The recognition of God as plenitude of Being
is a crucial foundation for every
aspect of our life in Christ and for all theology.

The God of Being
By Bill Riordan

In his recent encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II speaks of Sacred Scripture as containing texts, which possess “a genuinely ontological content,” and “elements . . . which allow a vision of the human being and the world which has exceptional philosophical density.”1 An extended focusing of theological attention into the ontological depths revealed in these sacred pages could prove to be very valuable, especially in the current situation. Such qualified authorities as Ratzinger, von Balthasar, Dulles and J.-H. Nicolas have all commented on the desiccated metaphysics of much modern theologizing.2 My purpose in this article is to offer some texts that I have found to bear rich metaphysical insights.

    The classic text in which God discloses himself as the fullness of Being is Exodus 3:14. When Moses asks God (Elohim) what his name is, he replies, “I am what (that) I am (eyeh asher eyeh); thus you will say to the sons of Israel I AM sent me to you.” It has become customary among some modern Christian exegetes to see this text as simply a reassurance to Moses and, through him, to all of Israel that God is with them and that he is Almighty.3 But God must first BE before he can be with Israel. The tradition, including many modern theologians, does not shrink from seeing in this passage a profound revelation, an “ontophany,” so to speak, of who God is and not just of what he is doing. There is no question that with the Name is also given very explicit assurances about God’s concern for his people and his intentions to deliver them. This is especially evident in verse 16. But preceding these assurances is the revelation of the Name (verse 14) and the solemn proclamation that the identity of this saving God is the same as that of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and that this Name remains in perpetuity.

    In a number of recent ecclesiastical documents, the emphasis on the ontological and personal character of the Name (as opposed to the solely functional) has been evident. In his Credo of the People of God, Pope Paul VI states:

We believe that this only God is as absolutely one in his infinitely holy essence as in his other perfections: in his almighty power, his infinite knowledge, his providence, his will, his love. He is “He who is” as he revealed to Moses . . . “He is Love,” as the apostle John has taught us . . . so that these two names, Being and Love, express ineffably the same divine essence of him who has wished to make himself manifest to us, and who, “dwelling in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16), is in himself above every name and every created thing and every created intellect.4

Although the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states the Slavic significance of the Name (cf. especially paragraph numbers 205, 207, 211, 212), the rich ontological (and, hence, intimately personal) significance, is also indicated.

A name expresses a person’s essence and identity . . . To disclose one’s name is to make oneself known to others. (par. 203)

. . . [God] is infinitely above everything we can understand or say. (par. 206)

The revelation of the ineffable name “I Am who Am” contains the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church’s Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is. (Par. 213; cf. 215- God is Truth itself . . .; 221-God’s very being is love.)5

As noted above, the Septuagint translation, a translation into Greek by Jews and for Jews, renders Exodus 3:14, “eyeh asher eyeh,” with the words, “ego Emil ho On,” meaning literally: “I am THE BEING “ . . . “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, THE BEING (ho On) has sent me to you.”6 Here, in “ho On,” the article “ho” (the) precedes the present participle, “on.” Thus, present, on-going act is expressed. There is a definite timelessness and persisting-in-being indicated here that is also found in many other Old Testament texts.

They (the heavens and the earth) shall perish, but you remain . . . like clothing you change them, and they are changed, but you are the same, and your years have no end. (Ps. 107:26 -28; quoted in Heb. 1:10-12; cf. Sir. 42:21; Jam. 1:17) 7

    There are other texts that resonate strongly with the ontological significance of Exodus 3:14. In Sirach 42 and 43, there is an extended celebration of the magnificence of God in all his works “even to the spark and the fleeting vision!”(Sir. 42:23). After a recounting of the wonder of God in all he has made, Ben Sirach concludes:

We may say much and still fall short; so the last of words is: He is all. (Sir. 43:28; cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; Rev. 3:14; Rom. 11:36)8

    This great assertion of God as supreme plenitude of Being is in no way pantheistic for it is immediately followed by the phrase, “for greater is he than all his works” (Sir. 43:29; cf. 2 Macc. 7:28). There are other context clues as well, as with the phrase,

At God’s word were his works brought into being, they do his will as he has ordained for them. (Sir. 42:15)9

    The literally radical difference between God, the fullness of Being, and his spoken-into-being creatures is evident here. This passage recalls Wisdom 13 where the author declares the foolishness of men,

who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing the Being (ton Onta) . . . now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these for the original source of beauty (ho gar tou kallous genesiarches) fashioned them. (Wis. 13:1-3)10

    Note once again the explicit statements regarding God as Being, and creatures as deriving from that Great Being. The Greek expression “genesiarches” means, literally, “generating source.” Since the source cannot give what it does not have, God must be all that the derived creatures are but in his own enduring, self same way.11 This insight is key and is found clearly stated just two verses later:

For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author (ho genesiourgos auton), by analogy (analogos), is seen. (Wis. 13:5; cf. Rom. 1:19, 20)

    Here we find in the Creator to creature (Deriver to derived, Source to sourced) relation, the analogical basis for our knowing of God.

The recognition of God as plenitude of Being is a crucial foundation for every aspect of our life in Christ and for all of our theological understanding and language.

Without that recognition, theology is forced to rely merely on evanescent “metaphors” and “re-imagings” that can come and go with the prevailing cultural-historical-political context. There is nothing in all creation that could with certainty command that we must recognize that God is the absolute Being, unchangeable and, therefore, as the One pre-anticipating all things in himself. Once the sheer and unspeakable Reality of this Being is apparent, a further recognition becomes available to the Christians: it is precisely this Being who is the incarnate One, Jesus Christ. We have been saved by the God who is, personally, unlimited fullness of Being and of Beauty; our Maker has become our husband (see Isa. 54:5,6).

How else could Christ, in his ego eimi “(I AM) statements be claiming that divine status? For it is apparent that it is not just a function that he is claiming in these passages but a specific personal identity who wishes to reveal his Being . . . “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be I AM” (John 8:58; cf. 8:24). There is more than an assurance of assisting presence here. It is a matter of being. The way in which Jesus is, though he is “not yet fifty” (John 8:57), is primordial. He precedes Abraham. And, it is not simply that he was before Abraham but rather that he is. This text is regularly read in the light of Exodus 3:14 and shows even more clearly the yet undiscovered metaphysical depths of the Name. Jesus, because he is the I AM, precedes Abraham as he certainly must if he is to be “the Lord, the God of Abraham . . .” (Exod. 3:15, 16).

    In the Letter to the Hebrews, the whole of the first chapter is an intensely compact exaltation of Christ’s divine ontological identity. The author even goes so far as to assert that the Son is the “character tes hypostaseos,” that is, he is the “imprint,” (Heb. 1:3; cf. 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15)12 of the Father’s “hypostasis” (substance). Verses 5-14 are a carefully selected listing of Old Testament texts, effectively orchestrated to manifest Christ the Son’s divine identity as far surpassing the angels.

And again, when he leads his first-born into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Heb. 1:6)

    And further, the text quoted earlier from Psalm 102: 26-28, celebrating the incorruptible Being of God (in comparison to even the very enduring quality of the heavens and the earth) is recognized as true of the Son. There are other passages in the New Testament like these that point emphatically to the unique and undeniable metaphysical weight of God, the Being. These are not Hellenistic accretions. These passages, in both the Old and the New Testament, show that the Semitic mind knows the weight (chabod) of the divine Presence. Our Holy Father is on very solid ground (Urgrund) in speaking of the “genuinely ontological content” of many Scriptural texts. From his General Audience of July 31, 1985:

Thus the God of our faith—the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob—revealed his name. It is “I Am Who I Am.” According to the tradition of Israel, the name expresses the essence.

The Sacred Scriptures give different names of God, such as “Lord” (e.g. Wis. 1:1) “Love” (1 Jn. 4:16) “Compassionate One” (e.g., Ps. 86:15), “Faithful One” (1 Cor. 1:9), “Holy One” (Is. 6:3). But the name which Moses heard from the midst of the burning bush is as it were the root of all the others. He who is expresses the very essence of God, which self-existence, subsistent Being, as the theologians and philosophers say. In his presence we cannot but prostrate ourselves and adore.13 

