The terms ‘vision’ (hzata) and ‘revelation’ (gelyana) are closely associated with the term ‘contemplation’. However, if contemplation is characterized by the mediation of angels, visions and revelations are often an immediate contact with the world on high. At the same time, as we shall see, angels can take part in visions, but their function in them is not limited by mediation between God and a human person; rather, in visions they act in an independent role as messengers of divine mysteries.

            Isaac defines the ‘divine vision’ (hzata alahaya) as a ‘non-sensible revelation to the intellect’.[1] The terms ‘vision’ and ‘revelation’ are often regarded by Isaac as synonyms. However, there is a certain semantic difference between them, which is indicated in the following passage: 

Question: Are vision and revelation the same, or different? Answer: No, they are different... Not every revelation is a vision, but every vision is called a revelation, because what is hidden is revealed. Still, not all becomes revealed and known through a vision. Revelation is received for the most part concerning things that are known, tasted and perceived by the intellect. But vision comes to pass in many ways, as it were in likeness and in types, even as it was given in olden times to the ancients, whether in deep sleep or waking... These things occur in desert wildernesses and places far removed from men, where a man is by necessity in great need of them because he has no help or comfort from any quarter. But the revelations that are perceived by the intellect through its purity are received by perfect men alone who are replete with knowledge.[2] 

            Revelation is therefore higher than vision. Moreover, ‘revelation’ is a more general concept than ‘vision’. The term ‘revelation’ refers to the inward mystical experience, while ‘vision’ indicates concrete and visible appearances from the immaterial world. To the realm of visions belong, in particular, the appearances of angels to saints, martyrs and ascetics.[3]

            Not only angels, but also the departed saints appear to ascetics in dream: ‘...Those who are near to attaining the stage of purity are deemed worthy always to behold certain of the saints during the vision of the night; and at every moment during the day, the vision of them, which has been engraved upon their souls, produces in these men the food of joy through their intellect’s noetic rumination’.[4]

            As to the term ‘revelation’, it refers to an inner contiguity of a person with an unearthly reality, a contiguity that does not necessarily presuppose seeing a certain visible image. Most frequently the term is used in the plural: 

...The beginning of spiritual contemplation... is the beginning of every revelation in the intellect; by this activity the intellect grows and becomes powerful in hidden things, and by this the intellect advances to other revelations which surpass the nature of man. In a word.., all divine contemplation and all revelations of the Spirit which the saints receive in this world, and whatever gifts and revelations human nature can come to know in this life, pass over to a man.[5] 

Here the revelations are spoken of as a phenomenon which accompanies the intellect in different stages of its development: the way of the intellect is regarded as a way from one revelation to another.

            ‘Revelations’, according to Isaac, are the experience of participation in the Kingdom of heaven during one’s earthly life: 

The revelation of the good that is hidden within us is the apperception of knowledge of truth: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is mystically within you’...[6] Wonder at the divine Nature is a revelation of the New World. Revelations of the New World are wondrous stirrings concerning God. With these mysteries all rational nature will be stirred in that future existence, in that heavenly abode. The holy powers exist now by means of these impulses: this is the mode of life of angels, so that they are astonished at this mystery all the time, due to revelations that come upon them in various ways during these stirrings concerning the divine Nature. This is the exalted position which life after the resurrection holds.[7] 

            Isaac distinguishes between the revelations ‘of the New World’ and the revelations ‘about the New World’. The first are meetings with the divine reality; the second are spiritual insights into the eschatological ‘future state’ of the created world: 

The revelations of the New World are quite different from the revelations about the New World. The former concern the glorious nature of the divine Majesty; the latter concern the wondrous transformations which creation will experience, and concern each aspect of the future state as it is made known to the intellect through the revelation of various insights, which in turn are the result of continual reflection on them and illumination.[8] 

