Scotus Academicus, Tomus primus: De Deo in se subsistente

Note 1. The names which are attributed to God are partly negative, such as infinite, immense, etc., by which the imperfections of creatures are removed from Him; and partly affirmative, such as good, wise, eternal, and others, by which we attribute to God, in the most perfect and supereminent degree, the perfections which we discern to shine forth in creatures. Moreover, affirmative names are either absolute, and signify God absolutely and in Himself, without any respect whatsoever, such as good, wise, etc.; or they are relative, whether ad intra, as Father, Son, Spirit, Begetter, and Begotten, or ad extra, as Creator, Lord, Redeemer. The relative names ad intra are treated in the Tractate De Trinitate: concerning the others, however, we must now see in what way they belong to God, whether properly and formally, or only eminently and metaphorically.

Note 2. Among the Hebrews there were various names by which God was wont to be named, but especially ten, which St. Jerome recounts and explains, Epistol. 136. The first is El, which signifies God the strong. The second is Elohe, which denotes God providing, governing, and seeing. The third is Elohim, which is the plural of the preceding. The fourth is Sabaoth, which is always joined with another name of God, as Adonai Sabaoth, that is, Lord of virtues, or of hosts. The fifth is Elion, that is, the Most High. The sixth is Eheie aser eheie, that is, I am who I am, or who is. The seventh is Adonai, which signifies Lord. The eighth is Ia, which sounds at the end of alleluia: for alleluia is composed of allelu, that is, praise, and Ia, that is, God. The ninth is Sadai, which signifies munificent, bountiful, and omnipotent. The tenth is the name Tetragrammaton, in Hebrew Semhammephoras, that is, the name set forth, which, as our Galatinus notes, lib. 12. De Arcanis sacrae Religionis, cap. 90., nowhere could be read as it was written except by a Priest, while he blessed the people in the sanctuary, and as often as it had to be pronounced outside the sanctuary, they uttered Adonai in its place. Whence also the Vulgate translator, rendering that passage of Exodi 6, My name Adonai I did not make known to them, wrote Adonai in place of the Tetragrammaton, which was in the original, following namely the custom of the ancients. Moreover this name Tetragrammaton signifies either the one begetting, as some interpret; or him who gives being to all; or him who is one, and all things; or him who eminently contains all things, as Galatinus reports in the same place. Likewise this name is said to be properly the unique name of God, belonging to Him alone from eternity, and expressing His divine substance; for the other names, say the Hebrew Doctors, were only derived and attributed to God, after the creation of the world, from the various effects and gifts of God.

Note 3. The sacred Name of God among almost all nations is the Tetragrammaton, inasmuch as it is everywhere written with four letters: for the Egyptians call God Θεόν, the Persians, Syrians, Magi, Orsi, the Greeks Θεόν, the Armenians Vors, the Arabs and Turks Alla, the Germans and English God, the French Dieu, the Spaniards Dios, the Hebrews Ieova.

First conclusion. — Negative names do not belong to God formally, according to their proper and formal signification.

The truth of this Conclusion is evident: First, because negative names formally import and signify a negation: but God cannot be, nor be called, formally a negation: therefore, etc. Second, because a negation in its formal concept is non-being, since it is the negation of being: but God, the greatest of all beings, cannot be called formally non-being: therefore neither can He be formally named by a name of negation. Third, finally, because negative names express the formal absence of the imperfections of creatures: but God is not formally only this absence: therefore neither do these names belong to Him formally; but only insofar as they signify and connote some positive perfection, which is the reason why this negation of the imperfections of creatures is attributed to God; just as immensity, e.g., connotes the illimited diffusion of the divine essence, by reason of which God is said not to be circumscribed, nor enclosed, in any place. Nor does it matter that the Holy Fathers affirm that God is more easily known through the negation of imperfection than through the affirmation of perfection. For from this it does not follow that that negation belongs to Him formally: but only that we more easily perceive that He lacks the imperfections of creatures than we are able to detect what, and of what kind, and how great, His perfections truly are.

Second conclusion. — Affirmative names signifying the divine perfections belong to God formally.

