On the Creation of the World

NOTICE Concerning the Six Homilies of Severian on the Creation of the World.

In the Vatican codex numbered 1500, and in other codices, these homilies appear under the name of John Chrysostom; the scribes were careful in this, so that for the sake of profit they might inscribe as many works as possible under the name of Chrysostom. But it is certain that they are by Severian, Bishop of Gabala: this is clearly declared by Cosmas Indicopleustes in his *Christian Topography*, edited by us in the year 1706, where on page 320, after he had cited several passages from the festal letters of Theophilus of Alexandria, he passes to Severian of Gabala, whom he calls Theophilus’s *symmystēs* (fellow-initiate): *kai touton de paradramontes, epi ton kat’ ekeino kairou symmystēn ton tēs Gabalōn episkopon Seuyrianon, tetarton, metelthōmen*. That is: "And passing by this one (Theophilus), let us move on to another his contemporary and fellow-initiate, namely Severian, the bishop of Gabala, fourth in number." From this source he quotes many long fragments of this work verbatim, which we have compared in their proper places with our own text. Therefore, these orations are undoubtedly by Severian. Regarding these, one should hear Savile in his notes, page 871, where, dealing with certain orations published by him among the works of Chrysostom, he says: "I have added these following nine orations because they are found in libraries everywhere under the name of Chrysostom, although they are not his; and in other more correct books they are ascribed to other authors, and rightly so. Regarding these six orations, there was also another reason, namely that I judged it not improper that there should be public record of the 'iron' eloquence of that age, which, however, might seem worthy to be compared, to the judgment of the ears of that time, with our 'golden stream.' For the rivalry between our John and Severian is known from ecclesiastical history, as is the Empress Eudoxia’s partisan support for Severian against John."

ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. FIRST ORATION

^A 1. The dignity and utility of Sacred Scripture. Our orator draws to himself the minds of his listeners by breathing forth modesty. Every subject of piety is for the correction of our souls. For all the instructions of piety look toward this as their goal: the salvation of our souls. This is what the word of God seeks to accomplish, this is what the law of Moses proposes, this is what the intellectual tongues of the prophets proclaim, this is what the apostles cry out with unceasing mouths. For all things are for us and on our behalf, that, having run toward our correction, they might be deemed worthy of piety. Every holy book, therefore, has our salvation as its starting point, as I have just said. But this book of ^B the creation is the beginning and the source and the power of all things that are in the law and the prophets. And just as a house cannot possibly stand if there is no foundation, so too the beauties of creation could not shine forth if creation had not first received its beginning. I know, indeed, that many of the holy Fathers have discoursed on the account of the creation, having said many great and glorious things, as the grace of the Holy Spirit measured out unto them. And though many great and wonderful things have been said beforehand, nothing prevents these things from being said by us as well, in whatever way the grace of the Holy Spirit may provide. ^C For just as those before us were not hindered by those who came before them, neither are we hindered by those who preceded our own generation. For to them and to us, and to those before them, there is one grace—the grace that provides the power of the Holy Spirit. For "all these," he says, "worketh one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Cor. 12:11). Therefore, the things said by the Fathers are not cast aside, but our own are added to them. Even if those of the Fathers are great and ours are small, still, they are built up alongside them. For just as a large stone, ^D bearing the form of a cube, set into a building and swaying slightly, is steadied by a small stone placed beneath it; so too the things said by the Fathers, receiving small additions, bring about a greater building of the Church. I entreat your love to pay attention to the concepts of what is said, and to consider not whether they are unfamiliar, but whether they are true. For neither...

is that which is customary always true, nor is that which is new therefore false; but it is always to be examined whether the things that are said be true or false. I ask, however, that no one, as a friend, receive a discourse with favor without examination, nor, as an enemy, reject things as if they were foreign, but see everywhere whether truth bestows the palm upon the things said.

The Scope of Moses. Why he passed over the creation of invisible things.

Again, another scope of Moses. Why did blessed Moses mention heaven, earth, sea, waters, and the things that are of them, yet made no mention of angels, archangels, Seraphim, and Cherubim? Because, of course, he was adapting the legislation to the condition of that time. For he knew with whom he was speaking—namely, with those who had gone out of Egypt, who had learned of the Egyptian error: sun, moon, stars, rivers, fountains, waters. Leaving aside, therefore, the creation of invisible things, he speaks of visible things, in order to persuade those who were adoring these things not to think them to be gods, but the works of God. For it was not necessary to give them knowledge of angels and archangels, lest he nurture their sickness for them once again. For if, even when they did not see them, they nonetheless called them gods, much more, if they had heard of angels or archangels, would they have thought them to be gods. But he mentions heaven, earth, mountains, waters, and all things that are of them, so that through visible things he might interpret the invisible and reveal the Maker through His works. ^B Thus, therefore, did the three children in Babylon do. For because they were living among that nation hostile to God—and there was no knowledge of God, but idols were being worshiped—when they were in the furnace, they said: *Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord* (Dan. 3:57). Why did they not say, "Angels, heavens, earth, fire, water, cold, heat," and the like, but rather enumerate the creation one by one? In order to cleanse the entire creation and purify the whole work of the Maker, and leave no spark of impiety behind. Just as also in this place, Moses, in order to eliminate every Egyptian error from the Jews, mentions heaven and earth as created things, that he might show these to have been made and declare the Maker. *In the beginning God created heaven and earth.*

John’s "In the beginning he made" compared. He refutes the Arians and Anomoeans. Two Testaments come from one Father.

appear troublesome to the minds of many. But it is necessary, on the day of fasting, when souls are more vigilant, to speak of deeper matters. *In the beginning was*, and, *In the beginning He created*; he speaks of a beginning for the sake of these words—*In the beginning*—so that it may be demonstrated that there is one root of piety, which instructed that lawgiver, and illumined this theologian. ^B For the two Testaments, in truth, agree in their speech because they were brought forth by one Father: for almost the same image and likeness exists in them. And just as among sisters born of one father, there are characteristic marks of their likeness, so since the two Testaments were born of one Father, they have a great resemblance. Indeed, also in the Old Testament, the law goes before, and the prophets follow, and in the new grace, the Gospel goes before, and the apostles follow. There, there are twelve prophets, each of the twelve; twelve about Osee; four, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. In the New, twelve apostles, and four evangelists. There, again, the first calling of God began from brothers: for He took Moses and Aaron as the first heralds; and in the Gospel, He makes the first calling of Peter and Andrew. And there, indeed, the grace is simple, but here it is double. For there, two brothers were called, Moses and Aaron; here, a double pair of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John. Since the Savior wished to imprint upon us the love which is according to the Holy Spirit, and to make us brothers in disposition and in spirit, He took nature as a foundation, and He fastened the bowels of nature, and upon that He built the foundation of the Church. The first sign in the Old Testament was the river changing into blood; the first sign in the New was the water into wine. But it is not the time to relate every resemblance in order; let us return to the subject at hand. *In the beginning God created heaven and earth.* In six days God created all things. But the first day differs from the others that come after it. For on the first day God created from things that were not; but from the second day on, God created nothing from things that were not, but changed what He created on the first day as He willed. But you, who have examined and searched—if you find truth, agree; if you do not find the truth, accuse, and I accept the accusation; for it brings me much opportunity for defense.

^C 4. *The formation of the heavens.*—Therefore, on the first day God created the matter of the creatures; but on the other days, the forming and the adorning of the creatures. What sort of thing do I mean? He created the heaven that was not, not this one, but the one *above*; for this one came to be on the second day. ^D God created the heaven above, of which David also says: *The heaven of heaven is for the Lord*. This is the upper room. And just as in a two-story house a roof intervenes in the middle, so, as if having built the world as one house, the Lord placed this heaven as a middle roof, and above it the waters. For this reason David says: *Who covers his upper rooms with waters*. Therefore, He created the heaven that was not, the earth that was not, the abysses that were not, the winds, the airs, the fire, the water. He created the matter of all things that came to be on the first day. But surely someone will say: It is written that He created heaven and earth, but concerning water and fire and air, it is not written. First, therefore, brothers, from when He said heaven and earth were created, He interpreted the content by means of the contents. Just as when He said, *God created man, taking dust from the earth*, He said the creature, but did not enumerate the members, nor did He say: God created eyes, and ears, and nose; but by saying *man*, He included all the members; so, by saying, *God created the heaven and the earth*, He included all things, and brought in also the darkness and the abysses that had come to be; for *Darkness*, He says, *was upon the face of the abyss*. And the abyss is called the multitude of the waters. That the abysses also came to be, the Scripture testifies, saying: *Before the abysses were created, before the earth was*. So, the abysses also came to be. Then also when the air came to be, hear: *And the spirit of God was borne upon the waters*. He does not mean the Holy Spirit here; for the uncreated is not counted together with the creation; but he calls the movement of the air *spirit*. And just as it is written in the prophet Elias: *And the heaven was darkened with cloud and spirit*; so also here he calls the nature of the air *spirit*. It remains to show where the fire came to be. God said: *Let there be light*, and the nature of the fire came to be; for not only is this fire [what exists here], but the powers above are also fire, and the fire above is related to this fire of ours. ^A But you look for the reason that one is quenched, and the other is not. Since God also created the angels as spirits, and our souls as spirits, but our souls indeed in bodies, and the angels apart from bodies. Just as, therefore, with souls and angels, so also with fire it is possible to see. The fire above is without matter, the fire below is with matter; for the fire above is related to these, just as our soul is related to the angels: in that those are spirits, and these are spirits, as also the three children say: *Bless, spirits and souls of the just*; and again: *Who makes his angels spirits*. Therefore, neither is a soul seen without a body, nor is it possible to see fire without tow, or a vine-shoot, or other matter. But that it may be shown that this fire is not alien, creation teaches. For many often borrow fire from the sun, and light it; but if it were alien, how could the alien be taken from it? Otherwise, there is great, immaterial fire in the heaven, so that fire appeared on Mount Sinai, which God brought forth into view, not from wood laid beneath, but from that immaterial fire itself; and as one might say that this fire is small in comparison to that great one, so Moses also says: *From heaven he made his voice heard, and God showed his great fire*; in order to show that this is small. Therefore, all things are fire, and the lightning, and the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the fire among us is related to them. And see how the lightning has a relationship toward the stars from the name: *astrape* (lightning) and *astra* (stars).

^A All things were made; fire was made, the abysses were made, the winds, the four elements, earth, fire, water, air. For Moses, as if summarizing what he had omitted, says: "In six days God made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them" (Exod. XX, 11). Just as he did not mention all the members of the body, so he did not enumerate the things that pertain to creation, even though all things were created together with the world. But if fire were not on the earth, one would not today strike fire from a stone, nor from wood; for wood rubbing against wood emits fire. Attend therefore with diligence. "Darkness," he says, "was upon the face of the abyss" (Gen. I, 2). Shall you say, then, that God made the darkness? We know that this is a deep question; but because we are often in an assembly of those who listen with an affectionate mind, and some who are eager to find fault, it is necessary not to leave the word unexamined, lest after great promises we provide something meager. Whence then the darkness? "For God," they say, "did not make it; for God," they say, "is not the creator of darkness or of mist." What then is the darkness? Many have said that it is the shadow of the heaven. For they say that when the heaven above was established, while the upper lights did not yet exist, the earth was bare, and darkness came to be. But the upper heaven is luminous, not dark; and even if it did not have the sun, the moon, and the stars, the nature itself would have been luminous per se. If therefore the heaven was overhanging, and the earth was spread out, and the former shone from above and the latter received the light, whence the darkness? To me it certainly seems that since water covered the surface of the earth, and mist and darkness gathered about the waters—which is wont to happen even now in rivers—that obscurity stirred up the mist; and that it made clouds, and the overshadowing clouds brought on the darkness. That clouds excite darkness, the Scripture says: "And heaven was darkened by clouds (Deut. IV, 11)." Thus also at the cross of Christ darkness was made, not by the arrival of the night, but by a shadow and obstruction occurring. So it is not permitted to approach the divine oracles rashly. "And the Spirit of God was borne above the water" (Gen. I, 2). He calls the wind "Spirit," as he says elsewhere: "In a vehement spirit you shall break the ships of Tarshish" (Ps. XLVII, 8) ^B, calling the motion of the air "spirit." For do not think that air is one thing and wind another; for the very air when stirred makes wind, as is proved by experience. We often move the tranquil air with a fan or a cloth, and from the motion of the air we make wind. In order, therefore, that wind might be demonstrated from the spirit itself to be the motion of the air, for this reason he said, "It was borne above." For it is proper to the wind that it be borne over creation. God said, "Let there be light." Why did Moses not say, "God said, Let there be heaven, let there be sea," but here indeed, "He made," whereas there, "He said," since among us the word precedes the work; for we first speak, and then we make? Desiring to show God first acting, so that he might demonstrate that creation is swifter than any word; when He creates matter by His own power, he says, "He made"; but when God was about to adorn all things—and the light was the beginning of this adornment—then he introduces the harmonious word. And because, again, the first work of God was light, and the last was man: God first fashions the light by a word, and lastly man by work, ending from light to light.

^C And how light and man, listen. The light reveals existing things; the light of the world is man; entry reveals to you the light of art, the light of science. The light reveals the grain, understanding made the bread; the light reveals the grape of the vine; the light of understanding brought forth wine, which is contained in the grape; the light showed the wool, the light of man brought forth the garment; the light reveals the mountain, the light of intelligence brought forth the quarry. Therefore the Savior calls the apostles light with these words: "You are the light of the world" (Matth. V, 14). Why does he call them light? Not only that he might bestow honor upon them, but also that he might show the hope of the resurrection. For just as the light setting in the evening does not perish, but is hidden, and after it has been hidden, appears again: so also man, lowered into the tomb as if into a certain setting, is kept for the rising of the resurrection again. "Let there be light." He said it was made; but how, he did not declare, nor did he learn. For that light was made, he says, I know well; but how it was made I do not grasp. Therefore the Savior said to the apostles: "It is not for you to know the times or moments that the Father has set in his own power" (Acts I, 7). And yet, is it not for us to know the times or the moments, and shall human reasonings be able to comprehend the Lord of times and the Creator of the ages? "God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. I, 3). O that holy and great power! O great miracles! There was light; "and God calls the light day, and the darkness night" (Gen. I, 5). Why then does he call the day *hēmeran*? Because whatever is joyful and cheerful is called *hēmeron* (gentle/mild). Therefore we also call kindness *hēmerotēta*, and call tame animals *hēmerous*. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called ^D

^A night. But why night? Because when a man is sleeping at night, it brings him close to the memory of death, as if saying: "Learn, O man, who you are. You are mortal; you are addicted to sleep. Why do you imagine things above you?" For night is compunction; whence David also says: "What you say in your hearts, be pricked in your beds" (Ps. IV, 5). Indeed, a man lies at night, neither dead nor alive. Ask the heretic: "What is it? Is he alive or dead?" And if he says, "Alive," say to him: "Why then does he not perceive those speaking or walking?" And if he says, "Dead," say to him: "How then does he breathe? For that which breathes is not dead; that which does not perceive is not alive; you do not see yourself, but you imagine things above you." But let these things be sufficient to have been said about the first day. For the evening has arrived, and just as we did there with the matters of the first day, we have set it forth according to our ability, even if the thoughts were profound. But it is for the faithful to explore what has been said, and to inquire into the history.

7. Now that we are nurtured by the holy fast, and have feasted on heavenly things in the fasting (or lack of food) of our bodies, let us take care to keep the fast holy. "Sanctify," he says, "a fast" (Joel I, 14). Do we sanctify it, or are we sanctified by it? But in place of "keep it holy," the prophet said this. For just as when we pray, "Hallowed be thy name" (Matt. VI, 9), it is not that we pray for His name (for His name hallows all things), but because His name is invoked upon us (for we are called Christians from Christ), he says: "Let thy name be hallowed upon us." For with the Holy One all things are holy; for nothing approaches God that is not holy, for He is the Holy God, resting in the saints. Moreover, His heaven is holy: "For He will hear him from His holy heaven" (Ps. XIX, 7). The angels are holy: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory with His holy angels" (Matt. XXV, 31). The earth that has the worship [144] is holy: "And He will desire," he says, "to overturn the covenant upon His holy earth." And David, the court is holy: "Worship the Lord in His holy court" (Ps. XCIV, 9). Isaiah, the temple is holy: "For Thy temple is holy, wonderful in righteousness" (Ps. LXIV, 5). The irrational sheep that were then sacrificed were called holy: "As sheep," he says, "holy in Jerusalem" (Ezek. XXXVI, 38). The covenant is holy: "And He shall strengthen with many his holy covenant" (Dan. IX, 27). This very city was called holy: "And upon the holy city of our fathers Jerusalem" (Ibid. v. 24). For nothing approaches God that is not holy. Therefore Paul says: "And sanctification, without which no one shall see God" (Hebr. XII, 14). We have fasted from bread; let us also fast from injustice. Do you not eat bread? Do not eat the flesh of the poor, lest God say also concerning you: "They who devour my people as the eating of bread" (Ps. XIII, 4). Do you not drink wine? Let not wrath make you drunk, lest you hear from the Lawgiver: "Wrath to them according to the likeness of a serpent" (Ps. LVII, 5); and again, "Their wine is the wrath of dragons" (Deut. XXXII, 33). For when you oppress a poor man, and he groans, he was found before God, eating the bread of tears. For this reason God also says: "You covered my altar with tears" (Malach. II, 13). God therefore reproves those weeping at the altar, saying: "Priests, enter, weep" (Joel I, 13). But He reproves them, ^B not because they themselves were weeping, but because the injured were seeking redress there at the altar, both orphans and widows. And to show that He speaks concerning them, He added: With weeping, and with wailing, and with groaning.

It is furthermore worth looking at our sacrifices. A table of the soul is set before us, namely, the word of God. A body fasting is sanctified; a soul not nourished is wasted. May it be that the body fasts from sins, and the soul feasts on divine doctrines. But you cannot eat the bread of Christ and the bread of tears, as Paul says: "You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons" (1 Cor. X, 21). He who fasts must therefore abstain from food, and first of all from sins. For indeed, every day the angels mark down who has proposed to abstain from avarice, or fornication, or injustice. For these fasts are both recorded by the angels, and God stores them up. For just as, brothers, from the reports, rulers inform the King of all things, so also the angels inform God of all things that happen, not teaching Him who is ignorant, but fulfilling the ministerial order of creation. I would have called someone six hundred times more blessed than the one who eats, or the one who is fasting and doing injustice. I say these things not to break the fast, but to preach piety. For eating is not evil, but sinning is wicked, just as God says concerning a certain righteous man: "Your father did not eat, and he did my will" (Zach. VIII, 19). So too elsewhere: "The fourth fast, and the fifth fast, and the tenth fast, shall be to you for joy and for gladness and for good feasts, and love the truth" (Zach. VIII, 19). But the sensible light has shone forth, that the worker of the light might be proclaimed. The evening has arrived, sealing the course of the day. The beginning is good, let the end be added. Do not drive it back poorly, but listen to David: "To the end, do not destroy" (Ps. LXXIV, title). And may the God of this light enlighten you all with word, law, faith, righteousness, temperance, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through Whom and with Whom ^C to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Of the same, on the second day of the creation of the world, and against the one who said to him: We Christians ought not to use [the term] Lord Sabaoth at the sanctification.

