Paraphrasis in Dionysium Areopagitam

having suffered together. It was necessary, then, that such things should come to be, [but] I do not know how the fruit, having melted away its bitterness, was laid to rest. Around midnight, as was his custom, having been awakened for divine hymns, and not having rested well because of the agitation of his soul, he was distressed and begged God to wipe away both of them—the evil—from his face by a lightning bolt, as if by a thunderbolt. Saying these things, he seemed to see that fearful vision which he describes in detail. And we, since it is clear, have omitted the explanations, having said this only about those who tickle the soul original: "ὑπογαργαλιζόντων" and contrive to cast it into the void at all times. Note how the devil casts men into the outer darkness, which he here calls the void—that is, a chasm—either by deceiving or by pushing those who are persuaded by him. Sometimes, he also takes lewd men as his collaborators for the deception of others, as he did with the idolater against the deceived person about whom the discourse is. Therefore, in the vision, he also sees men among the serpents—that is, the demons—dragging those who were conquered by the devil, from whom may the Lord deliver us. The fact that they are "unwilling and forced" does not mean we should think of some compelling force, that is, the devil, as the Manichaean Messalians—that is, the Euchites those who pray; for mesala prayer means prayer according to the Phoenicians—but that by being persuaded to do evil, we give room to the deceiver to attack us continuously, as he takes his strength from us against us. He will be powerless if we are not persuaded, since the help of God is near us, assisting as the following [verses] show. The fact that he does not want other men—those who are crucifying him—to suffer as if he were saying, "I am ready to suffer again, only let it not be through men, so that men might not sin again." Note...