EN VIIa: ἀνηγμένως

The adverb ἀνηγμένως is rare in literature. Didymus used it profusely, whereas Cyril of Alexandria and John Chrysostom did so only casually. The term means ‘according to an anagogical grasp’, or an exegesis rendered according to ‘an elevated, or sublime, manner’.The adverb is derived from the perfect participle of the verb ἀνάγεσθαι, which also gives the noun ἀναγωγή and the adjective ἀναγωγικός. The following discussion reveals that this Scholion was by and large culled from Didymus’ work.

The two Cappadocian Gregories had used the adjective ἀνηγμένος, yet not as a technical term. Rather, this was a literal usage in order to denote the general sense of one or something being ‘elevated’. To all appearances, it was an off-hand usage. The instances of the term ἀνηγμένος occurring in Theodoret are in fact quotations from Amphilochius of Iconium in a specific sense that is not relevant to the present instance. For Amphilochius used this not as a technical term loaded with a significant meaning, but simply as a loan from the accidental vocabulary of Gregory of Nazianzus, with whom he had close spiritual and personal connection, and who was possibly his first cousin. Besides, he refers to elevated ‘words’ rather than elevated ‘understanding’. Likewise, a literal and casual usage occurs in Aristotle’s commentator, Dexippus, who was contemporary with Didymus.