1. The word of God stirs up the desire of the soul, and puts around it joy like a lamp, so that it might both brighten the reasonings, and gladden the mind, and cleanse the sins, and enlighten the intelligence. Such is the word of God. For as the whetstone is to the iron, so is the word of God to the soul. The whetstone grants nothing to the iron, but first it prepares it to cast off the rust; then it thins it when it is thick, sharpens it when it is dull, brightens it when it is dark, cleanses it, makes it clean, makes it sharp. Thus therefore is the word of God, causing the soul to cast off the rust of sin, sharpening it when it is dull, thinning it when it is thick, brightening it when it is dark, ^D

Moreover, the word of God wishes us to be bright, according to the apostolic disposition ^A which says: "That you may be as lights in the world, holding the word of life" (Phil. II, 15, 16). Behold the brightness! It wishes us to be not obtuse, but acute; for, "The word of God," it says, "is living and effective, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Hebr. IV, 12). It wishes us not to be thick, but to render the mind subtle with thoughts. For where there is thickness, the mind is alien to the word of God; but where it is subtle, it is made fitting for the divine law. Therefore, Scripture says concerning the thicker ones: "And Jacob ate, and was filled, and grew fat, ^B grew thick, was sated; he abandoned God his maker" (Deut. XXXII, 15). Come, therefore, let the word of God illuminate our mind as well, especially with this holy fast proposed, which thins the bodies and sharpens the mind. For the abstinence of fasting is the nurse of all sanctification and the mother of a pious mind. It is not asked how we fast merely, but how piously we fast. Many fast on account of public business; but it is not reckoned to them as a fast. For the aim is judged, not necessity crowned. In this holy state, the blessed Moses was taught both the law ^C and creation on the mountain. We said, therefore, yesterday, that God, when He was about to give the law through Moses, first showed Himself to be the Creator, and thereafter the Legislator. How were the Jews able to believe that God made the heaven and the earth and all things that are in them, unless He had first displayed in Egypt the miracles that confirmed Him to be the Creator of the universe? We teach so that we may persuade: God persuades so that He may teach. Because Moses was about to set forth and say that God made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, if He had not first performed ^D wonders in Egypt and demonstrated Himself to be the Artificer of all created things, the people would not have believed that God made the heaven and the earth. First, Moses stretched out his hands into the heaven and brought down hail and fire, and the people learned through the faithful servant that that mortal right hand, moved by the word of God, had stirred the heaven and mingled the creation: and by much greater reason, that the right hand of God commanding had strengthened the heaven and founded the earth. For no one moves a creation who is not its author. It was necessary to show, therefore, that God had made the earth: Moses stretched out his hand over the earth, and lice came forth. It was necessary again to demonstrate that God had made fire: Moses took embers from the furnace and scattered them, and filled the bodies of the Egyptians with ulcers burning like flame. It was necessary to demonstrate that God had made the water: the water was changed into blood. It was necessary to demonstrate that He had made the sea: the sea stood like a rock, and the people passed through. Therefore, by works, He first showed Himself to be the Lord, and thereafter instructed them by words that He is the Artificer. Faith follows miracles. Thus also the Savior in the Gospel did not teach before He had performed miracles. The first sign: He changed water into wine, and it does not appear that He taught before that; for it was necessary for the work to precede, and the word to follow. And therefore that writer also says, "The first discourse I made about all things, O Theophilus, which Jesus began to do and to teach" (Acts I, 1). How would the Savior have taught that He is the Artificer of the world? For unless He had illuminated the eyes of the blind, no faith would have been placed in Him saying, "I am the light of the world" (John VIII, 12). Unless He had raised Lazarus, the listeners would not have believed Him saying, "I am the life ^B and the resurrection" (John XI, 25). Unless He had spit on the ground and made clay and anointed the blind man, it would not have been believed that He is the very One who, having taken dust from the earth, had formed Adam. Unless He had walked upon the sea, He would not have been seen as the Lord of the sea. Unless He had rebuked the wind, He would not have been demonstrated as the Lord of the winds. Wherefore, He was indeed seen as a man, but through the miracles He was known and glorified as God. The Savior, therefore, stunned the disciples, and they said, "What manner of man is this, that the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matt. VIII, 27). He first showed the elements obeying Him, ^C and afterwards taught by words that all things were made through Him. He showed first that those things obey Him. Unless it had been shown first that the creation obeys Him, no faith would have been held for John the Evangelist saying, "All things were made through Him" (John I, 3). How would it have been believed of the Apostles, speaking with a coarse tongue, when they affirmed concerning the Word of God, that He was Creator, Savior, most-wise, Teacher? But the miracles were the tongue of the Apostles; the mouth of the Apostles was the dead man raised, the lame man walking. That faith follows miracles, Scripture testifies, saying: "For through the hands of the apostles, great signs and wonders were done among the people. And all were amazed, and the multitude of men and women was added more daily" (Acts V, 12). So it is also in the law; miracles went before in ^D Egypt, proving that God is the Creator. But God, being good, did not desire to be honored alone, but He shared the glory with Moses. For because God appeared from His works, Moses also was seen with the glory bestowed upon him. For when he came down holding the law, lest they should regard him as a mere man, God filled his countenance with glory, so that what was lacking from the weakness of nature might be fulfilled through the fullness of grace. For they were thinking that the countenance affected with glory was not foreign to God. So also the Savior caused the countenance of Stephen, the first martyr, to shine. Why did He cause the countenance of Stephen to shine? Because he was to be stoned as a blasphemer, when he said, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts VII, 55); God, anticipating, crowned his face with an angelic form, in order to show to the ungrateful that he would not be adorned with glory if he were a blasphemer. Yesterday, therefore, we said that God on the first day made all things from non-existing things. And what is wonderful is that the works not only show the creation of God, but also refute the impiety of the heretics. For I ask, how were those things which were not made, because they themselves—

^A are thought to be and how did they come into existence? The non-existent does not come into being, at least according to human reasoning, though it does according to divine power. Sometimes the heretic says: "God spake, and they were made." But now you have named the object, not the mode. God said: "Let there be light," and what was not, came into being. The Word was changed into a thing, just as that very sound, having gone forth, became light. Therefore, it is not from non-existents, but from an existent. For who dares to say that the Word does not exist? Therefore, he did not create anything from non-existents, but from himself; and thus the creatures are found to be consubstantial with him, and what they flee from in the case of the Son, they adapt to the creatures. But again, being pressed, they say: "The will of God brought forth those things that were not; for the will makes what is not, but nature does not beget what is." And it is a wondrous thing! As in an image, I say: Grant me a fountain and a stone; which is easier, that the fountain should beget water, or the stone? The fountain, if it begets, brings forth from what it has; but the stone, from what it does not have. Then did the stone beget the non-existent from what it did not have, whereas the fountain did not beget the stream it had within itself? And how did those things which were not come to be? Was it spontaneous? Is "non-existent" merely a name, and is there no reality to it? Just because I say "from non-existents," do not think there is any "non-existent" thing. Then, since you cannot say how the existent came to be from the non-existent, will you dare to be so curious as to inquire how the Existent was begotten from the Existent? All creatures were not from the beginning and came into being; the only-begotten Word and Creator of the world did not come into being from the beginning, but was. These were not, and came into being; but he was in the beginning, not having been made, whereas these were made in the beginning, not being before.

3. "And the earth was invisible," he says. What is "invisible"? I know many of the holy Fathers have said: The earth was invisible, because it was covered by the water ^B. There are many opinions that are indeed pious, but not true. For example, the three friends of Job, seeing him in temptation, condemned the holy man as suffering justly, and said: "If you had not grieved widows, if you had not oppressed the orphans, God would not have brought these things upon you." And yet, because they were ignorant of the purpose of God, they chose rather to condemn him as suffering justly than to judge God as having inflicted these things unjustly. They acted on behalf of God, and God rebukes them: "Why have you not spoken right things against my servant?" (Job 42:7). There is, therefore, an opinion that is pious indeed, but not true. What then is: "And the earth was invisible and unorganized"? The interpreters have explained it clearly. For Aquila says: "But the earth was emptiness and nothing." It is called invisible, not because it was not seen, but as one might say, unadorned. It was not yet beautified with plants, not yet crowned with fruits, not yet girded with rivers and fountains, not yet adorned with other elegance, and it was invisible, not yet having been prepared with the capacity to beget. Scripture says concerning a certain brave and handsome man: "Is this not he who struck the Egyptian visible?" Is there, then, an invisible man? But he means, worthy to be seen. Just as he called the Egyptian "a visible man," as worthy to be seen, so he called the unformed earth "invisible." On the second day God said: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be ^C dividing between water and water." He made, therefore, this heaven—not the one above, but the visible one—having solidified it from the waters as if it were crystal. I wish to set the matter before you; for many things are conveyed to us more by touch than by word. This water stood above, say, the earth by thirty cubits. Then God said: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water"; and thenceforth, in the midst of the waters, a crystalline substance was solidified, and it lifted up half of the water above, and left half below, as it is written: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and it shall be dividing between water and water." But why does he call it a "firmament"? Because from subtle and dissolved waters he made it firm. For this reason David also says: "Praise him in the firmament of his power" (Ps. 150:1). And that I may use another example: as smoke, when it is sent forth from wood and fire, is thin and hollowed out; but when it rushes into the heights, it is transformed into the density of a cloud; so God, having lifted up the nature of the thin waters, solidified it above. And that the example is true, ^D Isaiah testifies, saying that the heaven was solidified like smoke. Having been solidified, therefore, in the midst of the waters, the heaven lifted up half of the waters above. But why waters above? For what use? That one might drink? That one might sail? That there are waters above, David testifies, saying: "And the water that is above the heavens" (Ps. 148:4). Observe, therefore, the wisdom of the Creator. The heaven was crystalline, solidified from waters; because it was about to receive the flame of the sun and the moon, and the infinite multitudes of stars, and to be entirely filled with fire, so that it might not be dissolved or burned by the excessive heat, he spread over the back of the heaven those masses of water, that it might moisten and lubricate its back, and thus it might stand against the flame and not be scorched. You have also an example: as today, if you place a cauldron over a fire, if there is water above it, it stands against the fire; but if it has none, it is dissolved; so God placed water as an antagonist to the fire, that it might have sufficient preservation from the waters lubricating it from above. And see the wondrous thing: such is the abundance of liquid for the heavenly body—warred upon by such great fire—that it even lends to the earth. For whence is the dew? A cloud is nowhere, the air has no water; clearly the heaven distills it from those things that abound in it. For this reason also the patriarch Isaac, blessing Jacob, said: "May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth" (Gen. 27:28).

4. It is said, brothers, that on the day of judgment, the water that is above will withdraw, and the heaven will be dissolved, not having the consistency of the waters, and the stars will fall, not having a path or base. These things, therefore, we do not say simply, but Scripture teaches: "For the heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll" (instead of: scorched; for that which is scorched is rolled up), "and the stars shall fall like"

leaves of the vine. Attend, I beseech you, to another point. The waters that are above the heavens do not only preserve the heaven, but also emit the flame of the sun and moon. For if the heaven were transparent, all its brightness would run upward; for since fire tends upward, it would leave the earth desolate. Therefore, the Architect condensed the heaven above with immense waters, so that the light, hemmed in, might be sent downward. Behold the wisdom of the Architect. You have within yourself the image of the Architect’s wisdom; for God has indeed fashioned in you the image of the four elements. ^A And note, I beseech you: consider this head to be the heaven above; what is above the tongue, another heaven, that is, the firmament—whence it is also called *ouranos* (heaven). Above, in the hidden places, is the brain, which is not seen; below, the tongue, which falls under our sight. Just as, therefore, the heaven above is in the invisible places, so the world is in the places of which we speak; and just as in the elements you find the earth to be heavy, and water lighter than earth, but heavier than fire; and again the air lighter than water, but heavier than fire; so also in us are the senses, taste, smell, hearing, sight, and not all are alike. ^B Take the proof: If you wish to taste something, unless you apply it to your tongue, you receive no sense of taste. For the sense is sluggish, and cannot perceive from afar. But the sense of smell perceives from afar: for example, you pass through a house, you perceive the fragrance of incense, which you do not see. Again, sight is swifter than smell; for it sees from a mountain a wide plain. The mind is again sharper than sight: it contemplates heaven, earth, sea, and is found everywhere.

For this reason, the mind is the image of God. The mind contemplates, and immediately creates forums for itself, paints a crowd, or a people for itself. Let heretics blush. The mind performs such things, and yet the Architect of the mind, who is subtler than every sense, does not have a swifter operation, a prompt power of creating, or an incomprehensible nature? But I wish, brothers, to tell you something strange, indeed, as regards impiety, but consistent with the faith, as regards examination, so that you may learn how many and how new things the devil stirs up, how many he finds, how many he suggests to heretics, or rather, they to the devil. ^C Today a certain heretic, in the presence of holy men and fathers, approaching us, said—I say this, lest the matter be heard one way and strike another—"The Father," he kept saying, "and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one divinity, one virtue, one kingdom. But it is necessary," he said, "to remove from the mind—for I do not say from the altar, lest it be said in the sanctification—'Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth.' Unless," he said, "you remove that, you are not Christians." Did you see such boldness, and such madness of the devil? Did you see the root of this impiety hostile to God? Did you see the magnitude of the blasphemy? He wanted to decapitate the head of piety, to weaken the mystery, to abolish faith, to uproot the foundations. And observe the craftiness of the devil. He persuaded him to say: Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one faith, one virtue, one kingdom. ^D He tempered the poison with honey. For falsehood, when it wants to be believed, always, unless it places a foundation of apparent truth, is rejected as false: and by what reasoning, hear: I will say something indeed that is not similar, yet I will say it. Rahab the harlot when she received the spies, being asked, "Have men entered in to you?" (Jos. 2:3), she did not deny it: "They have gone out," she said; this was the second falsehood. If she had said, "They have not gone out," they would have searched the house. She said the truth to gain belief, she added the falsehood to deceive. So also this man, when we asked, "Why shall we truncate the sanctification?" "You say," he said, "Lord Sabaoth; but it is not the name of God, it is not of Christ, nor of the Father." Did you see a base and impure mouth? He was ignorant, surely by his lack of learning, that *Sabaoth* is not the name of God, but the name of the hosts; that is, the Lord of hosts. But I will tell the cause: but before the end I proclaim what fortunate thing happened: he repented, he fell prostrate, he spoke anathemas, he prayed, he was received.

It is necessary for us to tell the cause for which the blessed Isaiah heard this sanctification being sent up to God. Isaiah was a wonderful man, filled with zeal, a man bold—not bold with insolence, but with zeal. In these times there was a king named Uzziah: he, with royal majesty, attempted to invade the priesthood as well. The priests knew what would follow from that; yet they did not want to resist the king very much; respecting his dignity, they followed the throne with honor, they feared the armies. Isaiah himself also remained silent, he did not oppose the king. As God saw the priests fearful, the prophet hesitating, and the king having boldly attacked, He sent leprosy upon his face, seeing that he had dared to touch holy things: and finally he was expelled not only from the priesthood, but also from the kingdom, and remained a leper. ^A God, furthermore, fulfilled what was His own, but He was indignant at the priests, and especially at the prophet, because when he was present, he had betrayed piety. God therefore kept silence toward the prophet; nor did He make words with him, until that wicked man died. When that impious man had died, then God, having set aside His indignation, is reconciled to the prophet. Isaiah therefore says: "And it happened in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up" (Is. 6:1). And why did God appear upon a throne high and lifted up? Because God is invisible, but the king had struck fear into the sight; He showed the prophet the heavenly glory; in order to show him which throne he had despised, and which throne he had honored: that not honoring, nor even thinking of, the heavenly and angelic retinue, he had feared a human retinue. "And the house," he said, "was full of his glory: and the Seraphim stood in his circuit" (Ibid. v. 2). The Cherubim are the throne, the Seraphim are the retinue; for the Cherubim signify nothing else than wisdom filled. And just as this throne or any other provides rest to the one sitting,

and is ^A honor and rest, so too is the throne of God a wisdom in which God finds rest. Therefore, David says: *He who sits upon the Cherubim* (Ps. 79. 3; 98. 1); which is to say, He who rests upon wisdom filled. Therefore, the Cherubim are full of eyes—the back, the head, the wings, the feet, the breast; they are filled with eyes on all sides, because wisdom sees from every direction, having the eye open on all sides.

*Six wings,* he says, *to the one, and six wings to the one. And with two they covered their face, and with two their feet, and with two they flew.* And they cried to one another: *Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth* (Isai. 6. 2, 3); that is to say, Lord of hosts. Six wings to each, and six wings to each. Eight are silent, and four cry out. What then does the Scripture teach us? Not to move every line of reasoning regarding God, but to proclaim some things in silence, and others to glorify and theologize with faith.

Why do they cover their feet and head? Because neither beginning nor end can be found. With two they cover the head, with two the feet; it is evident that they fly with the middle wings, not the upper ones, nor the lower ones. For when we speak about God, we must speak of the middle things: that He is God, that He is Creator, that He is Master, that He is Benefactor. These are all middle things. If you say, "How did He beget?" you have uncovered the head, which the Cherubim cover. If you say, "Where is the end of God?" you uncover the feet, which the Cherubim cover. They cover the head and the feet, not to hide them, but to teach that these things are inscrutable, incomprehensible.

Take also the pattern. There were six and six, twelve wings; eight are at rest, and four are in motion. This is a pattern of the apostles. There are twelve apostles, but four cry out: the evangelists. And what do they cry? A voice which Satan ^B labored to overturn. Pay attention, I pray you. They did not say it simply, as we do: "Holy, holy, holy." Instead, they threw it back and forth to one another, as it is written: *And one cried to the other.* "Holy," he says, we ought to say once. The other says, "Holy." Then the other—add the third—"Holy." Since we have numbered three, do not think there are three gods. What then is "Holy, holy, holy, Lord"? For there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And just as in psalmody they send the parts back and forth to each other, so these powers above dance with one another in turn, and, as from an antiphonal melody, they send up the doxology.

Then, he says, *The house was filled with his glory. And the lintel was lifted up* by the cry they let out, *and the house was filled with smoke* (Isai. 3. 4).

4. A strange matter! After the doxology, when glory ought to have been added, this was lost, and smoke entered. Smoke is an image of desolation. What then is this? The Holy Spirit foreknew that the "Holy, holy, holy" was suited to the world, to the preaching of the apostles, and the temple of the Jews does not receive it. He says, therefore, that after the preaching of the Gospel, the synagogue is filled with desolation and smoke.

For the door was not lifted up, but the lintel. Pay attention, for every door has a threshold underneath and a lintel ^C placed upon the jambs; and the jambs cannot stand without having something, nor can they remain unshaken without having received the lintel. Therefore, the upper structure of the synagogue was lifted up, though not the whole synagogue, which indeed had doors, but did not have a lintel. The lintel is the power holding it from above. The lintel was lifted up; it was stripped of grace. From the time the lintel was lifted up, it was necessary for the jambs to be plundered by any hand whatsoever. That is why every hand shakes the Jewish things. And for this reason, a certain prophet said: *And I will set Jerusalem as lintels that are shaken* (Zach. 12. 2).

And the house, he says, was filled with smoke. And where did the glory go? Pay attention, I pray. Isaiah says: *And the house was full of his glory*; then he says that *it was filled with smoke.* Since the smoke had entered, it was necessary for the glory to be moved. And where was it moved? Not into one house, but it filled the Churches throughout the whole world. And in order to show the Cherubim from whence the glory departed which was in the temple, he says: *The whole earth is full of his glory.* One nation was stripped, and the ends of the earth were illuminated.

This holy voice of the Lord, this royal doxology, this divine mystagogy, a devilish mouth was saying, "Take it away from the altar." That the blasphemy makes its way against Christ Himself is clear testimony. Whom did Isaiah see upon the throne? For he says: *I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people?* (Isai. 6. 8). He was reconciled to the servant, yet he still bore a sign of indignation. Just as when we are reconciled to a servant, we do not immediately show him our whole gaze, but we steal our look away quietly; so God, not wishing to show the whole face, standing as He was, says: *Whom shall I send?* Just as if there were servants standing before a master, and he wished to blame their sloth, he says: *Whom shall I send?* For this task I have no man; not that he does not have one, but that he does not have one who is zealous. So also God: *Whom shall I send in place of this one?* The one who has been silent, the one who fights the priesthood?

What then of Isaiah? As a servant who fell into an offense, and was bitten, and was hastening to apologize for his earlier faults: *Behold I, send me.* Whence, therefore, shall we show that the glory was Christ's? John the Evangelist says: *When Jesus had done such signs, the Jews did not believe in him, that the word might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah: You shall hear with your ears, and shall not understand.* These things he said when he saw his glory, and spoke about him (Joan. 12. 37-41).

Have you seen the head of our salvation, the sanctification? If sanctification does not happen, the mystery is not completed. You have the image. He only mentioned the Cherubim: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord"—the sacrifice was sanctified. And there was sent, he says, to me one of the Cherubim, and in his hand he had a coal, which he took with tongs from the altar (Isai. 6. 6). He did not take it until it was sanctified. He touched, he says, my lips ^D (ibid. v. 7). What for? The mystery of the lintel. What do you say, faithful? This mystery forgives sins. The Cherubim also say: "Behold, I have taken away your sins." Have you seen the figure? Have you seen the truth made manifest? He Himself, who sits upon the throne, high and lifted up, let us not cease to sanctify Him; let us truly give thanks for the soul that was led astray, which the wolf snatched, which the shepherd snatched back, whom the devil had snatched and had taken away.

May the humane God, that every heretical mouth and every tongue raging with blasphemy might praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. ^A

Of the Same, on the Third Day of Creation, and on the Resurrection.

1. The artisan of the world adorned the heaven with the sun, the moon, and the stars, and crowned the earth with flowers and plants, and decorated the whole of creation with various ornaments; but we, having resumed our discourse on the creation, must indeed marvel at the works, but adore the Artificer. For these things were not written solely that we might learn that those things were made, but that we might marvel at the Creator. ^B It was said that on the first day He produced the matter of created things; on the second day, how from the rarer and softer matter of the waters He constituted the firmament, and for this reason it was called firmament. For this reason also Christ gathered the whole world, which had been thinned out, softened, and scattered as if by the varying matter of the error of many gods, and made one faith, which the Apostle calls a firmament with these words: "According to the firmament of faith in Christ" (Col. 2, 5). The abyss was therefore divided, and the abyss that remained below, and even that which was above and sublime, remained. Whence is this? David says: "Abyss calleth upon abyss at the voice of thy cataracts" (Ps. CXVII, 20). ^C The abyss was therefore divided, and the firmament was made; thereafter the earth was covered with water. "And God said," he says, "Let the water that is under heaven be gathered into one congregation, and let the dry land appear" (Gen. I, 9).

