Chapter VI.—Opinions of the Philosophers as to the One God.

Philolaus, too, when he says that all things are included in God as in a stronghold, teaches that He is one, and that He is superior to matter. Lysis and Opsimus16    Common text has ὂψει; we follow the text of Otto. [Gesner notes this corruption, and conjectures that it should be the name of some philosopher.] thus define God: the one says that He is an ineffable number, the other that He is the excess of the greatest number beyond that which comes nearest to it. So that since ten is the greatest number according to the Pythagoreans, being the Tetractys,17    One, two, three, and four together forming ten. and containing all the arithmetic and harmonic principles, and the Nine stands next to it, God is a unit—that is, one. For the greatest number exceeds the next least by one. Then there are Plato and Aristotle—not that I am about to go through all that the philosophers have said about God, as if I wished to exhibit a complete summary of their opinions; for I know that, as you excel all men in intelligence and in the power of your rule, in the same proportion do you surpass them all in an accurate acquaintance with all learning, cultivating as you do each several branch with more success than even those who have devoted themselves exclusively to any one. But, inasmuch as it is impossible to demonstrate without the citation of names that we are not alone in confining the notion of God to unity, I have ventured on an enumeration of opinions. Plato, then, says, “To find out the Maker and Father of this universe is difficult; and, when found, it is impossible to declare Him to all,”18    Timæus, p. 28, C. conceiving of one uncreated and eternal God. And if he recognises others as well, such as the sun, moon, and stars, yet he recognises them as created: “gods, offspring of gods, of whom I am the Maker, and the Father of works which are indissoluble apart from my will; but whatever is compounded can be dissolved.”19    Timæus, p. 41, A. If, therefore, Plato is not an atheist for conceiving of one uncreated God, the Framer of the universe, neither are we atheists who acknowledge and firmly hold that He is God who has framed all things by the Logos, and holds them in being by His Spirit. Aristotle, again, and his followers, recognising the existence of one whom they regard as a sort of compound living creature (ζῶον), speak of God as consisting of soul and body, thinking His body to be the etherial space and the planetary stars and the sphere of the fixed stars, moving in circles; but His soul, the reason which presides over the motion of the body, itself not subject to motion, but becoming the cause of motion to the other. The Stoics also, although by the appellations they employ to suit the changes of matter, which they say is permeated by the Spirit of God, they multiply the Deity in name, yet in reality they consider God to be one.20    [We must not wonder at the scant praise accorded by the Apologists to the truths embedded everywhere in Plato and other heathen writers. They felt intensely, that “the world, by wisdom, knew not God; and that it was their own mission to lead men to the only source of true philosophy.] For, if God is an artistic fire advancing methodically to the production of the several things in the world, embracing in Himself all the seminal principles by which each thing is produced in accordance with fate, and if His Spirit pervades the whole world, then God is one according to them, being named Zeus in respect of the fervid part (τὄ ζέον) of matter, and Hera in respect of the air (ὁ ἀήρ), and called by other names in respect of that particular part of matter which He pervades.

