St. John is a damascene exposition of the Orthodox faith. St.

Venerable John of Damascus

BOOK ONE

Chapter I
That the Divinity is incomprehensible and that we should not make research and show curiosity about what has not been conveyed to us by the holy prophets, and apostles, and evangelists

God is nowhere to be seen. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the confessor(John 1:18). Therefore, the Divine is ineffable and incomprehensible. For no one knows the Son except the Father; no one knows the Father but the Son(Matt. 11:27). And the Holy Spirit knows so God's how does a person's spirit know even in him (1 Cor. 2:11). After the first and blessed Nature, no one - not only from people, but even from the supermundane powers, and themselves, I say, the cherubim and seraphim - ever knew God, unless He Himself revealed it to someone. However, God did not leave us completely ignorant. For the knowledge that God exists is naturally infused into everyone. Both the creation itself, and both its continuous continuation and management, proclaim the greatness of the Divine nature (Wisdom 13:5). Also, and according to the degree to which we can comprehend, He revealed knowledge of Himself: first through the law and the prophets, and then through His only begotten Son, Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, we accept, understand, and honor everything that was handed down to us, both through the law and the prophets, the apostles, and the evangelists, without looking for anything beyond this; for God, since He is good, is the Giver of every good, not subject to envy or any passion. For envy is far removed from the Divine nature, which is truly impassive and only good. Therefore, as one who knows everything and cares about what is useful for everyone, He revealed what was useful for us to know; and what exactly exceeded our strength and understanding, he kept silent about. May we be content with this and may we abide in it, without limiting the eternal and without breaking the Divine Tradition (Proverbs 22, 28)!

Chapter II
About what can be expressed in speech and what cannot, and about what can be known and what cannot

Anyone who wants to talk or listen about God, of course, must clearly know that from what relates to the doctrine of God and the Incarnation, not everything is inexpressible, and not everything can be expressed in speech; and not everything is inaccessible to knowledge, and not everything is accessible to it; and one is what can be known, and the other is what can be expressed by speech, just as one is to speak and the other is to know. Therefore, much of what is darkly thought about God cannot be expressed in an appropriate way, but about objects that exceed us, we are forced to speak, resorting to the human character of speech, as, for example, we talk about God, [using words] sleep, and anger, negligence, and hands, And legs, and the like.

That God is beginningless, infinite, both eternal and constant, uncreated, immutable, unchangeable, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, intangible, indescribable, limitless, inaccessible to the mind, immense, incomprehensible, good, righteous, Creator of all creatures, omnipotent, Almighty, overseeing everything, Provider of everything, having power [over everything], Judge - we, of course, both know and confess: also that God is one, that is, one Being, and that He is cognizable , and exists in Three Hypostases: the Father, I say, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except for non-fertility and birth and procession, and that the Only Begotten Son, and the Word of God, and God, as a result of His merciful heart, for the sake of our salvation, by the good will of the Father and with the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit, seedlessly overstuffed, born without incorruption from the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary through the mediation of the Holy Spirit and came from Her as a perfect man; and that One and the Same is at the same time perfect God and perfect Man from two natures: both Divinity and humanity, and that He [is known] in two natures, endowed with mind, and will, and the ability to act, and independent, existing in a perfect way, according to the definition and concept befitting each: both Divinity, I say, and humanity, but [at the same time] a single complex Hypostasis; and that He hungered and thirsted, and suffered toil, and was crucified, and third day accepted death and burial, and ascended into heaven, from where he came to us, and will come again later. And the Divine Scripture, as well as the entire host of saints, serves as a witness to this.

But what is the essence of God, or how it is inherent in all things, or how the only begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, was born as a man from the blood of the Virgin, being formed differently than what was the law of nature, or how He walked on the waters with dry feet, – we don’t know, and we can’t talk. So, it is impossible to say anything about God or to think anything at all contrary to what, by Divine definition, is announced to us or said and revealed to us by Divine sayings of both the Old and New Testaments.

Chapter III
Proof that God exists

That God really exists, there is no doubt among those who accept the Holy Scriptures: both the Old, I say, and New Testament, nor among most of the Hellenes. For, as we have said, the knowledge that God exists is naturally implanted in us. And since the evil of the evil one against human nature was so powerful that it even brought some down into the most unreasonable and worst of all evils, the abyss of destruction - to the assertion that there is no God, showing the madness of which the interpreter of Divine words, David, said: speech is foolish in his heart: there is no God(Ps. 13:1), therefore, the disciples of the Lord and the apostles, being made wise by the All-Holy Spirit and creating Divine signs by His power and grace, catching them in a net of miracles, led them out of the abyss of ignorance upward - to the light of the knowledge of God. In the same way, the heirs of these grace and dignity, both shepherds and teachers, having received the illuminating grace of the Spirit, both by the power of miracles and the word of grace, enlightened the darkened and turned the lost to the true path. But we, who have not received either the gift of miracles or the gift of teaching, because we have made ourselves unworthy through our passion for pleasure, want to tell about this a little of what was conveyed to us by the heralds of grace, calling on the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to help us.

Everything that exists is either created or uncreated. So, if it is created, then, in any case, it is changeable, for what being began due to change, it will certainly be subject to change, either by perishing, or by changing of its own will. If it was not created, then, according to the concept of consistency, in any case it is unchangeable. For if the existence of something is opposite, then the concept of that How it exists, that is, the qualities of it are also opposite. Therefore, who will not agree that everything that exists, [not only that which] is perceived by our senses, but, of course, the Angels, changes, and changes, and moves in various ways? What is comprehended only by the mind - I mean Angels, and souls, and demons - changes according to its own will, both succeeding in the beautiful, and moving away from the beautiful, and straining, and weakening? The rest is due to both birth and destruction, both increase and decrease, both changes in quality and movement from place to place? Therefore, beings, being changeable, were in any case created. Having been created, it was in any case created by someone. But the Creator must be uncreated. For if He was created, then in any case he was created by someone, until we come to something uncreated. Consequently, being uncreated, the Creator is in any case unchangeable. And what else could this be if not God?

And the most continuous continuation of the creature, and preservation, and management, teach us that There is God, who created all this, and contains, and preserves, and always provides. For how could opposite natures be united with each other to create a single world - I mean the natures of fire and water, air and earth - and how do they remain indestructible, if some almighty Power did not unite them together, and does not always keep them indestructible?

What is the creator of what is in the sky and what is on the earth, and what [moves] through the air, and what [lives] under the water, and even more, in comparison with this, the sky, and the earth, and the air, and nature is like fire , and water? What connected it and divided it? What set this in motion and moves it incessantly and unhindered? Isn’t he the artist of this and the one who put into everything the foundation by which the universe goes its way and is governed? But who is the artist of this? Isn't it the One who created it and brought it into existence? Because we will not give this kind of power to chance. For let the origin belong to chance, but to whom does the dispensation belong? If you like, let's leave this to chance. To whom is the observance and protection of the laws in accordance with which this was first carried out? Of course, to another, except by chance. But what else is this if not God?

Chapter IV
About, What there is God; that the Divine is incomprehensible

So what God There is, It's clear. A What It is in essence and nature completely incomprehensible and unknown. For it is clear that the Deity is incorporeal. For how can something that is infinite, and unlimited, and without form, and intangible, and invisible, and simple, and uncomplicated, be a body? For how can [anything] be unchangeable if it is describable and subject to passions? And how can something composed of elements and resolving itself in them be dispassionate? For addition is the beginning of struggle, and struggle is discord, and discord is destruction; destruction is completely alien to God.

How can the position be preserved that God permeates everything and fills everything, as Scripture says: I do not fill the heavens and the earth with food, says the Lord?(Jer. 23, 24). For it is impossible for a body to penetrate through bodies without cutting, and without being cut, and without being intertwined, and without being opposed, just as that which belongs to the moist is mixed and dissolved.

Even if some say that this body is immaterial, like the one that the Hellenic sages call the fifth, this, however, cannot be, [for] it, in any case, will move like the sky. For this is what they call the fifth body. Who is driving this? For everything that is movable is set in motion by another. Who is driving this? And so [I will continue to go] into infinity until we come to something motionless. For the first mover is motionless, which is precisely the Divinity. How is it that something that moves is not limited by space? So, only the Divinity is motionless, by His motionlessness setting everything in motion. Therefore, we must admit that the Deity is incorporeal.

But even this does not show His essence, just as they do not show [the expressions:] the unborn, and the beginningless, and the unchangeable, and the incorruptible, and what is said about God or about the existence of God; for this does not mean What God There is, but that, What He do not eat. And whoever wants to talk about the essence of something must explain - What it There is, not that What it do not eat. However, to say about God, What He There is essentially impossible. Rather, it is more typical to speak [about Him] through the removal of everything. For He is not anything that exists: not as not existing, but as Being above everything that exists, and above being itself. For if knowledge [revolves around] what exists, then what exceeds knowledge, in any case, will be higher than reality. And vice versa, what exceeds reality is higher than knowledge.

So, the Divine is limitless and incomprehensible. And only this one thing—infinity and incomprehensibility—is comprehensible in Him. And what we say about God in the affirmative shows not His nature, but what is around nature.

Whether you call Him good, or righteous, or wise, or anything else, you are not talking about the nature of God, but about what is around nature. Also, some of what is said about God in the affirmative has the meaning of a superlative negation; such as when talking about darkness in relation to God, we do not mean darkness, but that which is not light, but above light; and talking about you sow we understand that which is not darkness.

Chapter V
Proof that there is one God and not many gods

It has been sufficiently proven that God There is and that His being is incomprehensible. But that there is one God, and not many gods, is not doubted by those who believe the Divine Scripture. For at the beginning of the legislation the Lord says: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. May you not be blessed or even Men(Ex. 20, 2–3). And again: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one(Deut. 6:4). And through the prophet Isaiah: Az, – He says, first, and I am to this day, except Me there is no God. Before Me there was no God, and after Me there will be no God but Me.(Isa. 44, 6; 43, 10). And also the Lord in the Holy Gospels thus speaks to the Father: This is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God(John 17:3). With those who do not believe the Divine Scripture, we will talk in this way.

The Deity is perfect and lacking in both goodness and wisdom and power, beginningless, infinite, eternal, indescribable and, simply to say, perfect in every way. Therefore, if we say that there are many gods, then it is necessary that a difference be noticed between many. For if there is no difference between them, then rather there is one God, and not many gods. If there is a difference between them, then where is the perfection? For if God remains behind perfection, either in regard to goodness, or power, or wisdom, or time, or place, then he cannot be God. Identity in all respects shows one rather than many.

And also how can indescribability be preserved if there are many gods? For where there was one, [there] there would be no other.

And how will the world be ruled by many, and not be destroyed and not perish, when there would be a struggle between the rulers? For difference introduces contradiction. If someone were to say that each governs a part, then what was the culprit of this order and what divided [power] between them? For that would rather be God. Therefore God is one, perfect, indescribable, Creator of all things, both Preserver and Ruler, above perfection and before perfection.

In addition, and by natural necessity, one is the beginning of two.

Chapter VI
About the Word and the Son of God, proof borrowed from reason

So, this one and only God is not devoid of the Word. Having the Word, He will not have it as non-hypostatic, not as one who began his existence and is about to end it. For there was no [time] when God was without the Word. But He always has His Word, which is born from Him and which is not impersonal, like our word, and is not poured out into the air, but is hypostatic, living, perfect, not located outside of Him, but always abiding in Him. For if It is born outside of Him, then where will It be? For since our nature is subject to death and easily destroyed, therefore our word is impersonal. God, always existing, and existing perfect, will have both perfect and hypostatic His Word, and always existing, and living, and having everything that a Parent has. For just as our word, coming out of the mind, is neither entirely identical with the mind, nor completely different, because, being from the mind, it is something else in comparison with it; revealing the mind itself, it is no longer completely different from the mind, but, being one by nature, it is different in position. Likewise, the Word of God, in that It exists in Itself, is different in comparison with the One from Whom It has Hypostasis. If we take into account the fact that It shows in Itself what is seen in relation to God, then It is identical with That by nature. For just as perfection in everything is seen in the Father, so it is also seen in the Word begotten of Him.

Chapter VII
Concerning the Holy Spirit, Proof Borrowed from Reason

The Word must also have the Spirit. For our word is not without breath. However, in us, breathing is alien to our being. For it is the attraction and movement of air drawn in and poured out to keep the body in good condition. What exactly during the exclamation becomes the sound of the word, revealing the power of the word in itself. The existence of the Spirit of God in the Divine nature, which is simple and uncomplicated, must be piously confessed, because the Word is not more insufficient than our word. But it is ungodly to consider the Spirit to be something alien, coming into God from without, just as it happens in us, who are of a complex nature. But how, having heard about the Word of God, we considered It not to be one that is devoid of personal existence, and not one that occurs as a result of teaching, and not one that is pronounced by a voice, and not one that is poured out into the air and disappears, but existing independently and gifted with free will, and active, and omnipotent; So, having learned about the Spirit of God, accompanying the Word and showing His activity, we do not understand Him as a breath that does not have personal existence. For if the Spirit who is in God were to be understood in the likeness of our spirit, then in that case the greatness of the Divine nature would be reduced to insignificance. But we understand Him as an independent Power, Which in Itself is contemplated in a special Hypostasis, and emanating from the Father, and resting in the Word, and being His expresser, and as one Which cannot be separated from God, in Whom It is, and from the Word with which it accompanies, and as one that is not poured out in such a way that it ceases to exist, but as a Power, in the likeness of the Word, existing hypostatically, living, possessing free will, self-moving, active, always desiring the good and possessing power at every intention, which accompanies a desire that has neither beginning nor end. For the Father never lacked the Word, nor did the Word lack the Spirit.

