It appears then Rendered in the
Septuagint Version, ᾽Εγώ εἰμι ὁ
ὤν. Some of the Fathers made much of the fact
that it is not the neuter form τὸ ὄν. that the
most proper of all the names given to God is “He that is,”
as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, Say to the
sons of Israel, He that is hath sent Me Exod. iii. 14.. For He keeps all being in His own
embrace Greg. Naz.,
Orat. 36., like a sea of
essence infinite and unseen. Or as the holy Dionysius says,
“He that is good Dionys., De
div. nom. c. 2, 3 and 4. This sentence and the next are
absent in some mss., and are rather more
obscurely stated than is usual with John of Damascus..”
For one cannot say of God that He has being in the first place and
goodness in the second.