The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning — Plato — John Shaqi
The six books of Proclus, the Platonic successor, on the theology of Plato (vol. 1 of 2) : $b translated from the Greek, to which a seventh book is added, in order to supply the deficiency of another book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost, also, a translation from the Greek of Proclus' Elements of theology, to which are added a translation of the treatise of Proclus, On providence and fate, a translation of extracts from his treatise, entitled, Ten doubts concerning
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Farther still, in the Septuagint version of verse the 4th of the 19th
Psalm, God is said _to have placed his tabernacle in the sun_, (εν
τῳ ηλιῳ εθετο το σκηνωμα αυτου) which is doubtless the genuine reading,
and not that of the vulgar translation, “In them (i.e. the heavens)
hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.” For this is saying nothing
more of the sun than what may be said of any of the other stars, and
produces in us no exalted conception of the artificer of the universe.
But to say that God dwells in the sun, gives us a magnificent idea both
of that glorious luminary, and the deity who dwells enshrined, as it
were, in dazzling splendor. To which we may add in confirmation of this
version of the Septuagint, that in Psalm xi. v. 4. it is said, “The
Lord’s _throne_ is in _heaven_.” And again in Isaiah lxvi. v.
1. “Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool.” If therefore the heavens are the throne, and the sun the
tabernacle of deity, they must evidently be deified. For nothing can
come into immediate contact with divinity without being divine. Hence,
says Simplicius,[5] “That it is connascent with the human soul to think
the celestial bodies are divine, is especially evident from those, (the
Jews) who look to these bodies through preconceptions about divine
natures. For they also say that the heavens are the habitation of God,
and the throne of God, and are alone sufficient to reveal the glory and
excellence of God to those who are worthy; than which assertions what
can be more venerable?”
Indeed, that the heavens are not the inanimate throne and residence
of deity, is also evident from the assertion in the 19th Psalm, “That
the heavens _declare_ the glory of God.” For R. Moses, a very
learned Jew, says,[6] “that the word _saphar_, to _declare_
or _set forth_, is never attributed to things inanimate.” Hence
he concludes, “that the heavens are not without some soul, which, says
he, is no other than that of those blessed intelligences, who govern
the stars, and dispose them into such letters as God has ordained;
declaring unto us men by means of this writing, what events we are to
expect. And hence, this same writing is called by all the ancients
_chetab hamelachim_, that is to say, _the writing of the
angels_.”