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to the Father; for he has already shown that evil neither is, nor is among the things that are, but concerns things that are in being, such as angels and the rest of created things, as he also said before, of which he has knowledge not from learning them, what sort of things they are; for he showed this by saying: Not learning beings from beings, and, Not by imposing an idea on each one, but as their maker he has prior knowledge of his own works, knowing how he will bring them into being, and for what purposes, the perversion and lack of which, that is, the failure and inability, introduces evil, by the privation of what is according to nature making what is contrary to nature; for to this end he brought forward the example of light; for by its privation darkness subsists, and has as its cause the absence of the nature of light, just as states happen to be more primary than privations, and, as one might say, are causes. Here, therefore, the father speaks of the things brought into being by God and of the nature of each of these, which he also said pre-existed in God according to foreknowledge and predestination.

And precedes essence: That knowledge precedes and has pre-comprehended essence. Just as also the light: The parable is faultless; for just as if someone were to suppose that

this visible light is intelligent and rational, then we were to ask it if it knows the darkness, and it were to say it knows the darkness even before it comes into being; but knows it not by some experience (for how could light see darkness? for if there is light, there will be no darkness), but the light would say it knows it insofar as it is light (14S_272> is; wherefore it also knows that if it should withdraw its own light, no one will see; so also God causally has in himself the knowledge of all things, not having acquired it by experience, since in that case God is found to be subsequent to knowledge, or at some time not knowing. Note that darkness is the effect, subsisting from the lack of light, which is against the Manichaeans.

Of the darkness: That darkness is known not from elsewhere, but from the light. And not from beings: See how he says that God knows beings, not from the

knowledge of all things, but from his own, just as the light knows the things of darkness, having nothing of darkness in itself. And these things are said in many ways in the fifth chapter, how God, knowing, or rather, thinking himself, thinks and knows beings paradigmatically.

Not then God: For the Divine is in no duplicity, being in every way simple, and beyond all simple.

For indeed also the angels: That the angels know the things on earth not by sense perception, engaging with sensible things as we do, but it is to be understood that they apprehend them by a transcendent power, from various oracles, for example as in Tobit, where it is said that the divine angel Raphael told the son of Tobias to take the gall of the fish that came up, as it removes the white films on the eyes caused by the droppings of sparrows; for no one would suppose that he learned the cure by suffering. But also the angel in Judges at the time of Gideon, who brought fire out of the rock for the sacrifice, did not know by sense perception that fire is caustic, as we do, but by a higher means; and so with the rest. But if someone should say, And how will the devil (14S_274> and his angels perceive the eternal fire? It will be said in the appropriate place. But also in Daniel, in the chapter of Belshazzar, the one writing knows letters without having learned them. Note that for angels the knowledge of sensible things is not by sense perception; for they do not use the sense organs as we do, but by the power and nature of the mind.

§ 3. And concerning these things one must inquire. He discusses how we know God, and says correctly, that the nature of God, whatever it is, has never been known to any of those in creation, neither scientifically, nor by direct vision; for by these we apprehend incorporeal things; but God is known from the ordering of created things; for if, according to the divine Apostle, the beauty of the created things the creator, that is to say

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πατρί· ἤδη γάρ ἔδειξε μήτε ὄν, μήτε ἐν τοῖς οὖσι τό κακόν, ἀλλά περί τῶν ἐν οὐσίᾳ ὄντων, οἷον ἀγγέλων καί τῶν λοιπῶν κτισμάτων, καθώς καί προεῖπεν, ὧν τήν γνῶσιν οὐκ ἐκ τοῦ μανθάνειν αὐτά, ὁποῖά τινά εἰσιν, ἔχει· τοῦτο γάρ ἐδήλωσεν εἰπών· Οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ὄντων τά ὄντα μανθάνων, καί τό, Οὐ κατ' ἰδέαν ἑκάστοις ἐπιβάλλων, ἀλλ' ὡς ποιητής τούτων τήν εἴδησιν τῶν οἰκείων ἔργων προέχει, εἰδώς ὅπως αὐτά, καί ἐφ' οἷς παράξει πρός γένεσιν, ὧν ἡ παρατροπή καί ἔλλειψις, ἤγουν ἡ ἀποτυχια καί ἀδυναμία, τό κακόν εἰσάγει, τῇ στερήσει τοῦ κατά φύσιν τό παρά φύσιν ποιοῦσα· πρός τοῦτο γάρ τό τοῦ φωτός παρήγαγεν ὑπόδειγμα· τῇ γάρ τούτου στερήσει τό σκότος παρυφίσταται, καί αἰτίαν ἔχει τήν ἀπουσίαν τῆς τοῦ φωτός φύσεως, ὥσπερ καί τῶν στερήσεων αἱ ἕξεις ἀρχηγικώτεραι τυγχάνουσι, καί ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, αἰτίαι. Ἐνταῦθα οὖν ὁ πατήρ περί τῶν ὑπό Θεοῦ εἰς γένεσιν ἀχθέντων καί τῆς ἑκάστου τούτων φύσεως τόν λόγον ποιεῖται, ἅ καί προϋφεστάναι ἐν τῷ Θεῷ κατά πρόγνωσιν καί τό προωρίσθαι εἴρηκε.

