Merchant Royal Press

I will explain the first point with just a few words. In certain respect, Dionysius the Areopagite is a venerable author, and he is not unlearned. He was more a disciple of Plato than of the Apostle Paul, especially the kind of disciple [of Paul] that many claim he was.[1] He wrote a book which he called The Divine Names wherein, for the most part, he listed certain names, which he called divine, and then he explained each one. Now, the things indicated by those names can be derived and confirmed from the Holy Scriptures, but not all of the names—indeed, very few—are actually found in the Holy Scriptures, for Dionysius contrived most of them. Thus, when he called them divine names, he did not do so because they were actually revealed by God and learned from the Spirit of God but merely because they pertain to divine matters that can be confirmed by the testimonies of Holy Scripture.

But as far as we are concerned, we call those names divine that are not only about God but also from God, that is, those whereby God has named Himself in the Holy Scriptures and deigned to reveal to us who He is and what He is like. And He did this either immediately and on His own or through holy men carried along by the Spirit.

Indeed, the names whereby God named Himself immediately and on His own are names like the ones He used to describe Himself to the prophets when He spoke to them in a dream or a vision and said: I am God שדי [Shaddai], and other similar things. There are many examples [of this], as in Exodus 34 and elsewhere. He also named Himself [mediately] by holy men carried along by the Spirit of God as in the case of all the other names. For these, He used prophets and apostles who were illuminated by His Spirit. These are all truly divine names, not only because they are about God and divine things but also because God contrived them and used them and set them down for us in the divine writings.

Accordingly, those that are found outside of the Scriptures are contrived by men. Although they may be about God, they nevertheless cannot properly be called divine names. In the same way, even the most learned and pious commentaries of men regarding God and divine matters can in no way be designated divine writings, even if divine matters are discussed therein, as has been noted. Rather, the only books worthy of that title are those which God has revealed to holy prophets and apostles by His very own Spirit, and which the apostle described to Timothy as God-breathed[2] (2 Tim. 3:16). Indeed, the same thing that is said of all Scripture must be said of the divine names: We do not designate as divine precepts anything and everything that pertains to divine matters but only those things that are set down for us in the Holy Scriptures.

Now we grasp what we should understand by the expression divine names.

Based on this, two kinds of divine names appear to exist. With the first kind, God names Himself immediately and has predicated them of Himself and imposed them on Himself. Examples of these are Jehovah, Elohim,שדי ,אהיה אשר  [Ehyeh asher, Shaddai], and any of the other Hebrew names that God Himself used in Scripture with reference to Himself. For, as far as can be gathered from the Scriptures, God only used that language, namely, the Hebrew language. Nor do we read of the Lord Jesus, the true Son of God and true God, using any language other than Hebrew, unless perhaps He also sometimes used Syriac [that is, Aramaic]. But as far as pertains to the names of God, it is not plausible that [the incarnate] Christ would have used other names than those which He had Himself used prior to assuming flesh, when He appeared and spoke to the prophets in the Old Testament. Accordingly, this is the first order of divine names.

The second kind of name comprises those whereby God named Himself and which He predicated of Himself [mediately], by means of holy men carried along by His Spirit. Such are all of the remaining names, whether the Hebrew ones in the Old Testament, which were used by the holy prophets, or the Greek ones in the New Testament, which were used by apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit. Such are: θεὸς, κύριος, πνεύμα, ἅγιον, πατὴρ, θεὸς [sic], ἀόρατος, ἀθάνατος, and many others.

Hence, whichever names are found in the writings of the Old Testament prophets, translated from Hebrew into the Greek language by the seventy interpreters [of the Septuagint], are divine names of the second order. Now, I know that not everyone grants that those seventy men translated the Bible via the Holy Spirit. [Some claim instead that they did so] by comparing their own opinions with each other. Nevertheless, in the apostles, the Holy Spirit gave approval of that same translation, because it [that is, the Septuagint] is the version that they used.[3] Thus, all the names of God found either in the New Testament or in the Septuagint truly are worthy of being called divine names, and that is what we should call them.