“I firmly believe that the Creator, blessed be His name, is not a body,
that corporeal relations do not apply to Him, and that there exists
nothing that is in any way similar to Him.”
4. The next property we declare of God in the Creed is the eternity of
God. As He is the cause of everything in existence, and requires no
cause for His existence, and as it is impossible to separate the idea
of existence from the idea of God, it follows that God is always in
existence, and that neither beginning nor end can be fixed to His
existence. Maimonides, in expressing his belief in the eternity of God,
lays stress only on God being without a beginning, and in this sense he
interprets the phrase Dip אלהי קדם (Deut. xxxiii. 27), “the eternal
God” who is without a beginning. That God is without end is equally
true, but Maimonides did not desire to introduce this idea into the
fourth article as a distinguishing characteristic, as it is not
necessary to believe that the universe will once come to an end. If it
please the Almighty to give the universe existence for ever, it will
continue for ever. Following, however, the example of the prophets, who
told us in the name of God, “I am the first, and I am the last,” we
express this idea in our Creed, and understand it thus: If, by the will
of the Almighty, the entire universe should come to an end, God’s
existence would still continue. Thus the Psalmist says, “Of old hast
Thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of
Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them
shall wax old like a garment: as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and
they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have
no end” (Ps. cii. 26–28).