Thus, through Their unity by nature, the delusion of the Hellenes, which recognizes many gods, is destroyed; through the acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, the dogma of the Jews is overthrown and what is useful in both sects remains: from the Jewish opinion the unity of nature remains, from the Hellenic teaching - only the division according to Hypostases.

If a Jew speaks against receiving the Word and the Spirit, then let him be both rebuked and forced into silence by Divine Scripture. For the divine David speaks of the Word: forever, O Lord, your word remains in heaven(Ps. 119, 89). And again: sent my word, and I healed(Ps. 106:20). But the spoken word is not sent and does not remain forever. The same David says about the Spirit: send forth your spirit, and they will be created(Ps. 103:30). And again: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of the mouth of God all their power(Ps. 33:6). And Job: The Spirit of God created me, and the breath of the Almighty taught me(Job 33:4). The Spirit, which is sent, and creates, and affirms, and contains, is not a disappearing breath, just as the mouth of God is not a bodily member. For both must be understood according to the dignity of God.

Chapter VIII
About the Holy Trinity

So, we believe in One God, one beginning, beginningless, uncreated, unborn, both not subject to destruction, and immortal, eternal, boundless, indescribable, unlimited, infinitely powerful, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, imperishable, impassive, permanent, unchangeable, invisible, the source of goodness and justice, mental light, unapproachable, power, not examined by any measure, measured only by His own will, for He can do whatever He wants (Ps. 134:6); into the power of the Creator of all creatures, both visible and invisible, containing and preserving everything, providing for everything, ruling and dominating over everything, commanding an endless and immortal kingdom, having nothing as an opponent, filling everything, not embraced by anything, on the contrary, itself embracing everything together and containing and surpassing, penetrating without defilement into all beings and existing beyond everything, and removed from every being, as the most essential and existing above all, pre-divine, pre-good, exceeding fullness, choosing everything beginnings and ranks, above and beyond everything started And rank, higher than essence and life, and words, and thoughts; into power, which is light itself, goodness itself, life itself, essence itself, since it does not have its being or anything of what is from another, but is itself the source of being for that which exists: for that which what lives is the source of life, for what uses reason - reason, for everything - the cause of all good; into power - knowing everything before his birth; into one essence, one Divinity, one power, one will, one activity, one Start, single power, unified domination, unified kingdom in three perfect Hypostases, both cognizable and welcomed by a single worship, and representing the object of both faith and service on the part of every rational creature; in Hypostases, inseparably united and inseparably distinguished, which even surpasses [any] idea. In the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in Whom we are baptized. For this is how the Lord commanded the apostles to baptize: baptizing them, He says in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit(Matt. 28:19).

We believe in the One Father, the beginning of everything and the cause, not born of anyone, but the One Who alone exists innocent and unborn; in the Creator of all things, of course, but in the Father by nature only of His Only Begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, and in the Creator of the All-Holy Spirit. And into the One Son of God, the Only Begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages, into Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came into being. By speaking of Him “before all ages,” we prove that His birth flightless and without beginning; For the Son of God was not brought into being out of non-existence, radiance of glory, image of the Hypostasis Father (Heb. 1, 3), living wisdom And force(1 Cor. 1:24), the Word is hypostatic, essential, and perfect, and living image of the invisible God(Col. 1:15), but He was always with the Father and in Him, born of Him eternally and without beginning. For the Father never existed unless the Son existed, but together the Father and together the Son, begotten of Him. For He who is deprived of the Son could not be called Father. And if He existed without having a Son, then He was not the Father; and if after this he received the Son, then after this he became the Father, having not previously been the Father, and from a position in which He was not a Father, he changed into one in which He became a Father, which [to say] is worse than any blasphemy. For it is impossible to say of God that He is deprived of the natural ability to be born. The ability to give birth is to give birth from oneself, that is, from one’s own essence, similar in nature.

So, regarding the birth of the Son, it is impious to say that in the middle [between His non-birth and His birth] time passed and that the existence of the Son came after the Father. For we say that the birth of the Son is from Him, that is, from the nature of the Father. And if we do not admit that from time immemorial the Son born of Him existed together with the Father, then we will introduce a change in the Hypostasis of the Father, since, not being the Father, He became the Father later; for creation, even if it came into being after this, did not come from the essence of God, but was brought into existence from non-existence by His will and power, and the change does not concern the nature of God. For birth consists in the fact that from the being of the one who gives birth, what is born is derived, similar in essence. Creation and work consist in the fact that from the outside and not from the essence of the one who creates and produces, the created and produced, completely different in essence, comes into being.

Therefore, in God, Who alone is impassive, and unchangeable, and immutable, and always exists in the same way, both birth and creation are impassive; for, being by nature dispassionate and constant as simple and uncomplicated, he is not inclined by nature to endure passion or flow either in birth or in creation and does not need anyone's assistance; but birth is beginningless and eternal, being a matter of nature and coming out of His being, so that the One who gives birth does not suffer change and so that there is no God first and God later and that He may not receive any increase. Creation in God, being a work of will, is not co-eternal with God, since that which is brought into being from the non-existent is by nature incapable of being co-eternal with the beginningless and always existing. Consequently, just as man and God do not produce in the same way, for man does not bring anything into existence from a non-existent, but what he does, he makes from a previously existing substance, not only having willed, but also having first thought about and imagined in his mind what he has. perhaps, then, having worked with his hands and endured fatigue and exhaustion, and often not achieving the goal, when the diligent work did not end as he wished, God, only by desiring, brought everything out of non-existence into existence; Thus, God and man do not give birth in the same way. For God, being flightless, and beginningless, and passionless, and free from flow, and incorporeal, and one only, and infinite, also gives birth to flightless, and without beginning, and dispassionately, and without expiration, and without combination; and His incomprehensible birth has neither beginning nor end. And He gives birth without beginning because He is unchangeable, and without expiration because He is passionless and incorporeal; outside of combination, both again because he is incorporeal, and because He alone is God, not needing another; infinitely and unceasingly because He is beginningless, and flightless, and infinite, and always exists in the same way. For what is without beginning is also infinite; and what is infinite by grace is in no way without beginning, like [for example] the Angels.

Therefore, the ever-existing God gives birth to His Word, which is perfect, without beginning and without end, so as not to give birth in time God, who has the highest time and nature and being. And that a person gives birth in the opposite way is clear, since he is subject to birth, and death, and flow, and increase, and is clothed with a body, and in his nature has male and female sex. For the male sex needs the help of the female. But may He be merciful who is above all and who surpasses all understanding and comprehension!

So, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church expounds the doctrine together about the Father and together about His Only Begotten Son, begotten of Him flightless, and without flow, and impassively, and incomprehensibly, as God alone knows of everything; just as fire exists at the same time and the light that comes from it simultaneously exists, and not first fire and then light, but together; and just as light, always born from fire, is always in it, in no way separating from it, so the Son is born from the Father, not at all separated from Him, but always abiding in Him. However, light, which is born inseparably from fire and always abides in it, does not have its own hypostasis in comparison with fire, for it is the natural quality of fire. The Only Begotten Son of God, born from the Father inseparably and inseparably and always abiding in Him, has His own Hypostasis in comparison with the Hypostasis of the Father.

So, the Son is called Word and radiance because he was born from the Father without combination and dispassionately, and flightless, and without expiration, and inseparably. He is the Son and the image of the Father's Hypostasis because He is perfect and hypostatic and in everything equal to the Father, except for non-fertility. The only begotten - because He alone was born from the Father alone in a unique way. For there is no other birth that is likened to the birth of the Son of God, since there is no other Son of God.

For although the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, it does not proceed in the manner of birth, but in the manner of procession. This is a different image of origin, both incomprehensible and unknown, just like the birth of the Son. Therefore, everything that the Father has belongs to Him, that is, to the Son, except for ungeneracy, which does not show the difference of essence, does not show dignity, but the image of being; just as Adam, who was not born, for he is the creation of God, and Seth, who was born, for he is the son of Adam, and Eve, who came from Adam’s side, for she was not born, do not differ from each other by nature , for they are people, but in the image of origin.

For you must know that το το άγένητον, which is written through one letter “ν,” denotes the uncreated, that is, what did not happen; and then άγέννητον, which is written through two letters “νν,” means unborn. Therefore, in accordance with the first meaning, essence differs from essence, for the other is an uncreated essence, that is, άγένητος - through one letter “ν”, and the other is γενητή, that is, created. In accordance with the second meaning, essence does not differ from essence, for the first being of every kind of living being is άγέννητον (unborn), but not άγένητον (that is, uncreated). For they were created by the Creator, being brought into being by His Word, but were not born, since before there was no other homogeneous thing from which they could have been born.

So, if we keep in mind the first meaning, then Three Divine The hypostases of the Holy Deity participate [in uncreatedness], for they are consubstantial and uncreated. If we mean the second meaning, then in no way, for the Father alone is ungenerated, because His existence is not from another Hypostasis. And only one Son is begotten, for He is without beginning and flightless born from the being of the Father. And the Holy Spirit alone is emanating, not generated, but proceeding from the being of the Father (John 15:26). Although Divine Scripture teaches this, the image of birth and procession is incomprehensible.

But we must also know this, that the name of patronymic, and sonship, and procession was not transferred from us to the blessed Divinity, but, on the contrary, was transferred to us from there, as the divine apostle says: For this reason I bow my knees to the Father, from the Unfitness of every patronymic in heaven and on earth(Eph. 3:14–15).

If we say that the Father is the beginning of the Son and painful Him, then we do not show that He takes precedence over the Son in time or nature (John 14:28), for through Him the Father create eyelids(Heb. 1, 2). It does not take precedence in any other respect, if not in relation to the cause, that is, because the Son is born of the Father, and not the Father from the Son, and because the Father is naturally the cause of the Son, just as we do not say that fire comes out of light, but what is better is light from fire. So, whenever we hear that the Father is the beginning and painful Son, then let us understand this in the sense of reason. And just as we do not say that fire belongs to another essence and light belongs to another, so we cannot say that the Father belongs to another essence and the Son belongs to another, but to one and the same one. And just as we say that fire shines through the light emanating from it, and we do not believe, for our part, that the service organ of fire is the light emanating from it, or better yet, a natural force, so we say about the Father that everything He does, does through His Only Begotten Son, not as through an official organ, but as a natural and hypostatic Power. And just as we say that fire illuminates, and again we say that the light of fire illuminates, so everything that creates Father, and My son does the same thing(John 5:19). But light has no existence separate from fire; The Son is a perfect Hypostasis, inseparable from the Fatherly Hypostasis, as we showed above. For it is impossible for an image to be found among creation that in all respects shows similar properties in itself. Holy Trinity. For what is created, and complex, and fleeting, and changeable, and describable, and having appearance, and how the corruptible will clearly show free from all this essential Divine essence? But it is clear that all creation is possessed by greater [conditions] than these, and all of it, by its nature, is subject to destruction.

Memory: December 4 / December 17

St. John of Damascus (680 - 780) - Orthodox apologist, spiritual writer, hymnographer. Known primarily for his defense of icon veneration and denunciation of heresies.

John of Damascus. An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith. Book one

Chapter I. That the Divinity is incomprehensible and that we should not seek with excessive curiosity what is not given to us by the holy prophets, apostles and evangelists

There is no one else in sight of God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is of that confession (John 1:18). So, the Divinity is ineffable and incomprehensible; for no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father (Matt. 11:27). Likewise, the Holy Spirit knows God, just as the human spirit knows the things that are in man (1 Cor. 2:11). Apart from the very first and blessed Being, no one has ever known God, except the one to whom He Himself revealed it - no one not only from people, but even from the supermundane Powers, from themselves, I say, the Cherubim and Seraphim.

That God is beginningless, infinite, eternal, ever-present, uncreated, unchangeable, immutable, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, intangible, unlimited, limitless, unknown, incomprehensible, good, righteous, omnipotent, almighty, all-seeing, all-provider, all-lord and judge, - this we know and confess, as well as the fact that God is one, i.e. one Being; that He is known and exists in three hypostases (persons), i.e. in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except non-generation, birth and procession; that the Only Begotten Son, and the Word of God, and God, according to His goodness, for the sake of our salvation, by the good will of the Father and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, having been conceived without seed, was incorruptibly born of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary through the Holy Spirit and became from Her a perfect Man; and that He is both perfect God and perfect Man, from two natures, Divinity and humanity, and (is known) from both natures, gifted with mind and will, active and autocratic, in short, perfect according to the definition and concept of each, i.e. e. Deity and humanity, but in one complex form. That He, moreover, hungered, and thirsted, and was weary, and was crucified, and actually accepted death and burial, and was resurrected for three days, and ascended into heaven, from where He came to us and will come again - Divine Scripture testifies to this, and the entire Cathedral of Saints.

