NOTICE ON THE TWO BOOKS AGAINST THE GENTILES AND ON THE INCARNATION.
I. Jerome, in his book *On Ecclesiastical Writers*, mentioned the two books of Athanasius *Against the Gentiles* in this manner: "There circulate two books of his against the Gentiles," etc. Photius, however, in the passage cited above, names the former book *Against the Gentiles*, and the latter *On the Incarnation*. And yet it is well-established that these books, whatever inscription they may bear, are the same ones mentioned by Jerome. For, from the manner of their arrangement, the second book coheres natively with the first; and its major part was written at the beginning against the Gentiles and the most foul images of feigned deities, while the remainder is about the Incarnation, so that it might justly and deservedly have been inscribed by either title. Nevertheless, both the edited volumes and all the manuscripts inscribe the latter *On the Incarnation*.
II. As to the year in which Athanasius brought these works to light, it is nowhere recorded. There are, however, no light conjectures by which we may be led close to the proper terminus of the time. For—what is most worthy of observation—in the latter [book], although many things are brought forward to demonstrate the deity of Christ, nothing appears which might indicate either that the Arian heresy had already arisen or which smells of battles initiated against the Arians. And although the very thing comes here to be proven against the Jews which was afterwards asserted against the Arians—namely, the deity of Christ—the arguments are entirely different, as is the manner of debating. For if a struggle had already been waged with the Arians, even if Athanasius had wished to conceal the name of Arius on purpose (which is not at all likely), some signs of an already initiated struggle would nevertheless remain, as is wont to happen in such matters. Whence we judge that these were written before the Arian turmoils arose, in about the year 318.
Thus, therefore, Athanasius, having entered upon the fight for Christ while he was scarcely yet of an age capable of such warfare, immediately overcomes the most ferocious enemies of the Christian faith, namely the Gentiles and the Jews. Yet he does not leave other adversaries of the true faith—the Manichaeans, of course, whose heresy was then spreading, the Marcionites, the Valentinians, and the rest—untouched; nay, he attacks them most powerfully, wherever the occasion arises. Much less would he have abstained from the Arians, had they already begun to assail the true doctrine; for the Arian heresy attacked the deity of Christ with a more vehement impulse than all other heresies of previous ages. If it had already begun to show signs against the faith, would one believe that our athlete would have declined the fight? There is another basis from which a certain reasoning about the time might perhaps be drawn: after Athanasius had agitated the *apotheōseis* (apotheoses) of the Gentiles, he proceeds in these words: *“And do not marvel, nor deem that which is said to be far from the truth, when even not long ago, or perhaps even until now, the Roman senate decrees that those who from the beginning have ever ruled them as emperors—either all of them, or whomsoever they themselves wish and judge—are among the gods, and they record that they should be worshipped as gods.”*
That is: “Which indeed you should not marvel at, nor deem to be far from the faith, when it is not so long ago, but perhaps even at this time, that the Roman Senate decrees—of those whom it has had as emperors from the beginning, either all, or at least whom it pleases—that they are worthy of such honor, and commands that they be worshipped as if they were gods.” From this, one might perhaps infer that these books were written when Constantine had indeed approached the faith—for in the year 313 he embraced the Christian worship—yet the Roman Senate had not immediately laid aside that inveterate and impious custom of consecrating emperors, because Constantine could not immediately from the beginning abolish execrated rites. We have thought it right to present this passage to the learned reader, not because we think a valid argument can be derived from it, but so that we may leave the matter to his judgment.
III. As concerns the style, one must admit that there is scarcely anything in that genre embellished with such concinnity; one must surely marvel at the elegance, the wit, the force of the argument, and the varied erudition, most of all in the first *Oration*, which holds a place among the primary fruits of such a man. You see that Athanasius is unaware of nothing that concerns the theology of the Gentiles, or rather their *mataiologian* (vain talk), and that he is very well-versed in the books of Homer, Plato, and other writers, as became one who undertook such a task. Furthermore, in the *Oration on the Incarnation*, he demonstrates the truth of the Christian religion and the incarnation of Jesus Christ with powerful arguments. The *Oration Against the Gentiles* is praised in the second Council of Nicaea, in the passage cited below. Concerning the *Oration* which is inscribed *On the Incarnation*, Felckmann has this: “The title of this oration in all our copies is *Peri enanthrōpēseōs*, and it is so cited also by Theodoret, *Dialog.* 3, *tō apathetic*, where he adduces some of its passages, which see below.” Pope Adrian I, in his epistle to the Emperors Constantine and Irene, which exists in the acts of the seventh oecumenical or second Nicene council, act 11, citing this, also describes it as: “Concerning the fact that the Lord assumed human flesh.” See the passage which he extracted below. Photius, in his *Bibliotheca* (in the passage to be brought forward below), calls this *logos* “*Peri ensōmatōseōs tou Theou Logou*” (On the Incarnation of God the Word). For I judge that he is speaking of these, and not of the one below of the same subject against Apollinarius. The handwritten codices, five of which we possessed—namely the Basilian, the Anglican, the Goblerian I and II—do not agree whether this anonymous and uncertain piece is a *logos* (discourse), or oration, or book, or epistle, or some other such treatise. For the Basilian calls it a *logos*, the others all are silent and leave it in doubt. Furthermore, that word, *Theou* (of God), is not in the inscription except in number II alone, in which use was made of collecting the letters. So Felckmann.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ORATION AGAINST THE GENTILES
A 1. The knowledge of the worship of God and of the truth regarding all things has less need of instruction from men than it has of its own light; for it cries out by its works almost daily, and, by the teaching of Christ, shows itself to be clearer than the sun. Yet, since you desire to hear about this, my blessed friend, come, let us set forth in such way as we are able a few things concerning the faith in Christ, which you could indeed find for yourself from the divine oracles, but which it is noble to hear from others as well. For the holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the announcement of the truth; there are also many compositions of our blessed teachers concerning these matters, and if one studies these, he will in some measure grasp the interpretation of the Scriptures and will be able to attain the knowledge he seeks. But since we do not now have the teachers’ compositions in our hands, it is necessary to recount and write to you what we have learned from them—I mean, the faith in Christ the Savior—so that no one may deem the teaching of our doctrine cheap, nor suppose that the faith in Christ is irrational, B as the Greeks, slandering and mocking us, loudly laugh at us, bringing forward nothing but the cross of Christ. At which especially one might pity their lack of perception, that they, in slandering the cross, do not see its power filling the whole world, and that through it the works of the knowledge of God have been made manifest to all.
For had they themselves also applied their minds with a sincere and attentive spirit to His divinity, they would not have mocked such a great thing, but would rather have recognized Him as the Savior of all, and have confessed that the cross was not a destruction of things but a healing of creation. For if, upon the cross being raised, all idolatry was overturned, and every fantasy of demons is driven away by this sign, and Christ alone is worshipped, and by Him the Father is known, and those who contradict are put to shame, while He daily and secretly changes the souls of those who contradict—how (for one might reasonably say to them) is it still possible to imagine that the matter is a human one, and not rather to confess that He who ascended the cross is the Word of God and Savior of all? It seems to me that these men suffer something similar to someone who might disparage the sun covered by clouds while still admiring its light, seeing that the whole of creation is illuminated by it. For just as the light is good, and the sun, the author of the light, is better, so, since it is a divine thing that the whole world is filled with His knowledge, it is necessary that the author and leader of such an achievement be God and the Word of God. B We speak, therefore, as far as is possible for us, having first refuted the ignorance of the unbelievers; so that, with the falsehoods refuted, the truth may subsequently shine forth by itself, and you yourself, O man, may be confident that you have believed in the truth, and that in knowing Christ you have not been deceived. I believe it is fitting for you, being a lover of Christ, that these things concerning Christ be discussed, since you have believed that the knowledge and faith concerning Him are more precious than all things.
