Letter 502: Theodore Studite, Letter 502; Greek heading: Γρηγορίῳ ὑπάτῳ.

Your Honor has penalized us up to this point by not writing, even though you write well, as your very letters make plain; and on account of them we have praised in you not only your aptitude for learning, but also your continued love of learning, since you are eager to share in a higher education. As for the small bound volume [ptyktion, a folding writing-tablet or codex-booklet] of that education, which you requested, we do indeed have it, but not here. If, however, it should happen that our deputy-steward [paroikonomos, the assistant administering monastery property] comes to those parts where you are, let him take it from the place where it has been stored away and hand it over to you. Education is a fine thing, my lord, so long as it is a fellow-worker toward that which is truly the real education; but not when, raving like a Corybant [the frenzied attendants of Cybele], it shows up those who partake of it as uneducated. As for the meaning of the apostolic saying, that 'in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' [Colossians 2:9], it seems to me to be thus: that is, that in the flesh of the Word taken up from the Virgin, or rather in the temple which he built for himself, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead; 'all the fullness,' it says, not some part, as has been imagined by those who divide the indivisible Godhead. And 'bodily' means, that is to say, 'substantially' [essentially]; for so it has been understood by the Fathers, in opposition to those who babble of a merely relative [indwelling]. Of the same kind also is this: 'The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' [John 1:14]; for so that no one might suppose that the Word was turned into flesh, he added, 'and dwelt among us.' And it is clear that the one who dwells is one thing and the dwelling-place is another, the place in which is the indwelling of the one who dwells, so that the two, Godhead and manhood, exist together in the one person of Christ. But if it seems to you to be otherwise, do not deprive us, who are of little learning - and I would add, careless as well - of the keener and truer contemplation, even though you yourself have, for the rest, exalted us as a god with your friendly praises.