First Century :: First Decade
1. God is one, unoriginate, incomprehensible, possessing completely the total potentiality of being, altogether excluding notions of when and how, inaccessible to all, and not to be known through natural image by any creature.
2. So far as we are able to understand, for Himself God does not constitute either an origin, or an intermediary state, or a consummation, or anything else at all which can be seen to qualify naturally things that are sequent to Him. For He is undetermined, unchanging and infinite, since He is infinitely beyond all being, potentiality and actualisation.
3. Every being whose self-limitation is intrinsic to it is by nature the origin of the activity perceived as potentially present within it. Every natural activity in the process of actualisation – and such activity is, on the conceptual level, sequent to the being itself but prior to its own actualisation – is an intermediary state, since by nature it lies between the being in which it is present potentially and its own actualisation. Every actualisation, limited as it naturally is by its own inner principle, is the consummation of that activity which has its origm in the being and which, conceptually speaking, precedes the actualisation.
4. God is not a being either in the general or in any specific sense of the word, and so He cannot be an origin. Nor is He a potentiality either in the general or in any specific sense, and so He is not an intermediary state. Nor is He an actualisation in the general or in any specific sense, and so He cannot be the consummation of that activity which proceeds from a being in which it is perceived to pre-exist as a potentiality. On the contrary, He is the author of being and simulaneously an entity transcending being; He is the author of potentiality and simultaneously the ground transcending potentiality; and He is the active and inexhaustible state of all actualisation. In short, He is the author of all being, potentiality and actualisation, and of every origin, intermediary state and consummation.
5. Origin, the intermediary state and consummation characterise things divided by time, as indeed they characterise things existing in the eon. For time, by which change is measured, is defined numerically; while the eon, whose existence presupposes a 'when', possesses dimensionality, since its existence has an origin. And if time and the eon have an origin, how much more so will those things that exist within them.
6. God by nature is always one and alone, substantively and absolutely, containing in Himself ail-inclusively the totality of substantive being, since He transcends even substantiveness itself. If this is so, there is nothing whatsoever among all the things to which we ascribe being that possess substantive being. Thus nothing whatsoever different in essence from God can be envisaged as coexisting with Him from eternity – neither the eon, nor time, nor anything which exists within them. For substantive being and being which is not substantive never coincide.
7. No origin, intermediary state or consummation can ever be altogether free from the category of relationship. God, being infinitely beyond every kind of relationship, is by nature neither an origin, nor an intermediary state, nor a consummation, nor any of those things to which it is possible to apply the category of relationship.
8. Created beings are termed intelligible because each of them has an origin that can be known rationally. But God cannot be termed intelligible, while from our apprehension of intelligible beings we can do no more than believe that He exists. On this account no intelligible being is in any way to be compared with Him.
9. Created beings can be known rationally by means of the inner principles which are by nature intrinsic to such beings and by which they are naturally defined. But from our apprehension of these principles inherent in created beings we can do no more than believe that God exists. To the devout believer God gives something more sure than any proof: the recognition and the faith that He substantively is. Faith is true knowledge, the principles of which are beyond rational demonstration; for faith makes real for us things beyond intellect and reason (cf. Hebrews 11:1).
10. God is the origin, intermediary state and consummation of all created things, but as acting upon things not as acted upon, which is also the case where everything else we call Him is concerned. He is origin as Creator, intermediary state as provident ruler, and consummation as final end. For, as Scripture says, 'All things are from Him and through Him, and have Him as their goal' (cf Romans 11:36).
1. God is one, unoriginate, incomprehensible, possessing completely the total potentiality of being, altogether excluding notions of when and how, inaccessible to all, and not to be known through natural image by any creature.
2. So far as we are able to understand, for Himself God does not constitute either an origin, or an intermediary state, or a consummation, or anything else at all which can be seen to qualify naturally things that are sequent to Him. For He is undetermined, unchanging and infinite, since He is infinitely beyond all being, potentiality and actualisation.
3. Every being whose self-limitation is intrinsic to it is by nature the origin of the activity perceived as potentially present within it. Every natural activity in the process of actualisation – and such activity is, on the conceptual level, sequent to the being itself but prior to its own actualisation – is an intermediary state, since by nature it lies between the being in which it is present potentially and its own actualisation. Every actualisation, limited as it naturally is by its own inner principle, is the consummation of that activity which has its origm in the being and which, conceptually speaking, precedes the actualisation.
4. God is not a being either in the general or in any specific sense of the word, and so He cannot be an origin. Nor is He a potentiality either in the general or in any specific sense, and so He is not an intermediary state. Nor is He an actualisation in the general or in any specific sense, and so He cannot be the consummation of that activity which proceeds from a being in which it is perceived to pre-exist as a potentiality. On the contrary, He is the author of being and simulaneously an entity transcending being; He is the author of potentiality and simultaneously the ground transcending potentiality; and He is the active and inexhaustible state of all actualisation. In short, He is the author of all being, potentiality and actualisation, and of every origin, intermediary state and consummation.
5. Origin, the intermediary state and consummation characterise things divided by time, as indeed they characterise things existing in the eon. For time, by which change is measured, is defined numerically; while the eon, whose existence presupposes a 'when', possesses dimensionality, since its existence has an origin. And if time and the eon have an origin, how much more so will those things that exist within them.
6. God by nature is always one and alone, substantively and absolutely, containing in Himself ail-inclusively the totality of substantive being, since He transcends even substantiveness itself. If this is so, there is nothing whatsoever among all the things to which we ascribe being that possess substantive being. Thus nothing whatsoever different in essence from God can be envisaged as coexisting with Him from eternity – neither the eon, nor time, nor anything which exists within them. For substantive being and being which is not substantive never coincide.
7. No origin, intermediary state or consummation can ever be altogether free from the category of relationship. God, being infinitely beyond every kind of relationship, is by nature neither an origin, nor an intermediary state, nor a consummation, nor any of those things to which it is possible to apply the category of relationship.
8. Created beings are termed intelligible because each of them has an origin that can be known rationally. But God cannot be termed intelligible, while from our apprehension of intelligible beings we can do no more than believe that He exists. On this account no intelligible being is in any way to be compared with Him.
9. Created beings can be known rationally by means of the inner principles which are by nature intrinsic to such beings and by which they are naturally defined. But from our apprehension of these principles inherent in created beings we can do no more than believe that God exists. To the devout believer God gives something more sure than any proof: the recognition and the faith that He substantively is. Faith is true knowledge, the principles of which are beyond rational demonstration; for faith makes real for us things beyond intellect and reason (cf. Hebrews 11:1).
10. God is the origin, intermediary state and consummation of all created things, but as acting upon things not as acted upon, which is also the case where everything else we call Him is concerned. He is origin as Creator, intermediary state as provident ruler, and consummation as final end. For, as Scripture says, 'All things are from Him and through Him, and have Him as their goal' (cf Romans 11:36).