Against the Anomoeans. Since those wretched heretics wish to understand everything and scrutinize the mode of the incomprehensible nature, let them say how the water was gathered, or whither it withdrew when gathered. For, according to you, one must not adhere simply to the words, but the things themselves must be sought. God said: "Let the water be gathered." Whither was it gathered? Into the sea. Was the sea not full then? The earth was full, and certainly the sea also. Whither, then, was it gathered? They who cannot grasp what they have under their feet and what is seen, curiously investigate the inscrutable depth and the incomprehensible abyss of the divinity, and even the sea, which is incomprehensible, does not deter them from exploring the Artificer. Therefore, let the prophet say to the heretics: "Let the heretics be ashamed," said the sea; as he said: "Be ashamed, O Sidon," said the sea. Whither, then, were the waters gathered? Hearken. ^D When God made the earth, the concavities of the mountains were not yet; but as soon as He said, "Let the water be gathered," the earth was rent, and made gulfs. This fact is demonstrated by the islands and mountains placed here and there, which shows that the earth was rent asunder. And for this reason God left islands and mountains, that you might learn that those things were joined together from the beginning, but the Word of God separated them. "Let the water be gathered; the earth was stripped naked." It must be known, however, that the earth, which is called by that name today, was not made by God as "earth," nor was it called by this name; but from the beginning of creation, its name was "dry land," as David says: "For the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land" (Ps. XCIV, 5). The dry land was made, but it was surnamed "earth," just as this firmament was founded and was called "heaven." ^A

The water having been separated, the dry land emerged, having the appearance of sated earth, for the waters had but recently retreated. Where the earth was revealed, the Creator commands: "Let the earth germinate the herb of hay, sowing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit-bearing tree, whose seed is in itself, according to its kind and according to its likeness" (Gen. I, 11). This also does not affect the heretics with shame. The herb and the trees and the hay generate according to their likeness, and did God generate a being unlike Himself? And when the quadrupeds, the reptiles, and the birds were made, God says: "Let the waters bring forth the reptiles of living souls, and birds flying over the earth according to their kind" (Gen. I, 20). Wild beasts, reptiles, birds, swimming things, herbs, hay, trees—they generate according to their kind and according to their likeness; and did God alone generate one unlike Himself? And when God created us, He said: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness" (Gen. I, 26): the work is according to likeness, and the Artificer is unlike? ^B

Wickedness finds a hiding place. If, he says, you speak of the Son according to likeness, as we are, we admit it. Indeed, there is one kind of likeness of nature, another of grace. We are "according to" likeness, He is "likeness"; for "He who sees me, sees the Father" (John XIV, 9); we are "according to" likeness. But it behooves the servants of God to seek the distinctions of terms. God said: "Let the earth germinate the herb of hay, and the fruit-bearing tree making fruit." Then He says: "Let the earth bring forth quadrupeds and beasts." Why does He say "germinate" there, and "bring forth" here? Herbs and trees and fruits germinate every year. Because, therefore, seeds were to remain in the earth and to emerge from it, he says "germinate." And concerning animals, [He says] "bring forth," because when they had once arisen from the earth, they are not henceforth from the earth, but are generated by succession. And it was done so. The Word runs into action; the earth was adorned; at last, it behooved the heaven to be adorned. Why did God not make the sun and moon on the first day? Why does He adorn the earth before the heaven? ^C Because of the error of the multiplication of gods which was to arise, since they worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars. God said: "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven" (Gen. I, 14). Why did He not make the sun and moon on the first day? Because the firmament had not yet been made, in which those things were to be placed. Nor for this reason only; but because there were not yet fruits which were to be fostered by them. For on the third day the fruits germinated. And lest it be thought that they germinated from the nature of the sun, after the creation was complete, then God made the sun, the moon, and the stars. Whence did God make those things? For it was said that He made all things from things that do not exist on the first day, but on the remaining days from things that do exist. Whence, then, the sun? From the light which had been made on the first day, which the Artificer changed as He willed, and converted into various species: here the matter of light, there the stars; just as if someone were to put forward a mass of gold...

and after breaking it down into coins, were to order the decoration of the light. For just as He divided the abyss, which then existed as water, into the seas, into rivers, into springs, into lakes, into wells; so too did the Artificer, by dividing the light, which then existed as a single species, distribute it into the sun, and the moon, and the stars. ^A I wish to inquire, however, how God made the luminaries; for it appears that He made them outside of the heaven, and then fixed them above. Just as an artificer, when he has finished a portrait, then fixes it to the wall; so God first made the luminaries outside of the heaven, and then fixed them above, as the Scripture testifies: *And God made the two luminaries, and set them in the heaven.* How then did He fix them? Were the two perhaps fixed at the same time? That does not hold to reason. But what then? The affixing occurred according to the voice of God Himself. He set, he says, the luminaries, the great luminary to rule the day, and the lesser luminary to rule the night. When the sun was fixed to the east, the moon was fixed to the west; since the one was commanded to rule the night, and the other to rule the day. The moon was made, therefore, and the full moon is born on the first day. ^B For it was not fitting that the work should be mutilated at once, but it was necessary for the luminary to be shown as it was made. And after this, by its alteration, it showed the times, and seasons, and the changes of days. God therefore makes it as a full moon of fifteen days. The sun rose in the morning; for when the moon was fixed in the morning, it appeared towards the west. As therefore the sun ran its own course towards the west, the moon immediately began to rise, so that it might fulfill the rule of the day and of the night.

A further question: Why did God make the moon full? Pay attention, for the meaning is deep. It was fitting that it, being made on the fourth day, should appear as four days old. But again, if it were four days old, it would not have held to the extremity of the west. It was found therefore to be ten days in excess; it was made four days old, and it appeared as fifteen days old; the moon in the future exceeded the sun by eleven days, not in its creation, but in its appearance. For this reason, as the moon then exceeded, it pays back to the sun. For the number that comes about according to the moon and in each month from twenty-nine and a half days, makes in the twelve months of the year three hundred and fifty-four days. For if you calculate the month in this way from twenty-nine and a half days, the days of the year become three hundred and fifty-four, ^C so that the days which the moon then exceeded, it pays back to the sun annually. Let the calculator calculate.

3. *Let there be luminaries in the firmament* ^D *of the heaven, so that they may shine upon the earth.* Since the nature of fire was to run upwards, God imposed a bridle upon nature, so as not to send the light upwards, but downwards. For fire does not endure to look downwards, but upwards. If you have a lamp, turn it downwards, and you see that even if you turn the instrument, the fire runs upwards. Since therefore He knew its nature to be such, He bound it, so that it might not shine according to nature, but according to the command. Let one of you observe the oil from a lamp, how the fire is pulled down with the oil, and the power of the oil pulls it downwards, while the nature of the fire runs upwards, and it undergoes agony as if by force; for whenever fire is forced to run against its sequence, it emits a sound as if suffering force, as if traveling against nature. For when something happens against nature to an element, it cries out. Why? When oil is thrown upon fire, it does not emit a sound; but if water is thrown on, it crackles. Both this and that are liquid. But because that is from wood, and the olive feeds it, and fire is always a friend to wood, it receives willingly the things from its relative. But if water is thrown upon fire, it crackles; for it battles with the opposite. Fire is peculiar to the air; for it is kindred. You blow into a lamp, and the air smokes the fire, and it is nowhere found; for the kindred has run away. Behold the wisdom of the Artificer, behold the power. He set the luminaries in the heaven, so that they may shine upon the earth: *And let them be,* he says, *for signs, and for days, and for years.* What is, *For signs*? The vain talkers have indeed emptied their hopes regarding astrology, marking out things that have no substance. For that it is not possible to mark out regarding the lives of men from the stars, Isaiah testifies, saying: *Let the astrologers of the heaven stand up, and those who look at the signs, and let them tell you what is about to come to pass.* Regarding the lives of men, therefore, the heaven gives no sign. Do you wish to learn its signs? It signifies rain, winds, winter, fair weather. These things the stars signify, and this is for the sake of God's love for man, that the sailor may see the sign, and flee the danger; that the farmer may see the winter's approach, and having taken warning, may plow the earth. A sign even of war and of peace comes about. These things the Savior confirmed, which are simple and easy to investigate. For He says to the Jews: *Hypocrites, if you see a cloud rising from the west, you say, A storm is coming; and it comes to pass so. And if you see the heaven reddening in the evening, you say, It is fair weather, and it becomes fair weather. And if you see the heaven looking gloomy in the evening, you say, A storm is coming.* And He adds then: *You know how to discern the face of the heaven and of the earth, but you do not know this time?* These are the signs that are risk-free to observe: summer, winter, rain, fair weather. These are not alien to piety, and they are peculiar to God. It would have been possible to extend a long discourse regarding astrology; but it has need of a tightened voice, and an instrument that does not flag; for the intellect walks with the account, and the reasoning weakens with the tongue. Let us therefore proceed to simpler things.

^A For there is one thing in time, and another in season. Time is length, and season is opportunity. And no one says, "Time is for marrying a virgin, time for sowing, and time for reaping." But Solomon says, "A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to build, and a time to destroy." By "season" he means according to circumstances: for instance, the rising of the Pleiades, the beginning of harvest, the setting of the Pleiades, the beginning of sowing. These things are alien to impiety, but proper to piety. Seasons and feasts are also called the times of God. God says, "Three seasons of the year shall you celebrate unto me: the feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles" (Deut. 16:16). Three seasons. Behold signs, and seasons. Days again in a sabbath, and the moon makes the months. The sun observes the turning of the years: the vernal equinox, the summer, the autumnal. The laws stand unmoved. He spoke, and they were firmly established; he commanded, and they were founded. Henceforth turn your mind to this. Who is the artificer of these? Who made these? The Father? No one denies it. The Son? Even the heretics acknowledge it, although not correctly; for they say, "The Father made the Son, but the Son all things." Shall I admit such impiety? Because insoluble chains bind the logic of the heretics, let us ask the prophets: does he who made all things have anyone greater, or is he superior to all? For they fall by their own premise. May God be propitious to us regarding the blasphemy; for it is truly a horror to repeat the words of the impious; yet let us imitate healers, putting hands into the wounds, that we may cure the ulcers; the Apostle was even forced to commemorate most shameful things, not to pollute his tongue, but to cleanse sins. ^B They say, "The Son made all things, but the Father made him." I will ask the prophets, who and how great is he who made heaven. The prophet Isaiah says: "Thus says the Lord, who made heaven, and fixed it; who founded the earth, and the things in it; who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk upon it: I am the Lord" (Is. 42:5-6). "Before me there is no God, and after me there is none. I am, and there is no other" (Is. 43:10-11). Thus says he who made heaven and earth, the Only-Begotten, who according to the heretics was made, and afterwards created. But "In the words of his lips the sinner is trapped" (Ps. 9:17). Blessed Jeremiah says: Thus say to whom? To the Gentiles; "The gods who have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth" (Jer. 10:11). The Lord, "Who made the heavens in understanding" (Ps. 135:5), he is the living and true God. If that is true God who made heaven, and the heretics themselves confess the Son is he who made heaven and earth, what conflict is there when Christ says, "That they may know thee the only true God, and whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ" (John 17:3)? When the Savior was saying these things, either through the prophets or by himself, he was not saying them in comparison to the Father, "That they may know thee the only true God," but to signal the difference of those who are falsely called gods. Wherefore Paul also says, "You turned from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thess. 1:9). He calls him "true" to refute the false; "living," to expose the dead idols. But I think, or rather I believe, that the dead are angered against us if they hear us calling idols dead. "You commit an injury," they say, "to our order. We are called dead, who once lived; as for those who never lived, why are they called dead? The gods who have not made heaven and earth, let them perish" (Jer. 10:11). ^C The Lord, "Who made the heavens in understanding" (Ps. 135:5), he is the living and true God. Who is "living"? He who made heaven. Do the definitions of the heretics stand? Does not their impiety fall? Is not their religion refuted? Is not their wickedness dissolved? You cannot comprehend the works of the Creator, yet you curiously inquire and explore the Artificer? What does David cry out? "How magnified are thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast thou made all things" (Ps. 103:24). The prophets magnify the works; the heretics diminish the Maker. That one is great in counsel and powerful in works, who formed the heaven and fixed it from the waters; for I do not depart from the miracle. It was constructed from the waters, and it carries water; it was constructed from the waters, and it carries the abyss; and this miracle is tied to an example, I say, altogether. Have you seen slabs carried by water, and carrying snow on top? Winter did this, and will God not do it? He made heaven, not as a sphere, as those triflers philosophize. For he did not make a sphere that rolls. But, as the prophet says, how does the sun run? "Who set the heaven as a vaulted arch, and stretched it out as a tent" (Is. 40:22). None of us is so impious as to have faith in those triflers. The prophets say heaven has a beginning and an end. Therefore the sun does not ascend, but proceeds. The Scripture says: "The sun had gone forth upon the earth, and Lot had entered into Segor" (Gen. 19:23). It is clear, therefore, from Scripture that the sun went forth, it did not ascend; and again, "From the top of heaven is his going forth" (Ps. 18:7), he says, not an ascent. If it is a sphere, it has no top. For what is round on all sides, where does it have a top? Does David say this alone, or the Savior too? Hear him saying: "When the Son of man shall come in his majesty, he will send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather his elect from the top of heaven to the top of heaven" (Matt. 24:31). ^D We seek, however, where the sun sets, and where it runs at night. According to those outside, under the earth; but according to us, who say heaven is a tent, what then? Apply your mind, I pray, is the opinion false? But if you have a seal of verity confirmed by testimony, the place concurs with the phrasing. Think of the vault placed above. The East is here, as the figure expresses; the North is there, on the opposite side the South, there the West. The rising sun, when it bends toward the setting, does not set under the earth, but having gone to the ends of heaven, it runs through the northern parts, as if hidden by a certain wall, the waters not allowing its course to appear, and it runs through the northern parts and comes to the East. Whence is this clear? Blessed Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, which is Scripture of certain faith, not adulterated: "The sun rises," he says, "and the sun sets. It goes to the South, and circuits toward the North; it circuits as it circuits, and in its place the sun rises" (Eccles. 1:5).

^A Learn, therefore, how it runs toward the South and circuits toward the North in the condition of winter. Since it does not rise from the middle of the East, but turns aside toward the region of the South, and cuts a small interval, it makes a short day; but when it sets and runs its circle back again, it makes a long night. We know, brothers, that the sun does not by any means proceed from the same center. How, then, are the days small? Its rising approaches the region of the South; then, having cut not the high path, but the slanting one, it makes the days small. But when it sets at the edge of the West, it is necessary for it to circuit through the night—the whole West, and the whole North, and the whole East—and to reach the edge of the South; and it is necessary for the night to become great. ^B Whenever, however, it is equal in length, and has an equal step, it makes the equinox. Again, inclining toward the North, just as in winter toward the South, and ascending to the edges of the North, it is raised high and makes the day great; and having a very small circle, it makes the night small. The sons of the Greeks did not teach us these things; indeed, they do not even wish this, but say that the stars and the sun run under the earth. But our Scripture, the divine teacher, the Scripture instructs and illuminates us. Then He made the sun, a ceaseless luminary; and the moon, stripping off its beauty and being clothed in it again. The work shows the Craftsman. The Craftsman is inexhaustible; the work is eternal. For the light of the moon is not consumed, but hidden. It becomes also an image of us mortal men. Consider how many ages it has been rising. And if it is new, we say: "Today the moon is born." Why? Because it is an image of our own bodies. It is born, it grows, it is filled, it wanes, it diminishes, it sets: since we too are born, grow, are filled, pass our prime, decline, grow old, die, and set. But it is born again, since we too are destined to rise, and another birth awaits us. For this reason the Savior, wishing to show that as we were born here, we shall be born again, says: "When the Son of Man shall come in the regeneration" (Matt. 19:28). The moon guarantees the resurrection. "Do you see me," it says, "hidden, and appearing again, and do you abandon all your hopes? Was the sun not made for our sake? Is the moon not for our sake? Were all things not made for us? Why does it not guarantee our resurrection? Is not night an image of death? Bodies are cast under the darkness; do you not distinguish the forms? ^C Often you feel the faces of the sleepers with your hand, and you do not know whose face this is, whose that is, but you ask, so that the voice may become a herald of things hidden in the darkness. Just as night covers our forms, even if we are all in the same place, and no one recognizes the other; so death comes and loosens the forms, so that no one may recognize anyone. You pass by tombs. If you see many skulls in a grave, do you know whose this is? But the One who fashioned them knows; the One who loosened them understands whence these forms proceeded. Do you not marvel at the creation of God? In such countless myriads of forms, there is no similarity! Even if you run to the ends of the inhabited world, you find no one identical; but even if you find one, it is beside the nose or the eye, so that the strangeness may appear. Twins come out of one womb, and the similarity is cut.

6. Then, if He who produced such forms when they did not exist, can He not renew them when He has loosened them? Do not measure the power of God with your own reasoning, as a wretched man. Do not think that God can do only as much as you can calculate. ^D If He can do only as much as I think, I dare say, God is much too small; for my understanding has measured Him. But if He surpasses understanding and conquers reasoning, the One who made them is unsearchable, and the works are incomprehensible. Let the heretics be questioned from the things that are apparent, so that they may learn their own helplessness. Since God said: "Let there be a firmament," and immediately the Word worked, He left us this pledge, that He Himself made it. Today we leave the heaven bare in the evening, and having risen suddenly, we find another firmament fashioned from the clouds. These are partial pledges of the first ones, when you see the heaven darkened, and another firmament from the clouds. The One who now makes clouds briefly shows how He then briefly made the heaven. And what does He do? How do the clouds rain? He made the clouds like wineskins, and He draws through them the waters of the sea, being salt, and fills the clouds, and changes the water, and waters the earth. Let them say how the weight is carried up to the height, how it is drawn, how the clouds are drawn. They do not empty them immediately, but run far and wide, wherever the Master commands, and the command of God is like a bond laid upon the clouds, not permitting them to rain until He gives the sign. That they are wineskins, David confirms: "The One who gathers," he says, "the waters of the sea as a wineskin" (Ps. 32:7). And look at the marvelous thing: He gathers the waters; the immortal, invisible hand is laid upon them, not permitting them to be emptied all at once, but part by part. Just as a woman, spinning a fine warp, divides the wool into many different threads; so, dividing the infinite depth of the sea into droplets as if in a pattern, He thus sends it to the earth. But the marvelous thing is, if it is loosened, why is it not emptied immediately? If it is bound, why does it flow? You have an example, weak indeed, but able to persuade you. Have you seen a water-bucket? Have you seen how it is perforated from below? The one who lays it upon [the opening] has the flow, and it is blocked below because of what is laid on from above. Thus the immortal finger of God is laid upon the clouds, and He lets down as much as He wishes, and keeps as much as He wishes, so that He may send the gift over all the earth. And He does this especially in the late rains, when He makes all the earth drunken: when at one time He waters this region, and at another that. For this reason the prophet says: "And I will rain upon one city, and upon one city I will not rain" (Amos 4:7). One portion shall be watered, and the portion upon which He will not rain shall be withered. And the finger of God is laid not [literally] but by way of a figure. He commands, and they do not rain. And the Scripture says this: "To the clouds," it says, "I will command that they do not rain the shower" (Isai. 5:6). How great

^A is the work of God! Do you see how He shuts the mouths of the heretics who are ignorant of creation and curiously inquire into the Creator? All things obey the law of God. The heaven stands, not supported by its own hand, but made firm by divine law. For when I am at a loss as to how the heaven was made concrete from the waters, the blessed David solves my perplexity, saying: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm" (Ps. 32:6). Why then were they made firm? Because they were from the waters. It is never said of what is solid and firm that, "It was made firm." Nor can anyone say that a rock was made firm. It is one thing to be made firm, and another to be firm. That is said to be made firm which, when it was rare and soft, became concrete. Therefore Peter, when he healed the paralytic, said: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you look at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, glorified His servant Jesus: and by the faith of His name, this man whom you see and know, He has made firm" (Acts 3:12-16). For this reason ^B "by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm" (Ps. 32:6); from the rare and dissolved waters, by the word of the Lord, the clouds are lifted on high. Behold, I implore you, the water which was bitter is changed. The clouds draw from the sea, and they make the water which is drawn from the deep—bitter as it is—sweet and drinkable. From the depths of the abyss, Christ has raised us up, and yet we do not put off our bitterness.