2. In the beginning, there was no wickedness; for it does not exist even now in the saints, nor does it exist at all according to them. But men afterwards began to devise it and to fashion it against themselves; hence they also invented for themselves the notion of idols, considering things that are not as if they were. For the Creator and King of all, God, who is beyond every essence and human thought, being as He is good and supremely beautiful, made the human race according to His own image through His own Word, our Savior Jesus Christ; and through the likeness to Himself, He made man a spectator and knower of existing things, giving him also an understanding and knowledge of His own eternity, so that, C keeping his identity, he might never depart from the fantasy concerning God, nor spring away from the conversation of the saints, but, having the grace of the Giver, and having also his own power from the paternal Word, he might rejoice and converse with the Divine, living the harmless and truly blessed immortal life. For having no impediment to the knowledge of the Divine, he contemplates—
A the image of the Father, the Word of God, according to whose image also he was made, and is struck with the greatest admiration as he contemplates the Providence through Him for the whole, having become above sensible things and every bodily imagination, and being conjoined by the power of the mind to the divine and intelligible things in the heavens. For when the mind of men does not converse with bodies, nor has any mixture of desire from them from without, but is entirely above, remaining with itself as it was made from the beginning, then indeed, having passed beyond sensible things and all human matters, it becomes lifted up on high, and seeing the Word, it beholds in Him the Father of the Word, rejoicing in the contemplation of Him, and being renewed by the desire for Him. Even so, the first of men—who was also called Adam according to the Hebrew tongue, as the holy Scriptures say—the holy Scriptures relate that in the beginning he had his mind directed towards B God with shameless boldness, and lived together with the holy ones in that contemplation of intelligible things which he had in that place which the holy Moses tropically called Paradise. For the purity of the soul is sufficient to behold God through itself, even as the Lord says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
3. Thus, then, the Creator, as has been said, fashioned the race of men and willed it to remain so; but men, having made light of better things and having grown sluggish concerning the apprehension of them, sought out the things nearer to themselves. And nearer to them were the body and the senses of the body. Whence they turned their mind away from intelligible realities C and began to contemplate themselves. And contemplating themselves, and perceiving both the body and the other sensible things, and being deceived as if in their own, they fell into the desire for themselves, preferring their own over the contemplation of divine things; and lingering in these, and not wishing to depart from the nearer things, they enclosed their soul with the pleasures of the body, being troubled and defiled by every desire; and they completely forgot the power they had from God from the beginning. And one may see that this is true also from the first-formed man, as the holy Scriptures say about him. For he, D while he had his mind towards God and the contemplation of Him, turned away from the contemplation of the body; but when, by the counsel of the serpent, he departed from his disposition towards God and began to contemplate himself, then he fell into the desire of the body, and
they knew that they were naked, and knowing it were ashamed. They knew themselves to be naked not so much by reason of garments, but because they had become naked of the contemplation of divine things, and had transferred their mind to the contrary. For having departed from the understanding of and desire for Him who is One and truly is—I speak of God—they subsequently fell into the various and distinct lusts of the body. Then, as is wont to happen, having formed a desire for each and many things, they began to have such a relationship with them that they even feared to leave them behind. B Hence, too, cowardice, fears, pleasures, and the perception of mortal things came into the soul. For unwilling to depart from these lusts, it fears death and the separation of the body. And desiring them again, but not obtaining the same things, it learned to slay and to act unjustly. But it is reasonable to explain, as far as I am able, how it does these things:
4. Having departed from the contemplation of intelligible things and having wrongly used the faculties for the parts of the body, and being delighted by the contemplation of the body, and seeing that pleasure appeared to it to be good, it wandered and abused the name of "the good," and thought that pleasure itself was the truly good thing—just as if someone, struck in his mind, were to demand a sword against all whom he meets, and imagine that this is to be wise. Entangled, moreover, by the love of pleasure, it began to exercise it in various ways. For being in its nature easily moved, even if it turned away from things that are good, it does not cease to be moved. It is moved, therefore, no longer according to virtue, nor so as to see God, but C thinking on what is not, it transmutes its own power, abusing it for the things it has devised in its lusts, since it has also become possessed of free will. For just as it can incline toward good things, so it can turn away from them; and turning away from the good, it by all means thinks on the contrary things; for it cannot cease from movement at all, being, as I said, in its nature most easily moved. And knowing its own free will, it sees that it can use the members of the body for both things that are and things that are not; and things that are are the good things, while things that are not are the evil things. I say that the good things "are" D inasmuch as they have their patterns from God who truly is; but I say that evil things "are not," inasmuch as, being nothing, they were fashioned by the imaginations of men. For since the body has eyes for seeing the creation, and for knowing the Creator through this all-harmonious arrangement; and since it has ears for the hearing of divine oracles and the laws of God; and since it has hands both for the performance of necessary tasks and for the stretching forth of prayer to God; the soul, having departed from the contemplation of the things that are good and from the motion within them, thereafter wandering, is moved towards the contrary. Then, seeing its own power—as I said—and abusing it, it began...
to understand that it could move the members of the body even in contrary ways. From this point, instead of the contemplation of nature, it turned its eyes toward desires, showing that it could also do this, and thinking that, once set in motion, it preserves its own value, and does not sin by doing what it is A able to do; and it did not know that it was created not to move simply, but to move toward those things which are fitting, as this voice of the Apostle very well warns: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient."
5. But the audacity of men, looking not to that which is expedient and becoming, but to that which it had the power to do, began to act in contrary ways; whence, moving its hands in a contrary manner, it ordered slaughters to be committed; it turned its ears toward disobedience; it permitted other members, given for the legitimate procreation of children, to serve for lewdness and adulteries; it applied the tongue, granted to us for blessing, to slandering, cursing, and perjury; it abused its hands again for stealing and beating like men, its sense of smell for tracking down various erotic scents, the speed of its feet for the shedding of blood; it finally gave the belly over to drunkenness and insatiable gluttony; all of which things are vices and sins of the soul, whose only cause is that it turns itself away from higher things. For indeed, the same thing seems to have befallen it as happens to a charioteer who, having ascended to drive his horses in a stadium, neglects the turning post toward which he ought to steer, and, having turned away from it, merely takes care to drive the horse as he can (yet he can do so as he chooses); and sometimes he lashes out at B everyone he meets, and sometimes he drives toward precipitous places, carried wherever the swiftness of the horses sweeps him, thinking that, while he runs in this way, he is not wandering from the goal, since he has only the running set before his eyes, and does not perceive that he has been carried outside the goal. Thus, surely, the soul, having turned away from the way that leads to God, and driving the members of the body beyond what is becoming—or rather, being driven itself along with them by its own impulse—sins and fashions evil for itself, not seeing that it has wandered from the way and is roaming outside the goal of truth, which the blessed Paul, who bore Christ within himself, having before his eyes, spoke thus: "I press toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of Jesus Christ." And so the holy Apostle, since he had the Good itself as his goal and end, never did anything evil.
6. Some of the Gentiles, indeed, wandering from the way of truth and not knowing Christ, maintained that malice is some substance and exists by itself; in which opinion they surely err for these two reasons: either by denying the Creator of things that are; for C there would not be a Lord of things that are, if indeed in accordance... D
with them, evil possesses its own substance and nature; or again, if they wish Him to be the Creator of all things, they must necessarily concede that He is also the author of evil, since, according to them, evil is a thing that exists. But it is very clear that this is absurd and impossible; for evil does not originate from the good, nor is it in Him, nor is it through Him; since then it would no longer be good, as it would possess a mixed nature or be the cause of evil B. Heretics, too, who have fallen away from the ecclesiastical doctrine and have made shipwreck of the faith, foolishly believe that evil has some substance, and they invent for themselves another god besides the true Father of Christ, whom they also hold to be unbegotten, the author of evil, the source of wickedness, and the maker of created nature. But they can easily be refuted both from the divine Scriptures and from the very intelligence which exists in men, by which they have foolishly imagined these things. Therefore, to start with the authority of Scripture, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, confirming the words of Moses in His own Gospels, says: *The Lord God is one*. And: *I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth*. If therefore God is one, and He is the Lord of heaven and earth, how could there be another god besides Him? Where, indeed, would their god exist, when the one true God fills all things within the compass of heaven and earth? How could there be another maker of those things of which God Himself—the Father of Christ—is Lord, as the Savior Himself attests by His own mouth? Unless, perhaps, they might say—as happens in a state of parity—that the god of evil can be lord over the good God. But if they think so, see into what great impiety they fall. For among those who have equal power, one cannot find anyone who excels or is stronger. For if one exists against the will of the other, certainly the power and the weakness of both are equal; equal in power, because one by existing overcomes the will of the other; but weakness, because against their will things occur contrary to their desire; for the good exists against the will of the evil, and the evil exists against the will of the good.
7. Moreover, one might say to them: If the things that appear are the works of the evil one, what is the work of the good one? For nothing appears except the nature which the Creator established. What then is the sign that the good exists, while there are no works of His by which He could be known? For the maker is known from His works. How, indeed, could two things be opposed to one another, or what is it that divides them, so that they might exist separately from one another? For it is impossible for them to exist together, since they are mutually destructive. Nor could one exist in the other, due to their mutually unmixed and dissimilar nature.
Therefore, a third thing will appear, which separates them, and that itself is God. But of what nature would that third thing be? Would it be of the nature of good, or of evil? It will appear to be uncertain. For it is impossible for it to be of the nature of both. Since, therefore, such a way of thinking among them clearly appears to be rotten, the truth of ecclesiastical knowledge must necessarily shine forth: that evil is not from God, nor in God, nor from the beginning, nor is it any substance of His. Rather, human beings, having lost the contemplation of the good, began to invent and fashion for themselves things that do not exist, and whatever they desire. For just as if someone, while the sun is shining and its rays are illuminating the whole world, were to close his eyes and imagine for himself darkness—which, however, is not—and then walk as if wandering in darkness, often falling and going over cliffs, thinking that it is not light, but darkness—for while he thinks he sees, he sees nothing at all—so too the human soul, having closed the eye by which it is able to see God, has imagined evils for itself, in which it is moving, not knowing that, while it deems itself to be doing something, it does nothing; for it is fashioning things that do not exist. And it has not remained in the state in which it was created; rather, it appears as it has defiled itself. For it was created to see God and to be illuminated by Him; but it, instead of God, sought perishable things and darkness, as the Spirit also writes somewhere: God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices. Thus, the discovery and invention of wickedness arose and was fashioned among men from the beginning. And it is now necessary to speak of the manner in which they have fallen into the madness of idols, so that you may know that the invention of idols in no way arose from what is good, but from wickedness. And that which has a wicked beginning can never be judged as good in any respect, being entirely evil. A
8. Nor being content, the soul of man, with the invention of wickedness, began little by little to urge itself onto worse things. For after it learned various kinds of pleasures, and became oblivious to divine things, delighted by bodily affections, and paying attention only to present things and to the vain opinions held concerning these, it thought that nothing existed beyond what can be perceived by sight, and that only temporal and bodily things were good. Thus, turned away from the true, and having forgotten that it was made in the image of the good God, it no longer sees God the Word—in whose image it was created—by its own power; but, carried out of itself, it thinks of and fashions things that do not exist. B For, having obstructed—by the entanglements of bodily desires—that which is in it like a mirror, through which alone it could behold the image of the Father, it no longer perceives what a soul ought to understand, but is carried about in every direction, and sees only those things which fall C upon the senses. D
Those things, filled with all the desires of the flesh and A disturbed by the false opinions which it imbibes from them, at last imagine that God, whom the mind has forgotten, exists in bodily and sensible things; and so, by giving the name of God to visible things, the soul embraces and considers only those things which please it and which it looks upon as delightful. The primary cause of idolatry, therefore, is malice. For just as men learned to fabricate for themselves malice—which is not a real thing—so too they fabricated for themselves gods that do not exist. It is exactly as if someone, having plunged into the abyss, could no longer see B the light or the things revealed by the light, because his eyes were turned downward and he was overwhelmed by the mass of water; and thus, perceiving only the things in the abyss, he might think that nothing exists beyond them, and that the things appearing to him are the chief of all beings. In the same way, the mindless men of old, having plunged into the passions and fantasies of the flesh and having forgotten the conception and knowledge of God, used their reason dully—or rather, acted without reason—and imaged the sensible things as gods, honoring the creation instead of the Creator and glorifying the works rather than their Artificer and Maker, the Lord God. And just as in the aforementioned example, those who descend into C the abyss are drawn ever deeper and into darker places the further they go down, so too has it happened to the human race. For they did not end their idolatry with a simple act, nor did they remain in the state where they began; but the longer they spent in their first errors, the more they invented newer superstitions for themselves. Not satisfied with the first ones, they plunged themselves again into other evils, advancing in the most disgraceful acts and extending their impiety still further. Divine Scripture testifies to this, saying: "When the ungodly comes into the depth of evils, he acts with contempt" (Prov. XVIII, 3).
9. For when the mind of D men had turned away from God, and as they descended in their thoughts and reasonings, men first ascribed the honor of God to the heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars, thinking them to be not only gods, but also the causes of other things that succeed them. Afterwards, descending further in their darkened reasonings, they called the ether and the air and the things in the air "gods." And as they progressed in their wickedness, they went so far as to hymn the very elements and the sources of the composition of bodies—namely, the hot and the cold, the dry and the moist substance—as gods. And just as those who have fallen completely to the earth crawl about like snails on the ground, so do these most impious of men, having fallen and turned away from the thought of the true knowledge of God, [have left] men and the likenesses of men...
both still living and already dead, and have set them up as gods. A And proceeding to even worse designs, they transferred the divine and supercelestial name of God to reptiles, to aquatic and land animals, and to the wild beasts of the irrational creation, attributing to them the entire honor due to God, while turning away from the true and only truly existing God, the Father of Christ. Would that the madness of these senseless men had at least stopped here, and that they had not gone further to defile themselves with even greater kinds of impiety! For some have fallen so far in their understanding and their mind has been so darkened that they have even invented and deified things which do not exist at all, nor appear among created things. For by mixing rational with irrational, and yoking together things that are by nature unlike, they were not ashamed to worship them as gods. B Such, certainly, are those gods who among the Egyptians have the heads of dogs, serpents, and asses, and among the Libyan peoples, Ammon with the head of a ram. Others have taken parts of the body—the head, the shoulders, the hand, and the foot—and divided them up, setting each one up as a god and divinizing it, as if they were not content to accord religious worship to the whole body in its entirety. And others, spreading their impiety still further, have deified pleasure and desire—which were the very occasion of their malice and such great impiety—and worship them; such are the Eros among them, and Aphrodite on the island of Paphos. Still others, as if ambitiously emulating worse things, have dared to number among the gods their own rulers or their children, either out of respect for them or from fear of their tyranny. Such is the most famous Jupiter among the Cretans, C and Mercury in Arcadia, and Dionysus or Bacchus among the Indians, and Isis, Osiris, and Orus among the Egyptians. Such also in these times was Antinous, the favorite of Hadrian, the Roman emperor; although they know him to have been a human being, and not a respectable or honorable human being at all, but one full of impurity, yet they worship him out of fear for the one who issued the command. For when Hadrian was staying in the region of Egypt, he ordered that Antinous, the minister of his pleasure, who had departed from this life, be worshipped—at once testifying that he himself burned with love for the youth even after his death, while at the same time providing an argument for his own just censure and a monument against all idolatry, so that it might be manifest that it was invented by men in no other way than through the vain desire of those who devised it; which the Wisdom of God also declares with these words: "The beginning of fornication is the inquiry after idols." And do not wonder at this, nor think it far from being credible, D seeing that not long ago—or perhaps even at this very time—the Roman Senate has been accustomed to place among the gods, to be worshipped, the kings who have ruled over them from the beginning, either all of them, or whomever they themselves choose and judge.
For they acknowledge the nature of those against whom they are hostile and call them men, as being enemies; but those whom they love and hold dear, they command to be worshipped for their merit, as if they themselves had the power to make gods, they who are surely men and do not deny that they are mortal. For those indeed who make gods ought rather to be considered gods themselves than those whom they make gods. Since the thing that makes must be superior to the thing that is made; and he who judges is of necessity the master of him who is judged; and he who gives anything bestows surely what he possesses; just as, indeed, every emperor bestows what he himself possesses, and is more powerful and greater than those who receive it. B If, therefore, they decree that whomever they themselves wish are gods, they ought themselves first to be gods. But this is the amazing thing, that they themselves, dying as men, openly prove that their own judgment concerning those made gods by them is false.
10. Nor is this custom, indeed, recent, or one that had its beginning from the Roman senate, but it was invented and established long before for the formation of idols. For those who for so long a time were celebrated as gods among the Greeks, Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Vulcan, Mercury, and among the females Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Diana, obtained divinity by the edicts of Theseus, whom the histories of the Greeks especially commend. Hence, those who ordained these things are mourned as men who have died; but those whom they determined to be gods are worshipped as gods. C Oh, what great contradiction and madness! They know the one who ordained it, yet they prefer those whom he ordained! And would that their idolatry had stopped with the males, and that they had not carried the divine name over to females! For they even worship and venerate with divine honors women whom it is not even safe to admit into a public council regarding affairs, such as those which, as we have said above, were related among the deities by the prescription of Theseus, and among the Egyptians Isis, and the Maiden [Kore], and the Younger [Neotera], and among others Venus. For I do not deem it proper to even speak the ridiculous names of the others, being full of every mockery. For many, not only in ancient times but also in our own days, having lost their dearest ones, brothers and relatives and wives—and many women having lost their husbands (all of whom nature convicts of being mortal men)—out of the intensity of their sorrow, have painted them, and having fashioned sacrifices, have dedicated them, whom those who came after, because of the painting of the image and the industry of the craftsman, have worshipped as gods, a thing acting contrary to nature. For those whom their parents mourned as not being gods (for they would not have mourned them if they had known them D to be gods), those who came after, because of the depiction and the ambition of the craftsman, worshipped as gods, suffering a thing not according to nature.
A For this reason, not only did they not consider them to be gods, but indeed they did not believe they existed at all; yet they formed them in an image, so that by seeing the likeness through the image, they might find consolation for the fact that they no longer existed. Nevertheless, the foolish pray to these as gods and attribute to them the honor due to the true God. Indeed, in Egypt even today, the lamentation for the loss of Osiris, B of Horus, of Typhon, and of the others is still performed; and the bronze vessels at Dodona, and the Corybantes in Crete, provide evidence that Zeus was not a god, but a man, and one born of a man-eating father. And the amazing thing is that even that man so very famous among the Greeks for wisdom and who boasted much, as though he had attained knowledge of God—Plato—goes down to the Piraeus with Socrates to worship an Artemis fashioned by human art.
11. Now, Scripture long ago comprehended these and similar inventions of idolatry with these words: "For the beginning of fornication is the invention of idols, and their discovery is the corruption of life. For they were not from the beginning, and they will not be forever. C For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore a brief end was devised for them. For a father, suffering under untimely grief, having made an image of the child who was quickly taken away, began to honor him who had then died as a man, as if he were now alive, and he delivered mysteries and rites to those under him. Then, with time, the impious custom became strengthened and was kept as a law. And by the commands of tyrants, the carved images were worshipped. D For when men could not honor them in person because they lived far away, they took from afar the likeness of the royal countenance, and made a visible image of the honored king, in order to flatter the absent one as though he were present through their zeal. And for the increase of religion and veneration, the exceptional diligence of the craftsman also spurred on the ignorant; for he, perhaps wanting to please the ruler, exerted his art and industry to the utmost to express the likeness as perfectly as possible. The crowd, furthermore, enticed by the elegance of the work, deemed him who but a little while before was honored as a man to be a deity; and this became a snare in their life, because men, serving either misfortune or tyranny, imposed the incommunicable Name upon stones and wood. Since, therefore, the invention of idols having begun in this fashion among men, as Scripture testifies, and having been fashioned, it is time now for you to demonstrate the refutation of it, which, that we may perform, we shall not gather arguments so much from outside as from those very things which they themselves hold concerning their own deities
A. For if any one were to examine the deeds of those who are called gods among them—that I may begin first from the things below—he will find that not only are they not gods, but that they have been the most disgraceful of men. For example, what is it to see the loves and lewdness of Zeus in the poets? What is it to hear of him B stealing away Ganymede, and committing clandestine adulteries, while fearing and trembling lest the walls of the Trojans be destroyed against his will? What could one conceive of as more unworthy than to see him grieving over the death of his own son Sarpedon, and wishing to help him, yet unable to do so? And what, I ask, can be more miserable than to perceive him being plotted against by others who are called gods—I mean Athena, Hera, and Poseidon—and being helped by Thetis, a woman, and the hundred-handed Aegaeon; and being overcome by pleasures, and enslaved to women, and for their sake risking himself by taking on the phantasms of brute animals, both four-footed creatures and birds? And again, to see him hiding because of his father's plot, and Saturn being bound by him, and he himself mutilating his father? Is it therefore right to consider him a god, who has done such things, and has been accused of actions which not even the common laws of the Romans permit to be done by common men?
