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We find Holy Scripture shaping God according to the underlying disposition of those for whom he provides; for which reason he is called a lion, a bear, a leopard, a panther, a man, an ox, a sheep, the sun, a star, fire, wind, and countless other things which he in no way is, being contemplated according to the concept of each expression. Thus, God, appearing to Abraham, who was perfect in knowledge, taught him in the discourse concerning the Monad the immaterial discourse concerning the Trinity, since his mind had already completely departed from matter and the forms related to it. And for this reason he appeared as three, and conversed as one; but to Lot, who had not yet (361) made his mind pure of the composition of bodies, but was still dependent on the generation of bodies from matter and form, and believed God to be the creator only of the visible creation, God, appearing, appeared dually, but not triadically; showing through the ways he fashioned himself that the mind being led upward had not yet departed from matter and form. Thus, in each place of Scripture that shapes God in many ways, by examining the words with knowledge, you will find the disposition of those for whom he provides to be the cause of the great variation of the divine fashionings.

Since, then, those who built the tower, having first moved from the land of light, the east—I mean, from the one and true knowledge concerning God—came to the land of Shinar, which is interpreted as "blasphemous teeth," and fell into many opinions concerning the Godhead, and putting together the reasoning of each opinion, as if they were bricks, built, as it were a tower, the polytheistic atheism; it is fitting that God, who scatters the concord of the wicked agreement of the erring men, from the disposition of those he provides for, which has been scattered and dispersed into countless opinions, names himself in the plural; showing that being one, he was divided into many among them; just as also in the case of Adam he is seen to say: "Behold, Adam has become as one of us." Therefore, according to the underlying cause, God is either multiplied or unified in the utterances of the Scriptures.

As to the question, with whom does God converse, it is the custom of Scripture to shape the unspoken and hidden counsels of God in a corporeal manner, so that we might be able to understand divine things from related words and expressions; since God is an unknowable mind, and an unutterable word, and an incomprehensible life, and neither speaks nor is spoken of, being himself the Word and himself the Counsel in his essence. And if we understand the expressions of the divine words in this way, we will not stumble over any of the written things because of obscurity.

But if someone should say that the plural signification concerning God in Scripture is not always used for censure, and should bring forward for the confirmation of his own argument: "And God said, 'Let us make man in our image and after our likeness,'" and would say, "surely by this expression we do not understand the word to introduce a suspicion of polytheism"; we say that whenever Holy Scripture piously uses the plural discourse concerning God towards the pious, it makes a declaration of the three all-holy hypostases; mystically signifying the mode of existence of the all-holy and unoriginate and consubstantial Trinity; since the all-venerable and adorable and all-praised Trinity of hypostases is a monad in essence. For our God is a Monad in a Trinity and a Trinity in a Monad. But when it makes a plural discourse concerning God to the impious, it refutes, (364) I think, their blameworthy conception of the Godhead, they who supposed the difference in properties to be natural and not hypostatic; which clearly introduces the polytheistic error to those who hold such views about the Godhead.

But if in saying this we do not persuade, since it is dear to the Spirit, and beloved by those who love the Spirit, not to fight, let us receive with one another in agreement the holy

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Πρός τήν ὑποκειμένην τῶν προνοουμένων διάθεσιν εὑρίσκομεν τήν ἁγίαν Γραφήν τόν Θεόν διαπλάττουσαν· ὅθεν καί λέοντα, καί ἄρκτον, καί πάρδαλιν, καί πάνθηρα, καί ἄνθρωπον, καί βοῦν, καί πρόβατον, καί ἥλιον, καί ἀστέρα, καί πῦρ, καί πνεῦμα, καί ἄλλα μυρία, ἅπερ μηδαμῶς ὑπάρχων λέγεται, κατά τήν ἑκάστης φωνῆς ἐπίνοιαν θεωρούμενος. Τῷ γοῦν Ἀβραάμ φανείς ὁ Θεός ὄντι τελείῳ κατά τήν γνῶσιν, ἐν τῷ περί μονάδος λόγῳ τόν ἄϋλον περί Τριάδος εἶναι λόγον ἐδίδασκεν, ἤδη τόν νοῦν ἔχοντι τῆς ὕλης παντελῶς, καί τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν τύπων ἐκβεβηκότα. Καί διά τοῦτο καί ὡς τρεῖς ἐφαίνετο, καί ὡς εἷς διελέγετο· τῷ δέ Λώτ, μήπω (361) τῆς τῶν σωμάτων καθαρόν τόν νοοῦν ποιησαμένῳ συνθέσεως, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι τῆς ἐξ ὕλης καί εἴδους τῶν σωμάτων γενέσεως ἐξηρτημένῳ, καί μόνης δημιουργόν εἶναι πιστεύοντι τόν Θεόν τῆς ὁρατῆς κτίσεως, ἐμφανιζόμενος ὁ Θεός, δυϊκῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τριαδικῶς ἐφάνη· δεικνύς δι᾿ ὧν αὐτός ἑαυτόν ἐσχηματίζε, μήπω τῆς ὕλης καί τοῦ εἴδους ἐκβεβηκέναι τόν ἀναγόμενον νοῦν. Οὕτως ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ τόπῳ τῆς τόν Θεόν πολυτρόπως διαπλαττούσης Γραφῆς, τούς λόγους μετ᾿ ἐπιστήμης διασκοπούμενος, εὑρήσεις αἰτίαν εἶναι τῆς πολλῆς τῶν θείων πλασμάτων ἐξαλλαγῆς, τήν τῶν προνοουμένω διάθεσιν.

