We find the name and appellation ou)si/a contained not at all in the Divine Scripture.[1] But the common custom has made use of the name for the possessions meaning what one has acquired, such as dwelling-places, beasts, and other materials. For they call these 'the substance of what has been acquired'; in virtue of this concept we call the one who has obtained these things 'wealthy' [plou/sios], meaning 'of much substance' [poluou/sios].[2] And a people which has more than enough [periou/sios], the one which has possessions [or, "is owned"].[3] Also, "Israel for his private possession;" meaning a piece of property and with regard to possession.[4] But the philosophical use is aware that the noun ou)si/a is derived from the verb "to be" [ei)=nai], for it calls the existing thing [to\ o)/n] itself "substance" [ou)si/a]. For "being" [to\ o)/n] is the common name of all existing things. Now, this existing thing is divided into substance and accident. They define substance thus: substance is the common and indeterminate name that is borne equally by all the actual existences [u(posta/seis] [which are classified] under it [i.e. under substance] and is predicated synonymously [of all of them]. Or [substance is that] which is said of the underlying actual existences and appears equally in all of them; or the thing which is self-subsistent and does not require another thing to exist, that is to say, what exists in itself and does not have its existence in another thing, as what is accidental does. Therefore, the existence of what is without qualification is substance.