Who is the one who made the heaven and the earth? I say it is Christ. And whence is this? Because if He were not the Lord of all, He would not have performed miracles in the Gospel upon all creatures. For He performed wonders through all the elements: through earth, through sea, through air, through fire, so that it might be plain that He Himself is the Lord of all creatures. To the light of the day succeeds the light of the evening. The sun shines, and the lamp brings forward its light: the end of the day, and the beginning of the night. But you, when you see a lamp and the sun, say this: "Yours is the day, and yours is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun" (Ps. 73:16). But that light which is brought forward does not interrupt the discourse. For it is necessary for the sun to run at His command ("For the sun knew its setting," Ps. 103:19), in order that it may be shown that Christ is the Lord of all creatures. John proclaims this: "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3). Yet it was necessary for Him not only to shine by word, but also by work. He said to the sea, "Be silent, be muzzled" (Mark 4:39); and He spoke to the sea, and it was silent; He said to the wind, and it was restrained. If it had not obeyed, it would be revealed that its Creator was not present; if He were not the Lord of water, He would not have changed it into wine; if He were not the Lord of heaven, the star would not have proclaimed Him from the heavens; if He were not the Lord of the sun, He would not have veiled Himself in darkness on the cross. Christ was on the cross, and the sun was darkened. O miracle! Creation did not endure the insult to the Lord. The sun was darkened so that in the cross itself you might know the Lord of the sun. The earth was shaken, so that you might learn that the prophet said of Him: "He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble" (Ps. 103:32). The rocks were cleft, so that you might learn of whom the prophet said: "His fury makes the principalities tabesce, and the rocks are perforated by Him" (Nahum 1:6). The monuments were opened, that the resurrection might appear, and that God, who raises up, might shine through all things. "How manifold ^C are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom You have made them all" (Ps. 103:24).

7. But it is worth the effort for us to move to a moral discourse. The lamp calls us to say: "A lamp to my feet is Your word, and a light to my paths. I applied myself in the evening, as I say: Let my prayer be directed as incense in Your sight, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice" (Ps. 140:2). And why not a morning one? But attend here: for we ought to know what we sing. David says: "Sing wisely. The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice" (Ps. 46:8). Moses—or rather, God—ordered two sacrifices to be made: one morning, and one evening. The morning one was an act of thanksgiving for the night. For he who has been preserved through the night gives thanks in the day. The evening sacrifice was for the day. Because, he says, You preserved me in the day, I give You thanks for the whole day. The morning sacrifice does not accept the one who has sinned in the night. Therefore He says: "The lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice." You enter the evening, you expand your hands; if they have confidence, let them be expanded: if they have not written iniquity, if they have not despoiled the poor, if they have not oppressed orphans, so that they, having obtained a face, might be extended. "The lifting up of my hands"; as if to say, Look, Lord, my hands are clean. Just as he who has sinned cannot lift up his face, but is bowed down by his conscience, so the polluted hand does not even dare to stand before God. Look: if your hands are clean from iniquity, let them be expanded. Therefore the patriarch ^D Abraham refused shameful gain, when the king of Sodom said to him: "Take all, only send away the women" (Gen. 14:21). And so, that he might have confidence, he accepted nothing; but since he was with pure hands, he said: "I will extend my hands to God, who made heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:22); and he extended them, because they were not polluted by unjust gain. "The lifting up of my hands." Paul interprets that, "The lifting up of my hands," saying: "I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputations" (1 Tim. 2:8). Evening demands of us the works of the evening. You expand your hands, the Artificer examines them. The morning time arrives, and if you do not have both a pure hand and a pure mind, you do not even dare to look at the morning time; experience is the teacher. Think with what confidence he enters who remains pure in the morning, as if he were walking in his own house. The night spent in continence gives him confidence in the morning hours. Therefore David says: "If I was mindful of You upon my bed, in the mornings I meditated on You" (Ps. 62:7). I give thanks to God: I recall that the weary voice was restored by the word of God, not for our merits, but for your desire. Let us therefore pray in the truth of our heart, that we may enjoy peace, that we may have confidence in the mornings, that we may avoid the madness of the heretics, and may follow the orthodox faith, and send up glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

On the fourth day of the creation of the world. 1.

^A Our voice, which was weary yesterday, the grace of God has strengthened on account of your prayers and your desire. Having, therefore, used that experience as a teacher—knowing how much desire and zeal for the love of God avails—I come to the same entreaty, again begging you to ask for the same grace on my behalf. For if the vessel of election, Paul—he who had Christ speaking within himself, he who was steered by the Holy Spirit—was accustomed to seek the prayer of his hearers, saying: "Brethren, pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me in the opening of my mouth" (Ephes. 6:19); how much more do we, who are humble and, so to speak, nothing, ask for your intercession, so that the bond of the tongue may be loosened and the word of boldness opened; and that this divine grace itself may keep the instrument unimpeded and supply an abundance of thoughts; not that the speaker of divine things should gain solely, but that he might draw forth the heavenly treasure together with you?

Come, then, let us take hold of the series of what has been said. For it is necessary, I think, just as the lawgiver Moses himself finished the discourse of creation in order and sequence, that we also, joining the second things to the first, and the third to the second, should judge them well and deliver the introduction of the discourse to you without confusion. The heaven was made firm, the firmament was set, the sea was set apart, the earth was laid bare, it was adorned with fruits, plants, trees, springs, and, in a word, with everything with which it ought to have been embellished. For the bringing forth that came from it was not of a simple kind, but various and manifold. For some things adorned the earth itself, others were for the nourishment of men or of brute animals, and others provided use for the aforementioned men. For it is not the time to go through the various things brought forth from the earth, so as not to weary your ears with the length of the discourse.

The heaven also had received its own adornment. ^B Therefore, God proceeds to the waters and causes them to bring forth living soul—the great and all-wise Creator, He who wrought all things by an unextended nod and by the Holy Word, as you learned the truth of things from the Word of Truth itself, when you heard Him saying: "Let the waters be gathered together," and the work immediately followed the word; and again, "Let the earth bring forth," and "Let the waters bring forth," and "Let there be lights." And the time of the present moment would be long to go through all things that came to be by the Word. For that we may leave aside the things concerning the old creation, let us come to those that came to be in the New Testament by the Word alone. For this is He who created the old and made the new, according to John who says: "All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made" (John 1:3). What discourse, then, will be able to explain these things with precision?

But let us hold to the sequence. This all-wise Creator, therefore, as we said before, what He first made, this He also adorned; He also gave the adornment to the things that came to be in the second place, to the second; and likewise to the third, and to the fourth, and to all the rest in succession, according to the order of creation and its seemliness. And what is He accomplishing through this? Or is He perhaps wishing to teach us the limits even of the elements themselves, and to know their honor and order?

First, therefore, He made the heaven above, second the earth, third the firmament, fourth He set apart the waters. What He first made, this He first adorned. How then, someone of the more scrupulous will surely say, did He adorn the earth first, being second, and would wish to seize upon my discourse as fighting against itself? To this it must be said that nothing contrary has been spoken by us on the present occasion, but the discourse is actually very consistent with itself. For before this firmament, which was made after the heaven above, it was adorned—that which also had its constitution on the second day. For it was necessary that priority be kept in the sequence. When He adorned the earth with plants and fruits, when He beautified the heaven with the sun and moon and the remaining choir of stars, He came to the waters. And what says the historian? "And God said," he says, "Let the waters bring forth reptiles of living souls, and birds flying above the earth according to the firmament of heaven" (Gen. 1:20).

See the word of God bringing works to the steps, and the utterances accomplishing things. Behold the syllables and small words of God filled with divine power. "Let the waters bring forth"—the word of God is the labor. I think that the works anticipated the word; for the power was swifter than the words. The word had not yet been spoken, and the work was receiving its own proper seemliness; and what is wonderful, God provided a double adornment to each of these elements. He gave to the firmament lights and dew. But the use of these lights, again, is different, as is clear from the very words of Scripture, concerning which, according to our ability—if not according to their worth—we spoke previously, when we were setting forth the discourse concerning them to you, concerning which it is not useful to speak again on this occasion.

2. To the earth, sown things and plants; to the waters, swimming things and birds. "Let the waters bring forth reptiles of living souls, and birds flying." He calls the fish "reptiles," since they move rather than walk. Whence also the blessed David, following the lawgiver, says: "This sea, the great and wide; there are reptiles without number" (Ps. 103:25). A strange thing, a strange arrangement, a strange promise of the Word! Why? Because, as the maker of all, He has before His eyes the things that have passed, the present things, and the future things, as even we do not have [them before] our eyes. Since, therefore, He was about to provide life first through the waters to the world, He permits the waters first to bring forth a life-giving nature; so that you may learn whence the root of life is.

I, when I see those who are enlightened coming forth from the holy waters—having entered into the baptism with many evils as reptiles, but coming forth with eternal life—I see the lawgiver saying: "Let the waters bring forth [those who were] once reptiles, now living soul." Whence may this be clear to us? Because those who approach the washing for their former sins receive the name of "reptiles." Many came out to the baptism of John; he says to those who came: "O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matt. 3:7). But when a soul, which has lived for many years in iniquity, enters into baptism, and departs having deposited its wickedness, see if that divine voice does not shine forth, which says, "Let the waters bring forth reptiles of living souls, and birds..."

^B flying above the earth according to the firmament of the heaven. Above the earth in body, in the heavens in its way of life. We do not introduce these things through allegory, but we observe them in history. It is one thing to draw history into allegory, another to discern an allegory while preserving the history. And that he may show that he calls the winged reptiles that are in the sea "birds," he adds, ^C «And God made great whales, and every living soul of the reptiles, which the waters brought forth, and every winged bird» (Gen. i, 21). Is there, then, a bird that is not winged? What need was there to say "winged bird"? To "fly" here is said to be the expanding of the hands. One may also fly with the hands, as the prophet says: "All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people" (Is. lxv, 2): not because hands have wings, but because to spread is to stretch out. Therefore, that which creeps can be called a bird, because it creeps and stretches itself out; whence David also says: "Serpents and winged birds." Therefore "God made great whales" (Ps. cxlviii, 10); that is, great dragons in the sea. For other interpreters say: "God made great dragons." They did not say "whales," but "dragons." Nothing was made in the sea among the living things ^D before the dragon. Therefore David says: "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps" (Ps. cxlviii, 7); and elsewhere: "This sea great and wide, there are reptiles without number; animals small together with great: there shall the ships pass. This dragon, which thou hast formed to play therein" (Ps. ciii, 25, 26). And elsewhere, that he may show that there is not one, but many dragons there, he says: "Thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the water" (Ps. lxxiii, 13). Therefore "God made great whales." And God saw that all things were good. Why did he say "Good"? Was it good on account of the multitude? And yet when he made the stars and the sun and the moon, although the things created were many, he says: "God saw that it was good" (Gen. i, 10). There are many stars, and ^A countless thousands of them; yet he did not say: "God saw that they were good," but "that it was good." Why? Because although there are many lights, they are yet from one light, and all are for the same use: for they were set for illumination. Here, however, because the difference between reptiles, birds, and swimming things is vast (for the nature of swimming things is one, of birds another, and of reptiles another), and in each kind there are many and diverse things, he says: "God saw that they were good." Praise follows upon the variety of the works. And God blessed them saying: "Increase and multiply, and fill the waters, and let the birds be multiplied" (Gen. i, 22). Why, when he made the rest, did he not bless them? Why, when he made the herbs and the wood, did he not bless them? He blessed some things, he did not bless others. What was the cause of this virtue of the creature? Attend. As many stars as were made from the beginning, so many remain, and they cannot be increased either in number or in magnitude; for since they were to remain in the ^B identity of their nature, they had no need of a blessing that would multiply them. But those things which are increased by succession, and cannot be increased in any other way, necessarily received the blessing. I say the same thing again, that the saying may be more deeply fixed in the mind. For, brethren, a plant that is cast rashly and perfunctorily into the fissures of the earth does not have a firm footing; but that which is committed to its depth with all diligence does. The stars had no need of a blessing; for this did not bestow upon them the power of multiplying. Birds, however, and swimming things, and man, desired this blessing for the sake of succession. And where multiplication cannot happen otherwise, there the blessing has its place; namely, where few things are multiplied and small things admit of increase. Since, therefore, we have known the cause why these things were deemed worthy of a blessing, it would be worth our while to confer ourselves at length to the other sayings of the Scriptures. "Increase," because they are small; "Multiply," because they are few; "Fill the waters," because they are in ^C part. But it is necessary that we ask at another time why he deemed only the fish and the birds and man worthy of blessing; but did not bestow it upon the others. In the meantime, however, as we have promised, we shall hold to the sequence. And God said: "Let the earth bring forth a living soul" (Gen. i, 24). God affects the earth with a double honor. For first it brings forth seeds and plants, and afterwards animals; and not without cause, but because it was to be the home of man: and not that only; but because man was to receive sustenance from it itself, he honors it as the nurse and mother of this great animal. Here see what series of order he has used. First he prepares the food; secondly, he introduces those that might enjoy the food, just as he did in the case of man. First he finished the house, and thus introduced the master of the house. "Let the earth bring forth a living soul." How does the inanimate earth bring forth a living soul? ^D Whence came the roaring lion, or the running horse, or the laboring ox, or the ass apt for burdens? Whence the differences of animals? Whence out of the inanimate so many souls? And the heretics are not ashamed, that the inanimate earth should bring forth what it does not have; but if they hear that God has begotten from His own substance, they at once stir up the trifles of reasoning, and infer: "Therefore he is divided, therefore he is dissected, therefore he has suffered," and similar things they are accustomed to say. For it is not the time for the present to refute all things which they say against the Only-begotten, or rather against their own salvation. For God neither receives any gain if he is praised, nor any loss if he is attacked by curses: unless perhaps you say that our salvation is God's gain. For He himself is full of all good, and needs nothing: who enriches all, and stands in need of naught. Indeed, who would give anything to Him who is the fountain of all goods, from whose benignity alone all things depend? As David says: "All things wait for thee... Thou openest thy hand, and fillest every animal with blessing" (Ps. ciii, 27; 144, 16). But let us bring to an end the discourse we have undertaken. For this is pleasing to us, and the order demands it. That which the earth does not have, it brings forth, obeying the command of the one who bids; and the divine and unstained nature does not beget that which it has? But lest anyone should again [claim] the voice to have...

[Greek Column] 461 SEVERIANI ... let us carry it to an end. For this is pleasing both to us and to the order itself. What the earth does not have, it brings forth, obeying the command; what the divine and immaculate nature possesses, does it not beget? But again, let no one take the word "having" in a human sense, saying: "You see how even the teacher himself allowed that the Father exists prior to the Son?" Rather, grant pardon to the discourse, as we are men and possess a tongue of clay, and are addressing men about a divine nature that transcends all discourse. Since we are men, we have been taught to speak as men. For do these wretches not know that they are discoursing about God, when they bring forward arguments that are not fitting to be said of God? And look at the wickedness. When they put forward their questions, they speak from human reasonings; for example: "Everything," he says, "that is begotten has a beginning of being." And whence comes this? They say this immediately: "You, having been begotten, did you not have a beginning? Your father, your grandfather?" If you present to him from those very reasonings another reasoning capable of dissolving his madness, he immediately plays the sophist: "The discourse is about God, and you introduce human reasonings to me?" And they bring forward the root of evils from common reasonings, yet do not wish to accept the dissolution of those evils from the same reasonings.

4. He says often: "Can one both be and be begotten?" If, then, I show from Scripture that it introduced such a thing not only regarding God but also regarding men, what will you do? The Scripture does not say that the children of the blessed Abraham were begotten as if they did not exist, but as pre-existing. For Abraham begat Isaac; Isaac begat Jacob; Jacob begat Levi, from whom the priestly tribe [comes]. Since, then, this one—I mean Abraham—met Melchizedek, the Apostle Paul, interpreting the former history into theology, says: "And Melchizedek met Abraham, and blessed him." And he immediately adds: "And as it were, through Abraham even Levi, who receives tithes, has been tithed; for he was still in the loins of his father Abraham" (Heb. 7:1, 9, 10). And thus, a mortal man existed before he was born. Since the root lived entirely, he introduced the fruit along with the living root. Yet here, where there is no passion, no mode of succession, no fetal gestation, no sequence of human passions, he does not wish to say that the Begotten exists from the Being, and remains eternally. "But if He was begotten," he says, "how was He always? For everyone who is begotten receives a beginning." The name of "father" among us passes through many stages. For example: suppose a young man desiring marriage. First he becomes a suitor, then a bridegroom, then a husband; and if he begets [a child], then he is called a father; but if the one being begotten does not grant him that name, even if he were to spend ten thousand years with his wife, he is not called a father. Similarly the mother: first a virgin, then a betrothed, then a bride, then a woman; she carries the fetus, she bears the fruit; and if it does not come forth in this way, she is not called a mother. And if the root carries the fruit, if the child, having come forth, does not grant her the reward of her labors—the title—she is not called a mother. And God did this as a wise One, so that fathers might not boast against their children; so that the father might not say to the child, "I granted you life; through me you were born; through me you were brought into being"; but so that even if he says these things, he may immediately hear: "I was born because of you, and because of me you are a father." Similarly also regarding the mother: "You granted me being as a son, I granted you the being as a mother." Among us, these things receive a certain grace and exchange. Similarly, the son is not immediately a son, but first seed, then a fetus, and when he is born, then a son. These things are enslaved to the necessities of time; these things are subject to passions; these things are of a bodily condition. Where, however, the nature that begets is incorporeal, where the fruit that is begotten is incorporeal, what reason is there to admit that "there was a time when He was not," and He was begotten later? And we say thus: "If God is always thus, if He never acquires anything, He is also always Father. And if He is always Father, He always welcomes the Son; therefore the Son is co-eternal with the Father. We say the Son was indeed begotten without passion, but we do not know how to interpret the mode of the generation. This is true knowledge: to confess that we do not know things that transcend our nature. We worship the Begotten, but we do not curiously investigate the nature. If the one who begat were a man, he would have made the generation human. If he had a body, he would have begotten as a body. But if he is freed from a body, do not attach bodily passions to the Incorporeal. But he says: "He begat from His own [nature], He begat by passion, by division, by flow." I will persuade you from earthly things. The vine begets, the olive begets, water also begets, not according to our nature, but according to their own order. ^B Every woman, when she receives from God to become a mother, while carrying the fetus is swollen; but having laid aside the fruit, she is contracted. In the case of trees, however, one can find the opposites. Before the fruit is born, it is not swollen; when it begets, then it becomes thick, the fruit grows, and the root multiplies, and neither diminution comes to the begetting root, nor deficiency to the one begotten. The vine begets not after our fashion. If you hear that God begat, do you attach human passions to the nature that transcends all human nature?

5. "And God said: Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to its kind, quadrupeds, reptiles, beasts" (Gen. 1:24). The quadrupeds are cattle; reptiles, beasts, the serpent and the dragon; for not only the beasts that fall under [the category of] cattle are called [beasts], but also the beasts of burden. Everything that eats grass, whether an ox or a sheep, is called cattle, "cattle" (ktênos) from being a possession (ktêma) of man. That sheep and oxen are also called cattle, the Scripture witnesses: "And he acquired cattle of sheep and cattle of oxen." The earth was filled, it had blossomed with fruits, it brought forth the animals; the householder was yet lacking; the heaven was adorned, the earth was embroidered, the sea was filled, the air was decorated with a multitude of birds. All things were ready, and man was missing. He is not insulted by being the last, but honored; for the house is prepared, and the householder is brought in. For God does nothing either untimely or without measure, but all things [are] for the sake of need. And look at the order. First God made grass and hay, and then the beasts that are fed. And if there were not those providing food, the creation of the animals would be untimely, being damaged by the lack of fruits. He made those that provide the food, and then He prepares those that are to be fed; first the needs, and thus He brings in those who will share in the needs. Thus also He did regarding the Scriptures. The Scriptures first anticipated Christ by preaching, and then the One who was witnessed came. The testimonies anticipated, in order that ^C...

^A belief might be held in Him of whom the testimony was borne. The Law anticipated, in order that it might proclaim the Legislator. The prophets anticipated, in order that they might declare Him of whom they were prophesying.

Why the Scriptures were left to the Jews

^A that they had come into existence, that before this they had not existed, and that they had come into being by a nod of His will; and they stood as spectators, seeing things as they happened after them. They saw the heaven being brought into existence out of nothing, and they were astonished; the sea being marked off, and they wondered; they beheld the earth being adorned, and they shuddered. But that the angels were not co-workers, but admirers, God says to Job: *When I made the stars, all my angels praised me and sang hymns* (Job 38:7).

