Chapter XXI. On the Essence of the Good

THE Sacred Scripture of the Hebrews explains the nature of the Good in various ways, and teaches that the Good itself is nothing else than God, both in the statement, ‘The LORD is good to all them that wait for Him, to the soul that will seek Him,’[1] and in this, ‘O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever’;[2] and also by what the Word of our Salvation declared to the man who asked Him concerning this, saying,’Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good? None is good save one, even God.’[3]

Now then listen to what Plato says in the Timaeus:[4]

‘Let me then tell you for what cause the Creator formed a creation, and made this universe. He was good. And in one who is good no jealousy of anything ever finds place: and being free from jealousy He desired that all things should be made as like to Himself as possible.’

In the Republicalso he speaks thus: [5]

‘Is it not true then that the sun though not itself sight, is yet the cause of sight, and is itself discerned by this very sight? It is so, said he. Well then, said I, you may say that this is he whom I call the offspring of the good, whom the good begat as analogous to itself, that this should be in the visible world in relation to sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual world in relation to mind and the things of mind.’

And afterwards he adds:

‘Well then, this which imparts truth to the things which are known, and bestows on the knower his faculty of knowledge, this you may call the idea of the good.’ [6]

And again he says:

‘You would say, I suppose, that the sun imparts to visible things not only their power of being seen, but also their generation, growth, and nourishment, though he is not himself generation. How could it be otherwise? You would also say then that things which become known receive from the good not only the property of being known, but also their existence and their essence, though the good is not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power.’ [7]

Herein Plato says most distinctly that the intellectual essences receive from ‘the good,’ meaning of course from God, not merely the property of being known, but also their existence and essence; and that’the good ‘ is ‘not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power.’ So that he does not regard the ideas as co-essential, nor yet suppose that they are unbegotten, because they have received their existence and their essence from Him who is not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power, whom alone the Hebrew oracles with good reason proclaim as God, as being the cause of all things.

So then things which have neither their existence nor their essence from themselves, nor yet are of the nature of the good, cannot reasonably be regarded as gods, since the good does not belong to them by nature: for to One only and to no other can this be ascribed, to the Only Good, which Plato admirably proclaimed as ‘far transcending all essence both in dignity and power.’ Again Numenius also in his treatise Of the Good, inexplaining Plato’s meaning, discourses in the following manner: