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substance.

11.21.1 XXII. CONCERNING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE GOOD Since the divine scripture among the Hebrews teaches in various ways that the substance of the good and the good itself are nothing else but God, through the words which say, "The Lord is good to all who wait for him, to the soul that will seek him out," and "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever," and through the words which the saving word declared in answer to the one who asked about this, saying: 11.21.2 "Why do you ask me about the good? No one is good except one, God;" hear what Plato says in the Timaeus: "Let us state, then, for what cause the composer composed creation and this universe. He was good; and in the good no envy about anything ever arises. Being free from this, he willed that all things should become as much as possible like himself." 11.21.3 And in the Republic he says these things: "Is it not also true that the sun is not sight, but, being the cause of it, is seen by this very sight? So it is, he said. This, then, I said, you must understand me to mean by the offspring of the good, which the good begot analogous to itself: what the good itself is in the intelligible region to intellect and the objects of intellection, this the sun is in the visible world to sight and the objects of sight." 11.21.4 And he adds next: "This, then, which imparts truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower, you must say is the idea of the good." And again he says: 11.21.5 "You will say, I think, that the sun not only provides to the things seen the power of being seen, but also their generation and growth and nourishment, without being generation itself. How could it? In the same way, then, you must say that for the things known not only is their being known present from the good, but also their being and their substance are present to them from it, though the good is not substance, but is beyond substance in rank and power." 11.21.6 Most clearly through these words Plato says that not only do the intelligible substances derive their being known, but also their being and their substance from the good, that is, from God, and that the good "is not substance, but is beyond substance, excelling in rank and power;" so that one should not posit them to be of the same substance, nor think them unbegotten, because indeed they have received both their being and their substance from that which is not substance, but is beyond substance, excelling in rank and power; whom alone the oracles of the Hebrews rightly proclaim God, as 11.21.7 being the cause of all things. Therefore, it is not reasonable to consider as gods those things that have neither being nor substance from themselves, and are not of the nature of the good, to which the good is not present by nature; for this must be attributed to one alone and to no other, to the only good, which Plato marvelously proclaimed "to excel beyond all substance in both rank and power." And again Numenius, in his work On the Good, interpreting the thought of Plato, explains it in this way:

11.22.1 XXIII. FROM NUMENIUS, ON THE GOOD "It is possible for us, then, to apprehend bodies by signs both from similar things and from the characteristics present in adjacent things; but there is no way at all to apprehend the good from anything adjacent nor again from any similar sensible object, but it will be necessary, just as if someone sitting on a lookout spot, gazing intently, should with a single glance perceive a small fishing boat, one of those two-oared vessels, one single boat alone and deserted, held between the waves, so must a person go far away from sensible things to commune with the good, alone with the alone,

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οὐσίαν.