12. For that I may recount a few from the many because of their multitude, who, having seen his lawlessness and defilement toward Semele, and Leda, and Alcmene, and Artemis, and Leto, and Maia, and Europa, and Danaë, and Antiope; or who, having seen his enterprise C and audacity toward his own sister—that he had the same person as both sister and wife—would not scoff at him and deem him worthy of death? For he1 not only committed adultery, but also, having deified the children born to him from his adultery, he set them up, fabricating the phantasy of deification as a cover for his own lawlessness: of whom are Dionysus and Heracles, and the Dioscuri, and Hermes, and Perseus, and Soteira. Who, having seen the irreconcilable strife of the so-called gods among themselves at Ilium for the sake of the Greeks and the Trojans, will not condemn their weakness, that because of their rivalry with one another they even incited men? Who, having seen Ares D and Aphrodite wounded by Diomedes, and Hera and that one whom they call a god, Aidoneus, the one under the earth, wounded by Heracles, and Dionysus by Perseus, and Athena by Arcas, and Hephaestus being thrown down and limping, will not condemn their nature, and turn away from calling them gods any longer, [but rather recognize them as] mortal?
A And who, seeing the adultery of Ares with Aphrodite, and the snare prepared by Hephaestus against them both, and the other so-called gods summoned by Hephaestus to view this adultery, and seeing them arrive and witness their unchastity, would not laugh and condemn their baseness? Or who would not laugh to see the drunken madness and debauchery of Heracles toward Omphale? For there is no need to examine with great diligence their deeds of pleasure, their irrational loves, and the images of them fashioned in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood; for the things themselves are execrable by their own nature, and bear the mark of error, B and by themselves demonstrate the character of the deception—on account of which one should rather pity those who are deceived by them. For they who would be filled with the greatest hatred for an adulterer who dared to approach their own wife, do not blush to make gods of the teachers of adultery; and they who themselves shrink from mingling with their sisters, venerate those who did so; and while they confess that the seduction of boys is an evil, they worship those who are proclaimed to be guilty of this very sin; and finally, they are not ashamed to attribute to those whom they call gods, deeds which the laws of men forbid.
13. Furthermore, when they worship stones and wood, they do not C notice that they tread underfoot and burn things that are entirely similar to [the gods], whose parts they call gods, and that they foolishly worship [as sculpted] the same things that they used just before; for while they do this, they certainly do not notice, nor do they reflect at all, that they are not worshipping gods, but the art of the sculptor. For as long as the stone is unhewn and the material raw, they tread upon these things to D that extent, and often use them for their own purposes, even the basest ones; but when the craftsman has exercised his art upon them, and has impressed upon the material the shape of a man or a woman, then, acknowledging their debt to the craftsman, they worship them as gods, having bought them for money from the sculptor. And often the sculptor himself, as if forgetting what he himself has crafted, prays to his own works, and the things which he was carving and cutting a while before, these same things, once the work is finished, he greets as gods. Yet if those things were worthy of admiration, it would have been proper to praise and admire the art of the sculptor, not to prefer what was fashioned to the sculptor himself. For it is not the material that has graced the art, but the art that has graced the material and made it a god. Therefore, it would have been much more just to worship the craftsman rather than the things he made, both because he is prior in time to those gods made by art, and because they were made according to his will. But now, having rejected justice and having held science and art in low esteem, they worship that which is [made] by science and art.
And although the man who was their author dies, they worship the things made by him as if they were immortal, which, if they did not receive daily care, would surely disappear in time by their very nature. And how could one not pity them for this very reason: that they themselves, who see, worship things that do not see; and they themselves, who hear, pray to things that do not hear; and although they are men, endowed by nature with soul and reason, they proclaim as gods things that do not move at all, but are even A inanimate? And the marvelous thing is that those whom they themselves guard and keep under their power, these they serve as masters! And do not think that I am saying these things lightly, or that I speak falsely against them; for the evidence of these things meets even the eyes, and whoever wishes may see such spectacles.
14. There is B a stronger testimony for these things from the divine Scripture, which taught us this from of old, saying: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have eyes, and will not see; they have a mouth, and will not speak. They have ears, and will not hear; they have noses, and will not smell. They have hands, and will not feel; they have feet, and will not walk; they will not speak in their throat. Let those who make them become like them." Nor is the Prophet’s censure lacking regarding these, but in them too is the refutation, where the Spirit says: "They shall be ashamed C who fashion God, and all who carve vain things; and all from whence they were made have withered; and let all the deaf from among men be gathered together, and let them stand up together, and let them be confounded and ashamed together; because the smith sharpened the iron, and worked it with an axe, and shaped it with a drill, and set it up with the arm of his strength; and he shall be hungry and shall be weakened, and shall not drink water. For the smith having chosen wood, set it in measure, and fixed it with glue, and made it like the form of a man, and as the beauty of a man, he set it in a house, having cut wood from the forest, which the Lord planted, and the rain caused to grow, that it might be for men for burning, and taking from it he was warmed, and they burned D and baked bread."
A And with the remainder of it, they made gods, and worshipped them, for which half of it he burned in the fire. And upon half of it, having roasted meat, he ate and was filled; and being warmed, he said: "Sweet is it to me, because I have been warmed, and I have seen the fire." And the rest of it he worshipped, saying: "Deliver me, because thou art my God." They have not known how to be wise, because they have been darkened from seeing with their eyes, and from understanding with their heart; nor did a man reason in his heart, nor did he reason in his soul, nor did he know by prudence that he burned half of it in the fire and baked bread upon his coals; and having roasted meat, he ate, and the rest of it he made into an abomination, and they worship it. Know, B that their heart is ash, and they are led astray, and no one can deliver their soul. "See, and you shall not say that there is a lie in my right hand." How then should they not be judged as godless by all, who are condemned of impiety even by the divine Scripture? Or how are they not wretched and miserable, who are so manifestly convicted of worshipping inanimate things instead of the truth? What hope stays for them, or what pardon, I ask, can they expect, who put their trust in things destitute of reason and motion, which they do not hesitate to venerate in place of the true God?
15. Would that, at least, the artisan had fashioned the gods without shape for them, so that they might not have a manifest argument of their own stupidity! For they might well have stolen away the intuition of the simple-minded, as if the idols possessed perception, had they not possessed the symbols of the senses—such as eyes, and noses, and ears, and hands, and mouths—lying motionless toward the use of perception and the grasping of sensible things. Now, however, having them, they do not have them; and standing, they do not stand; and sitting, they do not sit. For they do not have the activity of these things, but as the shaper willed, so they remain lying, providing no sign of divinity, but being utterly inanimate and only appearing to exist by the art of men. C Would that the heralds and seers of such false gods—poets and historians, I mean—had simply written that they were gods, and had not also recorded their deeds, which are, of course, an argument that they are not gods at all, but lived a shameful life! For they could have stolen the truth, or rather turned away many from the truth, by the name of divinity alone. But as it is, when they recount the loves and impurities of Zeus, the corruption of boys by others, and the suspicions and anxieties of others, due to their own lust for women, and their fears and terrors and other vices, they effect nothing else than to appear to be narrating fictions, not only not about gods, no, nor even about honorable men, but about base ones, far removed from everything virtuous. D
16. But perhaps the impious will here take refuge in the talent of the poets, saying that it is the characteristic of poets to invent things that do not exist.
and to lie in their myths for the pleasure of their audience, which is the reason they will claim for their having made up A the stories about the gods as well. But this excuse of theirs will be shown to be more threadbare than all the others, from the very opinions which they themselves hold and put forward regarding these beings. For if the accounts in the poets are inventions and falsehoods, then the very names of Zeus, Cronus, Hera, Ares, and the others must also be false. For it is possible, as they themselves say, that the names were also invented, and that there is no Zeus at all, nor Cronus, nor Ares, but that the poets invent these as if they existed, for the deception of their hearers. Yet, if the poets are inventing things that do not exist, why do they worship them as if they did exist? Or perhaps they will say, in turn, that the names are not invented, but that they lie about the deeds against them. But this B is no safer an apology for them. For if they lied about the deeds, they surely lied also about the names whose deeds they claimed to recount. Or if they tell the truth about the names, they of necessity tell the truth also about the deeds. Furthermore, those who mythologized these to be gods know truly what it is that gods ought to do, and they would never attach the concepts of men to gods, just as no one would attribute the function of fire to water; for the one burns, while the other, on the contrary, has a cold nature. If, therefore, the deeds are worthy of gods, then those who did them would be gods; but if they are the deeds of men—and not even of good men, such as adultery and the other crimes we mentioned above—then it was men, and not gods, who did these things. For deeds must correspond to natures, so that the one who acted may be testified to by the activity, and the deed may be able to be known from the nature. C Just as, therefore, if one were discoursing about water and fire, and recounting their activities, he would never say that water burns and fire cools; nor, if one were discoursing about the sun and the earth, would he say that the earth gives light and the sun sows herbs and fruits—for in saying such things, he would surpass all madness—so, too, the authors among them, and especially the most preeminent poet of all, would not have attached to these beings such deeds—had they known Zeus and the others to be gods—which prove them not to be gods, but rather men, and not wise men at that. But if the poets lied, and you convict them of falsehood, why do you not also claim they lied concerning the fortitude of the heroes, and fabricated weakness instead of fortitude, and fortitude instead of weakness? For they ought, just as they lied in the case of Zeus and Hera, in the same way to have slandered Achilles with cowardice and admired the strength D of Thersites, and to have assailed the lack of understanding of Odysseus and fabricated madness for Nestor, and for Diomedes and
to attribute womanly actions to Hector and courage to Hecuba; for indeed, as they themselves maintain, it was characteristic of poets to invent and lie in all things. Yet when they wrote about men, they preserved the truth, but when they spoke of those they call gods, they did not fear to lie A. For someone might say on their behalf that they lie in the stories regarding their licentious acts, but in their praises—when they call Zeus the father of gods and supreme, and Olympian, and reigning in the heavens B—they are not inventing, but speaking the truth. But that this answer is against them is easy to show, not only for me, but for anyone who can employ reason against them. For on the one hand, the truth will appear against them through those same proofs which I have brought forward above: for their actions convict them of being men, while the praises with which they extol them far exceed human nature. Now, both of these things are mutually inconsistent, for it is neither characteristic of heavenly beings to do such things, nor can anyone rightly suspect those who perform such deeds to be gods.
