly supreme Persons,' and their 'mutual Abiding and Indwelling in an utterly Undifferentiated and Transcendent Unity, and yet without any confusion' — a direct treatment of the three-personed structure within one divine essence.