The Nature of Truth and Knowledge

The mercy, which fits those upon the earth. But the mercy which 'makes into thousands those who love' is heavenly and carries up into heaven. It is possible to speak of heaven here as the rational essence, the spiritual existence; for some have taken it thus: 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Gen 1:1), the earth signifying the more bodily existence and essence, and the heaven the rational. For it is said also in other places: 'The heaven of heavens belongs to the Lord' (Ps 103:19). And it is possible for heaven to be, not this one which is visible, not only that which is in our sight, but all.

But the 'heaven of heavens' which is divided into seven is the divine state; for it is said that God is in heaven, not that He is in a place. For it is said in the Gospel: 'No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man' (John 3:13). And Jesus alone descended from the truly heavenly, that is, from the state which fits God, the likeness of God. For certainly the devil was found in heaven; for there he fell along with those who blasphemed and were puffed up. For it is said toward him: 'You said: I will ascend into heaven' (Isa 14:14). Being in heaven, how does he ascend into heaven? He was in heaven, in which also other divine and blessed essences are. But he took a fantasy and a desire to be God. Thinking he would become 'like the Most High' (Gen 3:5), he named the likeness to the Most High 'heaven' while being in heaven.

Therefore God alone is in that called heaven, not that it is a place or a body or a creature, but a state, like a state of God, a likeness of God. Therefore, having taken the desire to be God, it seemed to him in vain, since he is able 'to ascend above the clouds and throw his throne above the stars and become like the Most High' (Ps 108:4). Because he said in short: 'I shall be like the Most High', he had to receive the understanding that the likeness to the Most High is not in the future. But it carries the same existence as the infinite; from the infinite and unto the infinite He is the same, without beginning and without end. But he who says 'I shall be' showed that he is not at all. And he who is not in this way, would never even become God. So the matter stood for him only as a desire, and he fell even from what was present; for he was otherwise in heaven, and said...

He says: 'I will ascend into the heaven' (Ps 48:9), which implies he fell from the heaven he possessed; for how 'did the morning star, rising early, fall from heaven?' (Isa 14:12) by saying 'how did he fall?' He showed that he was in heaven, but by saying 'I will ascend into the heaven and I will be,' he showed that he desired to become in another heaven. It is appropriate to take the clouds as belonging to the heaven.

We said yesterday that divine natures often signify the name of the clouds; for when God speaks concerning Israel as being a vineyard, and that instead of grapes He brought forth thorns—instead of the appropriate fruit He brought forth shameful desire—and these thorns the Savior spoke of—He says: 'I will command the clouds not to rain a shower upon him' (Hos 2:3). This shower is not perceptible, whence even the clouds flowing into it are not perceptible. For it has been said: 'The clouds shall rain down righteousness' (Ps 85:12). And righteousness flows and descends, not from perceptible clouds.

And I will say something paradoxical: there is a truth which was not previously dwelling with God. Paul says: 'The truth of Jesus is in me' (cf. Phlm 1:11), as if it were another truth which is not primarily called the truth of Jesus; for all things are His, He is the creator of all. And His creatures, being intelligent, have knowledge inherent in them and truth, which someone is able to receive from the intelligent ones.

There is, then, truth, I tell you, in grammar and in geometry and in the other sciences. He is not speaking of that truth belonging to Jesus entirely, nor that it is not also His; for the intelligent things, in which are knowledge and truth, are His creatures. And I say: let some mechanic construct a clock. There is certainly in the thing constructed knowledge by which it came to be; for he constructed it according to mechanical knowledge. And there is truth in the construction when it has such proportions as make it a faultless clock. If anyone therefore receives that knowledge from the apparent clock, he has received the knowledge from the one who constructed it. And the clock is a middle ground between these two states: that of the one who has made it and that of the one who has come to know it from it. Let us give an example: the intelligent people, in being such, do not possess knowledge in the way they know, but in the way...