17. What then remains to be understood, if the praises are false and composed for the sake of flattery, but the deeds are true? That this is so can be known from common custom. For no one who sets out to praise someone attacks his life; but on the contrary, those whose life is shameful, in order to remove the reproach that should follow from it, are exalted beyond measure with praises, so that by the magnitude of the praises they might deceive the hearers and conceal the wickedness of those they praise. Just as, therefore, C if someone who intends to praise another finds no matter for praise in his conduct or in the virtues of his soul, because nothing in these appears but what is base, he is forced to use another kind of commendation and attributes to the one he praises things that are greater than his own merits; so also those admirable poets of theirs, feeling shame at the shameful deeds of the so-called gods, attached to them a name greater than human nature, not knowing that they would not overshadow their human deeds with notions beyond man, but rather would demonstrate that the concepts of God do not at all fit them by their human failings. And I, for my part, believe that even against their own will they recounted the passions and deeds of these beings. For since they were eager to ascribe the incommunicable name and honor of God, as Scripture says, not to gods, but to D mortal men, and since that which was dared by them was a great and most grievous sin, for this reason they were compelled, even against their will, by the truth to set forth their passions, so that, being recorded in writing, these passions might be for all who come after an evident argument that they were not gods.
A 18. What then is the defense, what the proof, that these are gods, which the superstitious have to offer? For from what we said a little earlier, the argument has demonstrated that they were men, and men who were not even honorable. But perhaps they will turn to this, and will greatly pride themselves on the things discovered by them that were useful for life, saying that for this reason they are to be considered gods—because they have been useful to mankind. For it is said that Zeus possessed the art of sculpture, and Poseidon that of the navigator; and Hephaestus, metal-working; Athena, weaving; Apollo, music; Artemis, hunting; B and Hera, adornment; Demeter, agriculture; and others discovered other arts, as those who have written histories about them have explained. But it was not to these alone that men should have ascribed these and similar skills, but to the common nature of men, to which men look when they discover arts. For even the common view says that art is an imitation of nature. If, therefore, they became experts in the arts to which they applied themselves, it does not necessarily follow that they were gods, but rather that they were men. For the arts did not come from them; rather, they themselves imitated nature in these arts. For since men are by nature capable of knowledge, according to the definition given of them, it is no wonder if they themselves, gazing into their own nature with human intelligence and receiving knowledge of it, devised the arts. Or if they say that they deserve to be called gods because of their inventions of the arts, it is time to call the inventors of other arts gods as well, by the same logic by which those others were deemed worthy of such a title. C For the Phoenicians invented letters; Homer, heroic poetry; Zeno the Eleatic, dialectic; Corax the Syracusan, the art of rhetoric; Aristaeus, the products of bees; Triptolemus, the sowing of grain; Lycurgus the Spartan and Solon the Athenian, laws; and Palamedes invented the ordering of letters, and numbers, and measures, and weights. And others announced other various things useful to the life of men, according to the testimony of historians. If, therefore, skills make gods, and for this reason the sculpted idols are gods, it is necessary that those who later became the inventors of other arts must, by their reasoning, also be gods; or if they do not deem them worthy of the honor of God, but recognize them as men, it follows that Zeus and Hera and the rest should not even be called gods, D but it should be believed that they, too, were born as men; and all the more so, because they were not even noble. Certainly, the idolaters themselves, by the carved images of the gods, declare nothing other than that they are merely men.
A For what other form, I ask, do the engravers impose upon them than that of males and females, or even of things far more inferior to these, and such as are by nature devoid of reason, such as various birds, tame and wild quadrupeds, and reptiles—whatever the earth, the sea, and the whole nature of the waters produce? For having fallen into the irrationality of passions and pleasures, men, seeing nothing more than pleasures and the lusts of the flesh, as though holding their intellect within these irrational things, fashioned for themselves the Divine in the likeness of their own irrational passions, and carved so many gods. For there are among them images of quadrupeds, reptiles, and birds, just as the interpreter of divine and true piety says: "They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to vile affections." For having previously defiled their soul with the irrationality of pleasures, as I have said, they fell into such a fabrication of gods; and having fallen, they wallow in them as if abandoned, and depict the Father of the Word, God, in irrational things. B Regarding these things, those who are called philosophers and men of science among the Greeks, when pressed, do not deny that their visible gods are forms and shapes of men and irrational animals. But defending themselves, they say that they possess them for this reason, that through them the Divine might answer them and appear; for they claim the Invisible One cannot be known in any other way than through such statues and ceremonies. Others, however, who are among the more excellent philosophers and fancy themselves to speak of deeper things, say that these were fashioned and shaped for the summoning and manifestation of divine angels and powers, so that, appearing through these images, they might teach them about the knowledge of God; and that these serve as letters for men, by interacting with which they are able to learn about the comprehension of God from the manifestation of the divine angels occurring through them. These, then, are the myths they tell; for they do not speak theologically—God forbid! But if anyone examines the argument with diligence, he will find their opinion to be no less false than those things we have already refuted.
C For such a person, having confidence in weighing the truth, might ask: In what way does God answer and become known through these images? Is it because of the matter of which they consist, or because of the form which they possess? If because of the matter, what then is the use of the form? And why, before D
the forming of these, should God appear through absolutely any matter? Vainly also do they wall in temples, enclosing one stone, or wood, or a portion of gold, when the whole earth is filled with the substance of these things. But if the applied form is the cause of the divine advent, what need is there of the matter of gold and the rest, and why should not God rather appear through the very animals by nature, of which the carvings are images? For a better opinion A regarding God would have been formed on the same principle, if He appeared through living creatures endowed with reason or without it, and were not expected in lifeless and immovable things; concerning which they especially work impiety against themselves. For the creatures which are by nature quadrupeds, birds, and serpents—which they loathe and turn away from, either because of their savagery or their filth—they nevertheless carve the forms of these in stones and woods and gold and make gods of them. Yet it would have been more fitting B for them to worship the living creatures themselves than to worship their forms in these objects. Or perhaps neither of these, neither the form nor the matter, is the cause of the appearance of God, but only art combined with knowledge calls forth the divine power, since it is itself an imitation of nature. But if it is because of knowledge that the divine power arrives at the carvings, what then is the use of the matter, since the knowledge exists in men? For if God appears entirely because of the art, and for this reason the carvings are worshipped as gods, it would have been necessary for the men who are the authors of the art to be worshipped C and adored, in as much as they are rational and possess the knowledge within themselves.
21. Regarding their second and supposedly deeper defense, one might also aptly say the following: If these things were made by you, O Greeks, not for the appearance of God Himself, but because of the presence of angels there, why do you make the images, through which you invoke the powers, greater and superior to the very powers invoked? For, as you say, you carve the forms for the sake of the apprehension of God, and you D bestow upon them the honor and the name of God Himself—a thing which is not holy. For if you acknowledge that the power of God surpasses the smallness of the statues, and for this reason you do not dare to invoke God through them, but instead invoke lesser powers, you yourselves, having passed over these, have bestowed the name of the One whose presence you feared upon stones and woods; and you name and worship them as gods instead of stones and the work of human art. For even if these are to you as letters—as you falsely claim—for the contemplation of God, it is not just to prefer that which signifies to that which is signified. For not even if anyone were to write the name of the emperor, would it be without danger to prefer the writing to the em peror; but such a one has death as his penalty, while the letter
is fashioned according to the skill of the one who wrote it. A Likewise, if you had a sound mind, you would never have attributed such a majestic mark of divinity to matter, nor would you have dared to prefer the carved image to the man who carved it. For although in the manner of letters they signify the presence of God, and for this reason, as they signify God, they are considered worthy of being made into gods; nevertheless, it would have been far more fitting for the craftsman who carved and engraved these things—I mean, once again, the artisan—to be made a god, as being more powerful and more divine than those works, inasmuch as even they were fashioned and shaped according to his will. If, then, the letters are worthy of wonder, the one who wrote them is much more to be admired for his skill and the knowledge of his soul. Therefore, if there is no reason why they should be considered gods, it is fitting to inquire of them again concerning the madness of idols, so that they may not be reluctant to teach us at last the cause of such a form of theirs.
22. For if the divine is expressed with a human figure because it has the form of a man, why do they append to it the shape of beasts? If it has the form of animals lacking reason, why do they attribute to it the figure of those endowed with reason? If it is both at once, and they conceive of God as composed of both species, clothed in the forms of both men and beasts, why do they separate what is joined, and divide the carving of beasts and men, and not always carve Him with both forms, of the kind described in the delusions of fables, such as Scylla, Charybdis, the Hippocentaur, and the dog-headed Anubis among the Egyptians? B For they ought either to be depicted as dual-natured in this way alone, or if they have a single form, another ought not to have been fashioned for them. And again, if they have the forms of males, why do they attribute to them the features of females? Or if they have the forms of females, why do they append to them the figures of males? But if they are both at once, they ought not to divide them, but to join both together, and be fashioned like those called hermaphrodites; so that such foolish superstition might not only bring upon itself impiety and infamy, but also provoke laughter from those who see it. But if they finally suspect the divine to be corporeal, and imagine and invent that it has a belly, hands, feet, a neck, a breast, and other members necessary for human generation, C see into what impiety their mind has fallen, that they should think such things about the Divine. For from this it follows that such a deity must also suffer all other things that are proper to a body, such as being cut, divided, and even completely destroyed; yet these and similar things are not proper to God, but rather to bodies upon the earth. For God is incorporeal, incorruptible, and immortal, needing nothing for any purpose; D but these are both corruptible and are but images of bodies, and are in need of the care and industry of men, and of the things provided by them, just as has been said before.