Proof: Names are held to belong to God in that manner in which the things signified by the names belong to Him: but the divine perfections signified by affirmative names belong to Him formally: therefore also the names signifying them. The minor is evident from what we said in the preceding Disputation, proving that the divine attributes are formally in God, and not only eminently. Add that if these names did not belong to God formally, it would follow that God is not more properly called Wise, Good, Just, etc., than He is called Lion, Rock, etc., which are fitted to Him only eminently and effectively: but this appears false in itself: therefore also that from which it follows.

You will say. No name is attributed to God except in reference to the creatures which He founded, rules, and governs: but all these do not belong to Him formally, but only effectively: therefore, etc. The minor is proved: first, from St. Gregory of Nyssa, 12. Contra Eunomium:

God, he says, is in Himself whatever He is believed to be. But He is named by those who invoke Him, not by that very thing which He is; for the nature of Him who is is inexplicable: but from those things which He is believed to work in regard to our life, He obtains various names.

With this agrees Synesius, in the Oration De Regno:

No name, he says, has anywhere been found that would attain the nature of God, but men strive to attain Him Himself from those things which flow from Him. Whether you name Him Father, or Creator, or anything else, whether Principle, or Cause. All these are certain relations of His to those things which arise from Him.

I answer. By denying the major; for many names are attributed to God without any respect to creatures, although most of them belong to Him through a relation to the creatures themselves, which He either produces, or rules, or moderates, by reason of which names His supreme Majesty is more easily known and perceived than through the others which signify Him standing in Himself, and perfect in Himself. Hence the aforementioned Fathers affirm not without reason, that no name has so far been devised, nor can be devised, which would lead us into the knowledge of the divine nature: but only that some names have been devised which would designate God according to His various relation to creatures.

Third conclusion. — The relative names of God ad extra do not belong to Him formally.

Proof: That does not belong to God formally which is attributed to Him by way of extrinsic denomination: but such are the names of Creator, and of Redeemer, etc.; for God receives nothing intrinsic through the production of a creature or its temporal sanctification; otherwise He would truly be changed. Therefore those names do not belong to Him formally, and intrinsically; but only denominatively, and intrinsically, as we have already sufficiently proved in treating of the Immutability of God.

You ask. What does the name God properly signify?

I answer. The interpretation and signification of this name is varied among the authors. For first, the Greeks contend that the name Θεός, from which in Latin Deus, is not an appellative name, but an epithetic one, derived from efficiency and operation. For first they hold that it arises from the verb Θεάομαι, which is to behold and to contemplate; whence Gregory of Nyssa, in the book Ad Ablavium, says that the word Θεός expresses an inspecting and contemplating operation, by which He beholds and inspects all things, seeing thoughts, and penetrating by His power of consideration those things which cannot be looked upon. Plato, however, in the Cratylus, derives this name from the verb Θέω, which is to run:

For it seems to me, he says, that the first of men in Greece thought those alone to be gods, which many of the Barbarians recognize today, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Stars, the Heaven: when therefore they saw all those things advancing in perpetual course, from this natural property of running they named those gods: afterwards, however, when they understood the others, they called them all by the same word.

— St. John Damascene, lib. 1. De Fide, cap. 12., derives this appellation from the verb αἴθειν, that is, from burning, for our God is a consuming fire of all malice. Nevertheless Theodorus Abucarra, Opusculo 27., excellently proves that although the name of God is taken from operation, it nevertheless does not signify operation, but the nature that operates.

God, therefore, is a nature, he says, and the name God has the power of signifying the nature. For just as the word man, derived from a certain operation, does not nevertheless signify the operation, but the nature and the substance; likewise Soul and Angel, and almost all names of substances, are said from an operation or affection, yet do not signify the operation or affection; so understand in the word of God, and do not wander astray by pursuing the etymologies of names and the laws of Grammar, neglecting the rule of truth.

— Tertullian confirms the same thing, lib. Contra Hermogenem, cap. 3., God, he says, is the name of the substance itself, that is, of the Divinity; Lord, however, not of substance, but of power. Hence St. Augustine deservedly affirms, lib. 1. De Doctrina Christiana, cap. 6., that it moves all who know the Latin tongue, when that sound (Deus) touches their ears, to think of a certain most excellent and immortal Nature.