Monday, March 11, 2024

Hiliary of Poitiers on Why God must be Incorporeal (c. A.D. 365)

  

First it must be remembered that God is incorporeal. He does not consist of certain parts and distinct members, making up one body. For we read in the Gospel that God is spirit: invisible, therefore, and an eternal nature, immeasurable and self-sufficient. It is also written that a spirit does not have flesh and bones. For of these the members of a body consist, and of these the substance of God has no need. God, however, who is everywhere and in all things, is all-hearing, all-seeing, all-doing, and all-assisting. . . . The power of God, therefore, which is equal and inseparable, has the names of functions and members. Thus the power by which He sees is called eyes; the power of which He hears is called ears; the power by which He does things is called hands; the power by which He is present is called feet: and so on, through the various functions of His power. (Hilary of Poitiers, Commentaries on the Psalms, On 129 [130] §3, c. A.D. 365, in The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1970], 1:387)