Chapter Twenty-One
Objection based on the immortal angels (Matt. xxii. 29-30), and the finger of God, with which He wrote on the tables of stone (Exod. xxxi. 18).
At any rate, if you say that angels stand before God, who are not subject to feeling and death, and immortal in their nature, whom we ourselves speak of as gods, because they are close to the Godhead, why do we dispute about a name? And are we to consider it only a difference of nomenclature?1 For she who is called by the Greeks Athene is called by the Romans Minerva; and the Egyptians, Syrians, and Thracians address her by some other name. But I suppose nothing in the invocation of the goddess is changed or lost by the difference of the names. The difference therefore is not great, whether a man calls them gods or angels, since their divine nature bears witness to them, as when Matthew writes thus: "And Jesus answered and said, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven" (Matt. xxii. 29-30). Since therefore He confesses that the angels have a share in the divine nature,2 those who make a suitable object of reverence for the gods, do not think that the god3 is in the wood or stone or bronze from which the image is manufactured, nor do they consider that, if any part of the statue is cut off, it detracts from the power of the god. For the images of living creatures and the temples were set up by the ancients for the sake of remembrance, in order that those who approach thither might come to the knowledge of the god when they go; or, that, as they observe a special time and purify themselves generally,4they may make use of prayers and supplications, asking from them the things of which each has need. For if a man makes an image of a friend, of course he does not think that the friend is in it, or that the limbs of his body are included in the various parts of the representation; but honour is shown towards the friend by means of the image. But in the case of the sacrifices that are brought to the gods, these are hot so much a bringing of honour to them as a proof of the inclination of the worshippers, to show that they are not without a sense of gratitude. It is reasonable that the form of the statues should be the fashion of a man, since man is reckoned to be the fairest of living creatures and an image of God. It is possible to get hold of this doctrine from another saying, which asserts positively that God has fingers, with which He writes, saying, "And he gave to Moses the two tables which were written by the finger of God" (Exod. xxxi. 18). Moreover, the Christians also, imitating the erection of the temples, build very large houses,5 into which they go together and pray, although there is nothing to prevent them from doing this in their own houses, since the Lord6 certainly hears from every place.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Answer to the objection based on the immortal angels (Matt. xxii. 29-30), and the finger of God, with which He wrote on the tables of stone (Exod. xxxi. 18).
Further, we will state the proposition in due measure concerning the angels and their immortality, and how in the kingdom of heaven "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." Christ, wishing to show the blessedness of those who have been granted to dwell in the heavenly place, and the misfortune of those who dwell amid the corruption of the earth, and have received their condition through the unclean growth of the flesh, being begotten and begetting and departing quickly like leaves, conveys the following meaning: "Those who have been thought worthy to enter into a life which knows no destruction, embark on a course which is worthy of kings, and is such as the angels have. They are rid of physical union, they no longer experience death, nor even birth, and are shut off from earthly embraces and bonds." He said this in order that any man who was well disposed, on hearing of a rational existence in heaven, which is associated with the Word of immortality, might adapt his life to the imitation of them,7 and in his deeds would zealously affect their merit, refraining from marriage and fleeing from the symbols of corruption. And in the end he would pass through the door of death, and rise, with earthly weights removed, to the hall of the blessed, that is, of the angels. He does not however represent them by fashioning images of them,8 as you yourself declare, nor does he speak to what is a shadow and rejoice in that which his imagination has created, associating with things soulless and material as if they were possessed of life, delighting in dead visions of forms, bringing his supplication to a dumb thing which he has moulded, deciding that the divine lurks in stone and wood, imagining that such matter as cannot be held at all, is held by bronze and iron, and picturing in a dead vision and without any sense that he is catching that which cannot be caught.9
And again, if it be true that angels have sometimes appeared in human form, yet they were not really that which appeared, but that which they were was invisible. And if any one fashions a picture or a representation in bronze, he does not make that which it really is, nor does he enclose its nature therein.
[As for God being so material as to have "fingers," etc., Scripture does not mean that He can be divided into limbs and parts of a body. This is not meant to refer to His nature, but He is thus spoken of in order that men may understand. To suppose that God has material fingers and other parts because man must conceive of Him thus, is no more true than that it is a real lion that a man has seen when he has beheld one in a dream. Similarly the angels who appeared to Abraham were not really of the human form and behaviour they appeared to be, as is sufficiently proved by the way they consumed the food offered them. So Abraham made no image of them, except in the mindful tablets of his mind.]
Footnotes:
1These first sentences are placed by Nicephorus under the objection of the previous chapter. It is to be noted that the matter of naming was mentioned there, and answered by Macarius, whereas his answer to this question is silent on this point. It is therefore possible that Nicephorus preserves the right order.
2An ancient reader was unable to restrain himself, and wrote in the margin of the MS., "This is not true."
3Blondel gives Θεός, not θεός, in this passage.
4There may be something wrong about τὸ λοιπὸν καθαρεύοντας. Nicephorus reads τῶν λοιπῶν.
5This statement has been taken as proof that the author wrote after the beginning of the new encouragement of Christianity shown by Constantine. For during the period that it was an unlawful religion (till A.D. 312), there were not the larger churches, which began to be built immediately afterwards. But the force of the argument is weakened by the many reasons there are for believing that the philosopher's date is earlier.
6τοῦ κυρίον is an addition by Nicephorus. It scarcely sounds like the language of the objector, but a subject of some sort is wanted.
7Blondel's edition follows Nicephorus in reading αὐτῶν, and prints λόγῳ earlier in the sentence, and not Λόγῳ. The MS. reads αὐτῷ, which would refer to "the Word." As here translated, αὐτῶν, and also ἐκέινων in the following clause, of course refer to the angels.
8Nicephorus is answering the Iconoclastic party, who were utterly opposed to the use of Christian images. They had garbled the words of Macarius to suit their purpose, taking the words οὐ μὴν εἰκόνας ἐκείνων τυπώσας τῷ σχήματι κ.τ.λ., and referring them to Christian images, and omitting the words just before them. Nicephorus (op. cit. p. 322) shows that Macarius is only speaking from the Greek point of view, as the words ὡς φὴς αὐτός prove, and that he would not be answering his opponent if they referred to Christian images.
9θηρᾶν τὸ ἀθήρατον. This is more likely than the ἀθέατον of the text of Nicephorus, showing that the latter is only occasionally a guide to the true reading.