What is the essence of God, or how He is in everything, or how the Only Begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, became man from virgin blood, i.e. by another supernatural law, or how He walked on the waters with wet feet - we do not know and cannot say. So, we cannot say anything about God, nor even think, other than what God himself has spoken, said or revealed to us in the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Chapter III. Proof that God exists

All beings are either created or uncreated. If they are created, then, without a doubt, they are changeable; for what being began by change will necessarily and will be subject to change, either decaying, or changing at will. If they are uncreated, then by the very sequence of inferences, of course, they are unchangeable; for what being is opposite, the image of being is opposite, that is, its properties. Who would not agree that all beings, not only those who are subject to our senses, but also angels, change, are altered and transformed in various ways; so, for example, mental beings, that is, angels, souls and spirits, according to their will, more or less succeeding in good and moving away from good, and other beings, changing both by their birth, and by disappearance, and by increase and decrease, by changes in properties and by local movement? And what changes is, of course, created, and what is created is, without a doubt, created by someone. The Creator must be an uncreated being: for if he were created, then, of course, by someone, and so on, until we reach something uncreated. Therefore, the Creator, being uncreated, undoubtedly exists and is unchangeable: and who is this other than God?

And the very composition, preservation and management of creatures show us that there is a God who created all this, maintains, preserves and provides for everything. For how could elements hostile to each other, such as fire, water, air, earth, unite to form one world and remain in complete inseparability, if some omnipotent force did not unite them and always keep them inseparable?

Who is it that arranged in certain places everything that is in heaven and that is on earth, that is in the air and that is in water, and that which precedes all this: heaven and earth, air and nature, both fire and water? Who connected and separated all this? Who gave them movement and striving unceasing and unhindered? Isn’t this the artist who laid down the law for all things, according to which everything is done and everything is governed? Who is this artist? Isn’t it the one who created all this and brought it into existence? We cannot attribute such power to blind chance, for let it come from chance; but who put everything in such order? - let’s give in, if you like, and this is the case, who observes and preserves according to the same laws according to which everything was created before? - Someone else, of course, and not blind chance. But who else is this if not God?

Chapter IV. About what God is? That the Divine cannot be comprehended

How will it be fulfilled that God penetrates and fills everything, as the Scripture says: I will not fill the heavens and the earth with food, says the Lord (Jer. 23, 24). For it is impossible for a body to pass through bodies without separating them and without itself being separated, without mixing and combining with them, just as liquids merge and dissolve together.

If we assume, as some say, an immaterial body, similar to the one that the Greek sages call the fifth body, which, however, is impossible, then it, of course, will be movable, like the sky, for it is this that is called the fifth body. But who moves this body? [Of course, another being] - for everything that is movable is set in motion by another. Who is this other thing moving by? And so on to infinity, until we meet something immovable. But the first mover is the immovable, which is what God is. If He were movable, how would He not be limited by space? Therefore, God alone is immovable and through his immobility moves everything. So, it must be necessary to admit that the Deity is incorporeal.

However, this does not yet determine His essence, nor does it define ungeneracy, nor beginninglessness, nor immutability, nor incorruptibility, nor everything that is said about God or about His existence. For all this shows not that God is, but that He is not. Whoever wants to express the essence of a thing must say what it is, and not what it is not. However, it cannot be said about God that He exists in essence; but it is much more typical to talk about Him through the denial of everything. For He is not any of the things that exist, not because He did not exist at all, but because He is above everything that exists, above even being itself. For if knowledge has as its object existing things, then that which is higher than knowledge is, of course, higher than being, and again: that which exceeds being is also higher than knowledge.

So, God is infinite and incomprehensible, and one thing about Him is comprehensible - His infinity and incomprehensibility. And what we say about God affirmatively shows us not His nature, but what pertains to nature. For whether we call God good, or righteous, or wise, or anything else, we are not expressing His nature, but only what relates to nature. And sometimes what is said affirmatively about God has the force of a primary negation; so, for example, when speaking about God, we use the word darkness, meaning not darkness, but that which is not light, but above all light; or we use the word light, meaning that it is not darkness.

Chapter V. Proof that there is one God, and not many

So, it is sufficiently proven that God exists, and that His being is incomprehensible. And that there is one God, and not many, this is certain for those who believe in the Divine Scripture. For the Lord at the beginning of His law says: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you will have no gods other than Me (Ex. 20:2); and again: Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4); and in Isaiah the prophet: I am God the first and I am hereafter, except Me there is no God (Is. 41:4) - Before Me there was no other God, and after Me there will not be... and is there no God (Is. 43:10 -eleven). And the Lord in the Holy Gospels says this to the Father: This is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God (John 17:3).

With those who do not believe the Divine Scripture, we will reason this way: God is perfect and has no shortcomings in goodness, wisdom, and power - beginningless, infinite, everlasting, unlimited, and, in a word, perfect in everything. So, if we admit many gods, then it will be necessary to recognize the difference between these many. For if there is no difference between them, then there is one, and not many; if there is a difference between them, then where is the perfection? If perfection is lacking either in goodness, or in power, or in wisdom, or in time, or in place, then God will no longer exist. Identity in everything indicates one God rather than many.

Moreover, if there were many gods, how would their indescribability be preserved? For where there was one, there would not be another.

It should be added to this that by the most natural necessity, unit is the beginning of binary.

Chapter VI. About the Word and the Son of God, proof from reason

Chapter VII. About the Holy Spirit; proof from the mind

For the Word there must also be breath; for our word is not without breath. But our breathing is different from our being: it is the inhalation and exhalation of air, drawn in and exhaled for the existence of the body. When a word is pronounced, it becomes a sound that reveals the power of the word. And in God’s nature, simple and uncomplicated, we must piously confess the existence of the Spirit of God, because His Word is not more insufficient than our word; but it would be wicked to think that in God the Spirit is something that comes from outside, as is the case in us, complex beings. On the contrary, when we hear about the Word of God, we do not recognize It as hypostatic, or as one that is acquired by teaching, pronounced by voice, spreads in the air and disappears, but as one that exists hypostatically, has free will, is active and omnipotent: thus, having learned that the Spirit God accompanies the Word and manifests His action; we do not consider Him to be a non-hypostatic breath; for in this way we would degrade the greatness of the Divine nature to insignificance, if we had the same understanding about the Spirit that is in Him as we have about our spirit; but we honor Him with a power that truly exists, contemplated in its own and special personal existence, emanating from the Father, resting in the Word and manifesting Him, which therefore cannot be separated either from God in Whom it is, or from the Word with which it accompanies, and which does not appear in such a way as to disappear, but, like the Word, exists personally, lives, has free will, moves by itself, is active, always wants good, accompanies the will with force in every will and has neither beginning nor end; for neither the Father was ever without the Word, nor the Word without the Spirit.

If a Jew begins to contradict the acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, then he must be rebuked and his mouth blocked with Divine Scripture. For about the Divine Word David says: For ever, Lord, Thy Word abides in heaven (Ps. 119:89), and in another place: Ambassador Your Word, and I heal (Ps. 106:20); - but the word spoken by the mouth is not sent and does not remain forever. And about the Spirit the same David says: Follow Thy Spirit, and they will be created (Ps. 103:30); and in another place: By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength (Ps. 32:6); also Job: the Spirit of God created me, and the breath of the Almighty taught me (Job 33:4); - but the Spirit sent, creating, affirming and preserving is not a breath that disappears, just as the mouth of God is not a bodily member: but both must be understood in a manner fitting for God.

Chapter VIII. About the Holy Trinity

(We believe) in one Father, the beginning of everything and the cause, not begotten of anyone, who alone has no cause and is not begotten, the Creator of all things, but the Father by nature of His one Only Begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ and the bearer of the All-Holy Spirit. And in one Only Son of God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came into being. Speaking about Him: before all ages, we show that His birth is timeless and without beginning; for it was not out of non-existence that the Son of God was brought into being, the radiance of glory and the image of the Hypostasis of the Father (Heb. 1:3), living wisdom and power, the hypostatic Word, the essential, perfect and living image of the invisible God; but He was ever with the Father and in the Father, from Whom He was born eternally and without beginning. For the Father never existed unless the Son existed, but together the Father and together also the Son, begotten of Him. For the Father without the Son would not be called Father; if he had ever existed without the Son, he would not have been the Father, and if later he began to have a Son, then he also became a Father after not being a Father before, and would have undergone a change in that , not being the Father, became Him, and such a thought is more terrible than any blasphemy, for it cannot be said of God that He does not have the natural power of birth, and the power of birth consists in the ability to give birth from oneself, i.e. from its own essence, a being similar to itself by nature.

So, it would be impious to assert about the birth of the Son that it happened in time and that the existence of the Son began after the Father. For we confess the birth of the Son from the Father, that is, from His nature. And if we do not admit that the Son initially existed together with the Father, from Whom He was born, then we introduce a change in the hypostasis of the Father in that the Father, not being the Father, later became the Father. True, creation came into existence after, but not from the being of God; but by the will and power of God she was brought from non-existence into existence, and therefore no change occurred in the nature of God. For birth consists in the fact that from the essence of the one who gives birth, that which is born is produced, similar in essence; creation and creation consists in the fact that what is created and created comes from the outside, and not from the essence of the creator and creator, and is completely unlike in nature.

Therefore, in God, Who alone is impassive, unchangeable, immutable and always the same, both birth and creation are impassive. For, being by nature dispassionate and alien to flow, because He is simple and uncomplicated, He cannot be subject to suffering or flow, either in birth or in creation, and has no need for anyone’s assistance. But birth (in Him) is beginningless and eternal, since it is the action of His nature and comes from His being, otherwise the one who gives birth would have suffered a change, and there would have been God first and God subsequent, and multiplication would have occurred. Creation with God, as an action of will, is not co-eternal with God. For that which is brought from non-existence into being cannot be co-eternal with the Beginningless and always Existing. God and man create differently. Man does not bring anything from non-existence into existence, but what he does, he makes from pre-existing matter, not only having wished, but also having first thought through and imagined in his mind what he wants to do, then he acts with his hands, accepts labor, fatigue, and often does not achieve the goal when hard work does not work out the way you want; God, having only willed, brought everything out of non-existence into existence: in the same way, God and man do not give birth in the same way. God, being flightless and beginningless, and passionless, and free from flow, and incorporeal, and one only, and infinite, and gives birth flightless and without beginning, and passionless, and without flow, and without combination, and His incomprehensible birth has no beginning, no end. He gives birth without beginning, because He is unchangeable; - without expiration because it is dispassionate and incorporeal; - outside of combination because, again, he is incorporeal, and there is only one God, who has no need for anyone else; - infinitely and unceasingly because it is flightless, and timeless, and endless, and always the same, for what is without beginning is infinite, and what is infinite by grace is by no means without beginning, as, for example, Angels.

So, the ever-present God gives birth to His Word, perfect without beginning and without end, so that God, who has a higher time and nature and being, does not give birth in time. Man, as it is obvious, gives birth in the opposite way, because he is subject to birth, and decay, and expiration, and reproduction, and is clothed with a body, and in human nature there is a male and female sex, and the husband has a need for the support of his wife. But may He be merciful who is above all and who surpasses all thought and understanding.

So, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church teaches together both about the Father and about His Only Begotten Son, born of Him without flight, without flow, dispassionately and incomprehensibly, as only the God of all knows. Just as fire and the light that comes from it exist together - not first fire, and then light, but together - and just as light, always born from fire, is always in fire and is never separated from it - so the Son is born from the Father, in no way separating from Him, but always abiding in Him. But light, inseparably born from fire and always abiding in it, does not have its own hypostasis in comparison with fire, for it is a natural property of fire; The Only Begotten Son of God, born from the Father inseparably and inseparably and always abiding in Him, has His own hypostasis, in comparison with the hypostasis of the Father.

So, the Son is called Word and radiance, because he was born from the Father without any combination and dispassionately, and without flight, and without flow, and inseparably; (called) the Son and the image of the Father’s hypostasis because He is perfect, hypostatic and in everything like the Father, except ungeneracy (αγεννησια); (called) the Only Begotten because He alone was born from one Father in a unique way, for no other birth is like the birth of the Son of God, and there is no other Son of God. The Holy Spirit, although it comes from the Father, does not follow the image of birth, but according to the image of procession. Here is another way of being, as incomprehensible and unknown as the birth of the Son (of God). Therefore, everything that the Father has, the Son also has, except ungeneracy, which does not mean a difference in essence or dignity, but a way of being - just like Adam, who is unborn, for he is the creation of God, and Seth, who is begotten, for he is the son of Adam, and Eve, who came out of Adam’s rib, for she was not born, differ from each other not by nature, for they are people, but by way of being.

