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| Concerning the Same.
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Chapter
XII.—Concerning the Same.
The following, then, are the mysteries which we
have learned from the holy oracles, as the divine Dionysius the
Areopagite said1599
| 1599 Dionys., De div.
nom., c. 1. | : that God
is the cause and beginning of all: the essence of all that have
essence: the life of the living: the reason of all rational
beings: the intellect of all intelligent beings: the
recalling and restoring of those who fall away from Him: the
renovation and transformation of those that corrupt that which is
natural: the holy foundation of those who are tossed in
unholiness: the steadfastness of those who have stood firm:
the way of those whose course is directed to Him and the hand stretched
forth to guide them upwards. And I shall add He is also the
Father of all His creatures (for God, Who brought us into being out of
nothing, is in a stricter sense our Father than are our parents who
have derived both being and begetting from Him1600
| 1600 Athan.,
Orat. 2, Cont. Arian.; Cyril, Thes., assert.
13. | ): the shepherd of those who follow and
are tended by Him: the radiance of those who are
enlightened: the initiation of the initiated: the
deification of the deified: the peace of those at discord:
the simplicity of those who love simplicity: the unity of those
who worship unity: of all beginning the beginning,
super-essential because above all beginning1601
| 1601 Text reads,
ὡς ὑπάρχιος:
surely a misprint for ὡς
ὑπεράρχιος. | : and the good revelation of what is
hidden, that is, of the knowledge of Him so far as that is lawful for
and attainable by each.
Further and more accurately concerning divine
names1602
| 1602 This chapter is
not found in the oldest copies, but only in a few of the latest
date. In Cod. Reg. 3109 it comes in after bk. iv. c. 9,
and in Cod. Reg. 3451, after bk. ii. c. 2. |
The Deity being incomprehensible is also assuredly
nameless. Therefore since we know not His essence, let us not
seek for a name for His essence. For names are explanations of
actual things1603
| 1603 Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 36. | . But God,
Who is good and brought us out of nothing into being that we might
share in His goodness, and Who gave us the faculty of knowledge, not
only did not impart to us His essence, but did not even grant us the
knowledge of His essence. For it is impossible for nature to
understand fully the supernatural1604
| 1604 Dioyns., De div.
nom., c. 1. | .
Moreover, if knowledge is of things that are1605
| 1605 Text, εἰ δὲ καὶ
τῶν ὄντων αἱ
γνωσεις, τὸ
ὑπερούσιον
πῶς
γνωθήσεται; a
variant, εἰ δὲ
αἱ φύσεις
ἄγνωστοι,
αὐτὸ
ὑπερούσιον
πῶς
γνωθήσεται. If the natures are unknown how can the superessential itself
be known? | ,
how can there be knowledge of the super-essential? Through His
unspeakable goodness, then, it pleased Him to be called by names that
we could understand, that we might not be altogether cut off from the
knowledge of Him but should have some notion of Him, however
vague. Inasmuch, then, as He is incomprehensible, He is also
unnameable. But inasmuch as He is the cause of all and contains
in Himself the reasons and causes of all that is, He receives names
drawn from all that is, even from opposites: for example, He is
called light and darkness, water and fire: in order that we may
know that these are not of His essence but that He is super-essential
and unnameable: but inasmuch as He is the cause of all, He
receives names from all His effects.
Wherefore, of the divine names, some have a
negative signification, and indicate that He is
super-essential1606
| 1606 Or,
super-substantial, ὑπερούσιος. | : such are
“non-essential1607
| 1607 ἀνούσιος,
non-substantial, without substance. | ,”
“timeless,” “without beginning,”
“invisible”: not that God is inferior to anything or
lacking in anything (for all things are His and have become from Him
and through Him and endure in Him1608
), but that
He is pre-eminently separated from all that is. For He is not one
of the things that are, but over all things. Some again have an
affirmative signification, as indicating that He is the cause of all
things. For as the cause of all that is and of all essence, He is
called both Ens and Essence. And as the cause of all reason and
wisdom, of the rational and the wise, He is called both reason and
rational, and wisdom and wise. Similarly He is spoken of as
Intellect and Intellectual, Life and Living, Power and Powerful, and so
on with all the rest. Or rather those names are most appropriate
to Him which are derived from what is most precious and most akin to
Himself. That which is immaterial is more precious and more akin
to Himself than that which is material, and the pure than the impure,
and the holy than the unholy: for they have greater part in
Him. So then, sun and light will be more apt names for Him than
darkness, and day than night, and life than death, and fire and spirit
and water, as having life, than earth, and above all, goodness than
wickedness: which is just to say, being more than not
being. For goodness is existence and the cause of existence, but
wickedness is the negation of goodness, that is, of existence.
