XVIII.  As far then as we can reach, He Who Is, and God, are the special names of His Essence; and of these especially He Who Is, not only because when He spake to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what His Name was, this was what He called Himself, bidding him say to the people “I Am hath sent me,” Exod. iii. 14. but also because we find that this Name is the more strictly appropriate.  For the Name Θεός (God), even if, as those who are skilful in these matters say, it were derived from Θέειν The derivation of Θεός from Θέειν (to run) is given by Plato (Crat., 397c).  That from Αἴθειν (to blaze) is found also in S. John Damascene (De Fide Orth., I., 12), who however may have borrowed it from S. Gregory, or from the source whence the latter took it.  S. Athanasius also admits it (De Defin., 11).  Other definitions are, according to Suicer, (1) Θεᾶσθαι (to see), e.g. Greg. Nyss. in Cant. Hom., V.  (2) Θεωρεῖν (to contemplate), Athan. Quæst Misc., Qu. XI. Θεὸς λέγεται ἀπὸ τὸ θεωρεῖν τὰ πάντα, οἱονεὶ θεωρὸς καὶ θεος, ἤγουν θεάτης πάντων.  (3) Τιθέναι (to place), Clem., Al. Strom., l. s. fin., θεὸς παρὰ τὴν θέσιν εἴρηται. (to run) or from Αἴθειν (to blaze), from continual motion, and because He consumes evil conditions of things (from which fact He is also called A Consuming Fire), Deut. iv. 24. would still be one of the Relative Names, and not an Absolute one; as again is the case with Lord, Lord (Κύριος) is simply the LXX. rendering of the word which in reading Hebrew is substituted for the Ineffable Name.  Thus in the passages quoted, had the original language been used, the Four-Lettered Name would have appeared. which also is called a name of God.  I am the Lord Thy God, He says, that is My name; Isa. xlii. 8. and, The Lord is His name. Amos ix. 6.  But we are enquiring into a Nature Whose Being is absolute and not into Being bound up with something else.  But Being is in its proper sense peculiar to God, and belongs to Him entirely, and is not limited or cut short by any Before or After, for indeed in him there is no past or future.