Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

LETTER 2: ON LOVE
1 There is a French translation of this letter in Dalmais (1948), but I have
not been able to consult it.
2 Cf. Rom. 13:10 and Matt. 22:40.
3 The incensive power.
4 ‘That which is within our power’ (to eph’ êmin): see Amb. 10, n. 122.
5 Gnômê.
6 Maximus was later, during the Monothelite controversy, to retract this
way of putting the unity of will and inclination between God and the
saints: see Opusc. 1:33A, where he retracts his reference to ‘one activity
of God and those worthy of God’ (Amb. 7:1076C).
7 stoicheion: element or principle.
8 One of the ‘Chalcedonian’ adverbs.
9 Logos and tropos.
10 This paragraph seems to be based on the idea, found in Philo, that the
name Abraham means ‘elect father of sound’, signifying the good man’s
reasoning: see below Amb. 10.45 and n. 126.
11 This way of seeing virtue as a life in accordance with nature, or with the
logos, is typically Stoic, and Maximus’ language here has other Stoic
echoes.
12 I.e., he led other human beings, viz. Sarah and the rest of his household,
as he led himself, since they all possess the same human nature.
13 ‘Things that are after God’: after, that is, in the scale of being. It is a
Neoplatonic use, which in Christian (Maximian) metaphysics has the
radical meaning of ‘created beings’.
14 Cf. Luke 10:27 (not exact, the first part is much closer to Deut. 6:5).
15 Cf. John 14:6.
16 Cf. John 10:9, together with Heb. 9:11–12.
17 Cf. John 15:1, together with Rom. 11:17 (though Maximus does not use
the more appropriate language of grafting from Romans).
18 One of the ‘Chalcedonian’ adverbs.
19 1 John 4:8.
20 Cf Matt. 13:22 and parallels (parable of the Sower). Maximus may,
however, have in mind (since he speaks of the thorns planted ‘from the
beginning’) the immediately following parable of the Tares (Matt. 13:24–
30), even though he speaks of thorns rather than tares.
21 Theosophia: a word first found in Porphyry (who quotes an earlier use),
popular among the Neoplatonists, and also used by Denys the
Areopagite (e.g., Mystical Theology I.1:997A).
22 The Septuagint reads ‘book’.
23 A cento from Jeremiah: Baruch 4:1–4, 3:14, Jer. 38 [Heb: 31]: 3–4, 6:16.
24 A cento composed of: Bar. 5:1–2, spliced with Eph. 4:22 and Col. 3:10.
DIFFICULTY 10
1 See chapter 5 of the Introduction.
NOTES 203