Hence, not rarely, we see those that have grown old being renovated; or if time, or rain, or the harm done by some terrestrial animal has defaced them, they are fashioned afresh. Wherefore they are deservedly to be condemned for folly, who dare proclaim those things to be gods of which they themselves are the makers; and who, while they take care by their own art that they do not perish, do not doubt to beseech them for salvation; and who, while they are not ignorant that they stand in need of their own care, yet pray to them to supply their necessities; and, finally, who are not ashamed to call those whom they shut up in small shrines the masters of heaven and the whole earth.
23. B We can learn their impiety not only from these things, but also from the discord of the opinions which they themselves hold concerning their idols. For if, as they preach and philosophize, they are truly gods, to which of them, I ask, shall a man betake himself, or which of them will he judge more powerful, so that he may either worship God with confidence or, as they say, not hesitate at all in knowing the Divinity? For the same beings are not named gods among all; but as many as are the nations, so many are the gods that are fashioned. Indeed, one may see even one and the same region and city at variance with itself concerning the superstition of idols. For instance, the Phoenicians do not know the gods who are said to be among the Egyptians, nor do the Egyptians worship the same idols as the Phoenicians. Nor do the Scythians accept the gods of the Persians, nor the Persians those of the Syrians. The Pelasgians also reject the gods of Thrace, and the Thracians do not know those of the Thebans. The Indians differ with the Arabs, the Arabs with the Ethiopians, and the Ethiopians with them regarding their idols. The Syrians do not worship the gods of the Cilicians; the race of the Cappadocians acknowledge other gods besides these. The Bithynians C in like manner have fashioned other gods for themselves, and the Armenians still others. And why should I say much? Those who dwell on the continent worship different gods than those who dwell on the islands; and conversely, those who remain on the islands admit different gods from those on the continent. Finally, individual cities and villages do not know the gods of their neighbors, prefer their own to others, and think that these alone are gods. D For as regards the abominable rites of the Egyptians, there is no need to speak, since it is before everyone's eyes that the religions of the cities are diverse and fight against each other, and that neighbors have always been eager to worship things contrary to their neighbors. Thus, the crocodile, which some adore as a god, is an abomination to their neighbors. The lion, which some worship as a god, is not only not worshiped by the inhabitants of the neighboring territories, but when found is killed as a wild beast. A fish, likewise, which some include among the divine powers, is taken by others as food. Hence, of course, wars, seditions, and frequent occasions for slaughter arise among them:
and every pleasure of the passions is found among them. And it is something to be wondered at that, as historians explain, the Pelasgians, having learned the names of the gods from the Egyptians, do not recognize the gods of the Egyptians, but worship others instead of them. And in general, the belief and religion of all the nations crazed by idols is inconsistent, and the same things are not found among the same people. And they suffer this quite naturally. For, having fallen away from the contemplation of the one God, they have collapsed into many and diverse things; and having turned themselves away from the true Word of the Father, Christ, the Savior of all, they naturally have their mind wandering in many directions. B And just as those who turn away from the sun and find themselves in dark places traverse many pathless ways—not seeing those things which are present, but imagining nonexistent things as if they were present, and seeing, yet do not see—in the same way, those who have turned away from God and have had their soul darkened have a wandering mind, and, like drunken men seeing nothing, they imagine nonexistent things as if they were real.
24. Moreover, this is no small proof that no true gods are recognized by them. For since there are very many and diverse gods according to city and region, and one overthrows or rejects the god of another, it is brought about that, in truth, all are rejected by all. For those who are thought to be gods among some become victims and sacrifices for the gods who are worshipped by others; and conversely, they are victims for others, just as they are gods for others. C For the Egyptians indeed venerate the ox and the Apis, which is a calf; but others sacrifice these to Zeus. For even if they do not sacrifice those very ones whom the Egyptians count among the gods, yet by sacrificing similar ones, they seem to be offering the same. The peoples of Libya also have a sheep, which they call Ammon, as a god; but it is slaughtered as a victim by many among others. The Indians worship Dionysus, symbolically calling him wine; and others pour this out for different gods. Others prefer rivers and springs, and the Egyptians most of all have preferred water and declare it to be a god; and yet others—indeed, even the Egyptians themselves who worship these things—wash away both their own and others' filth with these waters, and they cast the remainder out with contempt. D In short, almost the entire idolatry of the Egyptians is a sacrifice to the gods of others, so that they themselves are [to no small extent] ridiculed by them.
A
25. Furthermore, some have fallen into such impiety and madness that they sacrifice and offer as victims to their own false gods even the human beings themselves, whose likenesses and images those gods are. And these wretched people do not see that the victims slaughtered are the archetypes or models of the gods that they themselves have fashioned and worship, and to whom they offer human beings. For they almost always offer the like to the like, or rather they offer those who are superior to those who are inferior. For they sacrifice animate beings to inanimate, and rational beings to those devoid of movement and sense. For the Scythians—the so-called Tauri—offer in sacrifice to the one they call the Virgin B both those who have suffered shipwreck and as many of the Greeks as they may capture. In doing so, they commit such impiety against fellow human beings, and thus expose the cruelty of their own gods; for those whom Providence has delivered from the perils of the sea, they themselves slaughter, thus appearing to set themselves against Providence, the benefit of which they conceal and render void through their own cruelty. Others, again, upon returning from war with victories, divide their captives into centuries, select one from each, and sacrifice to Mars as many as they have chosen from each century. But it is not only the Scythians who, on account of the ferocity innate in the barbarians, perform such execrable deeds; these are the peculiar crimes of idols and demons. For the Egyptians also used to sacrifice similar victims to Juno. The Phoenicians and Cretans likewise endeavored C to render Saturn propitious to them through the slaughter of their children. The ancient Romans, too, worshipped the so-called Latiarian Jupiter with human sacrifices. And others in one way and some in another, all, in short, defiled and were defiled. They were defiled, I say, by their own acts of homicide, and they defiled their own temples by causing them to reek with the smoke and fumes of such sacrifices. From these things, without doubt, a great multitude of evils has arisen for mankind. For when they saw their own gods taking pleasure in such things, they immediately imitated them in similar sins and acts of villainy, confident that they would be doing something excellent if they followed the examples of those whom they considered superior, namely the gods. Hence they shrank neither from homicide nor from the slaughter of children, and from there gave themselves over to every imaginable form of sensual indulgence. For there is almost no city which, on account of the resemblance of character it desires to have with its own gods, does not overflow with every kind of licentiousness; nor is there any upright person among the idolaters, D except the one whose own lusts are proved and manifest.
A 26. In times past, women in the temples of Phoenicia would prostitute themselves, consecrating the first-fruits of their bodily earnings to the gods worshipped there, thinking that by such prostitution they would appease the goddess and bring her to be favorable toward them. B Men, too, counterfeiting their own nature and no longer patient to be males, changed themselves into women, thinking that by doing so they were performing a most pleasing and honorable service to the mother of the gods. And all of them together live with the most depraved and struggle with themselves, daily becoming worse; and as the holy minister of Christ, Paul, said: *For their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men with men working that which is unseemly.* By doing these and similar things, they certainly confess and expose their own so-called gods as having lived in such a manner. For they have learned from Jove boy-corruption and adultery; from Venus, the life of a prostitute; from Rhea, licentiousness; from Mars, murders; and from others, other such things, which the laws punish and every sober man abhors. Are those who perform such things therefore worthy to be considered gods? Should they not rather be judged worse than beasts because of the perversity and licentiousness of their morals? Are those who worship them worthy to be considered men? Or should they not rather be pitied as being more stupid than the beasts and more inanimate than inanimate objects? For if they had only considered the mind of their own soul for a moment, they would not have rushed headlong into these things, nor would they have denied the true God, the Father of Christ.
27. C But perhaps those who wish to appear wiser among them, and are held by the admiration of created things, being convicted with much shame by our arguments, will not deny that these things can be easily refuted and reproved by all; but they will think that that opinion is safe and invincible for them, by which they are led to worship the world and the parts of the world; and they will boast in this, that they do not worship stones, woods, and the forms of men and animals, birds, reptiles, or quadrupeds, but the sun, the moon, and the whole celestial world, as well as the earth and the entire nature of the waters. Nay, they will not even hesitate to contend that no one can show that these things are not gods by nature; since it is manifest to all that they are neither inanimate nor lacking in reason, D but rather even...
A transcend nature, in that some reside in the heavens and others dwell upon the earth. It is worthy, then, to look into and investigate these things also. For in these, too, our argument will by all means find a true refutation against them. But before we look at this and begin the demonstration, it is sufficient for the creation itself to cry out, as it were, against them, and to point to its Maker and Creator, God, who is the King of this and of the entire universe, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whom the pseudo-wise B turn away from, while they worship and deify the creation that came into being through Him, even though it itself worships and confesses the Lord whom they, because of it, deny. For by being agape at its parts and considering them to be gods, one might well put them to shame by the mutual need of these parts for one another; for this reveals and indicates the One who is also their own Lord and Creator, the Father of the Word, by the incontrovertible command of their obedience to Him, as the divine legislation also says: *The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands.* 15 And the proof of these things is not hidden, but is exceedingly manifest to those who do not have the eye of their understanding altogether blinded. For if one were to take the parts of creation by themselves and consider each one individually—the sun alone, for instance, and the moon separately, and again the earth and the air, and the hot and the cold, and the dry C and the moist substance—detaching each from its interconnection with the others, and were to take each by itself and contemplate it individually, he will find by all means that none is sufficient for itself, but all are in need of one another's need, and are sustained by one another's assistance. For the sun is carried about with the entire heaven and is contained by it, and could never exist outside of its revolution; and the moon and the other stars bear witness to the assistance they receive from the sun; and the earth, in turn, is seen not to yield its fruits without rain; and the rains would never descend upon the earth without the need of the clouds; nor would the clouds ever appear and consist by themselves without the air. And the air, for its part, is not D by itself, but is heated by the ether and made bright when illuminated by the sun. And springs and rivers would never exist without the earth; and the earth would not stand by itself, but is established upon the substance of the waters, and it itself is contained, having been tied together at the center of the universe. And the sea and the great ocean from without
A flow around the whole earth, moved and carried by the winds whithersoever their violence impels them. But these winds themselves do not exist of themselves, but, as those who treat of these things teach, they are established in the air itself from the kindling and heat which the air receives from the aether, and through it they blow everywhere. For as regards the four elements from which the nature of bodies also is composed—I mean the hot and the cold, the dry and the moist substance—who is so bereft of understanding as not to know that while these exist in cohesion when joined together, yet when divided and separated they henceforth destroy one another, according to the predominance of that which is in excess among them? For the hot is destroyed by the cold when it abounds; and the cold again is made to disappear by the power of the heat; and the dry, in turn, is moistened by the moist, and this is dried by the other.
