Nichifor Tanase: Syriac and Coptic roots of Gregory Palamas hesychast theology of the Uncreated Light

Evagrius
writes that, after progressing in virtue, ‘in prayer you will see your mind
like a star [νοῦν ἀστεροειδῆ]’ (Thoughts 43); He and his friend Ammonius journeyed to consult John of Lycopolis, the great “Seer of the Thebaid” about the the source of the light that illumines the mind. It is the Holy Trinity, in fact, the divine light makes the mind itself to be radiant.To Evagrius there is a coincidence of the Light and Face in the „kindred light” (τό συγγενές φῶς – Skemmata 2) as the splendour of the Lord’s face (acoincidence of the images of the light and
the face).Christ becomes present in the soul as He was in the
Incarnation and, through His presence we are being ‘mixed’, from within (ἐν ὑμῖν),
with the light of the Trinity. The theme of the divine light was extensively discussed by the Syriac mystical writers of the seventh and eighth centuries, especially by Isaac of Nineveh, Joseph Hazzaya, and John of Dalyatha. Saint Gregory Palamas uses the macarian term of ‘ὑποστατικὸν ϕῶς’, to show that the light (φωτισμός) is Christ, shining ‘substantially’ (ὑποστατικῶς) whitin all human person. The important text is from Tr.III.i.16:‘He Himself is deifying light’ (Tr. II.iii.9). The Palamas’
Hesychast idea of the light-like sensitive nature of man shows clear
similarities with this early syrian and desert coptic understanding of the
luminous reflection of God’s Glory.