These, then, are the affirmations and the negations, but the sweetest
names are a combination of both: for example, the super-essential
essence, the Godhead that is more than God, the beginning that is above
beginning and such like. Further there are some affirmations
about God which have in a pre-eminent degree the force of denial:
for example, darkness: for this does not imply that God is
darkness but that He is not light, but above light.
God then is called Mind and Reason and Spirit and
Wisdom and Power, as the cause of these, and as immaterial, and maker
of all, and omnipotent1609
| 1609 Dionys., De div.
nom., c. 5. | . And these
names are common to the whole Godhead, whether affirmative or
negative. And they are also used of each of the subsistences of
the Holy Trinity in the very same and identical way and with their full
significance1610
| 1610 Text, ἀπαραλείπτως:
variant, ἀπαραλλάκτως, unchangeably, an adverb used by the Greeks in connection with
the equality of the divine persons. | . For when I
think of one of the subsistences, I recognise it to be perfect God and
perfect essence: but when I combine and reckon the three
together, I know one perfect God. For the Godhead is not compound
but in three perfect subsistences, one perfect indivisible and
uncompound God. And when I think of the relation of the three
subsistences to each other, I perceive that the Father is
super-essential Sun, source of goodness, fathomless sea of essence,
reason, wisdom, power, light, divinity: the generating and
productive source of
good hidden in it. He Himself then is mind, the depth of reason,
begetter of the Word, and through the Word the Producer1611
| 1611 προβολεύς, Lat. productor, Emitter. | of the revealing Spirit. And to put
it shortly, the Father has no reason1612
, wisdom,
power, will1613
| 1613 θέλησις,
cf. Cyril, Th., assert. 7; Athan., Contr. Arian. 4;
Greg. Nyss., Contr. Eunom., p. 345. | , save the Son
Who is the only power of the Father, the immediate1614
| 1614 ἡ μονὴ
δύναμις του
Πατρὸς, ἠ
προκαταρτικὴ
τῆς τῶν
πάντων
ποιήσεως. The
ἡ προκαταρτική
is understood by some to mean the primordial or
immediate Cause, by others to be better rendered as the
primordial Power or Energy. Basil in his De Spiritu
Sancto speaks of the Father as the primordial Cause
(προκαταρτικὴ
αἰτία) in the creation of the
world. | cause of the creation of the
universe: as perfect subsistence begotten of perfect subsistence
in a manner known to Himself, Who is and is named the Son. And
the Holy Spirit is the power of the Father revealing the hidden
mysteries of His Divinity, proceeding from the Father through the Son
in a manner known to Himself, but different from that of
generation. Wherefore the Holy Spirit is the perfecter of the
creation of the universe. All the terms, then, that are
appropriate to the Father, as cause, source, begetter, are to be
ascribed to the Father alone: while those that are appropriate to
the caused, begotten Son, Word, immediate power, will, wisdom, are to
be ascribed to the Son: and those that are appropriate to the
caused, processional, manifesting, perfecting power, are to be ascribed
to the Holy Spirit. The Father is the source and cause of the Son
and the Holy Spirit: Father of the Son alone and producer of the
Holy Spirit. The Son is Son, Word, Wisdom, Power, Image,
Effulgence, Impress of the Father and derived from the Father.
But the Holy Spirit is not the Son of the Father but the Spirit of the
Father as proceeding from the Father. For there is no impulse
without Spirit. And we speak also of the Spirit of the Son, not
as through proceeding from Him, but as proceeding through Him from the
Father. For the Father alone is cause.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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