Exegetical Support for Divine Simplicity


Saint Thomas Aquinas

Immutable 

“For I the Lord do not change,” (Malachi 3:6). 

Simple 

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:24). 

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder,” (James 2:19). 

Omnipresent 

“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24). 

Omnibenevolent 

“The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings,” (Psalm 145:17). 

Omnipotent 

“all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made,” (John 1:3). 

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together,” (Colossians 1:17). 

Omniscience 

“O eternal God, who dost discern what is secret, who art aware of all things before they come to be,” (Daniel 13:42). 

Eternal 

“…who alone art just and almighty and eternal,” (2 Maccabees 1:25). 

Unknowable essence 

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,” (Deuteronomy 29:29). 

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable,” (Psalm 145:3). 

The Divine names identical with His essence 

“He who does not love does not know God; for God is love,” (1 John 4:8). 

“No one is good but God alone,” (Mark 10:18). 

Free will 

“In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will,” (Ephesians 1:11). 


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