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{{Infobox book
| italic title = 
| name = Divine Names
| image =
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| author = Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig = Περὶ θείων ὀνομάτων
| orig_lang_code = grc
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| country = Byzantine Empire
| language = Greek
| series =
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| subject = Theology
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| published = 400s-500s A.D.
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}}

'''''Divine Names''''' (Περὶ θείων ὀνομάτων) by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

Negative (apophatic) theology, as translated by Jones (1999)

==Chapter 1==
:The indefiniteness beyond being
:lies beyond beings.
:The unity beyond intellect
:lies beyond intellect.
:The one beyond thought is
:unintelligible to all thinking.
:The good beyond logos:
:ineffable to all logos
:unity unifying every unity
:being beyond being
:non-intelligible intellect
:ineffable logos
:non-rationality
:non-intelligibility
:non-nameability
:be-ing according to no being
:cause of being to all; but itself: non-be-ing,
:as it is beyond every being, and
:So that it would properly and knowingly
:manifest itself about itself.

----

:It is cause of all;
:but itself: nothing
:as beyond-beingly apart from all:

==Chapter 2==
:Ground beyond being,
:Divinity beyond god,
:Goodness beyond good,
:Sameness beyond all of the whole
:individualness which is beyond all,
:Unity beyond source of unity,
:Ineffable, many named,
:Unknowing, completely unintelligible,
:Position of all, denial of all,
:Beyond all position and denial.
:(If one must say:)
:The abiding and foundation
:of the ruling persons in one another,
:wholly beyond every way of unity, and
:confused in none of its parts.

----

From the "Theological Elements" of the most holy Hierotheus

:The cause and fullness of all is
:the divinity of Jesus:
:An ordering of consonant parts to wholeness;
:it is neither whole nor part.
:Whole and part as anticipating, beyond having, and
:before-having every whole and part in itself.
:A completion to the non-complete as
:source of completion,
:Non-complete to the complete as
:beyond completion and before completion.
:Form producing form in those without form as
:source of form,
:Non-form in those which are formed as
:beyond form.
:Being undefiledly taking a stand upon the
:totality of being;
:Beyond-being: apart from every being.
:A determining of the totality of principles and orders;
:Yet, founded beyond every principle and order.
:The measure of what is.
:Eternity, before eternity, and beyond eternity.
:Fullness in those which lack;
:Beyond fullness in those which are full.
:Ineffable and unspeakable,
:Beyond intellect, beyond life, and beyond being.
:That beyond nature: beyond-naturally,
:That beyond being: beyond-beingly.

----

:It is differenced in a unified way:
:being given to all beings
:overflowing the participations of the
:totality of those that are good,
:singly made many,
:non-wanderingly multiplied out of the one.
:Since God is beyond-beingly be-ing, and as
:being is given to beings and
:brings forth the totality of beings,
:That one be-ing is said to be multiplied by
:the bringing forth of all beings out of itself.
:It abides
:not less than itself,
:one in its manifoldness,
:unified in its procession,
:full in its difference,
:By its beyond-beingly apartness from beings,
:its single bringing up of the whole, and
:the undiminished flowing of its
:undiminished gifts.
:Be-ing one
:it has bestowed unity to every part and whole,
:and every unity and multitude;
:As beyond-beingly one in the same way, and
:not a part of a multitude,
:not a whole of parts;
:it is not one,
:does not partake in the one, and
:does not have the one.
:Far away from these, a one:
:beyond the one in beings,
:a partless multitude,
:unfilled and beyond full,
:completing and binding together
:every unity and multiude.

