On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
THE DIVINE NAMES Ist will know all things: will in that very Oneness know and produce material things immaterially, divisible things indivisibly, manifold things under the form of Unity. For if God, in the act of causation, imparts Existence to all things, in the same single act of causation He will support all these His creatures the which are derived from Him and have in Him their forebeing, and He will not gain His knowledge of things from the things themselves, but He will bestow upon each kind the knowledge of itself and the knowledge of the others. And hence God doth not possess a private knowledge of Himself and as distinct therefrom a knowledge embracing all the creatures in common; for the Universal Cause, in knowing Itself, can scarcely help knowing the things that proceed from it and whereof It is the Cause. With this knowledge, then, God knoweth all things, not through a mere understanding of the things but through an understanding of Himself. For the angels, too, are said by the Scripture to know the things upon earth not through a sense-perception of them (though they are such as may be perceived this way), but through a faculty and nature inherent in a Godlike Intelligence.
3. Furthermore, we must ask how it is that we know God when He cannot be perceived by the mind or the senses and is not a particular Being. Perhaps ’tis true to say that we know not God by His Nature (for this is unknowable and beyond the reach of all Reason and Intuition), yet by means of that ordering of all things which (being as it were projected out of darkness). On the other hand, the light could not directly know the darkness, because darkness cannot exist where there is light. The simile is capable of being applied to illustrate God’s knowledge of the world, because the world is imperfect. It applies more fundamentally to God’s knowledge of evil, and is so employed by St. Thomas Aquinas, who quotes this passage and says (Summa, xiv. 10) that, since evil is the lack of good, God knows evil things in the act by which He knows good things, as we know darkness through knowing light.
will know all things. In that very Oneness it will know and produce material things immaterially, divisible things indivisibly, and manifold things under the form of Unity. For if God, in the act of causation, imparts Existence to all things, then in the same single act of causation He will sustain all these His creatures, which are derived from Him and have their forebeing in Him. He will not gain His knowledge of things from the things themselves; rather, He will bestow on each kind the knowledge of itself and the knowledge of the others.
Hence God does not possess a private knowledge of Himself and, distinct from it, a knowledge embracing all the creatures in common; for the Universal Cause, in knowing Itself, can scarcely help knowing the things that proceed from It and of which It is the Cause. With this knowledge, then, God knows all things, not through a mere understanding of the things but through an understanding of Himself. For the angels, too, are said by Scripture to know the things upon earth not through a sense-perception of them (though they are such as may be perceived in this way), but through a faculty and nature inherent in a Godlike Intelligence.
3. Furthermore, we must ask how it is that we know God, when He cannot be perceived by the mind or the senses and is not a particular Being. Perhaps it is true to say that we do not know God by His Nature (for this is unknowable and beyond the reach of all Reason and Intuition), yet by means of that ordering of all things which (being, as it were, projected out of darkness). On the other hand, the light could not know the darkness directly, because darkness cannot exist where there is light. The simile can be applied to illustrate God’s knowledge of the world, because the world is imperfect. It applies more fundamentally to God’s knowledge of evil, and is used in this way by St. Thomas Aquinas, who quotes this passage and says (Summa, xiv. 10) that, since evil is the lack of good, God knows evil things in the act by which He knows good things, as we know darkness through knowing light.