The names of God and the nature of names

After this he says that "the goatherds and shepherds thought there was one God, whether Most High, or Adonai, or the Heavenly One, or Sabaoth, or however and in whatever way they like to name this world; and they knew nothing more." And next he says that "it makes no difference whether one calls the God over all by the name current among the Greeks, Zeus, or by such-and-such a name, say, among the Indians, or by such-and-such among the Egyptians."

To this too we must reply that the present subject involves a deep and secret question: the question of the nature of names. Are names a matter of convention, as Aristotle thinks (Aristotle, On Interpretation 2)? Or are they by nature, as the Stoics hold, the first sounds imitating the things the names stand for, which is why the Stoics also bring in certain elements of etymology? Or are names by nature, as Epicurus teaches, though in a different way from what the Stoics think, because the first men burst out with certain sounds in response to things (Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus 75–76)?

Suppose, then, that in a treatment devoted to the subject we can establish the nature of names that have power, some of which are used by the wise among the Egyptians, or the learned among the Persian magi, or, among the philosophers of India, by the Brahmans or the Samanaeans, and so on in each of the nations. And suppose we can also prove that what is called magic is not, as the followers of Epicurus and Aristotle think, a thing wholly without coherence, but, as those skilled in it demonstrate, a coherent system, though its principles are known to very few. Then we shall say that the name Sabaoth, and Adonai, and the other names handed down among the Hebrews with great reverence, are not applied to ordinary, created things, but belong to a certain secret theology which refers to the Maker of the universe. This is why these names, when they are spoken with a certain sequence that is woven into them, can be employed for certain purposes; and so can others, current in the Egyptian tongue and applied to certain demons who can do only these particular things, and others, in the Persian language, applied to other powers; and so in each of the nations. And so it will be found that the names of the demons on earth, who have been allotted different places, are spoken in a way suited to the language of each place and nation.

Whoever, then, has with a nobler mind gained even a little insight into these matters will take care not to fit names to things that are not theirs. Otherwise he may suffer the same as those who wrongly apply the name "God" to lifeless matter, or who drag down the title "good" from the First Cause, or from virtue and the beautiful, to blind wealth, to the right proportion of flesh, blood and bones in health and good condition, or to what is counted noble birth.