==Chapter 4==
:That, beautiful beyond being, is said to be
:Beauty-for
:it gives beauty from itself in a manner
:appropriate to each,
:it causes the consonance and splendor
:of all
:it flashes forth upon all, after the
:manner of light, the beauty producing
:gifts of its flowing ray,
:it calls all to itself,
:whence it is called beauty,
:it brings all together
:into the same;
:Beautiful-as
:At once all-beautiful and beyond-beautiful,
:always be-ing beautiful
:according to the same and in like manner;
:thus
:not coming to be,
:not passing out of being,
:not increasing or decreasing,
:not beautiful to some and
:ugly to others,
:not beautiful at one time and
:ugly at another,
:not beautiful in one relation and
:ugly in another.
:It is not beautiful to some and
:ugly to others, but
:itself-always be-ing uniformly beautiful
:in virtue of itself and with itself,
:preeminently before-having in itself
:the flowing beauty of what is beautiful;
:before subsisting,
:in the simple nature beyond nature of
:the whole of what is beautiful and
:in its cause:
:all beauty and all that is beautful.
:From out of the beautiful:
:being to all beings, so that each is
:beautiful according to its proper logos,
:the agreements, friendships, and
:communion of an that is,
:the unifications of all that is.
:Source of all:
:the productive cause
:which makes and conserves the whole
:by its love of the beauty
:which is proper for each being.
:Limit of all and beloved:
:the final cause-for all beings emerge
:for the sake of the beautiful.
:Paradigmatic cause:
:all are determined according to it.
:The beautiful and good are the same:
:all beings desire the beautiful and the good
:with respect to every cause,
:no being fails to partake
:of the beautiful and good.
:(Indeed, we must necessarily dare to say:)
:that which is not partakes in the beautiful
:and good; it is itself the good when
:beyond-beingly celebrated in God in the
:denial of all.
:The one beautiful and good is the single cause
:of all of the many
:which are beautiful and good.
:From out of the beautiful and good:
:the essential constitutions of all beings,
:their unities and their differences,
:their identities and their otherness,
:their similarity and their dissimilarity,
:the association of opposites,
:the distinction of their unities,
:the providences of superiors,
:the bonds of equals,
:and the reversion of inferiors,
:the protection and immutable abiding and
:foundation of all among themselves,
:the communions, agreements, and unconfused
:friendship of all beings in all
:which are proper to each,
:the commixture of all,
:the undissolved constancy of what is,
:the uneclipsed sllccessions of what comes to be,
:the rest and motion of the intellects,
:souls, and bodies.
:That beyond all rest and motion is
:the rest and motion for all, as
:founding each being in its logos, and
:moving each being according to its proper motion.

==Chapter 5==
:In a power beyond being
:the be-ing of the whole being is
:support, cause and creator
:of be-ing, constitution,
:being, and nature.
:source and measure
:of what is eternal,
:be-ingness of what is temporal,
:eternity of what is,
:time of what comes to be,
:the being of whatsoever is,
:genesis of whatsoever comes to be.
:From out of be-ing:
:eternity, being, be-ing,
:time, genesis, becoming,
:what is in beings,
:whatsoever is constituted and subsisting.
:God is
:not somehow be-ing,
:but simply and unlimitedly be-ing,
:comprehending and anticipating
:the whole being in itself.
:(Thus it is called)
:king of what is eternal,
:for it has subsisted
:alI being and be-ing
:in it and about it.
:Moreover, God
:neither was,
:nor will be,
:nor has come to be,
:nor is come to be
:nor will come to be,
:nor, indeed, is not;
:but is the being for beings.
:Not only beings but even
:the being itself for beings
:is from the be-ing before eternity.
:For God is
:the eternity of what is eternal,
:the one who is begun before what is eternal.

----

:Being itself is
:from out of the before be-ing.
:Being is of it;
:it is not of being
:Being is in it;
:it is not in being.
:Being has it;
:it does not have being.
:It is
:eternity, source, and measure of being
:be-ing before being, be-ing, and eternity,
:being-producing beginning, middle,
:and end of all.
:Thus in the writings, the really before be-ing
:is multiplied according to every
:conception of beings;
:these are properly celebrated of it:
:was, is, will be,
:has come to be, is coming to be, and
:will come to be.
:For those who think in a divinely suitable way
:all of these signify
:the beyond-beingly being itself, and
:cause of all which is everywhere,
:according to every conception.
:For it is not this
:but not that;
:it is not in some way
:but not in some other way.
:It is
:cause of all:
:co-having and before-having in itself
:all the sources and ends of all beings;
:beyond all:
:beyond be-ing-beyond-beingly-before-all.
:Hence all are at once said of it:
:it is nothing among all -
:all-structure, all-form,
:non-form, non-beauty.
:It separately and incomprehensibly
:anticipates in itself
:the beginnings, means, and ends of beings.
:It purely illuminates the being for all
:in one, more than unified causality.

----

:The before be-ing
:proceeds to all,
:abides in itself,
:stands and moves,
:neither stands nor moves,
:does not have beginning, middle, or end,
:is not something in beings,
:is not something away from beings, and
:neither in general does there pertain to it
:any of those which are eternal
:or subsist temporally.
:But it is the eternity of time
:and apart from all those
:in eternity and time.
:Wherefore, eternity itself and beings
:and the measures and what is measured of beings
:are through it and by it.

