Eleazar was minded to speak:  Mathias begged of him not to withhold his thoughts, but to speak them, and it was at this moment that Paul entered, walking softly, lest his footsteps should interrupt Eleazar, whom he heard say that he disagreed with the last part of Mathias’ speech, inasmuch as it would be against the word of the Scriptures and likewise against all tradition to accept God as no more than the absolute substance, which strictly taken would exclude all differences and relation, even the differences and relation of subject and object in self-consciousness.  I shall not be lacking in appreciation of the wisdom of our learned brother, Paul heard him say, if I venture to hold to the idea of a God whom we know at least to be conscious, for he says:  I am, a statement which had much interest for Paul; and while considering it he heard Manahem say:  it is hard to conceive of God except as a high principle of being and well-being in the universe, who binds all things to each other in binding them to himself.  Then there are two Gods and not one God, Saddoc interposed quickly, an objection to which Manahem made this answer:  not two Gods but two aspects, thereby confuting Saddoc for the moment, who muttered:  two aspects which have, however, to be reduced to unity.

Paul’s eyes went from Saddoc to Mathias, and he thought that Mathias’ face wore an expression of amused contempt as he listened and called upon other disputants to contribute their small thoughts to the discussion.  Encouraged by a wave of his hand, Caleb ventured to remark:  there is God and there is the word of God, to which Hazael murmured this reply:  there is only one God; one who watches over his chosen people and over all the other nations of the earth.  But does God love the other nations as dearly as the Hebrew people?  Manahem asked, and Hazael answered him:  we may not discriminate so far into the love of God, it being infinite, but this we may say, that it is through the Hebrew people that God makes manifest his love of mankind, on condition, let it be understood, of their obedience to his revealed will.  And if I may add a few words to the idea so eloquently suggested by our Brother Mathias, I would say that God is the primal substance out of which all things evolve.  But these words must not be taken too literally, thereby refusing to God a personal consciousness, for God knows certainly all the differences and all the relations, and we should overturn all the teaching of Scripture and lose ourselves in the errors of Greek philosophy if we held to the belief of a God, absolute, pure, simple, detached from all concern with his world and his people.  But in what measure, Manahem asked, laying his scroll upon his knees and leaning forward, his long chin resting on his hand, in what measure, he asked, speaking out of his deepest self, are we to look upon God as a conscious being; if Mathias could answer that question we should be grateful, for it is the question which torments every Essene in the solitude of his cell.