5. But what is meant, says he, in the other passage: “This is God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him?”22    Baruch iii. 36, etc. That said he rightly. For in comparison of the Father who shall be accounted of? But he says: “This is our God; there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved.” He saith well. For who is Jacob His servant, Israel His beloved, but He of whom He crieth, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him?”23    Matt. xvii. 5. Having received, then, all knowledge from the Father, the perfect Israel, the true Jacob, afterward did show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men. And who, again, is meant by Israel24    The word Israel is explained by Philo, De præmiis et pœnis, p. 710, and elsewhere, as = a man seeing God, ὁρῶν Θεόν, i.e., אִִיש ואה אל. So also in the Constitutiones Apostol., vii. 37, viii. 15; Eusebius, Præparat., xi. 6, p. 519, and in many others. To the same class may be referred those who make Israel = ὁρατικὸς ανὴρ καὶ θεωρητικὸς, a man apt to see and speculate, as Eusebius, Præparat., p. 310, or = νοῦς ὁρῶν Θεόν, as Optatus in the end of the second book; Didymus in Jerome, and Jerome himself in various passages; Maximus, i. p. 284; Olympiodorus on Ecclesiastes, ch. i.; Leontius, De Sectis, p. 392; Theophanes, Ceram. homil., iv. p. 22, etc. Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryph. [see vol. i. pp. 226, 262], adduces another etymology, ἄνθρωπος νικῶν δύναμιν. but a man who sees God? and there is no one who sees God except the Son alone, the perfect man who alone declares the will of the Father. For John also says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared25    Hippolytus reads διηγήσατο for ἐξηγήσατο. Him.”26    John i. 18. And again: “He who came down from heaven testifieth what He hath heard and seen.”27    John iii. 11, 13. This, then, is He to whom the Father hath given all knowledge, who did show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.

[5] ἀλλὰ τί μοι, φησίν, λέγει ἐν ἑτέρῳ, Οὗτος ὁ Θεός: οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρὸς αὐτόν; καλῶς εἶπεν. πρὸς γὰρ τὸν Πατέρα τίς λογισθήσεται; ὃ δὲ λέγει, Οὗτος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν: οὐ λογισθήσεται ἕτερος πρὸς αὐτόν: ἐξηῦρεν πᾶσαν ὁδὸν ἐπιστήμης καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν Ἰακὼβ τῷ παιδὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ Ἰσραὴλ τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, ⌊καλῶς λέγει⌋. τίς γάρ ἐστιν Ἰακὼβ ὁ παῖς αὐτοῦ, Ἰσραὴλ ὁ ἠγαπημένος ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἢ οὗτος περὶ οὗ βοᾷ λέγων, Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ Υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, εἰς ὃν ηὐδόκησα: τούτου ἀκούετε; πᾶσαν οὖν τὴν ἐπιστήμην παρὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς λαβὼν ὁ τέλειος Ἰσραήλ, ὁ ἀληθινὸς Ἰακώβ, μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὤφθη καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη. Ἰσραὴλ δὲ τίς ἐστιν ἀλλ' ἢ ἄνθρωπος ὁρῶν τὸν Θεόν; ὁρῶν δὲ τὸν Θεὸν οὐδεὶς εἰ μὴ μόνος ὁ παῖς καὶ τέλειος ἄνθρωπος καὶ μόνος διηγησάμενος τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ Πατρός. λέγει γὰρ καὶ Ἰωάννης, Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε: μονογενὴς Υἱὸς ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ Πατρὸς αὐτὸς διηγήσατο. καὶ πάλιν, Ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς ὃ ἤκουσεν καὶ ἑώρακεν μαρτυρεῖ. οὗτος οὖν ἐστιν ᾧ πᾶσαν ἐπιστήμην Πατὴρ ἔδωκεν: ὃς ἐπὶ γῆς ὤφθη καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη.