Moses asked to see God, and He answered him: “You cannot see my face, because man cannot see me and live... Then I will raise my hand and you will see behind me. But my face will not be seen” (Exodus 23:18:33).

In this context, Paul also said: “He alone has immortality, and his dwelling place is an unapproachable light, which no man has seen nor can see” (1 Timothy 6:15-16).

John the Evangelist had said: “No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the one about whom it was announced” (John 1:18). “No one looks at God” (His First Epistle 4:12). As for Jesus himself, he said: “And this is not because anyone has seen the Father except the one who came from the Father” (John 6:46 and 7:29). Jesus is the one who revealed the name of the Father to people (John 17:6), that is, it was revealed that his name is the Father and that the Son came from him (John 8:17) (18).

Therefore: Knowing God directly is impossible, because His essence is beyond the reach of sensory and rational means of knowledge, and indeed humanity at all. It is not only an essence, but it is beyond the essence. All the beautiful names in the Holy Bible do not indicate its essence, but rather what surrounds the essence (Al-Dimashqi, p. 74).

The subject of all knowledge is knowing what exists. God is beyond everything that exists. In order to approach Him, then, one must deny everything that is lower than Him, that is, everything that exists. Progress in knowledge begins with denial gradually until we reach it in the darkness of absolute ignorance. In Himself, God transcends every mind and every essence. It is completely unknown in the transcendent sense. This complete lack of knowledge constitutes true knowledge (knowledge) which transcends all knowledge.

Based on phrases mentioned in the Bible and analyzes of theological thought, the Church Fathers since Clement of Alexandria in the second century went (19) Basil the Great (379), his brother Gregory of Nyssa (395), and their friend Gregory the Theologian sought to formulate words about the unknown of God. It was composed by John Chrysostom and it became a classic for all subsequent people. He said in God that:

1. The invisible (Romans 1:20, Job 12:7-9, Psalm 106:20, John 1:18, 1 Timothy 6:16...).

2. It cannot be expressed verbally (2 Corinthians 12:4).

3. Not described (2 Corinthians 9:15).

4. Don't explore it (Romans 11:33, Isaiah 45:15, 55:8).

5. Unexamined (Romans 11:33, Isaiah 45:15, 55:28).

6. He is unapproachable, and no one has seen him or is able to see him (1 Timothy 6:16, Exodus 33:20, Psalm 104:2).

7. Unimaginable.

8. He is not surrounded by it.

9. Inconceivable.

10. It cannot be contemplated.

11. The unaware. This word is repeated on almost every page of Chrysostom's book.

12. indescribable.

13. It has no start.

14. It does not change and has no rotation shadow (James 1:17).

15. Non-physical.

16. The incorruptible.

17. It cannot be expressed. (20)…This word is repeated on almost every page of Al-Dhahabi’s book.

In the church we know God. The teacher in it is the Holy Spirit who enlightens the minds of believers, so that they may see Him now as in a riddle and a mirror (1 Corinthians 13) and finally as He is (1 John 3: 1-2).

Lossky and Vdokimov say, in the opinion of Dionysius: wisdom, life, love, and... divine powers. Some people are wrong when they say that love is the essence of God. Serge Verkhovskoy quotes Augustine: “In the same way that the only Son is God from God, he is also love from love” (339 of God and Man). With the division into essence and powers, the statement becomes strange if it means that God's essence is love.

But the Holy Bible, the Church Fathers, and the prayers are wary of the words that name God: light, love, good, love of evil, righteous, just, compassionate, tender, merciful, forbearing, upright, forgiving, truthful, true, Amen, great, wise... except that The Church does not understand this in a limited sense as it is for nature and human beings. Add a Greek root to these and similar words: hyper. It is said: exceeding essence, exceeding goodness, exceeding righteousness, exceeding brightness, exceeding majesty, exceeding power, exceeding wisdom, exceeding glory, exceeding praise, exceeding mercy... And also: all-merciful, all-beautiful, all-desirable... As a result, God is placed in a position superior to all others. Understanding and understandable. He is not the greatest good, but rather He is the one that transcends every good, every description, and every name.

Not only ordinary humans are incapable of realizing God, but also the angels themselves, Abraham, David, Paul, and all creatures (Al-Dhahabi, pp. 19-20 of ibid. and Dionysius, Divine Names 9:2 and 10). And not only His essence, but also His measures, rulings, and wisdom (Romans 11:33, Al-Dhahabi, and others). And the incarnation of the Word itself surpasses the mind of the angels and every mind (Dionysius, The Divine Names 9:2 and Damascus, pp. 16 and 164).

Al-Dimashqi devoted this to a special chapter (59-60) devoting a summary of the teaching of his predecessors regarding the impossibility of knowing God.

Man - as the Fathers (Basil, Al-Dhahabi and others) see... is incapable of understanding himself and the universe. Anyone who claims to understand God is the most ignorant of the ignorant. Whoever realizes that he is completely ignorant of it is a knower and a scholar. Reaching complete ignorance is arriving at certain knowledge of it. It is inconceivable because we know it in itself.

But rising to this high level of spiritual understanding and appearing in the presence of God with fear, piety, and deep prostration does not happen easily. It is necessary to have deep, fervent faith and burning longing, which become wings for the virtuous person to fly with them to God. Cleansing yourself from mistakes is necessary. The Apostle Paul commanded us to put to death through the Holy Spirit the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13) and to put to death our earthly members (Colossians 3:11). He raised the issue of the internal conflict in man between the spirit and the body, between two forces struggling in the soul (Romans 7 and Galatians 5: 15-22). Striving for virtue is not easy, as the struggle continues. Whoever stopped turned back and failed. Permanent forward extension is an important point for Paul (Philippians 3: 13-14), which was greatly emphasized by Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor. Never stop. Growth continues forever and ever. In the afterlife, we rest in God while our spiritual growth continues. Repenting from sinful acts is a continuous struggle until death. It is a general topic, especially among Nyssa and the Syrian fathers (Ephrem, Isaac the Syrian, Andrew of Damascus, John of the Sinai).

But that is impossible without the grace of the Holy Spirit. If God's essence is incomprehensible, His goodness overwhelms us. The Church Fathers Basil and the apostate Dionysius the Syrian up to Gregory Palamas and our era say that the essence is incomprehensible and unapproachable, but that the divine powers are divine powers. Paul said: “And ask him...that Christ may remain in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17). Jesus said to his disciples about the Holy Spirit: “He resides with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). He mentioned that he and the Father reside in those who keep His commandments (John 14:32 and also 20-22).

In Jesus, the believer gained the ability to be cleansed from sins, grow in virtues, and become an adopted son of God (John 1:13 and Galatians 4:6). The Holy Spirit has descended upon us to call upon the Father: “Abba” (Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:15).

The path to God is not philosophical thought and logical analysis. This invents concepts. Concepts about God are idols. Deprivation from it is necessary. The means of divine knowledge is union with God through grace, faith, love, fervent longing, and constant prayer (21), especially the Jesus Prayer, which is Communion (22). Insist on fervor in prayer and longing because God’s zeal in His love for us does not leave us lukewarm, but rather inflames us (Dionysius, The Divine Names 13 and The Heavenly Hierarchy 15 and Palamas, Defense of the Hesychasts, pp. 180-181).

This Jesus prayer is a Trinitarian prayer that the Holy Spirit prays in us, through which we deeply acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. In it, we remember Jesus and his Father by the action of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (Callistos, Ignatius, and Axanthopole, Centenary, chapters 49 and 50 and Lev Gehle, Jesus Prayer, pp. 39-40 and 50-51...). “The Jesus Prayer is the heart of Orthodoxy” (Roman Krennic in Gellah, p. 7). Faith, then, is a divine life, not German rationalism and Harenckian and Boltmannian interpretations. Believers participate in the life of God (Ephesians 4:18), the death and life of Christ are revealed in them (2 Corinthians 4:10-11), and “they know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, and they will be filled with the fullness of the perfection of God” (Ephesians 4:19 ). Their prayers are fire, not mutterings.

John Damascus said, summing up the topic: “God exists. But what is God in His essence and nature? This cannot be perceived or known at all... It has no body... It is not limited, cannot be photographed, cannot be touched, cannot be seen, is simple, and is not composed. How can it be unchangeable if it is confined and separated?... Composition... and dissolution are completely alien to God.

God penetrates all and fills all... The adjective “incorporeal” does not say anything about God. They do not indicate the essence of God, as is the case in the “words” that He is not begotten, has no beginning, does not change, and does not corrupt, and in everything that is said about God and His existence, because these attributes do not indicate what God is, but rather what not him. Whoever wants to talk about the essence of something should say what this thing is, not what it is not... it is impossible to talk about its essence. This logic is much closer to us than imagining all the attributes. God is above all beings, and He is above existence itself. Since our knowledge is at the level of beings, what is above knowledge is inevitably above essence as well. Conversely, what is above essence is also above knowledge.

So: God is neither limited nor comprehended. The only thing we realize about him (is) that he does not limit or comprehend. Everything we say about God in order to clarify (the matter) indicates, not his nature, but rather what is around his nature. If you worry: He is good, just, and wise, whatever you say, you are not saying anything about his nature, but about what is about his nature. There are also some explanatory statements about God, which have the power of gradual clarification. For example: If we attribute darkness to God, then we are not thinking about darkness, but rather that (God) is not light, but rather above light. (23)“(Al-Dimashqi, pp. 59-60). The negative descriptions have the broadest meaning: ignorance.

“God is simple and has no composition... (God) is uncreated, has no beginning, is incorporeal, immortal, eternal, good, creative, and the like... These statements about God do not refer to what He is of His essence, but rather to what is a state related to Him. What is distinguished from Him, or is something of the consequences of His nature, or is His action” (p. 74).

“If we know these qualities and through them reach the divine essence, we will not have understood the essence itself, but rather what is around the essence.” (24). Al-Dimashqi explains that we do not know the essence of the soul if we say: It is without body, quantity, or form. We do not know the essence of the body if we say that it is white or black. By this we know what is about the essence of the body or soul. “Sincere words teach us that God is simple and that He has one simple action. He is good and active in all, similar to a sunbeam that sends its heat to all, and acts on all things according to their natural benefit and ability to be accepted...” (p. 75). Humans can unite with divine powers, with divine action, with divine light, not with the essence of God.

“God - who is immaterial and infinite - is not in a place, but is a place for himself. He fills all, He is above all, and He permeates all... God’s place is where His action in Him is clear. It permeates itself in all without mixing. He involves everyone in his action according to his natural and voluntary purity.” The immaterial is more apparent than the material, and the virtuous is better than the evil... Therefore, the place of God is the one who has a greater share in His action and grace... God is indivisible, because He is present by His word in every place: and He is not distributed like bodies, part by part, but (He is) all in All of them and all of them above all of them” (p. 78). In the end, the basis is that God is above all notions because He is above all reason, understanding, and unity. He is the absolute infinite.

As for Palamas, he said: “The supernatural nature of God cannot be spoken, thought, or seen because it is excluded from all things and is more than unknowable... (It) is unknown and indescribable to everyone and forever... and there is absolutely no name to name it. In this age nor in the age to come... complete incomprehensibility... the truth that exists above all truth” (from Loski, p. 35). God cannot be perceived.

Loski notes that incomprehensibility is not ignorance or “agnosticism.” The issue essentially concerns God Himself, whose essence is beyond the ability of all beings to comprehend.

Basil the Great said: “For all our assurance that we know our God in His powers, we do not promise to approach Him in His very essence. For, even if his powers descend until they reach us, his essence remains unapproachable to him.” (25). Powers are not created (26). Divine grace is not created, and it is what deifies man (27) . Lossky said: There is no “conaturalite equality between the divine and the rational, between the divine essence and human spirits and angels.” But knowing God is a person-to-person encounter in which “God makes himself known to man as a whole without being able to speak of a vision that is concrete in the true sense or rational in the true sense” (The Vision of God, Chapter 9, p. 14, French. It has an English translation). God is of a special essence other than the essence of angels and humans.

Not transforming the sensual into the rational, nor making the spiritual material, but rather the communion of the complete human being with the uncreated, a communion that presupposes the communion of the human person with God “above all knowledge,” “above the mind, Noûs in Greek,” transcending all limitations of created nature” (The Vision of God, p. 15 and article Clement, pp. 166-167).

Clement says explicitly: “The Trinitarian revelation bases all Christian anthropology on the mystery of the person because the human being is ‘in the image of God’” (p. 159). The entire chapter is entitled “The Secret of the Person” (p. 152). The issue is: the highest level of any mental or psychological analysis. It is Christian personal existentialism.

The Apostle Paul used a Greek word that makes knowledge very dense, strong, deep, and intimate, EPIGNOSIS (28) . The French Bible translates it in Romans (1:28) as “true knowledge.” It is also mentioned in Romans (3:20): “knowledge of sin.” 2:10 “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”; Ephesians 4:13 “…in the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God”; Philippians 1:9 “…in knowledge”; 1 Timothy 4:2 “…and come to the knowledge of the truth...”; 2 Timothy 2:25 “Perhaps God will give them repentance to know the truth so that they will wake up from the snare of the devil”; Hebrews 10:26 “knowledge of the truth”; 2 Peter 2:1 “Knowing God and Jesus our Lord”; 1:8 and 2:20 “Knowing our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Knowing God and the Lord Jesus requires repentance so that the repentant person can come to know the truth. Repentance here is a divine gift. John of the Ladder makes the baptism of tears more important than the first baptism (7:6 and the whole chapter as well as the fifth chapter).

An important Philippian text among these texts: “And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and all feeling, so that you may discern what is best, that you may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ” (1:9 from the Greek).

Biblical French translated knowledge here as “true knowledge.” Some translate: feeling; perception; to understand; Moral test. Biblical French translation tect raffinè (delicate touch). Maybe she did better than everyone. “Pure” means sincerity or sincerity, meaning something pure and unblemished.

Christian knowledge of God is achieved in love. Love is not chaos and frenzy, but rather an enlightened emotion that takes place in deep knowledge and deep contact with God.

John Al-Salami used this word “feeling” extensively in his book “Peace to God.” Just one summary: “Practice breeds perseverance.” This leads to sensation. And what is done with feeling is difficult to extract” (7: 63; see 1: 26, 22, 81 and 27: 66...)

The topic of feeling God is an important point in Sufi books. Being in God's hands is important (29) . Article 17 of “Peace to God” focuses on the lack of feeling. Knowing God depends on the repentant and loving people, who, the more they increase their conscious love in a feeling that experiences God, the more perfect they become. Messy love is chaos. Deep, enlightened love has an experiential, living, purposeful, and conscious nature. It is the work of divine grace in man. We cannot know God without God (Peace to God 30:21).

 

 

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(18) Jesus also said: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to the little ones. So, Father, this is what seems good to you” (Matthew 11:25-26 and Luke 10:21-22). But God gave us the ability to know the existence of God (Hebrews 11:6 and Romans 1:18-12), through our contemplation of His creatures (Romans 1:19-34). In the past, God spoke through the prophets and now through the Son Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2 and Matthew 11:27).

(19) That is, before Plato and Plotinus in the first place.

(20) Chrysostom: Pages 17-18 of his book on the incomprehensibility of God. Christian Springs Collection (Greek-French), No. 28 bis, Paris 1970. The references on the subject are very numerous. Basil, Gregory the Theologian, and Gregory of Nyssa preceded al-Dhahabi to open this battle with their compatriot Ephnomius the heretic, who claimed that we can know God with our natural powers: a rationalist, like all rationalists, a heretic.

(21) This is a brief summary of a difficult and broad topic: The original reference is Greek. One can review in French in the Christian Springs Collection, verses 1, 28, 299, 305, and...

Pseudo-Denys l'Areopagite, complete series, Aubier, Paris, 1943

Jean Danielou, Platonism and mystique theory, Aubier, 1953

Vladimir Lossky, Essai sur la theologie mystique, Aubier, 1944

Paul Evdokimov, La Connaissance de Dieu, Nappus. Paris, 1966

Gregoire Palamas, Defense of Saints Hesychasts, Louvain, 1974

Jean Mezendorff, Introduction to Palamas, Aubier, 1959.

These references contain extensive citations of the Church Fathers. And also:

Aspero Djabour: The Secret of Divine Management; Law of Jesus; Pray in the name of Jesus.

Dr. Adnan Trabelsi: The Art of Prayer.

Philokalia (Monastery of the Resurrection).

Loski's thesis was sold out, so I couldn't get it.

(22) Aesichius, first centenary 97.

(23) In the Greek original, the word hyper is the basis of the subject. God is darkness, that is, not light. what is it then? He is beyond light, exceedingly bright. In Psalm 12:18 it says: “He has made darkness his hiding place.”

(24) Basil put the matter forward: There are two series of descriptions, negative and positive. The word “unbegotten” is not the essence of God (against Eunomius, pp. 204-221 in issue 299 of Al-Yanabi’). Dionysbus the Impostor and Damascus are two students of the Cappadocians in this regard. The phrase “unbegotten” is part of the list of negation and negation, not positivity.

(25) Loski, p. 69.

(26) Loski, pp. 64-86.

(27) Likewise, the French Dictionary of Spirituality, Volume 6, Facility 41, Columns 710-711, 712 and 722. See 714, 715 and volume 3, columns 1376-1391: Fathers from Ignatius to Palamas; 1391-1392 and 1395-1397 Augustine, 1393-1394 Ilarion of Poitiers, 1397-1398 Pope Leo the Great. Gross's book on Christian deification is also very important (French).

(28) A Dictionary of Synonyms of the English New Testament, (pp. 285-286).

(29) “The Art of Prayer” (translated by Dr. Adnan Traboulsi) is profound in that. Dimitri Staniloway focused a lot on sensation in the book “The Jesus Prayer” (French translation by Dr. Nabil Daoud). This is an important topic in the Philokalia.