You should know that the word αγενητον, when written through one ν, means something uncreated, i.e. not happened; when through two νν (αγεννητον), it means unborn (μη γεννηθεν). And according to the first meaning of the word, essence is distinguished from essence: for one is an uncreated essence, signified by a word with one ν, and another is a produced (γενητη) or created essence. According to the second meaning, essence does not differ from essence. For the first hypostasis of every species of animal is unborn (αγεννητος), and not uncreated (ονκ αγενητος); for they were all created by the Creator and brought into being by the Word; but were not born, because before there was no other homogeneous being from which they could have been born.

So, as for the first meaning, the word αγενητος befits the three pre-divine hypostases of the Holy Deity, for they are consubstantial and uncreated; the second meaning of αγεννητος is nothing. For the Father alone is ungenerated, because He does not exist from any other hypostasis; and only the Son was born, because from the essence of the Father he was born without beginning and without flight; and the Holy Spirit alone proceeds, because from the essence of the Father he is not born, but proceeds. This is what Divine Scripture teaches, although the image of birth and procession remains incomprehensible to us.

You should also know that the names of fatherland, sonship and procession were not transferred from us to the blessed Divinity, but, on the contrary, were transferred to us from there, as the divine Apostle says: for this reason I bow my knees to the Father, from Him is all the fatherland in heaven and on earth (Eph.3:14–15).

If we say that the Father is the beginning of the Son and is greater than Him (John 14:28), then we do not show that He takes precedence over the Son in time or in nature; For through Him the Father made the eyelids (Heb. 1:2). It does not take precedence in any other respect, if not in relation to the cause; that is, because the Son was born from the Father, and not the Father from the Son, that the Father is the author of the Son by nature, just as we do not say that fire comes from light, but, on the contrary, light from fire. So, when we hear that the Father is the beginning and greater than the Son, we must understand the Father as the cause. And just as we do not say that fire is of one essence, and light is of another, so it is impossible to say that the Father is of one essence, and the Son is different, but (both) are one and the same. And just as we say that fire shines through the light coming out of it, and we do not believe that the light coming from fire is its service organ, but, on the contrary, is its natural power; So we say about the Father, that everything that the Father does, he does through His Only Begotten Son, not as through a ministerial instrument, but as through a natural and hypostatic Power; and just as we say that fire illuminates and again we say that the light of fire illuminates, so everything that the Father does, the Son creates in the same way (John 5:19). But light does not have a special hypostasis from fire; The Son is a perfect hypostasis, inseparable from the Father’s hypostasis, as we showed above. It is impossible for an image to be found among creatures that in all similarities shows in itself the properties of the Holy Trinity. For what is created and complex, fleeting and changeable, describable and imageable and perishable - how can one accurately explain the all-important Divine essence, which is alien to all this? And it is known that every creature is subject to most of these properties and, by its very nature, is subject to decay.

In the same way, we believe in the one Holy Spirit, the life-giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son, who is worshiped and glorified by the Father and the Son, as being consubstantial and coeternal; in the Spirit from God, the right and ruling Spirit, the source of wisdom, life and sanctification; into God, with the Father and the Son, existing and called, uncreated, Completeness, Creator, Almighty, all-perfect, omnipotent, infinitely powerful, possessing every creature and not subject to dominion, into the God-creating and uncreated Spirit; filling, not filling; communicating, but not borrowing anything; sanctifying and not sanctifying, Comforter, as accepting the prayers of all; in everything like the Father and the Son; proceeding from the Father, through the Son, given and received by all creation; through Himself creating and realizing everything without exception, sanctifying and preserving; hypostatic, existing in His own hypostasis, inseparable and inseparable from the Father and the Son; having everything that the Father and the Son have, except ungeneracy and begetting; for the Father is guiltless and ungenerate, because he is not from anyone, but has being from Himself and from what he has, he has nothing from another; on the contrary, He Himself is the beginning and cause of everything, as it exists by nature. The Son is from the Father - according to the image of birth; The Holy Spirit, although also from the Father, is not in the manner of birth, but in the manner of procession. That, of course, there is a difference between birth and procession, we have learned this; but what kind of difference there is, we cannot comprehend this in any way. [We only know that] both the birth of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit occur simultaneously.

So, everything that the Son has and the Spirit has from the Father, even being itself. And if something is not the Father, then it is neither the Son nor the Spirit; and if the Father did not have anything, the Son and the Spirit do not have it; but through the Father, that is, because the Father exists, the Son and the Spirit exist, and through the Father the Son has, also the Spirit, everything that he has, because, that is, the Father has all this, except non-fertility and birth, and origins. For it is only by their hypostatic properties that the three holy hypostases differ from each other, inseparably distinguished not by essence, but by the distinctive property of each hypostasis.

We say that each of these three persons has a perfect hypostasis, so that we do not accept the perfect nature as one, composed of three imperfect ones, but as one simple essence in three perfect hypostases, which is higher and ahead of perfection. For everything that is composed of imperfect things is necessarily complex, but composition cannot take place from perfect hypostases; why we do not say that the species is from hypostases, but in hypostases. They said from the imperfect, that is, from that which does not represent the whole type of the thing that is made up of it, so stone, wood and iron are perfect in themselves by nature, but in relation to the house, which is from They are built, each imperfectly, because each, taken separately, is not a house.

So, we call the hypostases (of the Holy Trinity) perfect, so as not to introduce complexity into the Divine nature, for addition is the beginning of discord. And again we say that the three hypostases are mutually present in one another, so as not to introduce multitudes and crowds of gods. Confessing three hypostases, we recognize simplicity and unity (in the Divinity); and confessing that these hypostases are consubstantial with one another, and recognizing in them the identity of will, action, strength, power and, if we can say, movement, we recognize their inseparability and the fact that God is one; for God, His Word and His Spirit are truly one God.

About the difference between the three hypostases; and about business, and mind, and thought. You need to know that it is different to look at an object in reality, and another to look at it with the mind and thought. Thus, we actually see the difference of indivisibles in all creatures: in fact, Peter appears to be different from Paul. But community, connection and unity are contemplated by the mind and thought; so we comprehend with our minds that Peter and Paul are of the same nature, have one common nature. For each of them is a rational animal, mortal; and each is flesh, animated by a soul, both rational and gifted with prudence. So this general nature is comprehended by the mind; for the hypostases do not exist one in the other, but each separately and separately, i.e. in itself, and each has many things that make one different from the other. For they are separated by place, and differ by time, and are distinguished by intelligence, strength, appearance or image, disposition, temperament, dignity, behavior and all characteristic properties; most of all, because they exist not one in the other, but separately; that is why it is said: two, three people and many.

The same can be seen in all creation; but in the Holy and all-essential, and highest of all, and incomprehensible Trinity, it is different; for here community and unity are seen, in fact, due to the co-eternity of persons and the identity of their essence, action and will, due to consent cognitive ability and the identity of power and strength and goodness - I did not say: similarity, but identity - also the unity of the origin of movement, because there is one essence, one goodness, one strength, one desire, one action, one power; one and the same, not three similar to one another, but one and the same movement of three hypostases; for each of them is one with the other, no less than with itself; for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except ungeneracy, birth and procession, but separated by thought, for we know one God, but we notice with thought the difference only in properties, i.e. patronymic, sonship and procession, as we distinguish between the cause, the dependent on the cause, and the perfection of the hypostasis, or way of being. For in relation to the indescribable Divinity we cannot speak of a local distance, as in relation to us, because the hypostases are one in the other, not merging, however, but uniting, according to the word of the Lord, who said: I am in the Father and the Father is in Me (John 14:11) - not about the difference of will, or thought, or action, or force, or anything else that produces a real and complete division in us. Therefore, we speak about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit not as three Gods, but, rather, as one God, the Holy Trinity, since the Son and the Spirit are raised to one Author, but do not add up and do not merge, as Savely merged; for They unite, as we said, not merging, but being together with each other and penetrating each other without any confusion or fusion, and in such a way that they do not exist one outside the other or are not separated in essence, according to the Aryan division; for, to put it briefly, the Divinity is inseparable in the divided, just as in three suns closely adjacent to each other and not separated by any distance, there is one mixture of light and a fusion.

Therefore, when we look at the Divine, at the first cause, at autocracy, at the unity and identity of the Divine and, so to speak, at movement and will, at the identity of essence, force, action and domination, then we imagine one thing. When we look at that in which there is Divinity, or, to say more precisely, what there is Divinity, and at that which from there - from the first cause exists eternally, equally and inseparably, that is, in the hypostasis of the Son and the Spirit - then there will be three Whom we bow to. One Father is Father and beginningless, i.e. innocent; for He is not from anyone. One Son is a Son, but not without beginning, i.e. not innocent; for He is from the Father; if we take the beginning in time, then it is beginningless; for He is the Creator of times and is not subject to time. One Spirit is the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, but not in the image of a son, but in the image of procession. So neither the Father lost his ungeneration through what he begat, nor the Son his birth through what he was born from the unborn - for how could it be otherwise? - neither the Spirit was transformed into either the Father or the Son through the fact that He came into being and because He is God. For the property is unchangeable; Otherwise, how could it remain a property if it were changed and transposed? - If the Father is the Son, then he is no longer the Father in the proper sense; for in the proper sense there is only one Father; and if the Son is the Father, then He is not in the proper sense the Son; for there is one Son in the proper sense; one and the Holy Spirit.

You should know that we do not say that the Father comes from anyone, but we call the Son Himself Father. We do not say that the Son is the cause, we do not say that He is the Father, but we say that He is both from the Father and Son of the Father. And about the Holy Spirit we say that He is from the Father and we call Him the Spirit of the Father, but we do not say that the Spirit is also from the Son, but we call Him the Spirit of the Son, as the divine Apostle says: if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not have Him (Rom. 8:9), and we confess that He has both revealed Himself to us and is taught to us through the Son; for it is said: I breathed and said to them (His disciples): Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22); just as the ray and radiance (come) from the sun, for it is the source of both the ray and radiance; but the radiance is communicated to us through the beam, and it illuminates us and is accepted by us. About the Son we say neither that He is the Son of the Spirit, nor that He is from the Spirit.

Chapter IX. About what is attributed to God

The deity is simple and uncomplicated. But what is made up of many and different things is complex. So, if we call uncreatedness, and originlessness, and immortality, and eternity, and goodness, and creative power, and the like, essential properties of God, then a being made up of such properties will not be simple, but complex, which (to talk about Deity) extreme absurdity. So, about every property attributed to God, one must think that it does not mean anything essential, but shows either that He is not, or some relation of Him to what is different from Him, or something accompanying His nature, or - His action.

Of all the names assigned to God, it seems that the highest is: He (ο ων), just as He Himself, answering Moses on the mountain, says: Rtsy son of Israel, He sent me (Ex. 3:14). For He contains all existence within Himself, as if it were a kind of sea of ​​essence (ουσιας) - unlimited and limitless. Saint Dionysius says that [the original name of God is] ο αγαθος - good, because it cannot be said about God that in Him there is first being, and then goodness.

So, the first of these names shows that God is (το ειναι) and not that He is (το τι ειναι); the second indicates His action (ενεργιαν); and the names: beginningless, incorruptible, unborn, uncreated, incorporeal, invisible and the like show that He is not (τι ουκ εστι), that is, that He has no beginning to His being, is not subject to corruption, is not created, is not a body, invisible. Goodness, righteousness, holiness and the like accompany nature, and do not express His very essence. Names: Lord, King and the like mean a relationship to that which is different from God; He is called Lord of that which He rules, King of that which He reigns, Creator of that which He has created, and Shepherd of that which He shepherds.

Chapter X. About Divine Union and Separation

So, all this must be taken in relation to the whole Divinity and in the same way, and simply, and inseparably, and collectively; the names: Father, and Son, and Spirit, guiltless and having a cause, unborn, begotten, proceeding, must be used separately; such names express not the essence, but the mutual relationship and way of being of the Hypostases of the Holy Trinity. So, knowing this and, as if by hand, ascending, led to the Divine essence, we do not comprehend the essence itself, but we cognize only that which relates to the essence, just as, knowing that the soul is incorporeal and has neither quantity nor image, we however, we do not yet comprehend its essence; or knowing that the body is white or black, we do not yet know its essence, but we know only what relates to its essence. The true word teaches that the Divinity is simple and has one simple, good action, acting all in all, like a ray that warms everything and acts on each thing in accordance with its natural ability and acceptability, having itself received such power from its Creator, God.