Let us make man

7. Whence, therefore, shall we show to whom He said, *Let us make man*? Or who is His counselor? For the word *Let us make* requires the appearance of a counselor. Therefore the blessed Isaiah says concerning the only-begotten Son of God, who for our sake visited us in the form that is ours, that *A child is born to us, a son and youth is given* (Is. 9:6). The child that was not, was born; the Son who already was, was given. And his name is called *the angel of great counsel*, of the child—Son indeed because of the divinity, but child because of the humanity. *Angel of great counsel, wonderful counselor*. But if you call the counselor, to whom He said, *Let us make man according to our image and likeness*, the "angel of great counsel," you have not yet, O prophet, revealed the rank of the counselor preached by you. For Moses also became a counselor; for he seemed to give counsel, saying: *Do not destroy them, lest the nations say: Because they were unable to lead them into the land, He destroyed them.* But do not stop the miracle at the counselor; do not make the name common. Even if there are many counselors, let not the Only One be insulted. But "you have not yet understood," he says, "the dignity of the one who is preached." Hear concerning the wonderful counselor; for Isaiah interprets the following from what came before. *Wonderful*, he says, *counselor, God Mighty*. He did well to add "Mighty" to God. Why? Just as there were many counselors, and for this reason the dignity of the one counselor ought not to have been wounded, so because there were many gods (*For I said, you are gods, and all sons of the Most High* [Ps. 81:6]; and again God said to Moses, *Behold, I have set you as a god to Pharaoh* [Ex. 7:1]), this one who is preached ought not to be insulted. And so that you might not think that he is God as Moses or as the apostles were, He added, *God Mighty*. Moses was a god, not mighty, but enabled. ^B It is one thing to be enabled, another to be mighty. It is one thing to bestow grace, another to receive it. *God Mighty*. Moses was a god who was enabled, and even if he was a worker of great miracles, he received the grace. The apostles were subjects, the Savior is the one with authority, and He gives. *God Mighty*. He was not content even with this, but He adds, *The one with authority*, that He might teach us and the heretics not to call the ruler of authority a subject. It is one thing to be a subject, ^C another to be one with authority.

Do you wish to learn the difference between one who has authority and one who is subject? The apostles were subjects, the Savior had authority. Paul saw in Macedonia a girl having a spirit of Python, and saying before all: *These men are servants of the most high God* (Acts 16:17, 18); but Paul, being worn out and turning, said to the spirit, not to the one acting, but to the one working: *I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to go out of her.* He calls Him Lord, that he might show himself a servant. Since the miracle was beyond a human being—the demons obeying men—so that appearance might not seize the voice, and the servants of God might be thought to be gods, *I command you*, he says, *in the name of the Lord*. It belongs to a servant to command, it belongs to a Master to have authority. You saw a servant commanding; behold the Master ordering. A certain demoniac was brought to the Master, deaf and dumb. The Master did not say, "I command you, O deaf and dumb demon," but, *I command you*—(the command of Paul, but the ordering of the one with authority—)*I command you, come out of him, and enter no more* (Mark 9:24). The demon obeyed, for it recognized the authority. Let the blessed Ezekiel speak to the heretical synagogue: *As I live, says the Lord, your sister Sodom has been justified more than you* (Ezech. 16:52). And what is it that he says? For if you do not learn what he says, you cannot be equipped for the grasp of the theory. The Sodomites were desperate ^D *[or: abandoned],* for they were living in lawlessness; therefore they were consumed by divinely sent fire. And Jerusalem was, after the destruction of those and the burning of their city, after many generations, blooming in appearance, but doing greater things in wickedness. Therefore, when they surpassed the wickedness of those of Sodom, God swears through Ezekiel, saying thus: *As I live, says the Lord (Adonai), say to the stubborn daughter of Jerusalem: Has not your sister Sodom sinned according to half of your sins, and has Sodom been justified from you?* That is, "By comparison, Sodom is just"; as if one were to say to heretics: "The Jews have been justified by the excess of the madness against the heretics; demons have been justified because they call Him Son, but these call Him a creature." *Sodom has been justified from you.* And I ask in passing the reason why those who performed the deeds of the Sodomites did not perish like the Sodomites; or rather, if they doubled their sins, why were they not laid waste like them?

8. God, therefore, not only saw the burgeoning impiety of the Jews, but also the piety of the believers after then; He foresaw that the holy Theotokos Virgin was about to come forth from Judaea; He was looking ahead to the choir of the apostles, He was looking ahead to the ranks of the confessors, the myriads of the Jews of the...

^A the believers. For when Paul went up to Jerusalem, the co-apostles say to him: "You see, brother Paul, how many myriads there are of the Jews who have believed" (Acts 21:20). He, therefore, foreseeing those who were about to believe, spared the unbelievers; not for their own sake, but because of the fruit which was about to be produced from them. And Isaiah testifies: "And if the Lord Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been likened to Gomorrah" (Isa 1:9). But perhaps we have offered violence to the text, and Isaiah is speaking of another matter? Hear Paul, the brother and interpreter of the prophets, saying: "Brothers, there is not a remnant by election of grace; that the remnant might be saved. And as Isaiah said: If the Lord Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom" (Rom 11:5; 9:29). For God was foreseeing all things, and it is not as we, who are taught by time, that God learns through experience. Again, I say, as I have often said, He was seeing the ends of the ages: He saw Adam sinning, He was foreseeing also those who would be righteous from him; He saw him being driven out of paradise; but He was foreseeing that a kingdom was prepared for him. And what is wonderful is that the kingdom was prepared before paradise. Do you marvel that Adam was cast out of paradise? Marvel that before paradise, the kingdom of heaven was prepared for him. The Savior says: "Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt 25:34).

Against the Arians. The difference between the Firstborn and the Only-begotten.

^D ...of hands of those who are trusting in piety. He who gives to the poor, let him say: "The lifting up of my hands" (Ps 140:2). He who raises up the fallen, let him say, "The lifting up of my hands." Let us seek the prologue of the Psalm, since it is fitting for us to know what we sing. Why do we say: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight"? For not every incense is directed: for God is not delighted by the fragrance of ointments. What therefore is that, "Let my prayer be directed"? The article is missing, so that the meaning of the saying is such: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight." What kind of incense? There were two altars in the tabernacle.

^A One was in the outer courtyard, under the sky; the other was inside, under the sanctuary. The inner altar was for incense only, not for the shedding of blood. However, the Lord commanded Moses to build the outer altar with unhewn stones; but the inner, in the tabernacle, of polished gold. What the grace of God hints at through these things is necessary to inquire. Truly, there were two peoples serving the glory of God, one uninstructed, and the other fully instructed. He who uses incorrect speech or is barbaric presents his words as unhewn stones; yet even these are brought forward to the altar. Again, gold that is polished is called a precious stone; and neither is this one exalted, nor is that one cast out. For there is an altar of God there, and here an altar of God. The perfume was composed of four kinds: stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense. Since, therefore, the perfume is composed of various things, and virtue likewise consists of various things, it says, "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight": just as that is composed of many things and is fashioned into one fragrance. Since one enters with prayer while possessing fasting, almsgiving, and faith, this quadruple virtue is to be likened, he says, to that incense which is directed before thee. Thus also the blessed David elsewhere says: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together! It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron" (Ps. 132. 1, 2). He likens love to priestly oil, and prayer to priestly incense. Do you possess temperance? You are the brother of the priest. I do not have (let us say) the priesthood, but I have temperance. My temperance is the sister of your priesthood. Whence is this? For the one who ^B performs the priestly office must be pure, and I who worship must be pure. ^C If I have temperance, I receive the priesthood. Whence this? David, fleeing from Saul, came to Abiathar the high priest and said to him: "Give me bread, since I was sent suddenly by the king and have no provisions." The high priest, who was learned in the laws, says: "There is no other bread with us, except the holy bread, which it is not lawful for anyone to eat, except for the priest." Since, therefore, he saw the necessity, and yet was afraid to surrender the loaves of the presence, he sought purity from those who were not priests, and said: "If the young men with you are pure from women, take it." For he considered temperance to be the sister of the priesthood. And lest anyone should interpret the giving of the loaves to those who were not priests as a reproach to the priest, hear how the Savior remembers it as having been well done. The Jews once complained to the apostles that they were plucking grain and, rubbing it in their hands, were eating it; the Savior says to them: "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and ate the loaves of the presence, which it was not lawful for him or those with him to eat, except for the priests only?" (Luke 6. 3, 4). Did you see that temperance is the sister of the priesthood? Did you see how God does not look upon persons, but tests the truth?

10. Let us therefore prepare ourselves for beneficence, for justice, so that fasting may receive wings. For just as a bird, if it does not have the cooperation of its wings, cannot fly, so also fasting has two wings, prayer and almsgiving, without which it cannot run upward. Behold Cornelius, who possessed these wings along with his fasting. Therefore, when a voice came to him from heaven: "Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have ascended to God" (Acts 10. 4). Suppose, beloved, that fasting is a living creature, and that its wings are almsgiving and prayer, without which it cannot run upward. Such a one, even if he does not speak, proclaims justice with a loud tongue. For virtue is a great advocate of justice. Therefore he says: "Hearken, O Lord, to my justice." ^D First, then, the greatest good is prayer, almsgiving, and the performance of justice; but that which is secure and unshakable and the root of all is the knowledge concerning God, the adoration of the Only-Begotten, the confession of the Holy Spirit—one faith, indivisible, secure, intact, unpartitioned. I have already said what I am about to say, but I say it again. God, being wise, allowed heresies to have the names of their own dogmas from their own originators, so that it might appear that the things glorified by them are not the doctrine of God, but a human invention; for example, Macedonians from Macedonius, Arians from Arius, Eunomians from Eunomius. Likewise also with the remaining heresies. However, wishing to keep the faith of the apostles invulnerable, He did not allow them to be named after a human being. For even if they call us Homoousians, they do not interpret a human being, but they preach the faith. For that to be named after human beings is not of the faithful, but of heretics, Paul says, finding fault with the Corinthians: "I hear that there are schisms among you; for one says, 'I am of Paul,' and 'I of Apollos,' and 'I of Cephas'" (1 Cor. 1. 11, 12). Do you see that being named after human beings is a sign of schisms? Was not Peter more worthy of trust than Macedonius? You flee the names of the apostles, yielding to the glory of Christ, and yet you cut up the faith, the indivisible kingdom, the unpartitioned glory? But enough of this; for we have the lamp and the light: "Thy law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths" (Ps. 118. 105). Why a lamp? Why a light? For it is a lamp to the catechumens, a light to those who are brought to perfection. I implore your love to keep your fasting immaculate, unpolluted by injustice, pure from greed. Behold the vanity of those who busy themselves with abstinence from foods, but do not care about abstinence from sins. I do not drink, he says, wine, I do not eat oil, I do not eat meat. Truly well, for God's sake; these things are also good. But let us examine the matter. Bread, water, wine, meat, oil—all these are God's creations; but greed, injustice, and impiety are the works of the devil. You depart from the works of God for the sake of fasting; do you not depart from the works of the devil for the sake of fasting? Bread, and wine, and oil, and whatever else, are God's works. They are all good, and very good. Paul says: "Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." If, therefore, it is blessed, if it is sanctified, why do we abstain? But injustice and greed and such things are the works of the devil. You depart from the works of God for the sake of fasting, and

yet do not depart from the works of the devil for the sake of piety? And yet, brothers, judgment is not passed against him who does not fast, but against him who acts unjustly, He threatens punishment. We be careful of those things which are harmless, and we are not careful of those things which are liable to blame. Almsgiving is a good thing, which in appearance scatters, but in reality gathers. For just as the farmer lends to the earth, from which he expects seeds, so almsgiving, while it seems to be given to others, truly stores up for the one who gives. For, says David, "He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever" (Ps. CXI, 9). Thus let us fast, thus let us worship, thus let us believe, glorifying the Father, celebrating the Son with hymns, worshipping the Holy Spirit, for to Him be glory forever. Amen.

Of the Same, on the Fifth Day of Creation.

^A Many and great are the gifts bestowed upon men by the philanthropic God; but the first and greatest gift of all is the teaching of the Scriptures. For the sun and the moon, and the whole choir of the stars, and rivers and springs and lakes, have been made for the use of the body; but the holy Scriptures were given for the correction of souls. And by how much the soul is superior to the body, by so much the gift of the divine Scriptures is superior to the other gifts. This is what the Savior says: "Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life" (John V, 39). Let us therefore search the treasures of the Scriptures, and let us undertake the things we have promised, and let us attempt to state the creation of man according to our ability. Let no one again complain against those who examine things with accuracy: for it is the peculiarity of those who delight in babbling to find fault with the things ordained by God, and to complain against things stated with accuracy. I have heard those who censure in this way: "What need was there to say these things about fire and water? Does fire hiss when water is thrown upon it?" We, they say, do not wish to learn natural philosophy, but theology. But one must know that these words are of idle and slothful men. For after theology, the exposition of natural phenomena provides a foundation for piety; and if they cast out the study of natural phenomena, let them complain against the prophets, let them find fault with the apostles. The Apostle treats of natural phenomena: "Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fish, another of birds; and there are celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies" (1 Cor. XV, 39-40). Why does Paul discuss natural phenomena, and from musical instruments institute a rebuke, and say: "There are so many, it may be, kinds of languages in the world, and there is none without voice? For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle? Or the flute, or the cithara, unless they give a distinction in the tones, how will what is played on the flute or the cithara be known?" (1 Cor. XIV, 10, 8, 7). What did Paul’s tongue have in common with a flute and a cithara? But he philosophizes from things that fall under observation, in order to make manifest the things that are understood by the intellect. What need was there in the Book of Job to discuss so many and such natural things: "The strength of the lion, the voice of the lioness, the pride of the dragons has been extinguished. The myrmecoleon has perished for not having prey. The young of the vultures fly high" (Job IV, 10, 41)? Why did another prophet say, "As if a lion should take a prey, and roar over it, and the mountains be filled with his voice" (Isa. XXXI, 4)? And the Savior himself discourses concerning natural phenomena: "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is greater than all herbs" (Matt. XIII, 31-32): and again: "The kingdom of heaven is as if a man should cast his seed, and it should sprout and grow, while he does not know it: for the earth brings forth fruit of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the wheat is filled in the ear" (Mark IV, 26-28). The Savior also naturally discusses the heaven: "If the heaven is red in the evening, you say, It will be fair, for the heaven is red; and in the morning, Today there will be a storm, for the heaven is gloomy" (Matt. XVI, 2-3). What was the need of these things? I say these things on account of those who attempt to find fault in ignorance. The discourse is moved concerning God, and do you refuse to hear an accurate exposition of doctrine? Since, therefore, it is intended to have a discourse by divine grace concerning the creation of man, it is worth the effort to proceed to the subject not according to the dignity of the matter, but according to our ability.

^B The heaven had been adorned, it had been crowned with fruits, the waters of the sea had been separated, plants had sprouted, the brute animals had been brought forth, the world had been replenished, the house had been adorned, the master and father of the household of all things that had been created was desired. God said: "Let us make man in our image and likeness" (Gen. I, 26). It was demonstrated the day before, what is the power of that voice, "Let us make," and who is speaking to whom, who is the counselor, and whose is the common deliberation. But because we have shown from the Scriptures that the counselor of that ancient council is the Son, we were silent regarding the glory of the Holy Spirit, so that those who are ill might not take excuses from us who are healthy; it is necessary to know that there is one glory, one opinion, one working Word of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Son is called the counselor here: elsewhere it has been said that no one has the knowledge of God except the Holy Spirit. Paul says: "No one knows the things of man except the spirit of man which is in him; so also no one has known the things of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. II, 11). If the spirit which is in you is not alien to your substance, then the Spirit which is in God is not alien to the substance of God. Does the Father will something? The same is the will of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Does the Son will something? The same is the will of the Father and of the Spirit. Does the Spirit will something? The same is the will of the Father and of the Son. Does the Father raise the dead? The Son also raises them. For the Savior says: "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also does the Son wish to give life." Behold the council brought together. Where then is the will of the Spirit? Listen. "And all these things works the one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as He w

wills" (1 Cor. 12. 11). There is one kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. God also reproves those who attempt to do anything without the will of God. He says through the prophet: "Woe, disobedient children, says the Lord. You have formed a plan, but not through me; and covenants, but not through my Spirit" (Is. 30. 1). Clearly manifesting ^A the Holy Trinity, the prophet Zacharias said: "Let the hands of Zorobabel be strengthened, says the Lord, and let the hands of Jesus the priest be strengthened, and the hands of the people, because I am with you, says the Lord, and my good word; and my Spirit in the midst of you" (Haggai 2. 6). Furthermore, brethren, our regeneration bears witness to our creation. If the Spirit had not shared with the Father and the Son in the creation, He would not have shared in the regeneration. How are we baptized? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28. 19). What birth is greater, whether of creation or of initiation? In the former is the beginning of life unto death; here is the beginning of death unto life. How then is it possible that the Holy Spirit is a partner with the Father and the Son in the greater thing, but be excluded from the common dignity in the bodily creation? We would not have been created, had we not been fashioned by the Holy Spirit. And because in the first creation He is a partner of the Father and the Son, similarly He is also a partner and co-worker in baptism. Again, in the resurrection, it is not possible for us to rise in any other way unless the Father wills it, the Son co-works, and the Holy Spirit empowers. Listen to the Lord speaking; ^B truly I said of the Lord: for even if it is the voice of Paul, yet it is the voice of the Lord; for it is He whom one ought to hear: "Do you seek to obtain proof of Christ who speaks in me?" (2 Cor. 13. 3). He who speaks in Paul, therefore, says: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8. 9-11). Apart from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, there is neither the first creation, nor the second birth, nor the final resurrection. *Let us make man.*

3. Here, finally, I have secured myself against those who reproach me. The word for man denotes "fire" in the Hebrew tongue. Pay attention, I pray you; the one who listens genuinely, as being a friend and companion of the truth, is saved; but the one who has hostile ears does not seek what he may benefit from, but what he may forget; he seeks not what he may gain, but what he may reproach. Man is called "fire" in the Hebrew dialect. This name was not given to Adam in vain; but there are four elements in the world (again I am philosophizing, even if they do not wish it): earth, water, air, fire. Each of the other elements remains as it is; for instance, if you take a lump of earth, you cannot add to it from that which is held: so if you take a lump of earth, what it is, it remains. Water again, if you take it by some measure, the same water remains, it receives no addition. If you fill a wineskin with air, you cannot fill another wineskin from it. But fire does not remain ^C what it is. A small lamp is lit, and from it you light countless torches, a whole furnace, a great flame, and it does not remain in its own state, but however much fuel it takes hold of, the fire increases. Since, therefore, God foresaw that the ends of the inhabited world would be filled from one human body (one lamp lights so many torches, both west, and east, and north, and south), He set a name worthy of the deed. For this reason, the very name of Adam belongs to the inhabited world. Since the four regions were about to be filled from him, He sets the name of Adam: A (alpha) for east, D (delta) for west, A (alpha) for north, M (mu) for south. And the name and the letters bear witness to the man who was about to fill the inhabited world. He is called, therefore, in the Hebrew tongue, "fire." Since, therefore, he has the name for fire, the Scripture does not hesitate to call the angels men as well. For when those women with Mary came to the tomb, it says: "Behold, two men stood by them" (Luke 24. 4). And they were angels. And angels are also called fire: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire" (Psalm 103. 4). He calls them men, because they have a common notion of man. And why do you marvel? God Himself is called fire, is called man. The Savior says concerning His own Father: "There was a certain man, a householder, who planted a vineyard. And he sent his servants, and the servants were killed. And to cut it short: and that man said: I still have one son; I will send him, perhaps they will be ashamed" (Matt. 21. 33. sqq.). What does "man" mean concerning the divine name? For He did not speak a parable; He did not say, "It is like"; but, "There was a certain man." For this reason Moses: "Our God is a consuming fire" (Deut. 4. 24). And the Savior also, having come, says: "I came to cast fire upon the earth" (Luke 12. 49). He takes, therefore, a name worthy of the deed. Since fire, as I already said, becomes great from small, and man from a little one filled the ends of the inhabited world, man was called "fire"; this because of the "Let us make man"; for in Hebrew it is "Let us make fire."

*Let us make man in our image.* Many of the simple-minded and those uninstructed in their souls have thought that man is in the image of God, as though God had nostrils, or such eyes, or such things, or such a mouth; but this thought is erroneous and absurd. ^D And there is a heresy even today saying the Divine is anthropomorphic. For since they heard: "The eyes of the Lord," and "The ears of the Lord," and "The Lord smelled," and "The mouth of the Lord spoke," and "The hand of the Lord made," and "The feet of God stood," they depicted the incorporeal with limbs, being ignorant of the absurd notion. God speaks so that you may learn that man has no resemblance to God, insofar as the bodily appearance is concerned. For I do not deny the voice that says, "Let us make man in our image." But it is shown how God says "in our image." "I fill heaven and earth," says the Lord (Jer. 23. 24). Again the same: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet" (Is. 66. 1). Shall we follow the word? Shall we serve the expression? But the sequence refutes me. How shall I conceive of heaven as a throne? The throne contains the one sitting; but God is not [index: entries preserved]

^A circumscribed. Nothing is around God; but He Himself encompasses and circles all things. If, therefore, He has heaven as a throne, how shall He measure heaven with a span? How does He sit in heaven? *Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet* (Is. LXVI, 1). Where does He sit? Upon the one we see? The stars are under the firmament; the waters are placed above it. If He sits above, it is not above the heavens, but in the higher heaven. If He sits at all, then even His feet dangle down to the earth. Do you ascribe such a figure to Him who is without figure? Is it not impious to think it so? Finally, if His feet tread the earth, how do we sow? How do we reap? How do we pass by without bumping into His feet? How did He measure heaven with a span? How did He have large fingers in proportion to His divinity? And how did He write small tablets with such fingers, and not many ones at that? We write with three fingers, with the others contributing their effort; God wrote the tablets with one finger. Have you seen anyone writing with one finger? These are ideas rather than words.

