St. John of Damascus An accurate exposition of the Orthodox faith. Chapter VI About the Word and the Son of God, proof borrowed from reason. Chapter III. Proof that God exists

Reverend John Damascene

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 all in all. 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. So is the Word God's sake 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 preserve 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 Deity, 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 auxiliary 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 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.

St. John of Damascus

Exact statement Orthodox faith.

That the Deity is incomprehensible and that it should not be excessive curiosity to seek out what was 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 what we cannot bear, He kept silent about. 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?

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 what we cannot bear, He kept silent about. We should be content with this, abide in this and not transgress the eternal limits (Proverbs 22:28) and the tradition of God.

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.

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?