Fragments on the Psalms · §40 · Apollinaris of Laodicea

God's knowledge beyond number and the praise of angels, lights, and saints

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Apollinaris is closing his commentary on the final psalms, explaining how God's understanding has no number, then how angels, heavenly lights, and the saints of all nations praise God.

of the knowledge of God. For since his understanding is deepest, because of its incomprehensibility it has no number. And if it is also said to have no number because of the surpassing multitude of the contemplations in it, you yourself will also understand.

The angels would be those in the heavens, and the powers are above even these, belonging to the highest places, being above the task of bringing messages to human beings, and having their blessedness in perpetual steadfastness with God alone (Ps 148:2). Such also are the thrones, which the apostle calls, the name indicating that God is seated upon them, and that they are subject to the divine majesty that is above creation, standing always in this and having their fixed and stable state in the reception of the divine glory.

The lights that shine in the heaven by day and by night, illuminating the heaven itself, the highest one—that is, the firmament according to Moses—and also the water above this, are commanded to praise God. It is clear that all these things are a hymn of God, displaying in their own beauty and power and activity the all-hymned nature of their Maker.

And by saying “holy ones” he indicates those from every nation (Ps 148:14). Then, bringing in Israel by prophecy because it had drawn near from the beginning, he shows that its following comes after the nations.

The word necessarily prophesied for those who have fallen asleep the rest after death and the exultation in it, according to the verse, “In peace I will lie down and sleep” (Psalm 4:9 (4:8)) (Ps 149:5).

Greek

γνώσεως θεοῦ. βαθυτάτη γὰρ οὖσα ἡ σύνεσις αὐτοῦ δι' ἀκαταληψίαν ἀριθμὸν οὐκ ἔχει. εἰ δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλῆθος τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ θεωρημάτων μὴ ἔχειν ἀριθμὸν λέγεται, καὶ σὺ αὐτὸς ἐπιστήσεις. 311 Ps 148,2 Ἄγγελοι μὲν ἂν εἶεν οἱ ἐν οὐρανοῖς, δυνάμεις δὲ καὶ τούτων ὑπεράνω τοῖς ὑψίστοις προσήκουσαι, ὑπὲρ τὸ διαγγέλλειν ἀνθρώποις οὖσαι, ἐν δὲ μόνῃ τῇ παρὰ θεῷ βεβαιότητι διηνεκῇ τὸ μακάριον ἔχουσαι, ὁποῖαι καὶ αἱ καλούμεναι παρὰ ἀποστόλῳ θρόνοι ἐνδεικνυμένου τοῦ ὀνόματος τὸ ἐφιδρῦσθαι αὐταῖς τὸν θεὸν τὰς δὲ ὑποκεῖσθαι τῇ θείᾳ καὶ ὑπὲρ κτίσιν μεγαλειότητι, ἐν τούτῳ δὴ καθεστηκυίας ἀεὶ καὶ τὸ στάσιμον καὶ πεπηγὸς ἐχούσας ἐν τῇ τῆς θείας δόξης ὑποδοχῇ. 312 Ps 148,3.4 *** φέγγη *** οὐρανῷ μεθ' ἡμέραν καὶ νύκτωρ φωτίζοντα αὐτόν τε τὸν οὐρανὸν τὸν ἀνωτάτω, τουτέστι τὸ κατὰ Μωυσέα στερέωμα, καὶ δὴ τού του δὲ ἀνώτερον ὕδωρ ὑμνεῖν τὸν θεὸν παρακελεύεται. δῆλον ὅτι πάντα ταῦτά ἐστιν ὕμνος θεοῦ κάλλει καὶ δυνάμει καὶ ἐνεργείᾳ τῇ ἑαυτῶν τὸ πανύμνητον ἐμφανίζοντα τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος. 313 Ps 148,14 Καὶ πᾶσι δὲ λέγων ὁσίοις τοὺς ἐξ ἅπαντος ἔθνους ὑποδείκνυσι. προφητείᾳ τὸν δὲ Ἰσραὴλ ἐπεισάγων διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς πεπλησιακέναι ἐπακολούθησιν αὐτοῦ δηλοῖ τὴν μετὰ τὰ ἔθνη. 314 Ps 149,5 Τῶν οὖν κεκοιμημένων τὴν μετὰ τὸν θάνατον ἀνάπαυλαν καὶ τὴν ἐν τούτῳ ἀγαλλίασιν ἀναγκαίως ὁ λόγος ἐθέσπισε κατὰ τὸ Ἐν εἰρήνῃ [ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ] κοιμηθήσομαι καὶ ὑπνώσω. 43

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About this text

Notes on the Psalms that read them as speaking of Christ's suffering and rising, the calling of the nations, and the hope of bodily resurrection.

Apollinaris of Laodicea (c. 310–c. 390) was a bishop in Syria, a teacher of rhetoric, and a skilled reader of Hebrew. His full commentaries are lost, but these fragments survive in later collections of excerpts from early Christian writers.

The work is a commentary, not a continuous treatise. Apollinaris moves through individual psalms, explaining their prophetic and Christological meaning. He often reads David's words as spoken in the person of Christ, especially in psalms of suffering, and he sees the church gathered from the nations as the bride and kingdom of Christ. He also argues against views that diminished the full divinity of the Son and the Spirit, insisting that the one God's creative and saving work is indivisibly Trinitarian.

The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah are quoted, as is the apostle Paul. Apollinaris also compares the Greek translations of Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion. Old Testament books appear under their older names, such as the first of Kingdoms for 1 Samuel and the second of Esdras for Nehemiah.

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