Καί οὐσίαν προέχει: Ὅτι ἡ γνῶσις τήν οὐσίαν προέχει καί προσυνείληφεν. Ὥσπερ καί τό φῶς: Ἄπτωτον τό τῆς παραβολῆς· ὥσπερ γάρ εἴ τις ὑπόθοιτο τό

φῶς τοῦτο τό ὁρατόν ἔννουν εἶναι καί λογικόν, εἶτα πυθοίμεθα αὐτοῦ, εἰ γινώσκει τό σκότος, τό δέ εἴποι, γινώσκειν καί πρίν γένηται ἄν τό σκότος· γινώσκειν δέ οὐ κατά τινα πεῖραν (πῶς γάρ ἴδοι σκότος τό φῶς; εἰ γάρ τό φῶς, οὐκ ἔσται σκότος), ἀλλά γινώσκειν εἴποι τό φῶς καθ' ὅ φῶς (14S_272> ἐστι· διό καί οἶδεν, ὅτι, ἐάν συστείλῃ τό οἰκεῖον φῶς, οὐδείς ὄψεται· οὕτω καί ὁ Θεός κατ' αἰτίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τήν πάντων εἴδησιν ἔχει, οὐ τῇ πείρᾳ ταύτην ἐπικτησάμενος, ἐπεί οὕτως εὑρίσκεται μεταγενέστερος ὁ Θεός τῆς γνώσεως, ἤ κατά τινα χρόνον μή γινώσκων. Σημείωσαι δέ τό σκότος εἶναι τό αἰτιατόν, ἐξ ἐλλείψεως τοῦ φωτός παρυφιστάμενον, ὅπερ ἐστί κατά Μανιχαίων.

Τοῦ σκότους: Ὅτι τό σκότος οὐχ ἑτέρωθεν, ἀλλ' ἀπό τοῦ φωτός γνωρίζεται. Καί οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ὄντων: Ὅρα πῶς φησι τόν Θεόν εἰδέναι τά ὄντα, οὐκ ἐκ τῆς

πάντων γνώσεως, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας, ὥσπερ τό φῶς οἶδε τά τοῦ σκότους, οὐδέν τοῦ σκότους ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ. Ταῦτα δέ πολλαχῶς ἐν τῷ πέμπτῳ κεφαλαίῳ εἴρηται πῶς ὁ Θεός ἑαυτόν γινώσκων, ἤτοι νοῶν, νοεῖ καί γινώσκει τά ὄντα παραδειγματικῶς.

Οὐκ ἄρα ὁ Θεός: Ἐν οὐδεμίᾳ γάρ διπλόῃ τό Θεῖον, πάντῃ ἁπλοῦν ὄν, καί ὑπέρ πᾶν ἁπλοῦν.

Καί γάρ καί τούς ἀγγέλους: Τό τούς ἀγγέλους εἰδέναι τά ἐπί γῆς οὐ δι' αἰσθήσεως προσβάλλοντας τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς, ὡς ἡμεῖς, ἀλλά διά δυνάμεως ἐπαναβεβηκυίας ἐπιβάλλων νοεῖσθαι, ἐκ διαφόρων λογίων, οἷον ὡς ἐν τῷ Τωβίᾳ, ὅπου εἴρηται, ὅτι ὁ θεῖος Ραφαήλ ὁ ἄγγελος εἶπε τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ Τωβίου, λαβεῖν τήν χολήν τοῦ ἀνελθόντος ἰχθύος, ὡς ἀφαιροῦσαν λευκώματα ὀφθαλμῶν γινόμενα ἀπό ἀφοδευμάτων στρουθίων· οὐ γάρ ἄν τις ὑπονοήσειεν, ὅτι παθών ἔμαθε τήν ἰατρείαν. Ἀλλά καί ὁ ἐν τοῖς Κριταῖς ἄγγελος ἐπί τοῦ Γεδεών εἰς τήν θυσίαν ἐκβαλών ἐκ τῆς πέτρας πῦρ, οὐκ αἰσθήσει οἶδεν, ὅτι τό πῦρ καυστικόν, ὡς ἡμεῖς, ἀλλ' ἀνωτέρῳ προσφόρῳ· οὕτω καί τά λοιπά. Εἰ δέ τις εἴποι, Καί πῶς τοῦ αἰωνίου πυρός αἰσθήσεται ὁ διάβολος (14S_274> καί οἱ ἄγγελοι αὐτοῦ; Ἐν τῷ προσφόρῳ τόπῳ λεχθήσεται. Ἀλλά καί ἐν τῷ ∆ανιήλ, ἐν τῷ κεφαλαίῳ τοῦ Βαλθάσαρ, οἶδεν ὁ γράφων γράμματα μή μαθών. Σημείωσαι δέ, ὅτι οὐ κατ' αἴσθησιν τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἡ γνῶσις τῶν αἰσθητῶν· οὐδέ γάρ τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς αἰσθητηρίοις κέχρηνται, ἀλλά νοῦ δυνάμει καί φύσει.

§ 3. Ἐπί δέ τούτοις ζητῆσαι χρή. Συζητεῖ πῶς Θεόν γινώσκομεν, καί φησιν ὀρθῶς, ὅτι Θεοῦ μέν φύσις, ὅτι ποτέ ἐστιν, οὔτε τινί πώποτε τῶν ἐν δημιουργίᾳ ἐγνώσθη, οὔτε ἐπιστητῶς, οὔτε ἐποπτικῶς· τούτοις γάρ ἐπιβάλλομεν τοῖς ἀσωμάτοις· ἀλλά γινώσκεται ὁ Θεός ἐκ τῆς τῶν κτισμάτων διατάξεως· εἰ γάρ, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, ἡ τῶν δημιουργημάτων καλλονή τόν γενεσιουργόν, τουτέστι