^B 4. *Let us make man according to our image* (Gen. I, 26). God desires us to be imitators of Himself in virtue. What is *According to image*? God is holy; if we become holy, we are in the image of God. For, *Be holy, because I am holy* (Lev. XIX, 2). God is just; if we pursue justice, we are the image of God. For, *The Lord is just, and He loved justice* (Ps. X, 8). If we are merciful, we are the image of God. For the Savior says: *Be merciful, as your Father is merciful* (Luc. VI, 36). Do you see in what the image consists? Paul also points to the image; for he says: *Stripping off the old man and putting on the new, who is created according to God in knowledge of truth, according to the image of Him who created him* (Col. III, 9-10). Do you see that what Scripture says, *According to our image*, is attributed to virtues? In what does the reason for the image lie? In power likewise: *Let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of heaven, and the beasts, and the creeping things, and the cattle, and all the earth* (Gen. I, 26). O, the consequent order of God! O, the accurate reason of the words! Why did He say first, *Let them rule over the fish of the sea*? The order of dominion is according to the order of creation. Since fish and birds were made first from the sea, but afterwards quadrupeds and the remaining cattle from the earth, He introduces first those things which were made earlier. *Let them rule over the fish, and the birds, and the beasts, and the creeping things, and the cattle.* Wherefore the three children ^C blessing in the furnace observe the order: *Bless, O seas and rivers, the Lord. Bless, O whales and all things that move in the waters, the Lord. Bless, O all birds of heaven, the Lord. Bless, O beasts and cattle. Bless, O children of men* (Dan. III, 78-82). Other things remained to be considered; but let us return to the proposition. *And God formed man* (Gen. II, 7). He did not simply say, He made, but, *He formed*. Formation is spoken of regarding grace and ornament; as when someone, seeing a beautiful face, because it was beautifully formed, says, God made nothing in the body except for the sake of beauty, but He took thought for both beauty and utility. By way of example, the eye has two things: utility and beauty—for it both sees and renders the countenance graceful, and adorns the face, and observes all things. The ear has a use, and is pleasant to behold; for the "cymbal" placed around it adorns the animal. And similarly the nose is endowed with the necessary sense of smell; but, unlike in other animals, He makes it as a middle wall to complete the beauty: for this befits man alone—for the other animals do not have a nose, but only a single position for nostrils. But God formed it for this reason. Therefore David says, *He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? Or He who fashioned the eye, does He not consider?* (Ps. XCIII, 9). Thus He made the earth for ornament and for use. And that I may not enumerate many beauties to you, after I have spoken of one, I shall pass on. God gave to man, that is, to the male, along with other features, the concinnity of breasts. Why breasts for a male? For the sake of beauty. For even if He granted breasts to a woman because of the necessity of nature, for the administration of milk; why breasts for a male? For beauty, for ornament. For just as in buildings some things are done for necessity, others for beauty; so God both adorned man and conferred upon him things necessary for use. *He formed him taking dust from the earth.* Blessed are the hopes of Christians, if we understand the things we hear. Why did He not say, He took a clod from the earth? He formed so great a body, and did He not even have need of a clod, but took dust? God foresaw the future as if it were present. Because He foresaw that this animal was to die, and to be transmuted into dust, He showed the hope of resurrection long ago in the creation. He takes dust from the earth, so that when you see dust in the tomb, you may know that He who formed that is also to raise this up. *He formed man having taken dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life* (Gen. II, 7). See the difference between men and brutes. When God was making all other things, He produced them all at once, the soul along with the body. Notice, I pray. He made the swimming creatures, soul and body at once. The earth brings forth animals; the soul comes forth at once with the body. Of man, He first makes the body, then the soul. For the sake of what hope? As the formation, such is the dissolution. Therefore animals have no hope of resurrection, because in the same way they were made, in that way they die. Body and soul are abolished together. He took the body of man from the earth, He Himself bestowed the soul by creating it, not by producing it from His own substance; so that when the body is dead, or the man, we may not despair of the soul. For what does it matter that the body is deposited in the tomb? Do not think that the soul is there. For it was not taken from the earth, nor will it return to the earth. He established hope, therefore. Therefore also in Ezekiel He prophesies the resurrection, saying thus ^D:

^A *But there was made a body for the dead bones* (Ezek. 37. 9). Then He says: *Let the spirit come from the four winds, and let it enter into these dead, and let them live.* Thus also David cries out: *You shall take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust. You shall send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth* (Ps. 103. 29, 30). Do you see the Spirit as Creator? Do you see the collaborator of God?

5. But let us return to our subject. *He breathed.* Through the words *He breathed*, He showed the simplicity of the soul; therefore it is not composed of many harmonies. Pay attention, then. Since the creation had grown old, Christ renews it by this dispensation. Adam was fashioned from earth; Christ fashioned the eyes of the blind man from clay, so that you might know Him who took dust from the earth and fashioned him. God breathed into the face of Adam the breath of life; Christ breathed into the face of the apostles and says: *Receive the Holy Spirit* (John 20. 22). What breath Adam lost, Christ restored there, and man became again a living soul. Pay attention: here the sequence is important. For even if the instrument of the voice labors, yet by the accustomed hope I run forward and, suppressing the prayers of the brethren, I believe the word is given to me, not for my own merit, but for the eagerness of those who hear. Even if we are unworthy of the saints, yet even they suffered these things, and were hindered by the weakness of the body. David bears witness, saying: *I have labored in crying, my throat is become hoarse* (Ps. 68. 4). But it is better to speak the right things while hoarse, than to have a right voice and a distorted soul. ^B *And God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east* (Gen. 2. 8). What is Eden? Eden is interpreted as "delight," as if one were to say: *He planted a paradise in delight*; that is, in a delightful place, in a beautiful place. For this reason, in the end, it says: *And He cast out Adam, and placed him over against the paradise of delight* (Gen. 3. 24). Why not in another climate, but paradise toward the east? Whence is the beginning of the course of the luminaries, from there also is the beginning of the life of men. God reveals the future; He places man in paradise toward the east, to show that as these luminaries rising run toward the west, and set—so also it behooves him to run from life unto death and set according to the type of the luminaries, and to receive another rising again through the resurrection of the dead. Adam ran toward the west, he set into the tomb; the matters of the earth followed him, and he was buried with him who had set. Christ came and caused him who had set ^C to rise. Therefore the prophet says of Him: *Behold a man, whose name is the East; and he shall spring up from beneath him* (Zech. 6. 12); that is, from the tombs. In Adam man set; in Christ he rose. Paul bears witness: *For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive* (1 Cor. 15. 22). *And God took the man whom He had made, and placed him in paradise* (Gen. 2. 15). He brought him into a prepared house. As a man calling someone to a feast first prepares the house, and then brings in the guest, so also here: He prepared an honorable home, paradise, for him, and thus brought in the guest. Where was he fashioned? On the earth, outside of paradise. For just as the luminaries were made elsewhere and placed in heaven, so Adam was fashioned outside in another land, and then was brought into paradise. Whence is this? The Scripture says at the end, when Adam was being cast out: *And God sent forth Adam out of the paradise of delight, to till the ground from which he was taken. He placed him* in the paradise of delight, *to work and to keep* the paradise. *To work.* For what was lacking in paradise? But if there was need of a worker, whence a plow? Whence were the other instruments of agriculture? To work and keep the commandment of God, and to believe in the commandment, was the work of God. The Savior says: *This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent* (John 6. 29). As therefore to believe in Christ is a work, so also to believe in the commandment, that if he should touch it, he dies; but if he should not touch it, he lives. The keeping of spiritual words was a work. Paul’s work, what was it? Was Paul not a farmer? Did he not have another labor? Was not his whole work the Word? Was it not preaching? And he says to the disciples: *My work are you in the Lord.* To work, he says, and to keep it. From whom? There was no robber, no traveler, there was no one plotting; from whom to keep it? So that he might keep it for himself; so that by transgressing he might not lose it; but so that, keeping the commandment, he might preserve paradise for himself. The mind also labors with the voice; but let us be mindful of the thoughts. He placed him in paradise. Henceforth Scripture sketches the things to come through those that went before. *And a river goes forth out of Eden to water the paradise* ^D (Gen. 2. 10). From this learn that paradise was not a kitchen-garden, possessing a small measure. A river so great irrigates it, that from its surplus there are four rivers. *And a river goes forth out of Eden to water the paradise.* Thence, after it has watered, it is divided into four sources; into the Tigris, into the Nile, into the Euphrates, and into that called Phison in the Scripture, which they now call the Danube.

6. Behold the greatness of the river divided into four; and such a one alone waters paradise. Why such a one? Adam was alone; what need was there of so much water? But it was not made for one man alone; but for the ends of the inhabited world. It was being prepared for patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, for holy, faithful, orthodox, piously living men, for all the righteous. For if the Savior promised paradise to the thief who confessed in one hour, saying: *Today you shall be with Me in paradise* (Luke 23. 43); and those who labored from a young age—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, those patriarchs who were after him... yet before all these the thief inherits paradise. God therefore does the works, not according to the seen, but according to the expected. Why did He make such a breadth of earth? Was it for Adam, or for those who inhabit it now? Thence it is divided into four sources; He did not say, into four expanses, but sources, that is, fountains. One name is Phison.

whom I was just speaking of; then Gihon; this is the Nile. Gihon is its ancient name: this Jeremiah testifies, saying: What to thee and the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Gihon? (Jer. II, 18). Fix your mind here. Think of this as the paradise. For these things are better conveyed by sight than by word. A great river proceeds, endowed with plentiful bounty, and it waters the paradise. Thence it is carried into a certain subterranean chasm, and penetrates a vast path under the earth, as He knows who laid the path, the Lord; and the flow lies hidden for a long time, and is divided into diverse places, and one is found in Ethiopia, another toward the west, another toward the east, God thus drawing the stream through a subterranean channel, and providing strange sources for the first river. Why so? So that those following the tracks of the rivers might not find the paradise, so that it might not be accessible to men. For if there could be a way there, no one before the rich would find the paradise; but God has closed it to the poor as well as to the rich, so that they might find the way through virtue alone. How much labor did patriarchs, prophets, and saints undertake, seeking the paradise, and they did not find it. The thief, who had not marched along that road, but believed, truly found the road, namely, the One who said, I am the way. He found the paradise, which disobedience closed to the first man (John XIV, 6). ^A I seek also the cause why the historiographer, having mentioned the first river, said: There is good gold, the carbuncle, and the prasine stone (Gen. II, 12). If he were describing the whole circuit of the lands, he ought certainly to have said in each region what good things arise there, the emeralds, the hyacinths, where the topaz is, where those diverse materials are; but he takes only gold, and two stones, the firstfruits of the priesthood, because the priest wore a golden plate, on which the name of God was inscribed. There were twelve stones upon the priest’s breast: sardius, topaz, emerald, carbuncle, sapphire, jasper, ligurius, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, beryl, onyx (Exod. XXVIII, 17-20). Out of these twelve stones, the prasine is set apart for the priestly tribe, and the carbuncle for the royal. Why so? Because it is the property of fire to burn and to illuminate; and it is the property of a king to benefit and to punish. He places Reuben, the first tribe, in the sardius; Simeon in the topaz; Levi in the prasine stone; Judah, from whom Christ comes, in the red carbuncle. Certainly Isaiah, after many times had elapsed, says to Jerusalem: I have depicted thy walls on my hands, and thou art always in my sight. Behold I prepare thy carbuncle stone (Isai. XLIX, 16 and LIV, 11), signifying the Savior. For behold, he says, I will place in Sion a corner stone, elect, precious; and he who believes in him shall not be confounded (Isai. XXVIII, 16). The carbuncle, therefore, is set apart for the royal tribe; the prasine for the priestly: for it is the work of the priesthood to perform right acts. From that river the four fountains of the rivers are separated. Why therefore is their water not equal? ^B For scholars inquire, if they are from one river, or from one fountain, why is there not one quality for all? What then is the case? They are altered according to the earth, and the qualities of the places through which they pass. Just as the water itself has one nature and quality, but if wormwood, if dill, if rue be poured in, it acquires another quality; and the nature is indeed one, but the substances are transformed. So also in the rivers, because they flow through strange places; one through soil that has one quality, another through another, they are tainted by the places.

[The creation of the paradise and the naming of the animals]

He had done [it], and finally he makes in the paradise Every tree beautiful to the sight, and pleasant for food (Gen. II, 9). He first took away the excuse of the transgressor. For because he said about the woman, The woman saw the tree, that it was beautiful to the sight, and pleasant to eat (Gen. III, 6): lest anyone should think that among the other trees this alone was comely, he testified that this excellence belonged to all, both in elegance of sight, and very good, so that you might learn that he did not transgress out of need, but had been cast down while he was in affluence. And the tree of life, he says, in the midst of the paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. II, 9). Three distinctions of trees: some were given to him, that he might live; others, that he might live well; others, that he might live forever. There was that from which he might live well, from which it was permitted to eat; there was that from which he might live well, from the things prohibited. For he could live well, if he had touched what was not prohibited, and had not touched what was prohibited. That was to live well, to obey God. The tree of life was placed in the midst, as a reward; the tree of knowledge, as a wrestling school, as a gymnasium. If you keep the commandment concerning this tree, you receive the prize. And see the miracle. All the trees of the paradise, everywhere blooming in a circle, everywhere fruitful: only two were in the midst, for a gymnasium and a stadium. Those in the circle provided nourishment. But let the discourse on the transgression and the tree be reserved for another time; but this is now the proposal: God brings all the animals to Adam. Let the heretics hear; and do not wonder if for individual sayings, for individual words, it is argued against the heretics; for on every occasion those who rise up against the glorious kingdom are refuted. The stone from the wall cries out (Hab. II, 11); I do not say, the word from the Scripture, one iota, or one apex (Matt. V, 18), they do not leave the heretics unaccused; they are accused by all who deny the Lord of all things. Observe therefore. It was an astonishing thing to see, Adam standing, and God as a servant bringing [them] to Adam. For God brings the animals. Here attend, not to the words, but to the sense. Think of God standing, and Adam examining. God brought all things, He said to Adam for example: By what name does this seem to thee to be called? And he says: Let it be called lion. God sanctioned this. But here, by what name? Let it be called bull. Thou hast judged rightly. And similarly ^C God sealed the names of each one. For the Scripture says: He brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called [them], this is the name thereof. See. Because He had created him in His image, He wished to bring forth both the honor into sight, and to show that he truly bore the image of wisdom. And see a wonderful thing. God had defined the names for Himself beforehand, and wished to show through His image, that the decrees of Adam coincide with the will of God. Certainly, when the Scripture wished to show these names which Adam imposed, [it shows that] God

decreed that this should be the name of it; as if to say, It was determined, and God had glorified it.

But let us return to our subject. Adam stands, and God brings the animals to him, and the Master is not insulted by bringing them to the servant. And if heretics hear that Christ brings us to the Father, they immediately say: "Do you see that He is a servant?" He brought them to Adam. The servant stood judging, and the Master was bringing them. And God, in bringing them to Adam, was not insulted; but if they hear that Christ brings us to the Father, they drag Him down to the rank of a subordinate. If the Savior says: "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14.6), immediately the heretics prick up their ears, or rather, twist them. When God was bringing the animals to Adam, He was not his subordinate; if God brings a man to God, does He have the rank of a subordinate? But lest your ignorance of these words nurse your malady, I know both the Son bringing us to the Father, and the Father to the Son. For having said: "No one comes to the Father except through me"; the same One says again: "No one comes to me unless my heavenly Father draws him." But, as I said before, I have spoken of this; yet the word is akin to the subject. ^B Indeed, it happens at that time that one has not heard; and so I say it now. Imagine how many are the [491] quadrupeds—but consider the tame, the wild, those in the mountains, those in the plains, those in Gaul, those in India, those in all the climates of the world; again the reptiles, the species, the forms, all the birds, the swimming creatures; all those in the sea, those in the lakes, those in the rivers; all these were brought forward, and Adam imposed a name upon each; and God did not gainsay it, but acquiesced. Myriads of names, and God stands by; God says one name, testifying from heaven: "This is my Son," and the heretics pervert the voice that testifies with a single name—that holy voice, which received myriads of names and did not adulterate them. The animals were brought and named. Then he stood as a king.

8. As when soldiers are enlisted, they are marked with the royal seal; so, because He was about to hand over dominion to him, He made him impose names as a master, for only a Master and Father imposes names. Take heed. Of the names, some God imposed, and some Adam. And God called the heaven, ^C earth, sea, firmament, day, light, night, fruit, herbs, grass, wood; but the cattle and the birds Adam named: the peacock, the eagle, the calf, the sheep; he named the species, He the genera, so that the word of Him who said, "Let us make man according to our image," might not be false. God imposes names on the luminaries; the bear, the Orion, the Pleiades, the Vesper, the Lucifer. All these God named. David testifies, saying: "Who counts the multitudes of the stars, and calls them all by name." God names the things above, Adam those on the earth; God calls the heaven, the earth, and all the rest; Adam calls fire, man. Adam calls what? A name for the cattle, for the birds, for the reptiles, for the beasts. Adam calls a strange name, bone and flesh, regarding the woman, saying: "This now is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh." For when God fashioned him, He did not say that He fashioned him from bones and flesh. Again, God says, male; he says, man; God says, female; he says, woman. And the marvelous thing is, ^D because he was filled with the Holy Spirit—and the wretch had not yet transgressed, but was full of grace—the prophecy, which I distributed some days ago for your love, was entirely within him. For he knew the past, he knew the present, and the future. How did he know the present? In a body, a bone does not appear outwardly; but because he had the Spirit, he says: "This now is bone from my bones." Whence did he know, if the Holy Spirit had not revealed it? Why then, first bone, and then flesh? Because He first took a rib from him. "This," he says, "shall be called woman, because she was taken from her man." He prophesies the past, he spoke the present; he says the future: "For this [492] cause a man shall leave his father and his mother." There is no marriage yet, and whence father and mother? Again, let the heretics hear. God desired to make a woman for Adam. ^A He cast an ecstasy upon Adam, and he fell asleep. Every word of God became an ancient rule of nature. He taught from the first how the creature must be divided from the man. God cast a sleep upon Adam. A wonderful thing. He says the time when the marriage is. Sleep is called ecstasy, because man stands, as it were, outside himself. The soul is within, and yet it is not within. He does not sense, he does not think; hearing, he does not hear. As we say today: "He used ecstasy, having become outside of things"; so the soul, when it is outside of the senses, is in an ecstasy. And, He says, and he slept, and God took one of his ribs. Let the heretics be asked these things: how did God take it? How did Adam not feel pain? How was he not distressed? One hair is torn from the body, and we hurt; even if one be asleep in the depths, the sleeper is awakened by the pain; so great a member is removed, so great a rib is torn out, and the sleeper is not awakened? ^B He did not tear it out with violence, that he might be awakened, He did not rend it; but wishing the Scripture to show the expediency of the Artificer, it says, He took. The joints were loosened, and did he not perceive it?

9. He took the rib, just as He took the dust. If there were another who fitted it together, and another who loosened it, there would be conflict; but if He who bound also loosened, He loosened it quite gently. He took the rib, and filled up flesh in its place. Whence did He fill it up? Did He pull it from the other body? But any body being pulled becomes thinner. How did He fill it up? And do we speak about the body, and not understand; do we speak about God, and are we inquisitive? "And the Lord built the rib, which He took from Adam, into a woman." Whence were eyes fashioned from a rib? Whence a heart thinking? Whence a tongue speaking? How was an intestine stretched from a rib? How was a liver made from a rib? ^C How these things happened, you cannot understand, and yet you are inquisitive about the Artificer? But look everywhere at the image of Christ. God did not take the rib from Adam before He cast a sleep upon him. Why? From a rib sin was about to be, which entered through the woman. The Savior came from a rib [side] bearing water and blood—water washing away the

^A sins, blood handing down to us the mystery. Behold the pattern. While Adam was sleeping, a rib was taken. As a sleep came over the body of Christ, a rib [side] was opened, so that He might undo the ancient tragedy through the new history—I refer to the sleep He was seized by on the cross. He built the rib into a woman; He brought her to Adam. O the kindness of the Master! How much He does, how He fashions, with how many gifts He endows! He brings the animals, He conducts the bride. Because Adam was like an orphan, and Eve a virgin, without father and mother to discharge the office: God performs the function of father and mother. And observe the law. ^B For every divine voice is a primary norm of nature. God brought the woman to Adam; and that law has remained to this very day, that a woman approaches a man, but it does not lead the man to the woman as a bridegroom. They were naked, and did not blush. The law remains, the law cries out: every man blushes to be with any woman other than his own wife; every woman blushes to be with any man other than her own husband. Therefore, I have indeed said this according to the law; but the reason why they were not naked and blushing was because they were clothed with immortality, arrayed in glory. The glory did not permit [them] to be seen naked; for it itself covered the nakedness. Where will you be able ^C to see a man naked and not blushing? You find him [so] in Christ. Peter and John and James come to the tomb, seeking the body, and they did not find [it], but they found the linens laid out, so that it might be shown that, after the resurrection of Christ, the ancient form of Adam is preserved in Him, and that He is without garments, yet not naked, but clothed. Christ arose, and He put off the garments which Adam had put on, and He was naked, and yet He was not seen as naked. After the resurrection the women see the garments cast aside. Martha and Mary see Him, recognize Him, bow down, and do not see Him naked. Whence does He put on clothes? For He had lost them in the tomb. The soldiers had divided the former garments. Whence then is ^D He clothed? Whence is He who is naked, not naked? I seek another thing: why did they see the garments and the linen cloth in one place, but the napkin, with which the head of the Savior had been bound, in another place? So that the divine grace might be shown, and that there had been no tumult in the resurrection. And because the Jews were about to spread a rumor that the disciples had stolen Him, He leaves His garments in the tomb. For he who steals a corpse, steals it with its garments. And one could see the Savior going forth from the tomb like Joseph from the house of the Egyptian woman. And observe for me the difference: after the resurrection Christ was seen naked, and Peter was naked; but the former was endowed with immortality, while the latter was still mortal. Jesus was standing on the shore, clothed in glory, saying: "Children, have you anything to eat?" They say, "No; we have nothing"—for they did not recognize Him. Then He says: "Cast to the right side of the boat." They cast, and they caught a great multitude of fish. John recognizes Him and says to Peter: "It is the Lord." O the miracle! They did not recognize Him by His voice, but by His works. And Peter, it says, took up his tunic, for he was naked. The mortal body blushes, the immortal does not blush. But to Him who has clothed us with glory, and who clothes the world with immortality, to Him let us fall down, to Him let us supplicate, that He may clothe us with faith, with the hope of salvation, with glory in Christ; for to the Father is glory, with the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

On the sixth day of creation, and on the first parents, on the serpent, and on the tree of knowledge, concerning the habitation in paradise, and concerning the discourse of Adam with God. Oratio VI.

^A ¶ 1. Let us take up the promise, and lead the argument concerning paradise to the end. For even if that evil was intolerable, that Adam should be cast out of paradise, it will be a far greater evil if we are eliminated from the memory of paradise. But let us touch upon the matter, not handling it with common arguments, but borrowing the solution of our doubts from the Holy Scripture itself. For he who feels and thinks according to his own pleasure deceives himself; but he who borrows the solution of his questions from Scripture, has the truth itself as his teacher. But because many of the faithful on reading are troubled, and very many of the unfaithful through ignorance blaspheme, so that we may both render the spirit of the saints more certain, and refute the unfaithful, let us attack the matter ^B according to our ability, beseeching God with you to provide us with the abundance of the truth. By what reason man was fashioned, by what body he was formed, and in what way the soul created by God was put into his body, [and] in what way he had paradise as a dwelling—though not according to the dignity of the matter, at least according to our capacity—has been sufficiently said above. Now let us turn our discourse to the proposed subject. To Adam there was given the whole earth, but paradise was his special dwelling. It was also allowed for him to go outside of paradise; but those things which were outside of paradise had not been assigned for the dwelling of man, but for brutes, for cattle, for quadrupeds, for wild beasts, for reptiles. But paradise was his royal and ^C lordly residence. For this reason God brought the animals to Adam, as ones separated from him. For slaves do not always stand with their master, but [only] when he has need of them. Names were given to the animals, and at once they were cast out: but Adam remained in paradise. But here observe the diligence of Scripture. There are three kinds of animals. The animals were commanded to approach Adam, to bow to him, and to fawn upon him; for instance, just as there were three kinds of trees, namely, trees that would nourish him, that he might live, trees that would test him, that he might live well, and the tree that would guard him, that he might live always; so also three kinds of brute animals were granted to him: one for food, another for service, a third for ^D refreshing the mind—namely, for food those which are now slaughtered; for service, horses, camels, asses, oxen, and others like them serving him; for refreshing the mind, animals suited for imitation, the cheerful voices of the aerial birds, which also delight the ears. For just as the body after labors, unless it drives away exhaustion, cannot undertake other labors, so also the soul, having performed the labors of virtue, unless it be refreshed by pleasant sights, does not suffice to persevere in virtue.

When God sees a soul laboring, He refreshes it through pleasant things, just as happens among us. For often a man returning from the market, having had his mind overwhelmed by countless sorrows and having encountered often burdensome sights and fallen into unbearable calamities and losses, upon entering his home finds the comfort of a child, and the gentleness of his mind soothes the hardness of his labors. Since for him in his despondency his wife does not approach to comfort him, as she deems the comfort untimely, and a servant does not dare to offer comfort, God introduces the guileless nature that is deemed worthy of forgiveness for what it does not know, and through it He soothes the soul that has grown weary from its labors. If a servant were to laugh, he would be thought to be laughing at the master’s insult; if his wife were to laugh, she would be thought to be unfeeling regarding the calamity. The child possesses an unsuspicious demeanor due to its innate innocence; and often, what friends could not achieve by advising, or wise men by admonishing, a child by merely laughing managed to resolve, all the calamity. And from then on the soul, in the very height of its grief, sees the child and begins to incline away and cast off the untimely comfort; but it is drawn by the child’s remaining there, and when it often lowers its gaze, its mind is captivated; then, taking up the child, it puts aside its grief and says: “God will grant me this child alone, and I have no regard for the rest.” Do you see how God raises up comfort for the soul even from the most accidental of things?

Since therefore Adam was alone in Paradise, having no friend, no neighbor, no kinsman, God introduced the animals to him for his comfort; for instance, just as there are today domestic animals, some mimicking gestures, others voices; for example, the monkey mimics the gestures of humans, and others like it; the parrot and other birds, the voice. He had therefore comfort from the irrational creatures, some chirping, others fawning. Since therefore there were many fulfilling this comfort for him, the serpent was most prudent beyond all the beasts of the earth, as the Scripture said: ^A *Now the serpent was more prudent than all the beasts which the Lord God had made* (Gen. 3. 1). ^B 2. It was therefore more mimicking than the mimics, and closer than the fawners. Do not pay attention to the present appearance, that we flee and loathe it; it was not so from the beginning. The serpent was a friend, and closer to man than those that fawn. Who then made it an enemy? The sentence of God: *Cursed are you above all the beasts. I will put enmity between you and the woman* (Gen. 3. 14, 15). That enmity broke the friendship. I mean friendship not in the rational sense, but in the irrational inclination; just as today a dog displays a form of friendship, not by reason, but by a natural motion; so also the serpent used to fawn upon man. As it had much intimacy, it was seen by the devil as a suitable instrument. Seeing then that Adam rejoiced over the serpent, and that it also fawned upon him, and mimicked many human things, the artificer of evil thought of what those who weave deceits do, by using their own to corrupt; for no one succeeds through outsiders unless it be through those who are close; as the Savior said: *A man's enemies are those of his own household* (Matt. 10. 36). It speaks therefore through the serpent, giving Adam an impression. I beseech your love, do not pay attention to what is said casually. This is no ordinary question; for many ask, how did the serpent speak? Was it with a human voice, or the hissing of a serpent, and Eve understood? Adam before the transgression was filled with wisdom and intelligence and prophecy. Consider what great wisdom he possessed, that one man sufficed—having taken no teacher, and having been taught by no man—to assign names to all birds, and animals, and creeping beasts, and simply to all. Form in your mind the species, the genera; for to speak briefly, he assigned as many names as we today, even after experience, cannot repeat. When therefore God brought the animals to man, like one wise and having the Spirit of God, he saw the property of each. He therefore paid attention to the serpent as being more prudent, as having sense, as understanding motions from signs. As Adam was in this state, the devil considered the prudence of the serpent, and the preconception of Adam; for he had the opinion of the serpent as being sensible. He speaks therefore through it, so that Adam might suspect that since the serpent was prudent, it had succeeded in also mimicking the human voice. The serpent therefore approaches. And nowhere did the Scripture say this, that the devil spoke in the serpent, but even Moses simply told the history. Pay attention, I beseech you, with precision. Paul, being a second one in Paradise, did not himself resolve the phrasing, but says: ^C *I espoused you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness* (2 Cor. 11. 2, 3); and he did not say that the devil did. He was a faithful guardian of the Scriptures, a minister of the Scriptures, a teacher of the Scriptures, an interpreter of the Scriptures. He did not wish to undo the word, so as not to undo the order of the Scriptures, but with his understanding he resolved the difficulty. “I fear,” he says, “lest as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so your thoughts might be corrupted.” So; how? Was Paul afraid lest the serpent might come again and deceive someone? But I know, he says, that the serpent does not appear, but the one who worked in it appears. But Paul, as a faithful minister and guardian of the holy Scriptures, did not divert the word, but disclosed the meaning; yet the Lord Himself of the ancients, the new, and those to come, clarified the difficulty, so that no one might attribute the sin to the serpent, but to the one who worked in it. The Christ therefore says to the Jews, because they said to Him, *We are from God*: *If you were from God, you would do the works and the will of God; but now you are of your father the devil*. ^D He named the devil, and immediately introduces the history: *He*, he says, *was a murderer from the beginning*. And the servant as a servant interpreted; but the Lord as Lord taught; He showed the one who had influenced Adam. He did not say simply, “A slayer,” but “a murderer.” For he did not slay one, but through him every human. *And in the truth*, he says, *he stands not, because he is a liar* (John 8. 41, 42, 44).

3. The serpent, addressing the woman, lied. — See how He interpreted that it is the devil, and that he is a liar. And how did he lie? The serpent said to the woman: *Did God command you that you should not eat of every tree?* (Gen. 3. 1). Do you see the liar? God had said: *Of every tree you shall eat, but of one you shall not eat*; but that liar says: “Why did God tell you not to eat of every tree?” Does he not lie—

the voice of Christ? He is a liar. And he lied most gravely; for when anyone treacherously plots a matter, he feigns ^A necessity or ignorance, so as to introduce his wickedness without suspicion; as if to say, “I am unaware, there is no trickery; I come with a simple heart, I know nothing.” Have you not experienced many such people? Or are we ignorant of the works of deceitful men? Do they not stitch together such things and disguise them with ignorance? Thus, too, the devil. Why, he says, did God tell you not to eat of every tree? In thinking the woman was ignorant, he corrects the phrasing. “It is not so,” he says; “God did not tell us not to eat of every tree; but he allowed all, and forbade one; for he said to us: *Do not eat, lest you die*.” He seemed to say what he did not know; by now there was no suspicion that he was laying a trap; and he says to her: *You shall by no means die* (Gen. III, 4). See another lie. For God having said, *In whatever day you eat, you shall surely die*, the devil says: *You shall by no means die*; once again he lied. For God knew, he says, that in the day you eat, you will be as gods. See the third lie. See the deceitful wickedness of the devil. He is already premeditating the dissemination of error throughout the world. And because he is plotting, as I said, to raise up many gods in the world, he anticipated by a certain sort of narration, and implanted the opinion of many gods into the ears of the woman. Thus, certainly, the artificer of evil first insinuated the conception of many gods; but God in his foreknowledge took care that the future error should not be brought forth by a human mouth, lest the first voice of human speech commemorate gods, but that the first voice should be that of the serpent, so that every mouth speaking about idols might be like unto it. I know that you spare this voice, and seize upon the holy understanding of the Scriptures. Therefore, let no one attend to the pomp of a voice; but to the virtue of the meanings. ^B

God did not prohibit the knowledge of good; Adam had knowledge of the good before the sin. For God knew, he says, that in whatever day you eat, you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. Many say—and especially those who follow Porphyry, who is opposed to God and wrote against the Christians, and led many away from the divine faith—they say, I repeat: “Why did God prohibit the knowledge of good and evil? Granted, he might have prohibited the evil; but why even the good?” For when he says: *From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil do not eat*, they say he prohibits knowing the evil; why even the good? Malice is always plotting against itself and offers the occasions for its own entrapment. God did not prohibit a knowledge of the good: for Adam had that even before he ate. For if he had not possessed it beforehand, how would he have recognized his wife? How would he have spoken of her nature: *Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh*? How could he have prophesied future events: *Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother* (Gen. II, 23, 24), and so on? He knew so many things, and yet he had not known the good? He knew God, he observed the things of God, he had knowledge, he imposed so many names; how could he not have had a knowledge of the good? What, therefore, is this? God does not prohibit the knowledge of the good, but he wills that with the knowledge of the good there should not be the knowledge of the evil. I resolve the sophistry of the impiety from the Scriptures. ^C

Let us now apply our minds here. Why, finally, was it called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It did not have such a nature, but it bore such an argument—I speak of the manner of the Scriptures. For example: a certain spring in the desert was called the water of contradiction: *I proved you at the water of contradiction* (Ps. LXXX, 8). Did the water, therefore, have such a nature that it would stir the people to contradiction? Why then, when Moses drank of it, did he not contradict God? Certainly, it was called the water of contradiction, not because it had such a nature, but due to the occasion of the incident that happened there. For because the people contradicted there, therefore it was called the water of contradiction. Again, Jacob saw God, as much as it was possible for a man to see, and he called the name of the place the Appearance of God (Gen. XXXII, 30). The place did not have the appearance or form of God; but because the vision came to pass there for him, he named the place after the event. Another place was called the Peace of God. When the angel of God appeared to Gideon, and he, struck with fear, said: “Woe is me, I shall die; for I have seen the angel of God. The angel says to him: Peace to you, do not fear.” And Gideon, it says, built an altar, and called it the Peace of God (Judg. VI, 22-24). Just as, then, the altar did not possess peace, but was a symbol of the peace initiated and given; and just as the water did not possess contradiction, but was so called from the fact that it had come to pass there: so also the tree did not possess knowledge, but it is because whoever sins comes into the knowledge of sin. This I confirm again by an example: sometimes we pass through places infested by robbery; and it is the custom to say: “These places are dreadful.” Does the place itself have dread? Are not these things said rather because of the robbers who frequent them? ^D Thus that tree did not possess death-dealing knowledge, but was given this name due to the tragedy that occurred there concerning Adam. I resolve the matter briefly: for the divine Scripture does not wander in doubt. Today we have an altar, in which the faithful participate. Does the wood, therefore, possess natural salvation, or—because of the majesty that is invoked—do you have a pledge from the present things, that you might not doubt those that went before? There was life-killing food, here is life-giving food. If this preserves by nature, not by grace, then that other also killed by nature, not by transgression. I will show you outside paradise another death-dealing food—namely, idolatry. Why did the martyrs refuse to eat meat? Why were they afraid to eat? Would they have died if they had eaten? By no means; but because there was a mention of idols, they did not flee the food, but the invocation of those abominations. Thus the tree was known as that of the knowledge of good and evil, not because it provided knowledge, but because it taught it through transgression. For experience always teaches the ignorant that transgression is an evil thing. Again, the food...

^A of idol sacrifices was refused by the martyrs, avoiding it in such a way—for if Adam had fled from the tree, he would have been saved. But that to know good and evil is a detestable thing—the truth shines forth. For if God asks, and acts as if he does not know, does he know it, or not? Who dares to say that he does not know? For knowledge is not the same as action. Did Paul, the one who said, "Flee from fornication" (1 Cor. 6:18), not know what fornication was? He who flees adultery, did he not know what adultery was? But knowledge did not condemn him. God himself knows all our actions, counting and saying: "From the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, perjuries, licentiousness, envies, greed" (Matt. 15:19-20). Is God ignorant of these things, or does he know, and the Apostle, too? Therefore, knowledge does not insult Adam. It was not knowledge that harmed, but transgression. But I wish to ask him: what good or evil did he learn from the tree? Did he learn what murder was after eating? No one was there yet to punish; adultery was not known, for there were not yet marriages; no fornication, no rapacity, for there was not yet a rich man and a poor one; no calumnies and false testimonies. What evil, then, did he learn—or only this: that it was good to obey God, and evil to disobey God? I am speaking a common and circulating phrase, and let no one judge it as being overly bold. We are accustomed to say to those who sin, while threatening them with reformation: "I will make you learn reformation." Does he mean by "learning" (instruction) also "knowledge"? So the knowledge came from the ^B experience of misfortunes. He trained him to know how many things he had coupled himself to by transgressing.

5. Pay attention, then, with care. For even if it was said before, the subject draws the argument along. The God who gave everything was invisible; he who received everything from God was visible. The one who received was seen, the one who gave was not seen. Man was alone; the brute animals were around him. He had no one over his head. God placed a law for him, the tree in the middle as a reminder, so that he might not inadvertently seize the lordship. For example, he went about gathering fruits with his wife. He approached the tree; he said, "Let us not touch this tree; for concerning it, God gave an injunction." And the visible thing was a reminder of the invisible, as happens also now. Think how many rulers there are over the whole earth. And since a king cannot be present to all, it is necessary to set up the likeness of the king in courthouses, in marketplaces, in assemblies, in theaters. Therefore, in every place where a ruler conducts affairs, it is necessary for him to be present, so that he may validate what is done. A king, as a man, cannot be present everywhere; and for God, again, to appear to men as God, is impossible. He gave the tree as a character of the kingdom, carrying a reminder ^C to Adam that he had received the lordship of all. Recognize him who gave the authority. And so that you may learn how the tree reminded them: when the serpent wished to deceive the woman, he said to her, "Why did God say that you should not eat from every tree?" (Gen. 3:2). The woman did not forget the law, but even corrects the ignorance, and says: "God did not say that, but that we may eat from every tree; but from this tree, God said, do not eat from it, nor touch it." Look at the precision. God did not say: "Do not touch it." For touching it brought no danger; but they, having divine prudence, enjoying the rest, determined for themselves: "God said, Do not taste of the tree; and we will not even touch it." So much did the woman care to keep God's commandment. The tree, therefore, was placed in the middle, by which he deceived them. Hear a strange thing. He used an instrument for the deception, a thing implanted in man. For God, in forming man, along with other knowledge, placed in him also a longing for God. Since he saw in them the torch of longing, he says: "You will be as gods." ^D "Now, as humans, you cannot always be with God. If you become as gods, you are going to be always with him." For he did not say to them: "If you eat, you become enemies of God." Desire, therefore, for equality with God deceives the woman, and she does not deceive the man, but she persuades him. And Paul testifies to this, saying: "Adam was not deceived" (1 Tim. 2:14). And why was he condemned? Behold the terrible thing. The woman, having been deceived, ate; she persuades the man after eating, so that she might not be ruined alone; and she persuaded him, she did not deceive him; just as happens also now many times. A man knows the faith, loves the law, is zealous for orthodoxy, and is persuaded by his wife not to show his zeal, not because he is ignorant of the truth, but because he is being persuaded by his spouse. For many have thought that Adam, being ignorant, accepted it from the woman, not knowing whence she brought the fruit. But he has no excuse; for God examines him, saying to him: "Because you listened to the voice of your wife" (Gen. 3:17). And he did not say, "Because you accepted from your wife." And yet he could have said, "I was ignorant, I did not know whence she brought the fruit." The man's crime is not that he was deceived, but that he was baited. Let us come, then, to the judgment. Let us see the first records, which were made at that holy, impartial, and generous trial, written in immortal letters, the memory, sight, and brightness of which not even all time can dissolve. Pay attention, then. "He heard," he says, "Adam, the voice of the Lord walking in the afternoon in the paradise" (Gen. 3:8). By the sound he perceived it, and by habit. And was God to appear by a noise? He appeared not as he was, but as he wished. Blessed be the God of the saints, that he visited Adam then in the afternoon, and now on the cross in the afternoon. For at those hours the Savior endured the passion, at which Adam spent time from eating until the transgression and the judgment, from the sixth hour to the ninth. At the sixth hour he ate; for this is the rule of nature; after the sixth he hid himself. The afternoon,