11.21.1 κβʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΑΓΑΘΟΥ ΟΥΣΙΑΣ Τῆς παρ' Ἑβραίοις θείας γραφῆς διαφόρως τὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ οὐσίαν καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ ἀγαθὸν οὐδὲν ἄλλο εἶναι ἢ θεὸν διδασκούσης, δι' ὧν τέ φησιν· «Ἀγαθὸς κύριος πᾶσι τοῖς ὑπομένουσιν αὐτόν, ψυχῇ, ἣ ἐκζητήσει αὐτόν» καὶ «Ἐξομολογεῖσθε τῷ κυρίῳ ὅτι ἀγαθός, ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ» δι' ὧν τε ὁ σωτήριος λόγος πρὸς τὸν περὶ τοῦδε ἐρόμενον ἀπεφήνατο εἰπών· 11.21.2 «Τί με ἐρωτᾷς περὶ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ; οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ θεός·» ἐπάκουσον τοῦ Πλάτωνος, ἅ φησιν ἐν Τιμαίῳ· «Λέγωμεν δὴ δι' ἥντινα αἰτίαν γένεσιν καὶ τὸ πᾶν τόδε ὁ ξυνιστὰς ξυνέστησεν. ἀγαθὸς ἦν· ἀγαθῷ δὲ οὐδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδέποτε ἐγγίγνεται φθόνος. τούτου δὲ ἐκτὸς ὢν πάντα ὅτι μάλιστα ἐβουλήθη γενέσθαι παραπλήσια ἑαυτῷ.» 11.21.3 Καὶ ἐν τῇ Πολιτείᾳ δὲ ταῦτά φησιν· «Ἆρ' οὖν οὐ καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ὄψις μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν, αἴτιος δ' ὢν αὐτῆς ὁρᾶται ὑπ' αὐτῆς ταύτης; οὕτως, ἦ δ' ὅς. τοῦτον τοίνυν, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, φάναι με λέγειν τὸν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἔκγονον, ὃν τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐγέννησεν ἀνάλογον ἑαυτῷ, ὅ τι περ αὐτὸ ἐν τῷ νοητῷ τόπῳ πρός τε νοῦν καὶ τὰ νοούμενα, τοῦτο τοῦτον ἐν τῷ ὁρατῷ πρός τε ὄψιν καὶ τὰ ὁρώμενα.» 11.21.4 Καὶ ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· «Τοῦτο τοίνυν τὸ τὴν ἀλήθειαν παρέχον τοῖς γινωσκομένοις καὶ τὸ γινώσκοντι τὴν δύναμιν ἀποδιδοῦν τὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέαν φάθι εἶναι.» Καὶ πάλιν φησί· 11.21.5 «Τὸν ἥλιον τοῖς ὁρωμένοις οὐ μόνον, οἶμαι, τὴν τοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι δύναμιν παρέχειν φήσεις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν γένεσιν καὶ αὔξην καὶ τροφήν, οὐ γένεσιν αὐτὸν ὄντα. πῶς γάρ; καὶ τοῖς γινωσκομένοις τοίνυν μὴ μόνον τὸ γινώσκεσθαι φάναι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ παρεῖναι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ εἶναί τε καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν ὑπ' ἐκείνου αὐτοῖς προσεῖναι, οὐκ οὐσίας ὄντος τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, ἀλλ' ἐπέκεινα οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος.» 11.21.6 Σαφέστατα διὰ τούτων οὐ μόνον τὸ γινώσκεσθαι τὰς νοητὰς οὐσίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν ἔχειν παρὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, δηλαδὴ τοῦ θεοῦ, φησὶν ὁ Πλάτων τό τε ἀγαθὸν «μὴ εἶναι οὐσίαν, ἀλλ' ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας, πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχον·» ὥστε μὴ ὁμοούσια αὐτὰ τίθεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ἀγέννητα νομίζειν, ὅτι δὴ καὶ τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν εἴληφε παρὰ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐσίας, ἀλλ' ἐπέκεινα οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος· ὃν δὴ καὶ μόνον εἰκότως θεὸν τὰ Ἑβραίων ἀναγορεύει λόγια, ὡς 11.21.7 ἂν τοῖς πᾶσιν αἴτιον ὄντα. τὰ δὴ οὖν μήτε τὸ εἶναι μήτε τὴν οὐσίαν παρ' ἑαυτῶν ἔχοντα, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ τῆς τἀγαθοῦ φύσεως ὄντα οὐ δὴ εὔλογον θεοὺς ἡγεῖσθαι, οἷς μὴ φύσει τὸ ἀγαθὸν πρόσεστιν· ἑνὶ γὰρ τοῦτο μόνῳ καὶ οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ ἀναθετέον, τῷ μόνῳ ἀγαθῷ, ὃ δὴ καὶ «ἐπέκεινα πάσης οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ τε καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχειν» θαυμασίως ὁ Πλάτων ἀνεφώνησε. πάλιν δὲ καὶ ὁ Νουμήνιος ἐν τοῖς Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ τὴν τοῦ Πλάτωνος διάνοιαν ἑρμηνεύων, τοῦτον διέξεισι τὸν τρόπον·

11.22.1 κγʹ. ΝΟΥΜΗΝΙΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΑΓΑΘΟΥ «Τὰ μὲν οὖν σώματα λαβεῖν ἡμῖν ἔξεστι σημαινομένοις ἔκ τε ὁμοίων ἀπό τε τῶν ἐν τοῖς παρακειμένοις γνωρισμάτων ἐνόντων· τἀγαθὸν δὲ οὐδενὸς ἐκ παρακειμένου οὐδὲ αὖ ἀπὸ ὁμοίου αἰσθητοῦ ἐστι λαβεῖν μηχανή τις οὐδεμία, ἀλλὰ δεήσει, οἷον εἴ τις ἐπὶ σκοπῇ καθήμενος ναῦν ἁλιάδα βραχεῖάν τινα τούτων τῶν ἐπακτρίδων, τῶν μόνων μίαν μόνην ἔρημον, μετακυμίοις ἐχομένην ὀξὺ δεδορκὼς μιᾷ βολῇ κατεῖδε τὴν ναῦν, οὕτως δεῖ τινα ἀπελθόντα πόρρω ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὁμιλῆσαι τῷ ἀγαθῷ μόνῳ μόνον,