God as Land, Source, and Radiance

He brings it forth by instructing, having searched out the good word. From this, the word again gathers this point: that if anyone wishes to bring forth a word without having been nourished, it is not a good movement. And again, just as a handler, having nourished himself on food, has a reason for instruction, so he says, 'I declare my works to the king.' My works are so boldly declared, and they bring me no condemnation nor any reproach. I say to him, to the king, to the judge.

My tongue is a scribe's pen, sharp-writing. My word is signified through the tongue. Often you will find the tongue used instead of the word. As if he says, 'The Lord will destroy all deceitful lips and the great-sounding tongue' (Psalm 12:2), he calls the word 'great-sounding'. It is a beautiful beauty according to the sons of men. And the sons of men—that is, the wise of the world and those who once promised teaching—seem to have beauty in their own words. Our word's beauty according to the sons of men is sent by God, is a gift from God, and is true wisdom. Therefore, it possesses something more than the sons of men who, speaking from their own hearts, gather words and lessons of their own zeal and learning.

For then listen: the Psalm is received from the face of the Father. And almost all those speaking to the common people receive it in this way. The transcendent and great things, which are above the intellects, are revealed only through many examples. Wishing therefore to say many times that God is one, we say ten thousand things. We say that nothing is joined to Him, that there is neither matter nor form in Him, that He is a Monad, He is a One, and only through a multitude of words do we make these things manifest. But when I wish to speak about wine, it is enough to say 'wine'; for they know what it is, it is said; and we signify only the concept through the word. The same is true concerning earth. We have no need of many words. But when we say that the...

God is land, saying: 'Did I become a desert to Israel or a tilled land?' (Isa 54:3). We say ten thousand things to show how God is called land.

Again, if we call him a source, we do not say little, as when we report concerning a sensible source. But concerning God we say many things, because since the things pertaining to God and the fullness of his goodness are not externally being thrust upon or supplied, but he himself is full of goodness. Therefore, the fullness of the good things, the fullness of those happening to be virtuous, is called a source.

And the generation of the Savior from the Father is not something readily available nor to be taken by those wishing, but only to those to whom a revelation of the Father and of the Son has become; for just as the Father reveals the Son and the Son the Father, many examples are needed so that the intimacy of the Son toward the Father and the generation may be made manifest. For he calls him 'the radiance of light.' The radiance is not external to the light; it is generated from it. And the light does not pre-exist the radiance; for light and radiance are simultaneous. If, therefore, we wish to show that it is an eternal generation of the Son, we call him an eternal radiance of light from the eternal.

But the heterodox do not know how each of these things is said, and they do not take them as models, but say: 'The light is essence, the radiance is energy. Is the Son not energy of essence and not essence?' They do not understand why this was said: so that one might learn that the Father does not pre-exist the Son; for the Father is not a sensible light and the Son is not a sensible radiance. It has become a teaching upon human things, so that from those things which we know, we may learn what we do not know. But we know that the light does not pre-exist the radiance.

Again, the Father is called a source of wisdom; for 'you have left' the 'source of wisdom' (Jer 2:13). He wishes to show that just as the water of the source is not foreign, so also the wisdom of the 'only wise one' is not foreign.