Ἐπειδή τοίνυν καί οἱ τόν πύργον οἰκοδομήσαντες, πρότερον τῆς τοῦ φωτός χώρας τῆς ἀνατολῆς κινηθέντες, λέγω δέ τῆς μιᾶς καί ἀληθοῦς περί Θεόν γνώσεως, ἦλθον εἰς γῆν Σενναάρ, τήν ἑρμηνευομένην βλασφήμους ὀδόντας, καί εἰς πολλάς περί Θεότητος δόξας κατέπεσαν, καί τόν ἑκάστης δόξης λόγον, οἱονεί πλίνθους τινάς συνθήσαντες, ᾠκοδόμησαν καθάπερ πύργον τήν πολύθεον ἀθεΐαν· εἰκότως ὁ τῆς κακῆς συμφωνίας τῶν πλανηθέντων ἀνθρώπων διασκεδάζων τήν ὁμολογίαν Θεός, ἐκ τῆς τῶν προνοουμένων διαθέσεως εἰς ἀπείρους δόξας διασκεδασθείσης καί διασπαρθείσης, πληθυντικῶς ἑαυτόν ὀνομάζει· δεικνύς εἷς ὅτι ὤν, εἰς πολλούς ἐν ἐκείνοις ἐμερίσθη· ὥσπερ καί ἐπί τοῦ Ἀδάμ φαίνεται λέγων· Ἰδού γέγονεν Ἀδάμ ὡς εἷς ἐξ ἡμῶν. Πρός οὖν τό ὑποκείμενον αἴτιον, ἤ πληθύνεται ταῖς τῶν Γραφῶν ἐκφωνήσεσιν ὁ Θεός, ἤ συνάγεται.

Τό δέ, πρός τίνας ὁ Θεός διαλέγεται, ἔθος ἐστί τῇ Γραφῇ τάς ἀλαλήτους καί κρυφίας βουλάς τοῦ Θεοῦ σωματικῶς διαπλάττειν, ἵν᾿ ἡμεῖς ἐκ τῶν συγγενῶν ῥημάτων τε καί φωνῶν, νοῆσαι τά θεῖα δυνηθῶμεν· ἐπεί ὁ Θεός νοῦς ἐστιν ἄγνωστος, καί λόγος ἄῤῥητος, καί ζωή ἀκατάληπτος, καί οὔτε λαλεῖ οὔτε λαλεῖται, αὐτόλογος ὤν, καί αὐτοβουλή κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχων. Καί εἰ οὕτω νοήσομεν τάς τῶν θείων λόγων φωνάς, οὐδενί τῶν γεγραμμέων ἐκ τῆς ἀσαφείας προσκόψομεν.

Εἰ δέ τις φαίη, μή πάντως ἐπί διαβολῆς κεῖσθαι τῇ Γραφῇ τήν περί Θεοῦ πληθυντικήν σημασίαν, καί προφέρει πρός τήν τοῦ οἰκείου λόγου βεβαίωσιν τό· Καί εἶπεν ὁ Θεός· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν, καί καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν, καί οὐ δήπου διά ταύτης, εἴποι, τῆς φωνῆς, πολυθεΐας ὑπόνοιαν εἰσηγεῖσθαι νοοῦμεν τόν λόγον· φαμέν, ὡς ὁπόταν μέν πρός τούς εὐσεβεῖς εὐσεβῶς ἡ ἁγία Γραφή τῷ πληθυντικῷ περί Θεοῦ κέχρηται λόγῳ, τήν δήλωσιν ποιεῖται τῶν παναγίων τριῶν ὑποστάσεων· μυστικῶς τόν τῆς ὑπάρξεως σημαίνουσα τρόπον τῆς παναγίας καί ἀνάρχου καί ὁμοουσίας Τριάδος· ἐπειδή μονάς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν ἡ πάνσεπτος καί προσκυνητή καί πανεύφημος Τριάς τῶν ὑποστάσεων. Μονάς γάρ ἐν Τριάδι καί ἐν μονάδι Τριάς ἐστιν ὁ Θεός ἡμῶν. Ἡνίκα δέ πρός τούς ἀσεβεῖς πληθυντικόν περί Θεοῦ ποιεῖται τόν λόγον, τήν ψεκτήν (364) ἐκείνων, ὡς οἶμαι, διελέγει περί Θεότητος ἔννοιαν, φυσικήν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί ὑποστατικήν εἶναι τήν ἐν τοῖς ἰδιώμασιν ὑπειληφότων διαφοράν· ὅπερ σαφῶς τήν πολύθεον εἰσηγεῖται πλάνην τοῖς οὕτως περί Θεότητος ἔχουσιν.

Εἰ δέ μή τοῦτο λέγοντες πείθομεν, ἐπειδή φίλον τῷ Πνεύματι, καί τοῖς Πνεῦμα φιλοῦσιν ἀγαπητόν, τό μή μάχεσθαι, δεξώμεθα συμφώνως ἀλλήλοις τήν ἁγίαν