8. Moreover, they possess no proof of their system, which has but recently been invented by them, sometimes resting upon certain numbers, sometimes on syllables, and sometimes, again, on names; and there are occasions, too, when, by means of those letters which are contained in letters, by parables not properly interpreted, or by certain [baseless] conjectures, they strive to establish that fabulous account which they have devised. For if any one should inquire the reason why the Father, who has fellowship with the Son in all things, has been declared by the Lord alone to know the hour and the day [of judgment], he will find at present no more suitable, or becoming, or safe reason than this (since, indeed, the Lord is the only true Master), that we may learn through Him that the Father is above all things. For "the Father," says He, "is greater than I." [3233] The Father, therefore, has been declared by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge; for this reason, that we, too, as long as we are connected with the scheme of things in this world, should leave perfect knowledge, and such questions [as have been mentioned], to God, and should not by any chance, while we seek to investigate the sublime nature of the Father, fall into the danger of starting the question whether there is another God above God. [3234]
9. But if any lover of strife contradict what I have said, and also what the apostle affirms, that "we know in part, and prophesy in part," [3235] and imagine that he has acquired not a partial, but a universal, knowledge of all that exists, --being such an one as Valentinus, or Ptolemæus, or Basilides, or any other of those who maintain that they have searched out the deep [3236] things of God,--let him not (arraying himself in vainglory) boast that he has acquired greater knowledge than others with respect to those things which are invisible, or cannot be placed under our observation; but let him, by making diligent inquiry, and obtaining information from the Father, tell us the reasons (which we know not) of those things which are in this world, --as, for instance, the number of hairs on his own head, and the sparrows which are captured day by day, and such other points with which we are not previously acquainted,--so that we may credit him also with respect to more important points. But if those who are perfect do not yet understand the very things in their hands, and at their feet, and before their eyes, and on the earth, and especially the rule followed with respect to the hairs of their head, how can we believe them regarding things spiritual, and super-celestial, [3237] and those which, with a vain confidence, they assert to be above God? So much, then, I have said concerning numbers, and names, and syllables, and questions respecting such things as are above our comprehension, and concerning their improper expositions of the parables: [I add no more on these points,] since thou thyself mayest enlarge upon them.
[3213] Or, "to that degree."
[3214] Comp. Clem. Rom. Ep. to Cor., c. xx.; and August, De. Civit Dei, xvi. 9.
[3215] 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
[3216] "Permanet firma,"--no doubt corresponding to the menei of the apostle, 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Harvey here remarks, that "the author seems to misapprehend the apostle's meaning.... There will be no longer room for hope, when the substance of things hoped for shall have become a matter of fruition; neither will there be any room for faith, when the soul shall be admitted to see God as He is." But the best modern interpreters take the same view of the passage as Irenæus. They regard the nuni de of St. Paul as not being temporal, but logical, and conclude therefore the meaning to be, that faith and hope, as well as love, will, in a sense, endure for ever. Comp., e.g., Alford, in loc.
[3217] The Latin text is here untranslateable. Grabe proposes to read, "una consonans melodia in nobis sentietur;" while Stieren and others prefer to exchange aisthesetai for asthesetai.
[3218] "Apotelesticos." This word, says Harvey, "may also refer to the vital energy of nature, whereby its effects are for ever reproduced in unceasing succession." Comp. Hippol., Philos., vii. 24.
[3219] We here follow Grabe, who understands decet. Harvey less simply explains the very obscure Latin text.
[3220] The Greek term logos, as is well known, denotes both ratio (reason) and sermo (speech). Some deem the above parenthesis an interpolation.
[3221] Comp. i. 12, 2.
[3222] "Suffugatur:" some read "suffocatur;" and Harvey proposes "suffragatur," as the representative of the Greek psephizetai. The meaning in any case is, that while ideas are instantaneously formed in the human mind, they can be expressed through means of words only fractionally, and by successive utterances.
[3223] Thus: Bythus, Nous, Logos.
[3224] Isa. liii. 8.
[3225] Mark xiii. 32. The words, "neither the angels which are in heaven," are here omitted, probably because, as usual, the writer quotes from memory.
[3226] Comp. Matt. x. 24; Luke xi. 40.
[3227] Ps. cx. 1.
[3228] 1 Cor. ii. 10.
[3229] 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6.
[3230] 1 Cor. xiii. 9.
[3231] Massuet proposes to insert these words, and some such supplement seems clearly necessary to complete the sense. But the sentence still remains confused and doubtful.
[3232] [Gen. xl. 8; Deut. xxix. 29; Ps. cxxxi.]
[3233] John xiv. 28.
[3234] [On the great matter of the perichoresis, the subordination of the Son, etc., Bull has explored Patristic doctrine, and may well be consulted here. Defens. Fid. Nicænæ, sect. iv.; see also vol. v. 363]
[3235] 1 Cor. xiii. 9.
[3236] "Altitudines," literally, heights.
[3237] [Wisdom ix. 13, 17. A passage of marvellous beauty.]