Καὶ Φιλόλαος δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν φρουρᾷ πάντα ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ περιει λῆφθαι λέγων, καὶ τὸ ἕνα εἶναι καὶ τὸ ἀνωτέρω τῆς ὕλης δεικνύει. Λῦσις δὲ καὶ Ὄψιμος ὁ μὲν ἀριθμὸν ἄρρητον ὁρίζεται τὸν θεόν, ὁ δὲ τοῦ μεγίστου τῶν ἀριθμῶν τὴν παρὰ τὸν ἐγγυτάτω ὑπεροχήν. εἰ δὲ μέγιστος μὲν ἀριθμὸς ὁ δέκα κατὰ τοὺς Πυθαγορικοὺς ὁ τετρακτύς τε ὢν καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἀριθμητικοὺς καὶ τοὺς ἁρμονικοὺς περιέχων λόγους, τούτῳ δὲ ἐγγὺς παράκειται ὁ ἐννέα, μονάς ἐστιν ὁ θεός, τοῦτ' ἔστιν εἷς· ἑνὶ γὰρ ὑπερέχει ὁ μέγιστος τὸν ἐγγυτάτω. ἐλάχιστον αὐτῷ. Πλάτων δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης (καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἐπι δεικνύων τὰ δόγματα τῶν φιλοσόφων ἐπ' ἀκριβές, οὕτως ἃ εἰρήκασι περὶ θεοῦ διέξειμι· οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι ὅσον συνέσει καὶ ἰσχύι τῆς βασι λείας πάντων ὑπερέχετε, τοσοῦτον καὶ τῷ πᾶσαν παιδείαν ἀκριβοῦν πάντων κρατεῖτε, οὕτω καθ' ἕκαστον παιδείας μέρος κατορθοῦντες ὡς οὐδὲ οἱ ἓν αὐτῆς μόριον ἀποτεμόμενοι· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἀδύνατον δεικνύειν ἄνευ παραθέσεως ὀνομάτων ὅτι μὴ μόνοι εἰς μονάδα τὸν θεὸν κατακλείομεν, ἐπὶ τὰς δόξας ἐτραπόμην), φησὶν οὖν ὁ Πλάτων· “τὸν μὲν οὖν ποιητὴν καὶ πατέρα τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας ἀδύνατον λέγειν”, ἕνα τὸν ἀγένητον καὶ ἀίδιον νοῶν θεόν. εἰ δ' οἶδεν καὶ ἄλλους οἷον ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἀστέρας, ἀλλ' ὡς γενητοὺς οἶδεν αὐτούς· “θεοὶ θεῶν, ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργὸς πατήρ τε ἔργων ἃ ἄλυτα ἐμοῦ μὴ θέλοντος, τὸ μὲν οὖν δεθὲν πᾶν λυτόν” εἰ τοίνυν οὔκ ἐστιν ἄθεος Πλάτων, ἕνα τὸν δημιουργὸν τῶν ὅλων νοῶν ἀγένητον θεόν, οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς ἄθεοι, ὑφ' οὗ λόγῳ δεδημιούργηται καὶ τῷ παρ' αὐτοῦ πνεύματι συνέχεται τὰ πάντα, τοῦτον εἰδότες καὶ κρατύνοντες θεόν. ὁ δὲ Ἀριστοτέλης καὶ οἱ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ἕνα ἄγοντες οἱονεὶ ζῷον σύνθετον, ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος συνεστηκότα λέγουσι τὸν θεόν, σῶμα μὲν αὐτοῦ τὸ αἰθέριον νομίζοντες τούς τε πλανωμένους ἀστέρας καὶ τὴν σφαῖραν τῶν ἀπλανῶν κινούμενα κυκλοφορητικῶς, ψυχὴν δὲ τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ κινήσει τοῦ σώματος λόγον, αὐτὸν μὲν οὐ κινούμενον, αἴτιον δὲ τῆς τούτου κινήσεως γινόμενον. οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς, κἂν ταῖς προσηγορίαις κατὰ τὰς παραλλάξεις τῆς ὕλης, δι' ἧς φασι τὸ πνεῦμα χωρεῖν τοῦ θεοῦ, πληθύνωσι τὸ θεῖον τοῖς ὀνόμασι, τῷ γοῦν ἔργῳ ἕνα νομίζουσι τὸν θεόν. εἰ γὰρ ὁ μὲν θεὸς πῦρ τεχνικὸν ὁδῷ βαδίζον ἐπὶ γενέσει κόσμου ἐμπεριειληφὸς ἅπαντας τοὺς σπερματικοὺς λόγους καθ' οὓς ἕκαστα καθ' εἱμαρμένην γίγνεται, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ διήκει δι' ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου, ὁ θεὸς εἷς κατ' αὐτούς, Ζεὺς μὲν κατὰ τὸ ζέον τῆς ὕλης ὀνομαζόμενος, Ἥρα δὲ κατὰ τὸν ἀέρα, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ καθ' ἕκαστον τῆς ὕλης μέρος δι' ἧς κεχώρηκε καλούμενος.