            In one of the chapters from Part I,[9] Symeon speaks of the six kinds of revelations which are mentioned in Scripture: through the senses; by means of physical sight; through the rapture of the spirit; ‘by the rank of prophecy’; ‘in some intellectual way’; and ‘as if by dream’. The revelations through the senses are either ‘those which take place by means of the elements’, for example, the Burning Bush, the cloud of God’s glory, and so on, or ‘without matter’ and yet ‘by means of the bodily senses’, like the appearance of the tree men to Abraham, the ladder of Jacob, etc. The revelation through physical sight is, for example, when Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a high throne and Seraphs around Him.[10] ‘Rapture in spirit’ is what happened to Paul when he was taken up to the third heaven, and whether this was in body or without, he did not know.[11] Revelation ‘by the rank of prophesy’ entails ‘the things that happened unto the Prophets, who foretold future events, many ages before they took place’. Revelation ‘in some intellectual way’ is one that gives a certain insight into the divine Nature, or the resurrection of the dead, or the age to come, or other key dogmas of the Christian faith. Finally, the revelation ‘by dream’ is one that is given to someone during his sleep.[12]

            Isaac claims that revelations might take place both ‘by means of images’ and ‘without images’. The first kind is given by God in order to instruct many people and give them ‘a small insight’ into truth. On the contrary, the second kind is usually given to a single person, in order to instruct, comfort and console him.[13] However, Isaac emphasizes, revelations should not be taken as equal to the whole truth and perfect knowledge as they are only insights into this truth and reveal it according to the strength of the human nature.[14]

            The term ‘insights’ (sukkale) is therefore semantically close to the term ‘revelations’: it is also used in the plural and can serve for the description of sudden and bright contiguity with the reality of the other world. The insights differ from revelations by their more swift, impetuous character; they are instantaneous, but leave a deep trace in a person’s soul. Insights can take place at different stages of a Christian’s spiritual life: 

...There is the person who has reached perfection on the level of the soul, but who has not yet entered the mode of life of the spirit: only a little of it has begun to stir in him. While he is fully in the mode of life of the soul, every now and then it happens that some stirrings of the spirit arise indistinctly in him, and he begins to perceive in his soul a hidden joy and consolation: like lightning flashes... particular mystical insights arise and are set in motion in his mind. At this his heart at once bursts with joy... I know a person living in the vicinity[15] who experiences these lightning flashes. But even though insight into mysteries momentarily passes through his mind and then departs, nevertheless the outbursting of joy at the experience lasts a long time, and then serenity which results from it is poured over the mind for a considerable period after it goes. Furthermore, the condition of the body and the limbs becomes one of peace, and they feel great rest, while the enjoyment of the sweetness of its wondrous character is marked at the supreme moment on the mind’s palate.[16] 

            ‘Insights’ are such spiritual boosts which suddenly arise in a person during prayer or reading. A person’s intellect then enters into the Holy of Holies and communicates with God. At that moment, as in the case with ‘stillness of mind’, prayer ceases: 

...The word ‘prayer’... refers to a period of standing or a particular act of worship... Why do I call ‘prayer’ [a person’s] frequently being inebriated by some insight, seeing that no place is to be found there any longer for the stirring or recollection of prayer? This is something much more excellent - insofar as this can be said - even than the level of prayer. Prayer, however, is lower in rank than being stirred in spirit: on this there is no dispute, for prayer is inferior to this mystery. Frequently, when the intellect... peers... into the Holy of Holies... then there is not even the strength to pray...[17] 

            Therefore one can speak of visions, revelations and insights as different aspects of the same phenomenon of a human person’s encounter with the realities of the immaterial world. ‘Visions’ mean encounters with personal beings dwelling in that world, who appear in visible shape (angels, saints); ‘revelations’ are spiritual penetration into the divine Being or the eschatological renewed state of the created world; ‘insights’ are mystical lightning flashes in someone’s intellect, when suddenly, during his prayer or reading, the mysteries of the other age are opened to him.