Andrew Louth - Syriac Christian Church

NOTES 207
81 Eriugena distinguishes between speculatio and theoria—translated here
‘contemplation’ and ‘spiritual interpretation’. Theoria could well be
translated ‘contemplation’, but it is the regular word in the Antiochene
tradition for spiritual interpretation, and is used in that sense here. The
eighteen spiritual interpretations seem to consist of ten numbered ones
(in 31a), and the seven sections that follow (31b-h) plus the introduction
to 31a.
82 Cf. 4 Kgd 2:11.
83 For time as number, see Aristotle, Physics 4.11.
84 Cf. Psa. 94:11; Heb. 3:16–4:1.
85 For this understanding of the relationship of time to eternity (derived
from Plato’s metaphor of time as a ‘moving image of eternity’), see Plato,
Timaeus 37D; Plotinus, Enneads III.7.2; Denys the Areopagite, Divine
Names X.3.
86 Cf. Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals I.5.
87 This introduces the theme of the two modes of theology—apophatic and
cataphatic—which continues through to section 31e (cf. above section
17, and also below Amb. 71)
88 Theourgiai: to be taken in the Christian sense, found in Denys the
Areopagite, of ‘divine works’, rather than in its pagan meaning of ‘ritual
ceremonies’. See Louth (1986).
89 The oneness and threeness of the Godhead: discussed below in section
43, and in Amb. 1.
90 Presumably the account of the Transfiguration.
91 Cf. Luke 9:31.
92 Cf. Luke 16:19–31.
93 This is borrowed, more or less word for word, from Nemesius, On human
nature 43 (Morani [1987], 129, ll. 6–14).
94 Omitting the two sections, 1173B–1176B, which are identical with Amb.
53 and Amb. 63. They are not found in this Difficulty in Eriugena nor
are they found in Vat. gr. 1502 and other MSS: they are clearly out of
place here. See Sherwood (1955a), 32. Sections 35–40 have many
parallels with the early chapters of John Damascene’s Exposition of the
Faith (chapters 3–5, 9, 11–13).
95 The rest of this section is fairly closely dependent on Nemesius, On
human nature 42 (Morani [1987], 120, I. 25–121, I. 6)
96 For this argument for the unmoved mover, see Aristotle, Physics VIII.5,
Metaphysics F.8.
97 ‘Constituent powers’ (systatikai dynameis): relating to essence or being
as accidents to substance. See Gersh (1978), 247, n. 205.
98 Maximus sees diastolê as moving down the branches of the ‘Tree of
Porphyry’ and systolê as moving up it. The ‘Tree of Porphyry’, taken from
Porphyry’s Introduction to Aristotle’s Categories, represents the various
universals as an interrelated structure—a kind of ‘tree’—with the more
specific universals as branches of the more general universals.
99 Cf. John Damascene, Exposition of the Faith 13.
100 This introduces a borrowing from Nemesius, On human nature 3
(Morani [1987], 41–2), also cited by John Damascene, Exposition of the