170 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

for the world which He had made: for, after His address to the gods, He returns to the calm 1 state of inactivity in which He had been before creation. Plato represents the mind (νους , عقل) and soul (Ψυχη , نفس) of the world as cognate with those of man. He speaks of the planets also as alive, doubtless because of their motion.

A Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Philo (فِلون) by name, uniting some of Plato's opinions with those which he had learnt from the sages of Egypt, has been often supposed to have taught the doctrine of the Trinity. But this is not so. He undoubtedly believed in the Unity of God, because he was a Jew and had learnt this from the holy Scriptures. When, however, like a poet and a mystic, he uses figurative language, he couples with God certain of His attributes or of His works, so forming a triad. In imitation of the Egyptian triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus, which he evidently was endeavouring to explain, he says that from God the Creator as father and from knowledge as mother proceeded as a son this universe.2 Elsewhere he


1 Και ο μεν δη ταυτα παντα δια ταξας εμενεω εν τω εαυτου κατά τροπον ηθει (Timaens).
2 Τον γουν τοδε το παν εργυασαμενον δημιουργον ομου και πατερα είναι του γεγονοτος ευθ υς εν δικη φησομεν, μητερα δε την του πεποιηκοτος επιστημην.
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY 171

speaks of God as standing between 1 His own creative and His sovereign powers, and says that He thus presents the appearance at one time of one, at another of three. But this imaginative writing is far from being a statement of belief in a trinity of Hypostases in the divine unity. Even when Philo uses the expression 'Word of God' (λογος του θεου , كلمة الله), he denotes thereby the plan or scheme in accordance with which God created the world, the bond of union by which the different parts of the universe are bound together. When in a mystic manner he personifies God's 'right reason (ορθος λογος) and styles it His first-born Son' (πρωτογονος υιος), yet the context shows that he does not regard this divine reason as a Hypostasis in the divine


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η συνων ο θεος ουχ ως ανθρωπος εσπειρε γενεσιν, η δε παραδεξαμενη τα του θεου σπερματα τελεσφο. ροις ωδισι τον μονον και αγαπητον αισθητον υιον απεκυησε τονδε τον κοσμον.—Philo, De Ebrietate, § 30. cf. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, §§ 53, 54, quoted by Reitzenstein, Poimandres, pp. 439-41..
1 Εστιν ... πατηρ μεν των ολων ολων ο μεσος ος εν ταις ιεραις γραφαις κυριω ονοματι καλειται ο Ων. αι δε παρ εκατερα πρεσβυταται και εγγυταται του Οντος δυναμεις, ων η μεν ποιητικη, η δε αυ βασιλικη προσαγορευεται ... παρεχει τη ορατικη διανοια τοτε μεν ενός, τοτε δε τριωον φαντασιαν (De Abrahamo, quoted by Caesar Morgan, The Trinity of Plato, p. 80).