Chapter XI. What is said about God in a bodily way

So, by the eyes of God, knowledge and sight we must understand His all-contemplating power and His knowledge, which is inevitable (for no creature), since through this feeling we also acquire the most perfect knowledge and conviction. Under the ears and hearing - His favor and acceptance of our prayer; since we, when we are asked, more mercifully incline our ears to those asking, through this feeling we show our favor to them. Under the lips and speech is the expression of His will, since we, through our lips and speech, reveal the thoughts of our hearts. Under food and drink - our desire for His will, since we, through the sense of taste, satisfy the necessary needs of our nature. By smell is that which shows our thought directed towards Him, since we also sense fragrance through smell. Under the face is His revelation and revelation of Himself through actions, since our face also serves as our expression. Under our hands is His active power, since through our hands we also perform useful, especially our most noble, actions. Under His right hand is His help in just cases, since we, when doing things that are more important, noble and require greater strength, act with our right hand. By touch is His most accurate knowledge and understanding of the smallest and most hidden things, since even for us the things we touch cannot have anything hidden in themselves. Under feet and walking - His coming and presence either to help those in need, or to take revenge on enemies, or for some other action, since we also come somewhere through our feet. Under the oath is the immutability of His decision, since we also confirm our mutual agreements with an oath. Under anger and rage - His hatred and aversion to evil, since we also hate what does not agree with our thoughts and are angry about it. Under oblivion, sleep and slumber - postponing vengeance on enemies and slowing down ordinary help to one's friends. Briefly, everything that is said about God in a bodily way contains a certain hidden meaning, teaching us, through what is ordinary for us, that which is above us, excluding only what is said about the bodily coming of God the Word, for He is for the sake of of our salvation took on the whole person, i.e. the rational soul and body, the properties of human nature and natural, immaculate passions.

Chapter XII. About the same

More about divine names in more detail.

The Deity, being incomprehensible, will, of course, be nameless. Not knowing His essence, we will not seek the name of His essence. For names must express their subject. God, although good, and in order for us to be participants in His goodness, called us from non-existence into being and created us capable of knowledge, nevertheless did not communicate to us either His essence or the knowledge of His essence. For it is impossible for a (lower) nature to fully know the nature that lies above it. Moreover, if knowledge relates to what exists, then how can the essential be known? Therefore, God, out of His ineffable goodness, deigns to be called in accordance with what is characteristic of us, so that we are not left completely without knowledge of Him, but have at least a dark idea of ​​Him. So, since God is incomprehensible, He is nameless; as the Author of everything and in Himself containing the conditions of the cause of everything that exists, He is called according to everything that exists, even the opposite of one another, such as light and darkness, fire and water, so that we know that according to He is not essentially like that, but is subsubstantial and nameless, and that as the Author of everything that exists, He takes names for Himself from everything He has produced.

Therefore, some of the divine names are negative, showing divine pre-essence, are as follows: unsubstantial, flightless, beginningless, invisible - not because God is less than anything, or that He is devoid of anything, for everything is His, and from Him and through Everything happened in Him and will take place in Him, but because He predominately surpasses everything that exists; for He is not anything that exists, but is above everything. Other names are affirmative, speaking of Him as the Author of everything. As the Author of everything that exists and every being, He is called both being and essence; as the Author of all reason and wisdom, reasonable and wise, and is himself called Reason and reasonable, Wisdom and wise; as well as - Mind and smart, Life and living, Strength and strong; He is called in a similar way in accordance with everything else. It is most characteristic of Him to take names from things that are noblest and closest to Him. Thus, the immaterial is nobler and closer to Him than the material, the pure than the impure, the holy than the foul, since it is also more characteristic of Him. Therefore, it is much more appropriate for Him to be called the sun and light than darkness, and day rather than night, and life rather than death, and fire and air and water, as the principles of life, rather than earth; primarily and more than anything - good rather than evil, or, what is the same, existing rather than non-existent; for goodness is being and the cause of being; evil is the deprivation of good or being. And these are denials and affirmations. From both of them comes the most pleasant combination, such as: a super-essential being, a pre-divine Deity, a pre-primary principle, and the like. There are also names that, although ascribed to God affirmatively, have the force of an excellent negation, such as: darkness, not because God is darkness, but because He is not light, but is above light.

So, God is called Mind and Reason, and Spirit, and Wisdom, and Power, as the Author of this, as immaterial, omniactive and omnipotent. And this, said affirmatively and negatively, is said generally about the entire Divinity, as well as about each Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, in the same and in the same way, and without any diminution. For every time I think about one of the Hypostases, I understand Her to be a perfect God and a perfect Being. And connecting and counting the three Hypostases together, I mean the one perfect God; for the Godhead is not complex, but in three perfect persons one, perfect, indivisible and uncomplicated. When I think about the mutual relationship of the Hypostases, I understand that the Father is the essential Sun, the Source of goodness, the Abyss of being, reason, wisdom, strength, light, Divinity, the Source that gives birth and produces the good hidden in Him. So, He is the Mind, the Abyss of the mind, the Parent of the Word and through the Word the Maker of the Spirit, which reveals Him; and, not to say much, in the Father there is no (other) word, wisdom, strength and desire, except the Son, Who is the only power of the Father, the original one, by which everything was created, as a perfect Hypostasis born from a perfect Hypostasis, as He Himself knows Who is and is called the Son. The Holy Spirit is the power of the Father, manifesting the hidden Divinity, proceeding from the Father through the Son, as He Himself knows, but not through birth; and therefore the Holy Spirit is the Finisher of all creation. So, what befits the Author-Father, the Source, the Parent, must befit the Father alone. And what about what is produced? to the begotten Son, Word, Predetermining Power, desire, wisdom; this must be attributed to the Son. What is proper to the produced, the proceeding and the revealing, the perfecting Power, must be attributed to the Holy Spirit. The Father is the Source and Cause of the Son and the Holy Spirit; but He is the Father of the Son alone and the Producer of the Holy Spirit. The Son is the Son, the Word, the Wisdom, the Power, the Image, the Radiance, the image of the Father and from the Father. But the Holy Spirit is not the Son of the Father, but the Spirit of the Father proceeding from the Father. For there is no excitement without the Spirit. But He is also the Spirit of the Son, not because from Him, but because through Him He proceeds from the Father. For there is only one Author - the Father.

Chapter XIII. About the place of God and that the Divinity alone is indescribable

The bodily place is the limit of the containing, in which the content is contained; for example, air contains, and body is contained. But not the entire containing air is the place of the body of the content, but only the limit of the containing air, which embraces the content of the body. In general (one must know) that the contained is not contained in the content.

But there is also a spiritual (νοητος, mental) place where spiritual and incorporeal nature is represented and located, where it is precisely that it is present and acts; but it is contained not physically, but spiritually; for it does not have a certain form so that it can be maintained bodily.

One must know that the Divinity is indivisible, so that It is everything and everywhere, and not part within parts, divided in a bodily form, but all in all and all above all.

About the place of the angel and the soul and the indescribable.

As for the Angel, although he is not physically contained in a place in such a way that he receives an image and a certain appearance, he is said to be in a place by spiritual presence and action, as is characteristic of his nature, and is not present everywhere, but where it acts, it is spiritually limited, because it cannot act at the same time in different places. It is common for God alone to act everywhere at the same time. For the Angel acts in various places, according to the speed of his nature and according to his ability easily, i.e. soon to pass, and the Divinity, being everywhere and above everything, acts with one and simple action in different places at the same time.

The soul is united - with the body, all with all, and not part with part; and is not contained by it, but it is contained by iron, like fire, and, remaining in it, produces the actions characteristic of it.

What is describable is that which is encompassed either by place, or by time, or by understanding; Indescribable is that which is not encompassed by anything. So, one Deity is indescribable, as beginningless and infinite, containing everything and not encompassed by any concept; for it is incomprehensible and limitless, not known to anyone and known only to Himself. An angel is limited both by time - for it has the beginning of its existence, and by place - albeit in a spiritual sense, as we said before, and by comprehensibility, for (Angels) in some way know the nature of each other, and are completely limited by the Creator. And bodies are limited by both the beginning and the end, and the bodily place, and the intelligibility.

A collection of thoughts about God and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And about the Word and the Spirit.

So, the Divinity is perfect, immutable and unchangeable. It, according to its foreknowledge, predetermined everything beyond our control, assigning to everything a proper and proper time and place. That is why the Father judges no one, but all judgment is given to the Sons (John 5:22). For, of course, the Father and the Son, like God, and the Holy Spirit judge; but one Son, as a man, will descend bodily and sit on the throne of glory (Matthew 25:31), because only a limited body can descend and sit, and will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31).

Everything is separated from God, but not by place, but by nature. In us, prudence, wisdom and decision appear and disappear as properties; but not in God: in Him nothing arises or decreases; for He is unchangeable and immutable, and nothing accidental can be attributed to Him. For He has goodness accompanying His being.

He who always strives with desire towards God sees Him; for God is in everything; everything that exists depends on Being, and nothing can exist that does not have its existence from Being, because God, as containing nature, is united with everything; and God the Word united hypostatically with His holy flesh and became inextricably close to our nature.

No one sees the Father except the Son and the Spirit (John 6:46). The Son is the advice, wisdom and strength of the Father. For it is impossible to ascribe qualities to God without telling us that He is composed of essence and quality.

The Son is from the Father, and everything that he has, he has from Him (John 5:30), and therefore cannot do anything of Himself; for He has no special action in comparison with the Father.

That God, being invisible by nature, is made visible by his actions, we know this from the structure of the world and His government (Wis. 13:5).

The Son is the image of the Father, and the image of the Son is the Spirit, through whom Christ, dwelling in man, gives him that which is according to the image (of God).

God, the Holy Spirit, is the mean between the unborn and the begotten, and through the Son is united with the Father. He is called the Spirit of God. The Spirit of Christ, the Mind of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Lord Himself, the Spirit of sonhood, truth, freedom, wisdom, as the one who produces all this; He fills everything with His being and contains everything, filling the world with His being, but not limiting itself to the world in power.

God is an ever-present, unchangeable, all-creating being, worshiped by a pious mind.

God is the Father, always existing, unbegotten, because he was not born of anyone, but begat the co-existent Son. God is also the Son, always existing with the Father, from whom He was born timelessly and eternally, without expiration, and impassively, and inseparably. God is also the Holy Spirit, a sanctifying, hypostatic power, proceeding inseparably from the Father and resting in the Son, consubstantial with the Father and the Son.

There is the Word, which is always essentially present in the Father. The word is also a natural movement of the mind, according to which it moves, thinks, reasons; - it is like a reflection and radiance of the mind. Again there is an internal word spoken in the heart. Again, the spoken word is a messenger of thought. So, God the Word is both independently and hypostatically; the other three words are the powers of the soul, not contemplated in their own hypostasis; namely, the first is a natural creation of the mind, always flowing naturally from it; the second is called internal, and the third is pronounced.

And the Spirit is understood in many different ways. There is the Holy Spirit. And the actions of the Holy Spirit are called spirits. The Spirit is also a good Angel; spirit - and demon; spirit is also soul; sometimes the mind is called spirit; spirit - and wind; spirit - and air.

Chapter XIV. Properties of the Divine Nature

God is an uncreated being, beginningless, immortal, infinite and eternal; incorporeal, good, omniactive, righteous, enlightening, unchangeable, impassive, indescribable, incontainable, unlimited, boundless, invisible, incomprehensible, all-content, autocratic and autocratic, omnipotent, life-giving, omnipotent, infinitely powerful, sanctifying and sociable, all-containing and preserving, and providing for everything - such is the Divinity, Who has all this and the like by its very nature, and did not receive it from anywhere, but Himself communicates every good to His creatures - each according to its receiving power.

In addition, divine radiance and action, being one, simple and indivisible, remains simple even when it is diversified in the types of benefits imparted to individual beings, and when it shares with all of them that which constitutes the nature corresponding to each thing; but, inseparably multiplying in relation to individual beings, it elevates and turns the most individual beings to its own simplicity. For all beings strive towards the Divine and have existence in It, since It imparts to all existence in accordance with the nature of each; and It is the being of existing things, the life of living things, the mind of the rational and the mind of the intelligent; Meanwhile, It itself is higher than mind, higher than reason, higher than life, higher than being.

It should also be added that It penetrates through everything, without mixing with anything, but nothing penetrates through Itself. It knows everything by simple knowledge, and simply sees everything with its divine, all-contemplating and immaterial eye, everything - the present, the past, and the future, before their existence. It is sinless, and forgives sins, and saves. It can do whatever it wants; but not everything that can, wants; So, It can destroy the world, but it doesn’t want to.

John of Damascus, Reverend

Notes

1. Dionysius the Areopagite. On the Names of God, 1 Migne, s. gr., t. III, coll 609–613.

2. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Migne, s. gr., t. XXXVI, col. 40. Transl. Moscow Spirit. Academies, Part III (1889), p. 21.

3. Dionysius the Areopagite. On the names of God, 1. Gregory the Theologian, word 31, Migne, s. gr., t. XXXVI, coll. 156–157. Translation pp. 99–100.

4. Dionysius the Areopagite. On the names of God, 1–2.

5. Gregory the Theologian, word 28.

6. Athanasius of Alexandria. Against the pagans. Migne, s. gr., t. XXV, coll. 69–77. Translation Moscow. Spirit. Acad., Part III (1902), pp. 171–177.

7. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Migne, s. gr., t. XXXVI. coll. 45–47. Transl. Part III, pp. 25–26. Athanasius of Alexandria. About the incarnation of the Word. Migne, s. gr., t. XXV, coll. 97–100. Transl., part 1, p. 193.

8. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Migne, s. gr., t. XXXVI, coll. 33. Transl., part III. page 17

9. Ibid. Migne, 36; transl., 18.

10. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Migne, 36. Transl. 18.

11. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Migne, 36–37. Transl. 19.

12. Gregory the Theologian, word 29. Migne, 76. Transl., 43.

13. Dionysius the Areopagite. About the names of God. Migne, 820, 841.

14. Gregory of Nyssa. Big public word, chapter 1. Translation Moscow. Spirit. Acad., part IV, pp. 5–9.

15. Gregory the Theologian, word 31, 38, 41. Migne, s. gr., t. XXXVI, coll. 137, 320, 441 etc. Translation, part III, p. 86. 198 and others. Gregory of Nyssa. Big catechetical word, 2–3. Translation, part IV, pp. 9–12.

16. Gregory of Nyssa, ibid. Basil the Great. About the Holy Spirit to Amphilochius. Translation Moscow. Spirit. Academies, Part III (1891), p. 245.

17. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 22, 42, 6, 31 and 40.

18. Gregory the Theologian, word. 29, 30. Cyril of Alexandria. Treasure, 4–5.

19. Gregory the Theologian, word 20.

20. Gregory the Theologian, word 20, 29. Kirill Al.. Treasure, 5, 6, 7, 16, 18.

21. Gregory the Theologian, letter to Evagrius.

22. Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, book. 1st. Translation Moscow. Spirit. Academy, Part V (1863), pp. 136–150. Kirill Al.. Treasure, 5.

23. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 25, 29, 30, 31, 39. Athanasius Alexander., Exposition of the Faith. Migne, s. gr., t. XXV, coll. 200–208. Transl. Moscow Spirit. Acad., part 1 (1902), pp. 264–267.

24. Kirill Al., Treasure, 1. Gregory the Theologian, word 29.

25. Cyril Al., Treasure, 32. Dionysius Areop., On the names of God, 1.

26. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 22, 37 and 31.

27. Gregory the Theologian, word 31, 20.

28. Gregory the Theologian, word 25 and letter to Evagrius.

29. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 23, 20.

30. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 20, 28, 40.

31. Gregory the Theologian, word 31.

32. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 20, 31, 39 and 40. Basil the Great, letter 38. Dionysius Ar., On the names of God, 2.

33. Gregory the Theologian, word, 20, 31, 39.

34. Gregory the Theologian, word 31.

35. Gregory the Theologian, word 30. Dionysius the Areopagite. About the names of God. 2–4

36. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Names of God, 5.

37. Gregory the Theologian, sermon 34, 31 and epistle to Evagrius. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Names of God, 2.

38. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Names of God, 1; On the heavenly hierarchy, 15, Gregory the Theologian, word 31.

39. Gregory the Theologian, word 31. 21

40. Athanasius Alexander., Second Word against the Arians. 22

41. Gregory the Theologian, word 30. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the names of God, 1. 23

42. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Names of God, 5.

43. Gregory the Theologian, word 28. Gregory of Nyssa, On the soul and resurrection.

44. Gregory the Theologian, word 41. 25

45. Gregory the Theologian, word 30.

46. ​​Basil the Great, Against Eunomius, book 5.

47. Gregory the Theologian, word 3, 22, 40.

48. Dionysius Areop., On the names of God, 5.

49. Gregory the Theologian, word 40.

***

Prayer to St. John of Damascus:

• Prayer to St. John of Damascus. John of Damascus, a high-ranking Syrian official, defender of Orthodox icon veneration, author of dogmatic philosophical, polemical, ascetic, exegetical, homiletical, hagiographical works, hymnographer. He spent the second half of his life in the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified. Heavenly patron of theologians, learned monks, missionaries, catechists, choristers. They turn to him for prayer help to convert Muslims and other people of other faiths, sectarians, and relatives of little faith to Christ.
- Venerable John of Damascus
• "Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary"- Venerable John of Damascus

St. John of Damascus

Exact statement Orthodox faith.

That the Divinity is incomprehensible and that we should not seek with excessive curiosity what is not given to us by the holy prophets, apostles and evangelists

There is no one else in sight of God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, that confession

(John 1:18). So, the Divinity is ineffable and incomprehensible; for

no one knows the Father except the Son, no one knows the Son except the Father

(Matt. 11:27). Likewise, the Holy Spirit knows God, just as the human spirit knows what is in man (1 Cor. 2:11). Apart from the very first and blessed Being, no one has ever known God, except the one to whom He Himself revealed it - no one not only from people, but even from the supermundane Powers, from themselves, I say, the Cherubim and Seraphim.

However, God has not left us completely ignorant; for the knowledge that God exists, He Himself planted in the nature of everyone. And the very creation of the world, its preservation and management proclaim the greatness of the Divine (Wisdom 13:5). Moreover, God, first through the law and the prophets, then through His only begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, communicated to us the knowledge of Himself that we can comprehend. Therefore, everything that the law and the prophets, the apostles and evangelists gave us, we accept, know and honor; and we experience nothing higher than that. For if God is good, then He is the giver of all good, and is not involved in envy or any other passion, for envy is not akin to the nature of God as impassive and the only good. And therefore, He, as omniscient and providing for the good of everyone, revealed to us what we need to know, but kept silent about what we cannot bear. We should be content with this, abide in this and not transgress the eternal limits (Proverbs 22:28) and the tradition of God.

About what can be expressed in words and what cannot, what can be known and what surpasses knowledge

Whoever wants to talk or listen about God must know that not everything regarding the Divinity and His Economy is inexpressible, but not everything is expressible, not everything is unknowable, but not everything is knowable; for one thing means what is knowable, and another thing means what is expressed in words, since it is another thing to speak, and another thing to know. Thus, much of what we vaguely know about God cannot be expressed in all perfection; but as is our nature, so we are forced to talk about what is above us, so, speaking about God, we [attribute to Him] sleep, anger, carelessness, arms, legs, and the like.

That God is beginningless, infinite, eternal, ever-present, uncreated, unchangeable, immutable, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, intangible, unlimited, limitless, unknown, incomprehensible, good, righteous, omnipotent, almighty, all-seeing, all-provider, all-lord and judge, - this we know and confess, as well as the fact that God is one, that is, one Being; that He is known and exists in three hypostases (persons), that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except non-generation, birth and procession; that the Only Begotten Son, and the Word of God, and God, according to His goodness, for the sake of our salvation, by the good will of the Father and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, having been conceived without seed, was incorruptibly born of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary through the Holy Spirit and became from Her a perfect Man; and that He is both perfect God and perfect Man, from two natures, Divinity and humanity, and (is known) from both natures, gifted with mind and will, active and autocratic, in short, perfect according to the definition and concept of each, i.e. e. Deity and humanity, but in one complex hypostasis. That He, moreover, hungered, and thirsted, and was weary, and was crucified, and actually accepted death and burial, and was resurrected for three days, and ascended into heaven, from where He came to us and will come again - Divine Scripture testifies to this, and the entire Cathedral of Saints.

What is the being of God, or how He is in everything, or how the Only Begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, became man from virgin blood, that is, by another supernatural law, or how He walked on the waters with wet feet - that We don’t know and we can’t say it. So, we cannot say anything about God, nor even think, other than what God himself has spoken, said or revealed to us in the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Proof that God exists

That God exists, those who accept the Holy Scriptures, that is, the Old and New Testaments, as well as many of the Hellenes, do not doubt this; for, as we have already said, the knowledge that God exists is given to us by nature. But the evil of the evil one so dominated human nature and plunged some into such a terrible and worst abyss of destruction that they began to say that there is no God. Exposing their madness, the seer David said:

speech is foolish in his heart: there is no God

(Ps. 13:1). That is why the disciples and apostles of our Lord, made wise by the All-Holy Spirit, and by His power and grace performing divine signs, through their network of miracles brought such people from the depths of ignorance to the light of the knowledge of God. In the same way, the successors of their grace and dignity, shepherds and teachers, having received the enlightening grace of the Spirit, and by the power of miracles and the word of grace, enlightened the darkened and converted the erring. And we, having received neither the gift of miracles nor the gift of teaching - for, having become addicted to sensual pleasures, we turned out to be unworthy of this - having called upon the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for help, let us now say about this subject something at least a little of what the prophets of grace taught us .

All beings are either created or uncreated. If they are created, then, without a doubt, they are changeable; for what being began by change will necessarily and will be subject to change, either decaying, or changing at will. If they are uncreated, then by the very sequence of inferences, of course, they are unchangeable; for what being is opposite, the image of being is opposite, that is, its properties. Who would not agree that all beings, not only those who are subject to our senses, but also angels, change, are altered and transformed in various ways; so, for example, mental beings, that is, angels, souls and spirits, according to their will, more or less succeeding in good and moving away from good, and other beings, changing both by their birth, and by disappearance, and by increase and decrease, by changes in properties and by local movement? And what changes is, of course, created, and what is created is, without a doubt, created by someone. The Creator must be an uncreated being: for if he were created, then, of course, by someone, and so on, until we reach something uncreated. Therefore, the Creator, being uncreated, undoubtedly exists and is unchangeable: and who is this other than God?

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Venerable John of Damascus
An Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith

Venerable John of Damascus

BOOK ONE

Chapter I
That the Divinity is incomprehensible and that we should not make research and show curiosity about what has not been conveyed to us by the holy prophets, and apostles, and evangelists

God is nowhere to be seen. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the confessor(John 1:18). Therefore, the Divine is ineffable and incomprehensible. For no one knows the Son except the Father; no one knows the Father but the Son(Matt. 11:27). And the Holy Spirit knows so God's how does a person's spirit know even in him (1 Cor. 2:11). After the first and blessed Nature, no one - not only from people, but even from the supermundane powers, and themselves, I say, the cherubim and seraphim - ever knew God, unless He Himself revealed it to someone. However, God did not leave us completely ignorant. For the knowledge that God exists is naturally infused into everyone. Both the creation itself, and both its continuous continuation and management, proclaim the greatness of the Divine nature (Wisdom 13:5). Also, and according to the degree to which we can comprehend, He revealed knowledge of Himself: first through the law and the prophets, and then through His only begotten Son, Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, we accept, understand, and honor everything that was handed down to us, both through the law and the prophets, the apostles, and the evangelists, without looking for anything beyond this; for God, since He is good, is the Giver of every good, not subject to envy or any passion. For envy is far removed from the Divine nature, which is truly impassive and only good. Therefore, as one who knows everything and cares about what is useful for everyone, He revealed what was useful for us to know; and what exactly exceeded our strength and understanding, he kept silent about. May we be content with this and may we abide in it, without limiting the eternal and without breaking the Divine Tradition (Proverbs 22, 28)!

Chapter II
About what can be expressed in speech and what cannot, and about what can be known and what cannot

Anyone who wants to talk or listen about God, of course, must clearly know that from what relates to the doctrine of God and the Incarnation, not everything is inexpressible, and not everything can be expressed in speech; and not everything is inaccessible to knowledge, and not everything is accessible to it; and one is what can be known, and the other is what can be expressed by speech, just as one is to speak and the other is to know. Therefore, much of what is darkly thought about God cannot be expressed in an appropriate way, but about objects that exceed us, we are forced to speak, resorting to the human character of speech, as, for example, we talk about God, [using words] sleep, and anger, negligence, and hands, And legs, and the like.

That God is beginningless, infinite, both eternal and constant, uncreated, immutable, unchangeable, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, intangible, indescribable, limitless, inaccessible to the mind, immense, incomprehensible, good, righteous, Creator of all creatures, omnipotent, Almighty, overseeing everything, Provider of everything, having power [over everything], Judge - we, of course, both know and confess: also that God is one, that is, one Being, and that He is cognizable , and exists in Three Hypostases: the Father, I say, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except for non-fertility and birth and procession, and that the Only Begotten Son, and the Word of God, and God, as a result of His merciful heart, for the sake of our salvation, by the good will of the Father and with the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit, seedlessly overstuffed, born without incorruption from the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary through the mediation of the Holy Spirit and came from Her as a perfect man; and that One and the Same is at the same time perfect God and perfect Man from two natures: both Divinity and humanity, and that He [is known] in two natures, endowed with mind, and will, and the ability to act, and independent, existing in a perfect way, according to the definition and concept befitting each: both Divinity, I say, and humanity, but [at the same time] a single complex Hypostasis; and that He hungered and thirsted, and suffered toil, and was crucified, and third day accepted death and burial, and ascended into heaven, from where he came to us, and will come again later. And the Divine Scripture, as well as the entire host of saints, serves as a witness to this.

But what is the essence of God, or how it is inherent in all things, or how the only begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, was born as a man from the blood of the Virgin, being formed differently than what was the law of nature, or how He walked on the waters with dry feet, – we don’t know, and we can’t talk. So, it is impossible to say anything about God or to think anything at all contrary to what, by Divine definition, is announced to us or said and revealed to us by Divine sayings of both the Old and New Testaments.

