Greeks, Chapter 8
1
For who among men could at all know what God is, before he came?
2
Or do you approve the vain and foolish words of those credible philosophers? Some of them say God is fire (to which they themselves shall go — this they call God), and some say water, and some other elements created by God.
3
But, indeed, if any one of these words were acceptable, each one of the other creatures might likewise announce itself as God.
4
But these are absurdities, and error of impostors.
5
No one among men has seen him, or made him known; but he has showed himself.
6
He has showed himself through faith, through which alone it is granted to see God.
7
For God, the Master and builder of all things, he who made all things and set them in order, was not only loving toward man, but also long-suffering.
8
But this God was, and is, and ever will be kind and good, and not given to anger, and true, and the only good;
9
and when he had conceived a great and ineffable thought, he communicated it to his Child alone.[fn]
10
For so long a time, therefore, as he retained in mystery and reserved his wise counsel, he seemed to us to neglect us, and to be indifferent;
11
but after he revealed by his beloved Child, and manifested the things prepared from the beginning, he at one and the same time bestowed on us all things, both to take part in his benefits, and to see and understand. Who of us could ever have expected these things?
Footnotes
9
Child: Greek παῖς (*pais*). The UPDV renders παῖς as 'Child' (not 'Son') throughout, reserving 'Son' for the Greek υἱός (*huios*). The author of Greeks deliberately alternates between παῖς (8:9, 8:11, 9:1) and υἱός (9:2, 9:4, 10:2). See Lienhard (1970): 'Christ as παῖς is the instrument of God in the plan of salvation; as υἱός he is sent and acts.'