1 John Paul II. Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason. Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1998, no. 82.
2 Cf. Ratzinger, J. The Nature and Mission of Theology. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993, pp.13-29.
Balthasar, H. von. The Glory of the Lord: I—Seeing the Form. San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1982, p. 17-23.
Dulles, A. “Criteria of Catholic Theology,” Communio, XXII, (Summer), 1995, pp. 305-306.
Nicholas, J.-H. Synthese Dogmatique: de la Trinite a la Trinite. Freibourg: Editions Universitaires, pp. 36-43.
Cf. especially the remarkably profound work of Andre Hayen, La Communication de l’ Etre d’ apres Saint Thomas d’ Aquin. Paris-Louvain, Desclee de Brower, 1957, vol. 1, pp. 85-90, 173-178.
References like these could be multiplied.
3 The new International Bible: Commentary sees the Name, “YHWH in terms of being: YHWH’s being means active participation and involvement as well as free choice and unimpeded power.” Certainly the sovereignty of God is evident here but it appears that the meaning of the Name is primarily in terms of God’s association with creation and, especially, Israel. Farmer, W. (editor). International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical commentary for the Twenty-First Century. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998, p. 414. Cf. Also Brown, R. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, Inc., 1990, p. 47.
4 Paul VI. “The Profession of Faith of Paul VI (1968)” in The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church. Dupuis, J. (editor). New York: Alba House, 1996, p. 24. Pope John Paul II quotes this same passage in his, A Catechesis on the Creed: God—Father and Creator. Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1996 p.118, He uses the passage to introduce a lengthy discussion of the Divine Name in the book of Exodus. Commenting on the words of Paul VI, he writes:
Paul VI made reference to the name of God, “I am who I am”, which is found in the book of Exodus. Following the doctrinal and theological tradition of many centuries, he saw in it the revelation of God as “Being”—subsisting Being, which expresses in the language of the philosophy of being (ontology or metaphysics used by St. Thomas Aquinas), the essence of God. ( p. 119)
5 Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liguori: Liguori Publications, 1994. Cf. the still valuable historical background provided by Claude Tresmontant. The Origins of Christian Philosophy. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1963, especially pp. 55-58.
6 Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and Apocrypha: Greek and English: Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 73. Cf. critical text in K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, editors, Biblia Sacra Utriusque Testamenti Editio Hebraica et Graeca. Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994, for Hebrew text and A. Rahlfs, Septuaginta. Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1979, for Greek.
7 Cf. CCC 212. Regarding God’s immutability, cf. also Genesis 21:23, Isaiah 40:28, Sirach 42:21, 1 John 5:11-12 and God as the enduring and generative “rock” in Deuteronomy 32:18, 30, 31. Cf. Schmaus, M. Katholische Dogmatik. Munchen: Max Hueber Verlag, 1960. pp. 504-505.
8 Here, with Sirach 43:28, we have felt it to be advantageous to provide a more literal translation than the NAB (1970).
9 This obviously re-echoes the whole of Genesis, Chapter 1, where each of the kinds of beings are spoken (through God’s word) into being. Psalm 33:9—“For he spoke, and it was made; he commanded, and it stood forth.” These texts anticipate John 1:3, “Through him [the Word-logos] all things came into being . . .” as well as Hebrews 1:3 “ . . . in this, the final age, he [the Father] has spoken to us through his Son . . . through whom he first created the universe . . . and he sustains all things by his powerful word (reimati).” Cf. Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 1:22,23.
10 Wisdom 13:1. For the words, “the Being,” the NAB text (1970) reads, “him who is.” The underlined is my own translation of “ton onta,” which is the accusative singular for “ho on.” For Aquinas, the Divine Name given in Exodus 3:14, which also surfaces at other points such as these, is the most important name of God apart from the Trinitarian names. Cf. ST I, q. 13, a. ll. This is also the case for Rabbi Moses Maimonides. Cf. The Existence and Unity of God: Three Treatises Attributed to Moses Maimonides, Rosner, F. (translator). Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, Inc. 1987, pp. 174-180. The following is especially pertinent here:
The Tetragrammaton (Y-H-V-H) is an exclusive title that expresses the plenitude of the essence and the subsistence of God. . . . The other divine names, “periphrases” or “cognomens” connote one or another aspect of Divine activity, derived from this great Name, just like in the ontologic order, the totality of beings proceeds from the essence of the Creator.
Cf. Smith, W. “From Schrodinger’s Cat to Thomistic Ontology,” The Thomist, v. 63, n.1 (January 1999) p. 59.
11 This point is a veritable Leitmotif for many of the Fathers both East and West, Dionysius and Augustine to name only two. They certainly saw the creational ontology implicated in these sorts of scripture texts. For Aquinas, too, this insight is fundamental. The following references would constitute only a short sampling of texts where the Angelic Doctor takes up this theme: Sent. I, dist. II a, 2 and 3, De Ente et Essentia, cap. 6; De Div. Nom., cap. 5, lect. 1 and 2; Compend. Theol., cap. 21, 22, 24, 27, 68, 133; Summa Theol. I, q.4, a.2; q. 12, a.2; q. 15, a.2; q. 19, a. 4; q. 22, a. 1.. Cf. Also John Paul II. A Catechesis on the Creed: God—Father and Creator. Op. cit., pp. 120-143.
12 Cf 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Colossians 1:15 where the term image (ikon) bears the same weight as imprint (“character” in the Greek).
13 John Paul II. A Catechesis on the Creed: God —Father and Creator. Op. Cit. , p. 117.

Dr. Bill Riordan has a Master’s Degree in philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif., and an S.T.L. and S.T.D. from the Angelicum in Rome, Italy. He has taught at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and now teaches at Ave Maria Institute, a new Catholic college in Ypsilanti, Mich. Dr. Riordan lives with his wife and daughter in Ann Arbor, Mich. This is his first article in HPR.

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