The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary

beyond Being as well.16 In contrast, the Chaldean Supreme God is best characterized as Nous (Intellect), albeit a self-contemplating Nous akin to Numenius' First God (see fr. 8 and notes). But even here the Oracles vacillate: is the Father to be equated strictly with his Intellect or is the so-called Paternal Intellect to be regarded as the first emanation of the Father? And if so, of what substance then is the Father, if not intelligible? The fragmentary nature of the evidence does not permit any hard and fast conclusions on these matters; indeed, the Oracles elsewhere also designate the Father "Abyss" (a term especially familiar to the Gnostic sources; see fr. 18 and notes), as well as describing him in Stoic terms as essentially "fiery" in nature (see frr. 3 and 37), albeit totally transcendent. (Unlike the Stoic God, the Chaldean Father is in no sense immanent in the world.) Further, the later Neoplatonists also designated him hyparxis original: "ὕπαρξις" — existence, being, or substantial reality, a notion which most likely derived from the Oracles, although only the verbal form hyparxein original: "ὑπάρξειν" — to exist is found in the extant fragments (see frr. 1, 20, 84 and notes). In addition, the later Neoplatonists vacillated on the matter of his ontological status: Porphyry, for example, sometimes equated the Chaldean Father with the Plotinian One; Proclus, on the other hand, situated him beneath the One at the first level of the intelligible order (see fr. 3 and notes). In the last analysis, what can be affirmed about the Chaldean Supreme God is the fact of his transcendence, but not the precise nature of it.

In addition to this First God or Father (whose sole function is to "think" the Platonic world of Ideas; see frr. 37, 39, 40), there is a Second God or Demiurgic Intellect whose function is to fashion the intelligible (or Empyrean) world on the model of these Ideas (e.g., frr. 5, 33, 37). This Second Intellect is conceived of as dyadic in nature (see frr. 8 and 12) as he is turned both towards the intelligible and sensible realms (in the manner of Numenius' Second God). In this regard, the Chaldean Second God is described as "Twice Transcendent" original: "δὶς ἐπέκεινα" whereas the First God is simply "Once Transcendent" original: "ἅπαξ ἐπέκεινα" (see fr. 169 and notes). These designations also underscore the notion that the Highest God (or "Once Transcendent") exists as an indivisible unity, whereas the Second God (or "Twice Transcendent") begins the process of division which ultimately leads to creation and generation. In the Oracles, this process of division is described in dynamic terms; the Second Intellect (as Demiurge) is said to project the Platonic Ideas ("divisions" or "lightning-bolts") onto primal matter (or "wombs" of the World Soul) like Zeus hurling his thunderbolts (see esp. frr. 35 and 37). By this "action," the initial movement towards material creation begins.

16 See, e.g., Dodds, "The Parmenides of Plato and the Origin of the Neoplatonic One," CQ, 22, 1928, pp. 129-142.