Collective vs Individual Attributes

Of this. And as far as... again a transition through progress to ascend... it is not in the desire that already exists.

It is therefore necessary to understand: 'God, in our ears we have heard, our fathers have declared to us' (Psalm 51:5). In their own ears, the saints say, we heard the words of God. An addition of ears occurs at the common hearing, when someone is able to hear intellectual words. The physician hearing medical words has a medical ear, but another does not. The one powerful enough to say, 'The instruction of the Lord opens my ears' (Psalm 51:6), does not speak about sensory hearing, but about that which is able to hear the intellectual words of God.

Thus, therefore, 'in our ears' must be heard, and it is not passing by; for it does not signify what is existing, but what is being added. And behold, how the saint says: 'The instruction of the Lord opens my ears.' He says: 'The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction to know when it is necessary to speak a word; He has placed for me first, He has added to me an ear for hearing; and the instruction of the Lord opens my ears.' The ear given according to addition is intellectual; it hears the words in a God-befitting way. And when this is added, His instruction then opens the ears—this thing which was added, the other ear, the intellectual one, the one hearing God-befittingly, the one able to say: 'I have heard unspeakable words'; for it is not possible for everyone to say this, but for the one having received the addition of an ear from God.

These things were in the mind of the Savior, having them, He was saying: 'Let him who has ears to hear, hear' (Matthew 13:9). But not all had the hearing of the words of Jesus, the words being announced in parables. From this Porphyry learned, and in this: 'God, in our ears we have heard.' In our own ears, not the common ones toward irrational animals, but in those joined toward the intellectual words of God.

Regarding words, this signifies in the dialects of the sensory things: the Egyptian among the Egyptians hears with his own ears; he hears with his own ear. Wherefore, what do we take from this according to scientific knowledge? —those who are concerned with teaching pretend for everyone; 'a people full of sins'; for it is not possible for each one to be full of those same sins, since there are also opposites and incompatible things. For instance, the same man cannot possess cowardice and boldness, but a whole people can possess them. And again, concerning things capable of coexisting, even if they do not coexist because of the multitude, if I say that the whole city has knowledge, not everyone has the same; for it is impossible for everyone to have things as is necessary. But it is possible to have them as rumors.

'Our fathers informed us' (Ps 78:3). Our fathers according to instruction. Wise are those who say this. In what way, then, are they wise, having been born from them? Not as men; for many are wise from the unwise, and many are not wise from the wise. 2 A work, which I worked in their days, in ancient days. In their own days, being ancient,... our fathers informed us. And that it is necessary to hear scientifically... those things that happened in the ancient days, such as in Exodus; it was impossible to learn that an exodus had occurred in Egypt without those announcing it, unless indeed those who wrote it... for in every way it is necessary to tell all the things that happened, so that no one might come and say... snatch it away. 'In days' therefore 'ancient', in first days. And what is this, having happened... and of a heavy earth upon the saints and the... having happened. But it is not strictly this that is signified previously, but it is said so that through this that thing might be viewed.