28. How, then, could these be gods needing the aid of others? B Or how is it fitting to ask anything from them, when they themselves require mutual assistance one for another? For if it is agreed by the consensus of all that God needs nothing, but is alone sufficient for Himself and full of Himself, and that all things subsist in Him, and rather that He gives to all things that they may subsist: by what reason, I ask, is it right to proclaim as gods the sun and the moon and the other parts of the creation, which are not such as this, but have need of mutual help? But perhaps they will admit that these, when divided and taken separately, are needy, which is clear in the eyes of all; but, joining them all together and composing from them as it were one huge body, they will answer that the whole is God. For if the whole is established, C no longer will they have need of any external thing, but the whole will be sufficient and enough for itself for all things, the false-wise ones will blather, so that even from this side they may be refuted. For by this answer, no less than by those things said above, one may demonstrate the sum of their impiety and ignorance. For if the individual parts joined together make the whole, and the whole itself is composed of the individual parts, then the whole consists of the individual parts, which are each parts of the whole. But this is most alien to the notions of God; for God is a whole, not parts; nor does He consist of diverse things, but He Himself is the author of the constitution of all things. Observe, however, how impious are the things uttered by those who speak thus of God. For indeed, if God consists of parts, He will truly appear unlike to Himself, and seen as being completed D from unlike things. For if He is the sun, He is not the moon; and if He is the moon, He is not the earth; and if He is the earth, there would not be the sea; and thus, if one were to examine each of the parts of the world individually, one would find the absurdity of such an argument of theirs.
A This can also be refuted by the consideration of the human body. For just as the eye is not the ear, nor the ear the hand, nor the belly the chest, nor again the neck the foot; but each of these possesses its own proper function, and from things so diverse one body is constituted, which has its parts connected according to need, but which are separated when nature, which bound them together, separates them at the command of God—so also (and may God himself pardon the speaker), if those who call the parts of created nature, when coagmented into one body, "God," are of necessity implying that he is unlike himself, as has been shown, and furthermore that he is divided, since the parts are by nature divisible—then the absurdity and ineptitude of their reasoning will be immediately evident.
29. Yet it is possible to refute their impiety with another line of reasoning, if we consider it in the light of truth. For if God is incorporeal, and invisible, and impalpable by nature, why do they conceive of God as a body, and worship with divine honors things which we see with our eyes and touch with our hands? B And again, if the argument regarding God holds true—that He is able to do all things, and that nothing overcomes Him, but rather He overcomes all and rules as Lord—why do those who deify created nature fail to notice that this definition of God does not apply to it at all? For when the sun is beneath the earth, the shadow of the earth prevents its light from being seen. The moon, moreover, the sun itself hides during the day with the brilliance of its light. Frost often harms the fruits of the earth, and fire, if there is a flood of waters, is extinguished. Winter, in like manner, pushes spring aside, and summer does not permit spring to pass its bounds, and autumn, in turn, constrains summer to stay within its own limits.
C If, therefore, they were gods, it would not be the case that they were overcome and hidden by one another, but rather it would be fitting for them to be always together, and to perform their works in common. It would mean that there should be sun and moon and the rest of the choir of stars shining with equal light both day and night, and that this light should shine for all, and all things be illuminated by them. It would mean that summer and winter and spring and autumn should exist simultaneously, without change, and in the same state. It would mean the sea should be mingled with the springs and provide a drink common to all mankind. It would mean that the air should be calm and moved by winds at the same time. It would mean, finally, that fire and water should provide a common and single utility to mankind. D For no harm would come to anyone from them if, as they think, they were gods who performed nothing for the sake of harm, but rather only for the sake of utility. But if these things cannot be joined together because of their mutual opposition,
A how can they, who are contrary to one another and in conflict, and unable to stand together, be further called gods, or be honored with divine worship? And those things which have a discordant nature among themselves, how could they provide peace to others praying to them, and be the authors of concord for them (78)? Therefore, neither the sun is rightly so termed, nor the moon, nor any other part of the creation, and much less the statues fashioned from stone and gold and other materials, nor even Zeus and Apollo and the others celebrated in the fables of the poets, are to be judged true gods, as the argument has demonstrated: but some of them are parts of the creation, others are lifeless things, and others have been mere mortal men. Whence those who worship them and rank them among the gods profess not piety, but the highest impiety, and give most certain proofs of the great error by which they have B turned away from the knowledge of the one and only true God, I mean the Father of Christ. Since, therefore, (80) these things are thus refuted and it has been shown that the idolatry among the Greeks is full of all impiety, and was introduced into the life of men not for benefit, but for destruction; come now, as the argument promised from the beginning, now that the error has been refuted, let us walk in the way of truth, and let us contemplate the leader and creator of all (81), the Word of the Father, that through Him we may also understand the Father God, and the Greeks may know how far they have separated themselves from the truth.
30. All the things which we have refuted above have been shown to be nothing else than the darkness of error cast over the life of men. But the way of truth leads to the true God: toward the knowledge and precise (83) perception of which, we have no need of others than ourselves; nor, just as God Himself is above all things, is the way which leads to Him far away or outside of us; C but it is within us, and it is possible for us to find its beginning from ourselves, just as Moses also taught, saying: The word of faith is within thy heart (84). Which the Savior also indicating and confirming said: The kingdom of God is within you. For since we have within ourselves the faith and the kingdom of God, we are able quickly to perceive and understand the ruler of the universe, the saving Word of the Father. And let not the Greeks who worship idols use this as an excuse; nor let anyone else simply deceive himself, as if he lacked such a way, and therefore had a just cause for impiety. For we have all stepped onto that way and we have, if D
A one were to ask what this way is, I reply that it is the soul of each person and the mind within it. For it is only through this that God can be contemplated and understood; unless, perhaps, as the impious deny God, so too they would also refuse to admit that they possess a soul—a position which is indeed more plausible than the other things they have said. For it is not the act of those who possess a mind to deny God, its author and maker. That every human being, therefore, possesses a soul, and that this soul is rational, it is necessary to demonstrate briefly for the sake of the simple, since some among the heretics especially deny even this, thinking that man is nothing more than the visible appearance of the body; so that, once this has been demonstrated, they themselves may be able to have a more evident argument against idols.
31. First of all, it is no small indication that the human soul is rational, in that it differs from B irrational creatures; for this is why nature is accustomed to call the latter "irrational," because the human race is rational. Furthermore, it would be no light matter for this proof that only man perceives things external to himself, and reflects upon things not present, and again calculates and chooses by judgment the better of his conclusions; for irrational animals look only at what is present, and rush toward only what is before their eyes, even if they suffer harm later. But man does not rush toward what he sees, but rather judges by his reason the things seen through the eyes; often indeed, even when he has been impelled, C he is restrained by reason; and having considered, he reflects again, and each person, if he becomes a friend of the truth, perceives that the human mind is something different from the bodily senses; for this reason, then, being someone else, it becomes the judge of the senses themselves; and whatever they perceive, it discerns, and reminds them, and shows them what is better. For the eye’s role is only to see, and the ear’s to hear, and the mouth’s to taste, and the nose’s to perceive odors, and the hand’s to touch; but what must be seen and heard, and what must be touched, and tasted, and smelled, it is no longer the function of the senses, but of the soul and its mind to discern. A hand could indeed take up a sword, D and the mouth could taste poison, but it does not know that these things are harmful, unless the mind discerns it. And such a thing—that we may view it by way of an image—is like a lyre
A beautifully constructed, and held by one who uses it with the skill of a musician. For just as the strings on a lyre each have their own proper tone—one deep, another high, another medium, another shrill—and yet the harmony of them and the composition of the arrangement cannot be distinguished or discerned without one who is skilled in this art; for it is then, when the one holding the lyre strikes the strings and touches each one appropriately, that their harmony is shown and their arrangement is right: in this same way, with the senses in the body disposed like a lyre, when the skilled mind governs them, then the soul discerns, and knows what it does and acts. And this is alone B unique to humans, and this is the rational part of the human soul, using which it differs from the irrational animals, and shows that it is truly something else besides the visible body. For often, while the body lies upon the earth, the human being fancies and contemplates things in the heavens; and often, while the body is resting and quiet and sleeping, the human being moves within and contemplates things outside himself, traveling to distant regions and walking about, and meeting with friends and acquaintances, and often through these things divines and foreknows his own actions for the day. For what else could this be but the rational soul, in which the human being reasons and understands things that are above himself?