Chapter III
Proof that God exists

That God really exists, there is no doubt neither among those who accept the Holy Scriptures: both the Old, I say, and the New Testament, nor among the majority of the Hellenes. For, as we have said, the knowledge that God exists is naturally implanted in us. And since the evil of the evil one against human nature was so powerful that it even brought some down into the most unreasonable and worst of all evils, the abyss of destruction - to the assertion that there is no God, showing the madness of which the interpreter of Divine words, David, said: speech is foolish in his heart: there is no God(Ps. 13:1), therefore, the disciples of the Lord and the apostles, being made wise by the All-Holy Spirit and creating Divine signs by His power and grace, catching them in a net of miracles, led them out of the abyss of ignorance upward - to the light of the knowledge of God. In the same way, the heirs of these grace and dignity, both shepherds and teachers, having received the illuminating grace of the Spirit, both by the power of miracles and the word of grace, enlightened the darkened and turned the lost to the true path. But we, who have not received either the gift of miracles or the gift of teaching, because we have made ourselves unworthy through our passion for pleasure, want to tell about this a little of what was conveyed to us by the heralds of grace, calling on the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit to help us.

Everything that exists is either created or uncreated. So, if it is created, then, in any case, it is changeable, for what being began due to change, it will certainly be subject to change, either by perishing, or by changing of its own will. If it was not created, then, according to the concept of consistency, in any case it is unchangeable. For if the existence of something is opposite, then the concept of that How it exists, that is, the qualities of it are also opposite. Therefore, who will not agree that everything that exists, [not only that which] is perceived by our senses, but, of course, the Angels, changes, and changes, and moves in various ways? What is comprehended only by the mind - I mean Angels, and souls, and demons - changes according to its own will, both succeeding in the beautiful, and moving away from the beautiful, and straining, and weakening? The rest is due to both birth and destruction, both increase and decrease, both changes in quality and movement from place to place? Therefore, beings, being changeable, were in any case created. Having been created, it was in any case created by someone. But the Creator must be uncreated. For if He was created, then in any case he was created by someone, until we come to something uncreated. Consequently, being uncreated, the Creator is in any case unchangeable. And what else could this be if not God?

And the most continuous continuation of the creature, and preservation, and management, teach us that There is God, who created all this, and contains, and preserves, and always provides. For how could opposite natures be united with each other to create a single world - I mean the natures of fire and water, air and earth - and how do they remain indestructible, if some almighty Power did not unite them together, and does not always keep them indestructible?

What is the creator of what is in the sky and what is on the earth, and what [moves] through the air, and what [lives] under the water, and even more, in comparison with this, the sky, and the earth, and the air, and nature is like fire , and water? What connected it and divided it? What set this in motion and moves it incessantly and unhindered? Isn’t he the artist of this and the one who put into everything the foundation by which the universe goes its way and is governed? But who is the artist of this? Isn't it the One who created it and brought it into existence? Because we will not give this kind of power to chance. For let the origin belong to chance, but to whom does the dispensation belong? If you like, let's leave this to chance. To whom is the observance and protection of the laws in accordance with which this was first carried out? Of course, to another, except by chance. But what else is this if not God?

Chapter IV
About, What there is God; that the Divine is incomprehensible

So what God There is, It's clear. A What It is in essence and nature completely incomprehensible and unknown. For it is clear that the Deity is incorporeal. For how can something that is infinite, and unlimited, and without form, and intangible, and invisible, and simple, and uncomplicated, be a body? For how can [anything] be unchangeable if it is describable and subject to passions? And how can something composed of elements and resolving itself in them be dispassionate? For addition is the beginning of struggle, and struggle is discord, and discord is destruction; destruction is completely alien to God.

How can the position be preserved that God permeates everything and fills everything, as Scripture says: I do not fill the heavens and the earth with food, says the Lord?(Jer. 23, 24). For it is impossible for a body to penetrate through bodies without cutting, and without being cut, and without being intertwined, and without being opposed, just as that which belongs to the moist is mixed and dissolved.

Even if some say that this body is immaterial, like the one that the Hellenic sages call the fifth, this, however, cannot be, [for] it, in any case, will move like the sky. For this is what they call the fifth body. Who is driving this? For everything that is movable is set in motion by another. Who is driving this? And so [I will continue to go] into infinity until we come to something motionless. For the first mover is motionless, which is precisely the Divinity. How is it that something that moves is not limited by space? So, only the Divinity is motionless, by His motionlessness setting everything in motion. Therefore, we must admit that the Deity is incorporeal.

But even this does not show His essence, just as they do not show [the expressions:] the unborn, and the beginningless, and the unchangeable, and the incorruptible, and what is said about God or about the existence of God; for this does not mean What God There is, but that, What He do not eat. And whoever wants to talk about the essence of something must explain - What it There is, not that What it do not eat. However, to say about God, What He There is essentially impossible. Rather, it is more typical to speak [about Him] through the removal of everything. For He is not anything that exists: not as not existing, but as Being above everything that exists, and above being itself. For if knowledge [revolves around] what exists, then what exceeds knowledge, in any case, will be higher than reality. And vice versa, what exceeds reality is higher than knowledge.

So, the Divine is limitless and incomprehensible. And only this one thing—infinity and incomprehensibility—is comprehensible in Him. And what we say about God in the affirmative shows not His nature, but what is around nature.

Whether you call Him good, or righteous, or wise, or anything else, you are not talking about the nature of God, but about what is around nature. Also, some of what is said about God in the affirmative has the meaning of a superlative negation; such as when talking about darkness in relation to God, we do not mean darkness, but that which is not light, but above light; and talking about you sow we understand that which is not darkness.

Chapter V
Proof that there is one God and not many gods

It has been sufficiently proven that God There is and that His being is incomprehensible. But that there is one God, and not many gods, is not doubted by those who believe the Divine Scripture. For at the beginning of the legislation the Lord says: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. May you not be blessed or even Men(Ex. 20, 2–3). And again: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one(Deut. 6:4). And through the prophet Isaiah: Az, – He says, first, and I am to this day, except Me there is no God. Before Me there was no God, and after Me there will be no God but Me.(Isa. 44, 6; 43, 10). And also the Lord in the Holy Gospels thus speaks to the Father: This is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God(John 17:3). With those who do not believe the Divine Scripture, we will talk in this way.

The Deity is perfect and lacking in both goodness and wisdom and power, beginningless, infinite, eternal, indescribable and, simply to say, perfect in every way. Therefore, if we say that there are many gods, then it is necessary that a difference be noticed between many. For if there is no difference between them, then rather there is one God, and not many gods. If there is a difference between them, then where is the perfection? For if God remains behind perfection, either in regard to goodness, or power, or wisdom, or time, or place, then he cannot be God. Identity in all respects shows one rather than many.

And also how can indescribability be preserved if there are many gods? For where there was one, [there] there would be no other.

And how will the world be ruled by many, and not be destroyed and not perish, when there would be a struggle between the rulers? For difference introduces contradiction. If someone were to say that each governs a part, then what was the culprit of this order and what divided [power] between them? For that would rather be God. Therefore God is one, perfect, indescribable, Creator of all things, both Preserver and Ruler, above perfection and before perfection.

In addition, and by natural necessity, one is the beginning of two.

Chapter VI
About the Word and the Son of God, proof borrowed from reason

So, this one and only God is not devoid of the Word. Having the Word, He will not have it as non-hypostatic, not as one who began his existence and is about to end it. For there was no [time] when God was without the Word. But He always has His Word, which is born from Him and which is not impersonal, like our word, and is not poured out into the air, but is hypostatic, living, perfect, not located outside of Him, but always abiding in Him. For if It is born outside of Him, then where will It be? For since our nature is subject to death and easily destroyed, therefore our word is impersonal. God, always existing, and existing perfect, will have both perfect and hypostatic His Word, and always existing, and living, and having everything that a Parent has. For just as our word, coming out of the mind, is neither entirely identical with the mind, nor completely different, because, being from the mind, it is something else in comparison with it; revealing the mind itself, it is no longer completely different from the mind, but, being one by nature, it is different in position. Likewise, the Word of God, in that It exists in Itself, is different in comparison with the One from Whom It has Hypostasis. If we take into account the fact that It shows in Itself what is seen in relation to God, then It is identical with That by nature. For just as perfection in everything is seen in the Father, so it is also seen in the Word begotten of Him.

Chapter VII
Concerning the Holy Spirit, Proof Borrowed from Reason

The Word must also have the Spirit. For our word is not without breath. However, in us, breathing is alien to our being. For it is the attraction and movement of air drawn in and poured out to keep the body in good condition. What exactly during the exclamation becomes the sound of the word, revealing the power of the word in itself. The existence of the Spirit of God in the Divine nature, which is simple and uncomplicated, must be piously confessed, because the Word is not more insufficient than our word. But it is ungodly to consider the Spirit to be something alien, coming into God from without, just as it happens in us, who are of a complex nature. But how, having heard about the Word of God, we considered It not to be one that is devoid of personal existence, and not one that occurs as a result of teaching, and not one that is pronounced by a voice, and not one that is poured out into the air and disappears, but existing independently and gifted with free will, and active, and omnipotent; So, having learned about the Spirit of God, accompanying the Word and showing His activity, we do not understand Him as a breath that does not have personal existence. For if the Spirit who is in God were to be understood in the likeness of our spirit, then in that case the greatness of the Divine nature would be reduced to insignificance. But we understand Him as an independent Power, Which in Itself is contemplated in a special Hypostasis, and emanating from the Father, and resting in the Word, and being His expresser, and as one Which cannot be separated from God, in Whom It is, and from the Word with which it accompanies, and as one that is not poured out in such a way that it ceases to exist, but as a Power, in the likeness of the Word, existing hypostatically, living, possessing free will, self-moving, active, always desiring the good and possessing power at every intention, which accompanies a desire that has neither beginning nor end. For the Father never lacked the Word, nor did the Word lack the Spirit.

Thus, through Their unity by nature, the delusion of the Hellenes, which recognizes many gods, is destroyed; through the acceptance of the Word and the Spirit, the dogma of the Jews is overthrown and what is useful in both sects remains: from the Jewish opinion the unity of nature remains, from the Hellenic teaching - only the division according to Hypostases.

If a Jew speaks against receiving the Word and the Spirit, then let him be both rebuked and forced into silence by Divine Scripture. For the divine David speaks of the Word: forever, O Lord, your word remains in heaven(Ps. 119, 89). And again: sent my word, and I healed(Ps. 106:20). But the spoken word is not sent and does not remain forever. The same David says about the Spirit: send forth your spirit, and they will be created(Ps. 103:30). And again: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of the mouth of God all their power(Ps. 33:6). And Job: The Spirit of God created me, and the breath of the Almighty taught me(Job 33:4). The Spirit, which is sent, and creates, and affirms, and contains, is not a disappearing breath, just as the mouth of God is not a bodily member. For both must be understood according to the dignity of God.

Chapter VIII
About the Holy Trinity

So, we believe in One God, one beginning, beginningless, uncreated, unborn, both not subject to destruction, and immortal, eternal, boundless, indescribable, unlimited, infinitely powerful, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, imperishable, impassive, permanent, unchangeable, invisible, the source of goodness and justice, mental light, unapproachable, power, not examined by any measure, measured only by His own will, for He can do whatever He wants (Ps. 134:6); into the power of the Creator of all creatures, both visible and invisible, containing and preserving everything, providing for everything, ruling and dominating over everything, commanding an endless and immortal kingdom, having nothing as an opponent, filling everything, not embraced by anything, on the contrary, itself embracing everything together and containing and surpassing, penetrating without defilement into all beings and existing beyond everything, and removed from every being, as the most essential and existing above all, pre-divine, pre-good, exceeding fullness, choosing everything beginnings and ranks, above and beyond everything started And rank, higher than essence and life, and words, and thoughts; into power, which is light itself, goodness itself, life itself, essence itself, since it does not have its being or anything of what is from another, but is itself the source of being for that which exists: for that which what lives is the source of life, for what uses reason - reason, for everything - the cause of all good; into power - knowing everything before his birth; into one essence, one Divinity, one power, one will, one activity, one Start, single power, unified domination, unified kingdom in three perfect Hypostases, both cognizable and welcomed by a single worship, and representing the object of both faith and service on the part of every rational creature; in Hypostases, inseparably united and inseparably distinguished, which even surpasses [any] idea. In the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in Whom we are baptized. For this is how the Lord commanded the apostles to baptize: baptizing them, He says in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit(Matt. 28:19).

We believe in the One Father, the beginning of everything and the cause, not born of anyone, but the One Who alone exists innocent and unborn; in the Creator of all things, of course, but in the Father by nature only of His Only Begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, and in the Creator of the All-Holy Spirit. And into the One Son of God, the Only Begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages, into Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came into being. By speaking of Him “before all ages,” we prove that His birth flightless and without beginning; For the Son of God was not brought into being out of non-existence, radiance of glory, image of the Hypostasis Father (Heb. 1, 3), living wisdom And force(1 Cor. 1:24), the Word is hypostatic, essential, and perfect, and living image of the invisible God(Col. 1:15), but He was always with the Father and in Him, born of Him eternally and without beginning. For the Father never existed unless the Son existed, but together the Father and together the Son, begotten of Him. For He who is deprived of the Son could not be called Father. And if He existed without having a Son, then He was not the Father; and if after this he received the Son, then after this he became the Father, having not previously been the Father, and from a position in which He was not a Father, he changed into one in which He became a Father, which [to say] is worse than any blasphemy. For it is impossible to say of God that He is deprived of the natural ability to be born. The ability to give birth is to give birth from oneself, that is, from one’s own essence, similar in nature.