==Chapter 7==
:According to our power,
:we attain to that beyond all
:by a path and order
:in the denial and preeminellce of all, and
:in the cause of all,
:God is known
:in all, and
:apart from all.
:God is known
:through knowledge, and
:through unknowing.
:Of God there is
:intellect, reason, knowledge,
:contact, sensation, opinion, imagination, name, and
:everything else.
:God is
:not known, not spoken, not named,
:not something among beings, and
:not known in something among beings.
:God is
:all in all,
:nothing in none,
:known to all in reference to all,
:known to no one in reference to nothing.
:For we say all of this correctly about God
:who is celebrated according
:to the analogy of all,
:of which it is the cause.
:The most divine knowledge of God is
:one which knows through unknowing
:in the unity beyond intellect
:when the intellect stands away from beings
:and then stands away from itself,
:it is united to the more than resplendent rays,
:and is then and there illumined
:hy the inscrutahle depths of wisdom.
:Nevertheless, as we have said,
:it is known from all;
:(for according to the writings)
:it is
:productive of all,
:always harmonizing the all,
:cause of the indissoluable
:concordance and harmony of all,
:always joining together
:the end of those which are prior to
:the beginnings of secondaries, and
:beautifying the agreement and harmony of all.

==Chapter 8==
:We say that God is power as
:before-having and beyond-having
:every power in itself,
:cause of every power,
:bringing forth all
:in an unlimited and undefined power,
:be-ing cause of the being itself of power
:whether universal or particular,
:unlimited power,
:for not only does it bring forth every power;
:it is beyond every power -
:even power itself,
:and it prevails over and unlimitedly brings forth
:unlimited [powers] which are
:other than those which are
:such that these powers
:It is
:even if brought forth to infinity
:would not be able to blunt
:the more than unlimited production
:of its power-producing power.
:an unspeakable, unknown,
:and inconceivable power,
:beyond-having all,
:which, through abundance of power,
:empowers the weak and
:conserves and preserves the last beings
:which are echoes of its power.

==Chapter 9==
:God is called the same as
:everlasting beyond every manner of being,
:incontrovertible,
:abiding in itself,
:always the same and in the same way,
:presencing similarly to all,
:steadfastly and purely established
:in itself and by itself
:in the beautiful limits
:of the identity beyond being,
:unchanged, inflexible,
:unswerving, unalterable,
:without mixture, without matter
:most simple, without lack,
:without increase, undiminished,
:ungenerated nor
:as not yet generated, nor without completion
:nor generated by this or that,
:nor as be-ing any manner whatsoever,
:but as all-ungenerated and
:absolutely ungenerated,
:always be-ing, self complete be-ing,
:be-ing the same in itself,
:uniformly and identically determining itself,
:shining the same out of itself
:upon all those enabled to participate in it.
:coordinating others to others,
:abundance and cause of identity,
:identically before-having in itself
:those which are opposed
:in the one single cause
:beyond-having the whole identity.

==Chapter 13==
:The one and whole divinity:
:the one cause of all,
:that before
:every unity and multitude,
:part and whole,
:definition and indefiniteness,
:limit and non-limit,
:that which determines
:all beings and being itself,
:and is at once and singularly
:cause of all and every totality,
:before all,
:beyond all,
:beyond the one be-ing itself, and
:what determines the one be-ing itself;
:for the one be-ing
:is enumerable in beings,
:but number partakes in being.
:The one beyond being
:determines the one be-ing
:and every number, and
:is source, cause, number, and order
:of unity, number, and all be-ing.
:Thus the divinity beyond all is celebrated
:as one and trinity;
:it is neither unity or trinity,
:or what is conceived by us
:or any other being.
:That we may truly celebrate
:its beyond unity and god-genesis,
:we name that beyond names
:by trinity and a unitary divine name;
:we name the beyond being
:by beings.
:But no unity, or trinity, or number,
:or oneness, or fecundity,
:or anything among beings,
:or anything known among beings,
:brings down the hiddenness,
:beyond all
:and beyond logos and intellect,
:of the beyond-divinity beyond be-ing
:beyond-beingly beyond all.
:There is neither name nor logos of it;
:it is apart in inaccessibility.

==See also==
*''[[Mystical Theology]]''
*''[[Allogenes]]''

==References==
<references/>
*Jones, John D. (trans.) (1999). ''The Divine Names and the Mystical Theology''. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press. ISBN 0-87462-221-2.

[[Category:Mysticism]]
[[Category:Christianity]]

Divine Names - Revision history

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