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| Chapter XXI.—The namelessness of God.
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Chapter XXI.—The namelessness of God.
For
God cannot be called by any proper name, for names are given to mark out
and distinguish their subject-matters, because these are many and
diverse; but neither did any one exist before God who could give Him a
name, nor did He Himself think it right to name Himself, seeing that He
is one and unique, as He Himself also by His own prophets testifies, when
He says, “I God am the first,” and after this, “And
beside me there is no other God.”2548
On this
account, then, as I before said, God did not, when He sent Moses to the
Hebrews, mention any name, but by a participle He mystically teaches them
that He is the one and only God. “For,” says He; “I am
the Being;” manifestly contrasting Himself, “the
Being,” with those who are not,2549
| 2549 Literally, “with the not-beings.”
| that those who had hitherto been deceived might see that they
were attaching themselves, not to beings, but to those who had no being.
Since, therefore, God knew that the first men remembered the old delusion
of their forefathers, whereby the misanthropic demon contrived to deceive
them when he said to them, “If ye obey me in transgressing the
commandment of God, ye shall be as gods,” calling those gods which
had no being, in order that men, supposing that there were other gods in
existence, might believe that they themselves could become gods. On this
account He said to Moses, “I am the Being,” that by the
participle “being” He might teach the difference between God
who is and those who are not.2550
| 2550 Literally, “between the God being and
not-beings.” | Men, therefore, having been duped by the
deceiving demon, and having dared to disobey God, were cast out of
Paradise, remembering the name of gods, but no longer being taught by God
that there are no other gods. For it was not just that they who did not
keep the first commandment, which it was easy to keep, should any longer
be taught, but should rather be driven to just punishment. Being
therefore banished from Paradise, and thinking that they were expelled on
account of their disobedience only, not knowing that it was also because
they had believed in the existence of gods which did not exist, they gave
the name of gods even to the men who were afterwards born of themselves.
This first false fancy, therefore, concerning gods, had its origin with
the father of lies. God, therefore, knowing that the false opinion about
the plurality of gods was burdening the soul of man like some disease,
and wishing to remove and eradicate it, appeared first to Moses, and said
to him, “I am He who is.” For it was necessary, I think, that
he who was to be the ruler and leader of the Hebrew people should first
of all know the living God. Wherefore, having appeared to him first, as
it was possible for God to appear to a man, He said to him, “I am
He who is;” then, being about to
send him to the
Hebrews, He further orders him to say, “He who is hath sent me to
you.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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