So, regarding the birth of the Son, it is impious to say that in the middle [between His non-birth and His birth] time passed and that the existence of the Son came after the Father. For we say that the birth of the Son is from Him, that is, from the nature of the Father. And if we do not admit that from time immemorial the Son born of Him existed together with the Father, then we will introduce a change in the Hypostasis of the Father, since, not being the Father, He became the Father later; for creation, even if it came into being after this, did not come from the essence of God, but was brought into existence from non-existence by His will and power, and the change does not concern the nature of God. For birth consists in the fact that from the being of the one who gives birth, what is born is derived, similar in essence. Creation and work consist in the fact that from the outside and not from the essence of the one who creates and produces, the created and produced, completely different in essence, comes into being.

Therefore, in God, Who alone is impassive, and unchangeable, and immutable, and always exists in the same way, both birth and creation are impassive; for, being by nature dispassionate and constant as simple and uncomplicated, he is not inclined by nature to endure passion or flow either in birth or in creation and does not need anyone's assistance; but birth is beginningless and eternal, being a matter of nature and coming out of His being, so that the One who gives birth does not suffer change and so that there is no God first and God later and that He may not receive any increase. Creation in God, being a work of will, is not co-eternal with God, since that which is brought into being from the non-existent is by nature incapable of being co-eternal with the beginningless and always existing. Consequently, just as man and God do not produce in the same way, for man does not bring anything into existence from a non-existent, but what he does, he makes from a previously existing substance, not only having willed, but also having first thought about and imagined in his mind what he has. perhaps, then, having worked with his hands and endured fatigue and exhaustion, and often not achieving the goal, when the diligent work did not end as he wished, God, only by desiring, brought everything out of non-existence into existence; Thus, God and man do not give birth in the same way. For God, being flightless, and beginningless, and passionless, and free from flow, and incorporeal, and one only, and infinite, also gives birth to flightless, and without beginning, and dispassionately, and without expiration, and without combination; and His incomprehensible birth has neither beginning nor end. And He gives birth without beginning because He is unchangeable, and without expiration because He is passionless and incorporeal; outside of combination, both again because he is incorporeal, and because He alone is God, not needing another; infinitely and unceasingly because He is beginningless, and flightless, and infinite, and always exists in the same way. For what is without beginning is also infinite; and what is infinite by grace is in no way without beginning, like [for example] the Angels.

Therefore, the ever-existing God gives birth to His Word, which is perfect, without beginning and without end, so as not to give birth in time God, who has the highest time and nature and being. And that a person gives birth in the opposite way is clear, since he is subject to birth, and death, and flow, and increase, and is clothed with a body, and in his nature has male and female sex. For the male sex needs the help of the female. But may He be merciful who is above all and who surpasses all understanding and comprehension!

So, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church expounds the doctrine together about the Father and together about His Only Begotten Son, begotten of Him flightless, and without flow, and impassively, and incomprehensibly, as God alone knows of everything; just as fire exists at the same time and the light that comes from it simultaneously exists, and not first fire and then light, but together; and just as light, always born from fire, is always in it, in no way separating from it, so the Son is born from the Father, not at all separated from Him, but always abiding in Him. However, light, which is born inseparably from fire and always abides in it, does not have its own hypostasis in comparison with fire, for it is the natural quality of fire. The Only Begotten Son of God, born from the Father inseparably and inseparably and always abiding in Him, has His own Hypostasis in comparison with the Hypostasis of the Father.

So, the Son is called Word and radiance because he was born from the Father without combination and dispassionately, and flightless, and without expiration, and inseparably. He is the Son and the image of the Father's Hypostasis because He is perfect and hypostatic and in everything equal to the Father, except for non-fertility. The only begotten - because He alone was born from the Father alone in a unique way. For there is no other birth that is likened to the birth of the Son of God, since there is no other Son of God.

For although the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, it does not proceed in the manner of birth, but in the manner of procession. This is a different image of origin, both incomprehensible and unknown, just like the birth of the Son. Therefore, everything that the Father has belongs to Him, that is, to the Son, except for ungeneracy, which does not show the difference of essence, does not show dignity, but the image of being; just as Adam, who was not born, for he is the creation of God, and Seth, who was born, for he is the son of Adam, and Eve, who came from Adam’s side, for she was not born, do not differ from each other by nature , for they are people, but in the image of origin.

For you must know that το το άγένητον, which is written through one letter “ν,” denotes the uncreated, that is, what did not happen; and then άγέννητον, which is written through two letters “νν,” means unborn. Therefore, in accordance with the first meaning, essence differs from essence, for the other is an uncreated essence, that is, άγένητος - through one letter “ν”, and the other is γενητή, that is, created. In accordance with the second meaning, essence does not differ from essence, for the first being of every kind of living being is άγέννητον (unborn), but not άγένητον (that is, uncreated). For they were created by the Creator, being brought into being by His Word, but were not born, since before there was no other homogeneous thing from which they could have been born.

So, if we keep in mind the first meaning, then Three Divine The hypostases of the Holy Deity participate [in uncreatedness], for they are consubstantial and uncreated. If we mean the second meaning, then in no way, for the Father alone is ungenerated, because His existence is not from another Hypostasis. And only one Son is begotten, for He is without beginning and flightless born from the being of the Father. And the Holy Spirit alone is emanating, not generated, but proceeding from the being of the Father (John 15:26). Although Divine Scripture teaches this, the image of birth and procession is incomprehensible.

But we must also know this, that the name of patronymic, and sonship, and procession was not transferred from us to the blessed Divinity, but, on the contrary, was transferred to us from there, as the divine apostle says: For this reason I bow my knees to the Father, from the Unfitness of every patronymic in heaven and on earth(Eph. 3:14–15).

If we say that the Father is the beginning of the Son and painful Him, then we do not show that He takes precedence over the Son in time or nature (John 14:28), for through Him the Father create eyelids(Heb. 1, 2). It does not take precedence in any other respect, if not in relation to the cause, that is, because the Son is born of the Father, and not the Father from the Son, and because the Father is naturally the cause of the Son, just as we do not say that fire comes out of light, but what is better is light from fire. So, whenever we hear that the Father is the beginning and painful Son, then let us understand this in the sense of reason. And just as we do not say that fire belongs to another essence and light belongs to another, so we cannot say that the Father belongs to another essence and the Son belongs to another, but to one and the same one. And just as we say that fire shines through the light emanating from it, and we do not believe, for our part, that the service organ of fire is the light emanating from it, or better yet, a natural force, so we say about the Father that everything He does, does through His Only Begotten Son, not as through an official organ, but as a natural and hypostatic Power. And just as we say that fire illuminates, and again we say that the light of fire illuminates, so everything that creates Father, and My son does the same thing(John 5:19). But light has no existence separate from fire; The Son is a perfect Hypostasis, inseparable from the Fatherly Hypostasis, as we showed above. For it is impossible for an image to be found among creation that in all similarities shows in itself the properties of the Holy Trinity. For what is created, and complex, and fleeting, and changeable, and describable, and having an appearance, and perishable, will clearly show how free from all these essential Divine essence? But it is clear that all creation is possessed by greater [conditions] than these, and all of it, by its nature, is subject to destruction.

That the Divinity is incomprehensible and that we should not seek with excessive curiosity what is not given to us by the holy prophets, apostles and evangelists

There is no one else in sight of God. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, that confession

(John 1:18). So, the Divinity is ineffable and incomprehensible; for

no one knows the Father except the Son, no one knows the Son except the Father

(Matt. 11:27). Likewise, the Holy Spirit knows God, just as the human spirit knows what is in man (1 Cor. 2:11). Apart from the very first and blessed Being, no one has ever known God, except the one to whom He Himself revealed it - no one not only from people, but even from the supermundane Powers, from themselves, I say, the Cherubim and Seraphim.

However, God has not left us completely ignorant; for the knowledge that God exists, He Himself planted in the nature of everyone. And the very creation of the world, its preservation and management proclaim the greatness of the Divine (Wisdom 13:5). Moreover, God, first through the law and the prophets, then through His only begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, communicated to us the knowledge of Himself that we can comprehend. Therefore, everything that the law and the prophets, the apostles and evangelists gave us, we accept, know and honor; and we experience nothing higher than that. For if God is good, then He is the giver of all good, and is not involved in envy or any other passion, for envy is not akin to the nature of God as impassive and the only good. And therefore, He, as omniscient and providing for the good of everyone, revealed to us what we need to know, but kept silent about what we cannot bear. We should be content with this, abide in this and not transgress the eternal limits (Proverbs 22:28) and the tradition of God.

About what can be expressed in words and what cannot, what can be known and what surpasses knowledge

Whoever wants to talk or listen about God must know that not everything regarding the Divinity and His Economy is inexpressible, but not everything is expressible, not everything is unknowable, but not everything is knowable; for one thing means what is knowable, and another thing means what is expressed in words, since it is another thing to speak, and another thing to know. Thus, much of what we vaguely know about God cannot be expressed in all perfection; but as is our nature, so we are forced to talk about what is above us, so, speaking about God, we [attribute to Him] sleep, anger, carelessness, arms, legs, and the like.

That God is beginningless, infinite, eternal, ever-present, uncreated, unchangeable, immutable, simple, uncomplicated, incorporeal, invisible, intangible, unlimited, limitless, unknown, incomprehensible, good, righteous, omnipotent, almighty, all-seeing, all-provider, all-lord and judge, - this we know and confess, as well as the fact that God is one, that is, one Being; that He is known and exists in three hypostases (persons), that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except non-generation, birth and procession; that the Only Begotten Son, and the Word of God, and God, according to His goodness, for the sake of our salvation, by the good will of the Father and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, having been conceived without seed, was incorruptibly born of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary through the Holy Spirit and became from Her a perfect Man; and that He is both perfect God and perfect Man, from two natures, Divinity and humanity, and (is known) from both natures, gifted with mind and will, active and autocratic, in short, perfect according to the definition and concept of each, i.e. e. Deity and humanity, but in one complex hypostasis. That He, moreover, hungered, and thirsted, and was weary, and was crucified, and actually accepted death and burial, and was resurrected for three days, and ascended into heaven, from where He came to us and will come again - Divine Scripture testifies to this, and the entire Cathedral of Saints.

What is the being of God, or how He is in everything, or how the Only Begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, became man from virgin blood, that is, by another supernatural law, or how He walked on the waters with wet feet - that We don’t know and we can’t say it. So, we cannot say anything about God, nor even think, other than what God himself has spoken, said or revealed to us in the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Proof that God exists

That God exists, those who accept the Holy Scriptures, that is, the Old and New Testaments, as well as many of the Hellenes, do not doubt this; for, as we have already said, the knowledge that God exists is given to us by nature. But the evil of the evil one so dominated human nature and plunged some into such a terrible and worst abyss of destruction that they began to say that there is no God. Exposing their madness, the seer David said:

speech is foolish in his heart: there is no God

(Ps. 13:1). That is why the disciples and apostles of our Lord, made wise by the All-Holy Spirit, and by His power and grace performing divine signs, through their network of miracles brought such people from the depths of ignorance to the light of the knowledge of God. In the same way, the successors of their grace and dignity, shepherds and teachers, having received the enlightening grace of the Spirit, and by the power of miracles and the word of grace, enlightened the darkened and converted the erring. And we, having received neither the gift of miracles nor the gift of teaching - for, having become addicted to sensual pleasures, we turned out to be unworthy of this - having called upon the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for help, let us now say about this subject something at least a little of what the prophets of grace taught us .

All beings are either created or uncreated. If they are created, then, without a doubt, they are changeable; for what being began by change will necessarily and will be subject to change, either decaying, or changing at will. If they are uncreated, then by the very sequence of inferences, of course, they are unchangeable; for what being is opposite, the image of being is opposite, that is, its properties. Who would not agree that all beings, not only those who are subject to our senses, but also angels, change, are altered and transformed in various ways; so, for example, mental beings, that is, angels, souls and spirits, according to their will, more or less succeeding in good and moving away from good, and other beings, changing both by their birth, and by disappearance, and by increase and decrease, by changes in properties and by local movement? And what changes is, of course, created, and what is created is, without a doubt, created by someone. The Creator must be an uncreated being: for if he were created, then, of course, by someone, and so on, until we reach something uncreated. Therefore, the Creator, being uncreated, undoubtedly exists and is unchangeable: and who is this other than God?

And the very composition, preservation and management of creatures show us that there is a God who created all this, maintains, preserves and provides for everything. For how could elements hostile to each other, such as fire, water, air, earth, unite to form one world and remain in complete inseparability, if some omnipotent force did not unite them and always keep them inseparable?