^A God came to him. Adam desired to become God; but he desired impossibilities. Christ released him from his desire. You desired to become what you could not; I desire to become man, which I can do. For God countered his deceit. You desired things above you; I take things below me. You desired equality with God; I become man. Therefore Paul also says: *And being found in fashion as a man* (Phil. 2:7). You desired to become God, and I was not angry at this; for I want you to long for equality with God. But the anger was because you wanted to snatch the dignity against the will of the Master. You desired to become God, and you could not; I become man, and I make the impossible possible. And that he came to this while desiring it, he himself testifies, saying—when he was eating the Passover, he who feeds with the fed, and a table was set for the one who feeds all that is under heaven—he says to the apostles: *With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you* (Luke 22:15). Did I begrudge you equality with God? You wanted to snatch my things, not being able to; I take yours, being able to. Pay attention. The ^B afternoon came, and he says: *Adam, where art thou?* (Gen. 3:9). These things are akin to those; for both of these and those belong to one God. Was it perhaps another who came to the passion, rather than he who came down into paradise? He hid; he felt it after he had eaten. *For their eyes were opened*, he says, *and they knew that they were naked* (Gen. 3:7). Since the devil said, *In the day you eat, your eyes will be opened*; see, he says, Satan told the truth. It is appropriate for Paul to say: *For we are not ignorant of his devices* (2 Cor. 2:11). The saints know the machines of the devil. Behold the malice. Whence did the devil know that after eating their eyes are opened? Were they perhaps blind? The Scripture says, before they ate from the tree: *The woman saw*, it says, *the tree* (Gen. 3:6). Therefore, she was not blind. *The woman saw*, it says, *the tree, that it was pleasant to the eyes.* She saw first, and then she ate. How then were their eyes opened? Pay attention, I beg you; here is the question. The devil was from a fall, that is, from transgression; and he knew what the one who transgressed suffered, and what those who transgress suffer. And the passion is common to all. For even today, when we sin, we sin as if blind; and when we have sinned, then we see what we have done. For example, as if someone is accused, "Why did you do such a thing?" he pleads necessity: "Truly I did not see what I was doing," not as one being blind, but because in sin the reasoning is blinded, becoming entirely focused on the doing, and he is blinded in the acting. He sees after this by his conscience what he has done. I speak as in a hypothetical case: someone enters to rob a house, and he enters as one blind; he does not consider the one he might meet, the one who might seize him, the fear of the judges, the impending danger; for he has been blinded by the disease. When he enters, when he takes, when he goes out after stealing, with no one present, he is filled with fear, he perceives what he has done, and he considers that, if he is sought out, they understand whose work the thing is. And ^C what he did not consider while acting, he considers after acting. For example, the one who commits adultery, throwing himself into strange fire, he enters, and he does not consider that there are laws, tribunals, accusers, sharpened swords; but when he has done it, he fears, he suspects the servant, the maid, the neighbor, the relative; and what he did not see while acting, he sees after acting. Again, someone admonishes another to abstain from evils; even if he is disobedient, habit says to him: "I have often told him, and he did not hear," not because he did not hear. Then, inflicting blows upon him, he says: "I am teaching you to hear"; not that he gives him hearing, but that the blow corrects the preoccupation, and leads him to understanding. Thus also the prophet: *The instruction of the Lord opens my ears* (Is. 50:5). Since therefore the devil had fallen (for I have not forgotten the subject), he knew where he was after falling, and then he came to a perception of what he had done. Therefore he learned from what he suffered, and he says: *You will have your eyes opened*; that is, as even mine were; I know, from when I transgressed, what I suffered; I knew what I suffered, I knew what I missed. Then they ate, and their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. For before this they were naked, and they were not ashamed. They stripped off immortality, the robe of glory was taken away, the body was stripped bare, and it was mud thereafter. Immediately the ingenuity of the arts flourishes. The first art of Adam is tailoring. Before any art he took the leaves of the fig tree, and sewed. What? The one who taught? Who the one who instructed? He received once from God understanding; he was the image of God, and do you doubt his knowledge? When you consider within yourself, whence man first made a plow, who showed him how to make wood, and insert iron, and tighten it, and place a yoke on the oxen; whence a woman found the art of weaving, to take fleece, to wash, to card, to spin, to thin out what was joined, and again to join what had been split; whence this? Who taught the embroiderers embroidery? The loom stands, there is the pattern being sent across, not a hand working, but reason works, reason forms shapes. The craftsman does not apply hands, and the reason of the art forms the garment, of the craftsman. Then the embroiderer does not move a hand, and he raises even in visible shapes the will of the forms. And if you hear that God works, do you think that he works by moving a hand? And if you ask whether they considered this or that? Remembering the first voice, every art, and every ingenuity, and if you say, "How did they?" you have the solution to the perplexity. Image of God, of the one who says, *Let us make man according to our image*, and does he not understand? Image of God, and does he not imitate the Master? He sewed fig leaves.

7. Let those who allegorize be ashamed, who say that paradise is in heaven, and is spiritual. What is it doing in heaven? But let paradise be in heaven; ^D from where do the rivers go out? Are they not from the earth? If paradise is above, it is clear that the rivers flow from above. For did Scripture say, "A river descends from Eden"? But that sophism—the allegorizers laugh at us. For God clothed them, he says, with skins. Did he not sacrifice oxen or sheep, and open a tannery, and perform the art of a tanner? We say, he produced the whole animal without union, without mating. He made what was not from nothing, and could he not make a part of what exists? Therefore they pride themselves; but God never makes a part of an animal; God makes nothing incomplete. He hears skin, and seeks from where. Therefore I too hear blood in Egypt, and I seek from where?

was in the beginning. What did not exist, He made; could He not also make a part of it? The query is: but God never makes a part of an animal; He makes nothing imperfect. He investigates, and asks whence came the blood in Egypt, and I ask, whence did He change the Nile into blood, and what animal did He slaughter? The river became blood, and not a single animal was slaughtered; there were two skins, and He asks from what animals those skins were derived. But even there, [it was a skin] without an animal. Attend to the sequence, even if the voice is weary, and so are we. But that the discourse may not be truncated, having spoken a few quiet words I shall bring the discourse to a close. ^A *He sewed fig leaves.* Would that heretics had learned this art! Adam, having transgressed, learned to sew; heretics, having turned aside, learned to tear. Adam, having transgressed, sewed, so that he might cover up unseemliness; heretics, having become unbelieving, tear, so that they might denude the holy things. Often we hear of the events on the cross, and we marvel that the soldiers took the garments of Christ and divided them, and our mind immediately says: Great is the long-suffering of God, that He did not send down the lightning, that He did not send down the sword. But the Holy One was subjected to insult, and were the profane hands not cut off? Are you amazed that those soldiers dared to divide the garments? Marvel that these men tore the garment of the Church. The soldiers saw the tunic of Christ, seamless, woven from the top throughout, and they spared the garment; but heretics tore, divided, and hacked the attire of Christ, the robe of the Church. But let us return to the subject at hand. *He sewed fig leaves.* They heard God walking, as far as it is possible to hear; they heard, and hid themselves. Grateful is our nature; even if we are sinners a myriad times over, our conscience is free. Sometimes the face is shameless, but the conscience accuses. Sometimes the tongue asks: For what have I sinned? but the conscience reproves from within. Most simple and guileless were they around Adam; they confessed with freedom. God says: *Where art thou?* Many have observed this piously; but one must be careful with the precision. For I also accept theirs, because it is pious; and I say these things, because they are true. Adam, where art thou? Whence? To where have you descended? From what glory have you fallen? I truly accept the thought as pious. For it has both a plausible appearance and a sympathetic character. But I seek the sequence. Adam, where art thou? God asks. He knew, as the Creator, the nature of His creature, that everyone who has sinned is bereft of free speech, and that the mouths of those who sin are sewn shut. He took note that it was because he lacked freedom of speech that he fled. A servant is most anxious when he perceives that his master has learned what has happened; but as long as the master is ignorant, he consoles himself as one who might escape notice. Adam fled as one who had been recognized; God feigned ignorance, so that He might dissolve his fear; as we ourselves say concerning a friend: I acted as though I did not know, so that I might not grieve him. For such things often happen among us. And if such things happen among us, much more so with God, the lover of mankind. ^B *Adam, where art thou?* instead of, I do not know. Then, with God feigning ignorance, the grateful and free soul did not hide: *I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid* (Gen. 3. 10). Why were you afraid? Why did you hide? I was afraid because of the transgression; I hid because of the nakedness. Truly it is possible to weep at the voice of the transgressor. *I heard Thy voice*, that longed-for voice, the one that granted me all things, the one that bestowed upon me good things and provided for me. I heard Thy voice. I considered what kind of voice I spurned, what kind of voice I despised; and I was afraid, having transgressed the commandment of such a Lord; and I hid, *because I am naked*. Then God persists in His exhortation: *Who told thee that thou art naked, unless thou hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee not to eat?* instead of, If you had not by all means done that which I forbade. See how He asks as if ignorant: *Unless thou hast eaten of that tree, of which I commanded thee not to eat.* And look at the loving-kindness of God. *Who told thee?* For this reason He draws out the conversation, that He might dissolve the fear and awaken confidence. For Adam was considering how there was nothing harsh, nothing cutting, no insult, no blows. You have habit as a teacher. If a servant who has sinned approaches his master, from the very first word he receives either courage or fear. If he begins to be angry, and calls him a thief and a deceiver and deserving of myriad deaths, he breaks down; if he hears him reproaching, Poor wretch, what has this become of you? why have you sinned? immediately he gains heart, and is confident for the time being; for he is not punishing as a master, but admonishing as a teacher. So also God: *Who told thee that thou art naked, unless thou hast eaten of that tree of which I commanded thee not to eat?* did I forbid many things? I forbade only one, and this not out of hatred, but out of providence. *Who told thee that thou art naked?* He said nothing shameless, he did not say, I did not know; but what? *The woman, whom Thou gavest to me, she gave to me, and I did eat* (Gen. 3. 12); instead of, The one given to me for assistance. For I heard when I was formed, but she not yet, of Him saying: *Let us make for him a helper like unto him.* The one whom Thou gavest me, she gave to me. He did not say, She deceived me, he did not say, She lied; she gave to me and I ate.

8. Then God says: ^C And was it necessary for you to believe a woman, and not Me? And is the woman more worthy of belief than I? I gave the good things, I honored you with deeds; she lured you with words. And look: just as a judge, if he receives a defense from the one being judged, and does not examine him any further, but moves on to the next, immediately he takes heart, and says: For the time being I have been examined; so also God moves on from Adam, so that He might dissolve his fear, and says to the woman: *What is this that thou hast done?* She says: *The serpent deceived me, and I ate* (Gen. 3. 13). Since she spoke altogether truly, He does not insult the apology of the truth, but leaves her unexamined. He did not say: And was he, namely the serpent, believed above Me? He promised equality with God, and brokered death. But He does not judge immediately, but rather spared her as a weaker vessel, and proceeds to the serpent, that He might convince both him and her that He proceeds toward the author, and says: *Because thou hast done this.* Have you seen a wonderful judge? He asks those who were deceived, He does not ask the one who deceived. He does not say to him, What have you done? but, *Because thou hast done this.* Following this image David says: *The ungodly shall not rise in judgment* (Ps. 1. 5); not that they do not rise, but that they are not examined. *Because thou hast done this.* The threat against the serpent lightened the blows of those who were deceived. If, He says, God did not prescribe all things to that one, He would not have judged him without examination. *Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all the cattle of the earth. Upon thy breast and thy belly...*

^A thou shalt go (Gen. 3. 14). Because thou hast done this—because thou hast deceived the heart and persuaded the belly to taste of a meal—upon thy breast and thy belly thou shalt go. It is not that he had previously been accustomed to feet, that God decrees he should go upon his belly, but because he stood upright when he spoke to the woman. For he could not otherwise have held converse with Eve. The judgment punishes the form of speaking by which he had deceived Eve, casting him out from his established method of progression. For even if he had been formed from the beginning without feet, yet he used to move about erect by means of certain swift, lower-body undulations, riding along on his chest. And even now, the serpent, when enraged, often raises himself up, and running while coiled in a circle, he proceeds as far as is sufficient to refresh the memory of his ancient gait, and then according to the law of the sentence he is again prostrated. *And earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman* (Gen. 3. 15). What does it mean, *Earth shalt thou eat*? Eat that which thou didst procure for Adam to become. For that one is about to hear: *Earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt return*. *I will put enmities between thee and the woman*. Because thou didst deceive her through feigned friendship, thou art cast out as an enemy. This saying has passed into law. ^B Attend, therefore: *Earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life*. See: he does not say to the serpent, "Earth shall be thy food"—for serpents do not always eat earth, but are fed also by flesh and fruits, they eat seeds and grasp at herbs. But this is what he says: You will consume the earth, by creeping upon it.

But some ask: If the devil deceived, why is the serpent cursed? They say: If the devil deceived, why does the serpent receive the curse? He strikes the invisible demon with an invisible blow; he subjects the visible instrument to a visible punishment. Why? Just as God, though invisible, gave as a visible reminder the tree; so the devil, though invisible, speaks to men through the serpent. God therefore subjects the serpent to the curse, so that if the devil has done some evil to someone, that one, seeing the serpent crawling, might remember that it was once erect, and might consider: if the minister of wickedness is punished in this way, how much must his author suffer? Observe, therefore. You find matters akin to this in the Gospel. For just as in the case of the visible serpent He condemned the speaker together with that which was seen, so also in the Gospel, when the demons asked Christ not to be sent into the abyss, and said, *Permit us to enter into the swine* (Luke 8. 32), He allowed them to submerge themselves along with the visible bodies. *Earth shalt thou eat. I will put enmities between thee and the woman*. He changed friendship into hatred, and the saying was turned into law. For men are eager to tame other beasts; but if one sees a serpent, he is immediately incited. For the decree remains: *I will put enmities between thee*. Even if one sees it at home, he desires to kill it. If he sees it on the road, he rushes with fury to kill it. The ancient sentence goads him. If he has inflicted six hundred blows upon a serpent and sees that its head is not wounded, he immediately gives warning: ^C Thou hast not struck the head of the serpent; strike the head, because God says: *He shall watch thy head, and thou shalt watch his heel* (Gen. 3. 15). What does this mean? It does not say, "I will ensure that man abstains from striking thy other members, and only strike the head." For man uses blows on all the members of the serpent so that, wherever he strikes, he may avenge the whole. Furthermore, that which was said by the Lord to the serpent, *Thou shalt watch his heel*, does not signify that it was granted to it to attack the heel; for the serpent sometimes attacks those who are asleep, not rarely it possesses the belly, injects venom, fixes bites into the hands and other members, and into whatever member it falls, it inflicts damage upon it; but the sense of the sentence is this: "No longer," He says, "shall the serpent freely lie in wait for man; but remaining within, thou shalt be afflicted with so great a terror of men that, lurking in caverns, looking out but rarely from the holes in fear, thou shalt merely watch the passing of men, so that thou mightst escape without danger." But man, He says, shall walk freely, watching thy head in the holes, as that of an enemy lurking, not of one speaking in the guise of a friend.

He questioned her who had been deceived: He proceeds to the deceiver. The sentence began from the root, namely from the seducer. Then He came to her who was deceived and threatened. The first voice was spoken to the serpent: *Cursed*. And God said to the woman: *Multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy thy groans* (Gen. 3. 16). He does not curse, so that she might not bear children, because He had already blessed them before: for when He formed them, He says: *And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth* (Gen. 1. 28). But Paul says, *The gifts of God are without repentance* (Rom. 11. 29). He does not, therefore, curse those whom He had blessed: but what? He applies a healing remedy to the wound, sorrows and groanings. It is a kind of sentence that strikes, but promises the solution of the fault. *Multiplying*, He says, *I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy groaning*. Remedies for repentance. Pay attention. Just as doctors bite and soothe with the same remedy, and iron by the same cutting and the same pain provides health, so God gives to the sinning woman two viatica of repentance: sorrow and groaning. What does sorrow and sadness profit? Hear Paul saying: *For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of* (2 Cor. 7. 10). And hear Isaiah: *When thou art turned back, thou shalt groan, then shalt thou be saved* (Is. 30. 15). *Multiplying I will multiply thy sadnesses and thy groaning.* ^D Sadness deforms the outer countenance and makes it sad. With a joyful heart the face flourishes; but when it is in sadness, it is gloomy (Prov. 15. 13). Because the eye had seen the tree and the mind had thought of equality with God, God gives groaning to the heart and sadness to the face, so that she might be punished through those things by which she had sinned, and so that the punishment—nay, salvation itself—might persuade the woman that God did not make the former blessing void. For when He had said, *Fill the earth*, He said, *In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children*. I do not take away childbearing—for once I have blessed—but thou shalt bring forth in labors, in perturbations. This is a most heavy sadness. The Savior testifies to this: *A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow*

She is sorrowful while bringing forth, she is anxious while nourishing; if the child is of age, she is anxious lest he be foolish; if he is away, lest he die, lest he fall ill, lest he be in pain. The man does not have this; for even if the father is anxious, it is not as the mother is, but he consoles himself, saying: "He is a human being; he knows how to look after himself," and he is not anxious. Why? Because he did not hear: *In sorrows shalt thou bring forth children* (Gen. 3. 16). A strange kind of punishment; experience is the witness. When labor pains seize a woman, not even in those very pains does she renounce the man. She does not say: "Would that there were no marriage, would that there were no procreation!" But God does not allow her, even after the experience, to hate the man; but she knows both what she suffered and what she endured, and she loves the man. For this reason: *In sorrows shalt thou bring forth children, and thy turning shall be toward thy husband, and he shall rule over thee*. Since just now you ruled badly, and he became a slave to your choice, I dissolve the sequence; let him rule who was not deceived. For this reason Paul says: *I permit not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man* (1 Tim. 2. 12). For she taught badly at first in Paradise. *Nor to usurp authority over the man*. For she usurped it badly. Therefore, according to this thought does Paul admonish a woman not to teach, because of the things that happened in Paradise. Let us not be clever; listen to him: *I permit not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man*. And in order to show that it is because of the first things, he adds: *For Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression* (Ibid. v. 14).

^A 10. What then? Is the race of women subjected to this sentence, and does it remain in sorrows, and is the bond not broken? Christ came, the one who breaks the bond; the Theotokos came, interceding on behalf of the race, the holy Virgin instead of the [virgin] Eve; for Eve was a virgin when she sinned; she dissolved the sorrow and the sighing of the condemned woman. For just as if someone is called to the palace, he is eager to honor his own, and if they are in need, to release them; so the holy Virgin, having been called to the palace to serve in the divine birth, having come to strange birth pains, asks for this first grace, or rather, receives it. Since it was not fitting for the condemned woman to give birth to Him who is free from liability, He comes who first dissolves Eve's sorrow through joy. The angel comes saying to the Virgin: *Hail, full of grace* (Luke 1. 28). Then by the "Hail" he breaks the bond of sorrow. "Hail": He has come who dissolves the sorrow. *Hail, full of grace*; because until now she was under a curse. Here, pay attention to the grace of God. *Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with thee*. Since with her the serpent was in sorrow, [now] "hail," because with thee is God. And look at the voice of the angel, how it interprets the whole economy of Christ. *Hail, full of grace*. Since she had received a double curse, the sorrow and the sighing over the birth pains, He introduces the birth that dissolves that former birth. *Behold, thou shalt conceive in the womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus* (Ibid. v. 31). *For he shall save his people from their sins* (Matt. 1. 21). The fruit budding from you dissolves the sins of your ancestors. The situation was thenceforth changed. Until today, those who hear about Eve lament her: "Woe to the wretch, from what glory she fell! Woe to the wretch, what she suffered!" Mary hears herself called blessed by all every day, having been truly filled with the Holy Spirit. ^B And this Virgin, having already prophesied, listen to what she says: *Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed* (Luke 1. 68 et 48). To show that she bears the person of Eve, [saying] "until now" abused, "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." And what, he says, does it profit her not to hear? Truly indeed she does hear, from being in a luminous place, in the land of the living, the mother of salvation, the fountain of perceptible light; perceptible because of the flesh, intelligible because of the divinity. Thus then, throughout she is called blessed. But also while she was still living in the flesh, she was called blessed: for she heard the blessing while still in the flesh. That one first saw, and then tasted of the tree; this one first spoke, and then heard the blessing. For when the Savior was teaching, *a certain woman lifted up her voice out of the crowd, and says to him, all hearing: Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked* (Luke 11. 27). But upon Adam God fulfilled the sentence, or rather, the healing of repentance, and says: *Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy works* (Gen. 3. 17). ^C Again, the blessed [earth] does not receive the curse, but the earth [does]. One sinned, and another is struck. Just as Eve's curse—or rather, her admonition (for it was not a curse, but a correction)—just as Eve's admonition, *In sorrows shalt thou bring forth* (for every woman gives birth in sorrows), remained until now; so also that of Adam: *Cursed is the earth in thy works*. Our works are lawless, and the earth is whipped. We sin, and the earth receives the curse. God spares the creature, as of a noble child, and strikes the earth as a tutor. *Cursed is the earth in thy works*. Do not pay attention to nature, but to the grace of God. He did not say, "Cursed is the earth," since it remained cursed and did not bring forth fruit, as He said to the fig tree, *Let no fruit grow on thee!* and it withered; so [the earth] was to have become; but He says: *In thy works*. When I sin, the earth is struck; when I prosper, He blesses it. And look at the wonder. When God created the earth, the sea, the birds, the reptiles, the beasts, the man, He blessed all; He did not bless the fruits, since He knew that this punishment was kept for the earth, that when humans sinned it might receive infertility, and when acting rightly it might receive fertility. He did not bless the fruits; for the gift was irrevocable: *Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee*. You scorned, He says, the great things; be struck by the small ones. Look how the chastisements are also commensurate. A thorn cannot kill; it can only draw blood. *And thou shalt eat* [the fruit of] *the earth in sorrows*. That one gives birth in sorrows; you eat in sorrows. For the ancient sentence remains until now. And look for me at the rich man, the poor man, the ruler, the great man, if it is possible to find his life without sorrow, or without anxiety. Why? Because of *In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread* (Gen. 3. 19). You did not wish to live with ease; eat in sweat. He does not punish him with famine, but subjects him to punishment and to labor. Hence, you, the believer, consider this: If Adam did not—