Chapter IX.—Concerning what is affirmed about God.

The Deity is simple and uncompound. But that which is composed of many and different elements is compound. If, then, we should speak of the qualities of being uncreate and without beginning and incorporeal and immortal and everlasting and good and creative and so forth as essential differences in the case of God, that which is composed of so many qualities will not be simple but must be compound. But this is impious in the extreme. Each then of the affirmations about God should be thought of as signifying not what He is in essence, but either something that it is impossible to make plain, or some relation to some of those things which are contrasts or some of those things that follow the nature, or an energy174    The Greek runs:—ἢ σχέσιν τινὰ πρὸς τὶ των ἀντιδιαστελλομένων, ἢ τὶ τῶν παρεπομένων τῃ φύσει, ἢ ἐνέργειαν.    Gen. i. 1..

It appears then175    Rendered in the Septuagint Version, ᾽Εγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν. Some of the Fathers made much of the fact that it is not the neuter form τὸ ὄν.    Ps. cxxxvi. 6. that the most proper of all the names given to God is “He that is,” as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, Say to the sons of Israel, He that is hath sent Me176    Exod. iii. 14.    Job xxvi. 7.. For He keeps all being in His own embrace177    Greg. Naz., Orat. 36.    Ps. lxxv. 3., like a sea of essence infinite and unseen. Or as the holy Dionysius says, “He that is good178    Dionys., De div. nom. c. 2, 3 and 4. This sentence and the next are absent in some mss., and are rather more obscurely stated than is usual with John of Damascus.    Ibid. xxiv. 2..” For one cannot say of God that He has being in the first place and goodness in the second.

The second name of God is ὁ Θεός, derived from θέειν179    In his Cratylus Plato gives this etymology, and Eusebius quotes it in his Prep. Evangel. i. Clement of Alexandria refers to it more than once in his Strom., bk. iv., and in his Protrept., where he says—Sidera θέους ἐκ τοῦ θέειν, deos a currendo nominarunt.    Gen. i. 2., to run, because He courses through all things, or from αἴθειν, to burn: For God is a fire consuming all evil180    Deut. iv. 24.    In this John does not follow Basil in his De Paradiso.: or from θεᾶσθαι, because He is all-seeing181    2 Mac. x. 5.    Basil, Hom. de Parad.: for nothing can escape Him, and over all He keepeth watch. For He saw all things before they were, holding them timelessly in His thoughts; and each one conformably to His voluntary and timeless thought182    κατὰ τὴν θελητικὴν αὐτοῦ ἄχρονον ἔννοιαν. See Thomas Aquin., I., II. Quæst. 17, Art. 1, where he says, est actus rationis, præsupposito tamen actu voluntatis.    Gen. iii. 1., which constitutes predetermination and image and pattern, comes into existence at the predetermined time183    This sentence is absent in some mss., being added at the end of the chapter with the mark σχόλ.    Ps. xlix. 12..

The first name then conveys the notion of His existence and of the nature of His existence: while the second contains the idea of energy. Further, the terms ‘without beginning,’ ‘incorruptible,’ ‘unbegotten,’ as also ‘uncreate,’ ‘incorporeal,’ ‘unseen,’ and so forth, explain what He is not: that is to say, they tell us that His being had no beginning, that He is not corruptible, nor created, nor corporeal, nor visible184    Dionys., De div. nom., c. 5.    Basil, Hom. de Parad.. Again, goodness and justice and piety and such like names belong to the nature185    παρέπονται τῇ φύσει; follow the nature, are consequents of the nature, or accompany it.    Gen. i. 22., but do not explain His actual essence. Finally, Lord and King and names of that class indicate a relationship with their contrasts: for the name Lord has reference to those over whom the lord rules, and the name King to those under kingly authority, and the name Creator to the creatures, and the name Shepherd to the sheep he tends.

Περὶ τῶν ἐπὶ θεοῦ λεγομένων

Τὸ θεῖον ἁπλοῦν ἐστι καὶ ἀσύνθετον. Τὸ δὲ ἐκ πολλῶν καὶ διαφόρων συγκείμενον σύνθετόν ἐστιν. Εἰ οὖν τὸ ἄκτιστον καὶ ἄναρχον καὶ ἀσώματον καὶ ἀθάνατον καὶ αἰώνιον καὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ δημιουργικὸν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐσιώδεις διαφορὰς εἴπομεν ἐπὶ θεοῦ ἐκ τοσούτων συγκείμενον, οὐχ ἁπλοῦν ἔσται, ἀλλὰ σύνθετον, ὅπερ ἐσχάτης ἀσεβείας ἐστίν. Χρὴ τοίνυν ἕκαστον τῶν ἐπὶ θεοῦ λεγομένων οὐ, τί κατ' οὐσίαν ἐστί, σημαίνειν οἴεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἤ, τί οὐκ ἔστι, δηλοῦν ἢ σχέσιν τινὰ πρός τι τῶν ἀντιδιαστελλομένων ἤ τι τῶν παρεπομένων τῇ φύσει ἢ ἐνέργειαν.

Δοκεῖ μὲν οὖν κυριώτερον πάντων τῶν ἐπὶ θεοῦ λεγομένων ὀνομάτων εἶναι ὁ ὤν, καθὼς αὐτὸς χρηματίζων τῷ Μωσεῖ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους φησίν: «Εἶπον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ: Ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέ με». Ὅλον γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῷ συλλαβὼν ἔχει τὸ εἶναι οἷόν τι πέλαγος οὐσίας ἄπειρον καὶ ἀόριστον.

Δεύτερον δὲ τὸ θεὸς ὄνομα, ὃ λέγεται ἢ ἐκ τοῦ θέειν καὶ περιέπειν τὰ σύμπαντα ἢ ἐκ τοῦ αἴθειν ὅ ἐστι καίειν («ὁ γὰρ θεὸς πῦρ καταναλίσκον» πᾶσαν κακίαν ἐστίν) ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεᾶσθαι τὰ πάντα: ἀλάθητος γάρ ἐστι καὶ πάντων ἐπόπτης. Ἐθεάσατο γὰρ «τὰ πάντα πρὶν γενέσεως αὐτῶν» ἀχρόνως ἐννοήσας καὶ ἕκαστον κατὰ τὴν θελητικὴν αὐτοῦ ἄχρονον ἔννοιαν, ἥτις ἐστὶ προορισμὸς καὶ εἰκὼν καὶ παράδειγμα, ἐν τῷ προορισθέντι, καιρῷ γίνεται.

Τὸ μὲν οὖν πρότερον αὐτοῦ τοῦ εἶναι παραστατικόν ἐστι καὶ οὐ τοῦ τί εἶναι, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον ἐνεργείας: τὸ δὲ ἄναρχον καὶ ἄφθαρτον καὶ ἀγένητον ἤτοι ἄκτιστον καὶ ἀσώματον καὶ ἀόρατον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, τί οὐκ ἔστι, δηλοῖ, τουτέστιν ὅτι οὐκ ἤρξατο τοῦ εἶναι οὐδὲ φθείρεται οὐδὲ ἔκτισται οὐδέ ἐστι σῶμα οὐδὲ ὁρᾶται. Τὸ δὲ ἀγαθὸν καὶ δίκαιον καὶ ὅσιον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα παρέπονται τῇ φύσει, οὐκ αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν οὐσίαν δηλοῖ. Τὸ δὲ κύριος βασιλεύς τε καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σχέσιν πρὸς τὰ ἀντιδιαστελλόμενα δηλοῖ: τῶν γὰρ κυριευομένων λέγεται κύριος καὶ τῶν βασιλευομένων βασιλεύς, τῶν δημιουργουμένων δημιουργὸς καὶ τῶν ποιμαινομένων ποιμήν.