32. And it is also helpful to add this to the refutation of the impudence of those who deprive the soul of reason: How does it come about that, whereas the body is by nature mortal, the human being reasons about immortality, and often covets death for the sake of virtue? Or how is it that, when the body lasts only for a certain span of time, C the human being meditates on eternal things, and therefore despises present things, and tends with desire toward those good things which are to come? Certainly the body itself can think nothing of the sort about itself, nor can it think of things positioned outside itself. For it is mortal, and lasts only for a time. But it is necessary that that which thinks things contrary to the nature of the body must be something other than the body. What then could that be, if not the rational and immortal soul? For it does not sound from without, but from within, to the body, as a musician does to the lyre, producing better things. But why again, when the eye is by nature suited for seeing, and the ear for hearing, do they shrink from some things and choose others? For who is it that turns the eye away D from seeing? Or who is it that cuts off the ear, which by nature has the faculty of hearing, from hearing? Or who often restrains the taste, which is by nature suited for tasting, from its natural appetite? Or who again restrains the hand, which is by nature suited for action, from touching certain things? Or what is it that…
A causes these things against the natural functions of the body? Or how is the body, having turned away from its nature, brought back to the counsels of another, and steered by that one’s nod? For these things prove nothing else than that it is a rational soul that governs the body. For the body is not configured to move itself, but is led and carried by another, just as a horse does not harness itself, but is driven by the one who controls it. For this reason, therefore, laws have been given to men to perform good deeds and to turn away from evil; but to unreasoning creatures, evils remain unpunished and unjudged, inasmuch as they are devoid of rationality and of the mind according to reason. I think it has thus been demonstrated from what has been said that there is a rational soul in human beings.
33. That the soul has become immortal is also something that it is necessary to know in ecclesiastical teaching, for the sake of the refutation of the abolition of idols. And the knowledge regarding these matters might indeed come more closely from the knowledge of the body, and from distinguishing it from the body. For if reason has demonstrated it to be something other than the body, and the body is by nature mortal, the soul must necessarily be immortal, in that it is not according to the body. And again, if the soul moves the body, as has been shown, and is not itself moved by others, it follows that the soul, being moved by itself, is also moved by itself again after the deposition of the body into the earth. For it is not the soul that dies; rather, it is because of its departure that the body dies. If, therefore, it—this soul—were moved by the body, it would follow that, upon the departure of the mover, it would die; but if the soul moves the body, it must necessarily move itself. C And moving by itself, it necessarily lives even after the death of the body. For the motion of the soul is nothing else than its life; just as, indeed, we say that the body is living when it is moved, and that it is dead when it ceases from motion. Now one might see this more clearly from its activity within the body entirely. For if—even when it has boarded and is bound to this body—it is not contracted and measured according to the smallness of the body, but often, when the body lies upon a bed and is not moving, but is as if sleeping in death, it itself remains awake by its own power and transcends the nature of the body; and, as if departing from it, while remaining in the body, it imagines and contemplates things above the earth, and often even meets with the saints and angels D who are outside of earthly bodies: [is it not, I ask, much more...
and by how much greater a measure, will it possess a clearer knowledge of immortality, once it has been released from the body when God, who bound it, so wills? For if, even while bound to a body, it lived a life outside the body, much more shall it live after the death of the body, and it shall not cease to live, thanks to God who has so made it through His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. For this is the reason why it thinks upon and contemplates things immortal and eternal, because it is itself immortal. And just as the senses of the mortal body perceive nothing except what is mortal, so the soul, which contemplates and meditates upon immortal things, must of necessity be itself immortal and live forever. For the notions and contemplations concerning immortality B never abandon it, but remain within it, serving as it were as a fuel for the assurance of its immortality. For this reason, then, it possesses the notion of the contemplation of God, and becomes a path unto itself, receiving the knowledge and comprehension of the Word of God not from without, but from within itself.
34. We say, therefore, as has been said before: just as they have denied God and worship inanimate things, so also, imagining that they do not possess a soul that shares in reason, they receive of their own accord the penalty of their folly, being numbered among the irrational creatures. And because they cherish their superstition in inanimate things as if they were themselves inanimate, they are surely worthy of pity and have need of a guide. But if they imagine that they do possess a soul, and boast greatly of their faculty of reasoning—and they C do so with good reason—why then do they act unreasonably, as if they lacked a soul, and why do they not think what they ought to think, but instead set themselves up as superior even to the Divine Being? For although they possess an immortal soul, though they cannot see it with their eyes, they fashion God out of the things that are visible and perishable. Or why, just as they have departed from God, do they not flee back to Him again? For they are able, just as they turned their minds away from God and fashioned non-existent things into gods, so likewise to ascend with the mind of the soul and turn back to God. I say they can do this, if they strip off the filth of all manner of desires that they have put on, and wash it away until they have cast off everything that has attached itself as something alien D to the soul, and have shown it to be alone, just as it was created. In this way, they may be able to behold in it the Word of the Father, to whose likeness they were made from the beginning. For the soul was made and created in the image and likeness of God, as the divine Scripture also indicates, which speaks thus from the person of God: *Let us make man in our image and likeness.* Wherefore, when it has wiped away all the stains of sin with which it had been spattered, and keeps pure only that which is in the image, then, as this becomes radiant, it beholds in it, as in a mirror, the image of the Father, the Word, and in Him it contemplates the Father.
insufficient, because the mind is clouded from without, and it fails to see the better way, there is yet another: it may grasp the knowledge of God from visible things, since the creation, as if by letters, signifies and proclaims its own Master and Creator through its own order and harmony.
35. For God is good and loving to mankind, B and because He cares for the souls He has created, since He is invisible and incomprehensible by nature, existing beyond every created substance, and because the human race was therefore in danger of failing to attain the knowledge of Him, in that it was made from nothing and He is unbegotten—for this reason God so ordered creation by His own Word that, since He is invisible by nature, He might nonetheless be known to men through His works. For very often the craftsman is known by his works even if he is not visible; and, as they tell of the sculptor Phidias, that his works, through the symmetry and proportion of their parts to one another, reveal Phidias to those who look upon them even though he is not present, so too must one conceive of God, the Maker and Creator of the universe, from the order of the world, even if He is not beheld by the eyes of the body. C For God did not abuse His invisible nature—let no one use this as an excuse—nor did He leave Himself entirely unknown to men; but, as I said, He so ordered the creation that, although He cannot be seen by nature, He is nonetheless known from His works. And I do not say this of myself, but it is what I have learned from those men who are theologians, one of whom is Paul, who writes to the Romans thus: "For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom. 1, 20). And speaking boldly to the Lycaonians, he said: "We also are men of like passions with you, preaching to you to turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; who in past generations allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. D Yet He left not Himself without witness, in that He gave us rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Act. xiv, 14-16). For who, observing the circuit of the heaven, the course of the sun and the moon, and the positions and revolutions of other stars—which are contrary and different, yet in that very difference
natural for everyone, when observing the circle of the heavens and the course of the sun and moon, and the positions and movements of the other stars—which, though they come to be in ways contrary and different, yet in their very difference maintain a uniform order—not to consider that it is not they themselves, but someone else, namely their Creator, who sets them in order? Who, observing the sun rising by day and the moon appearing by night, and waxing and waning immutably according to the exact and equal number of days, and seeing some of the stars traversing their paths and changing their courses in various ways, while others move steadily without deviation, would not receive the notion that there is surely a Creator who governs them?
36. B Who, seeing opposite natures joined together and creating a harmonious consonance, for example, who, seeing fire mixed with a cold nature, and a dry nature mixed with a moist one, and yet observing that they do not resist one another, but acting as one, together create a single body, would not infer that there is another besides these who has joined them together? Who, observing winter giving way to spring, spring to summer, and summer to autumn, and that although these are contrary to one another by nature—for one cools, one burns, one nourishes, one corrupts and destroys—they nevertheless all provide an equal and secure use for human beings; who, I ask, would not from this acknowledge that there is someone superior to these who provides equality to all and governs all things, even if He is not seen by us? Who, considering the clouds being carried through the air, and in the clouds the weight of the waters bound up, does not receive the notion of Him who bound these and commanded them to exist? C Or who, seeing the earth itself, which by nature is most heavy, resting upon the water and remaining motionless upon an element that is by nature mobile, will not think that there is some God who has arranged it and made it so? Who, seeing the fruitfulness of the earth at the proper time, and rains falling from heaven, and the flowing of rivers, and the gushing of springs, and the generations of animals from unlike parents, and that these things happen not always but at appointed times; and, altogether, who that has considered in things so unlike and contrary the equal and similar order brought to pass by them, would not consider that there is one Power that sets these in order and governs them, as it seems good to It, thus remaining well? For they themselves, by their own nature, could never hold together or be manifest because of the discordance of their natures with one another. For water is by nature heavy and flows downward, while the clouds D are light and happen to be of the things that are buoyant and upward-moving; and yet, we see the heavier water being carried in the clouds. And again, the earth is most heavy, and water in turn is lighter than it; and yet that which is heavier is carried by that which is lighter, and it does not sink, but the earth stands motionless. And just as the male is not the same as the female, and
A it is gathered into one, and a single generation of a similar animal is perfected by both. And to speak briefly, cold is contrary to heat, and moisture fights against dryness; yet when they have come together, they do not revolt against each other, but out of harmony they form one body and the generation of all things.
37. Would they, then, which are contrary in nature, have gathered themselves together, if there were not a stronger and sovereign One who bound them—to whom even the elements themselves, like slaves to a master B, obey, yield, and are persuaded? And it is not that each, looking to its own nature, fights against the other; but, recognizing the Lord who binds them, they have harmony toward each other, being contrary in nature but becoming friendly by the will of the Governor. For if they had not come into a single mixture by a stronger command, how could the heavy with the light, or the dry with the moist, or the circular with the straight, or fire with cold, or in general the sea with the earth, or the sun with the moon, or the stars with the heaven, or the air with the clouds have mixed and come together, the nature of each being unlike to the other? C For there was bound to be a great sedition among them, the one burning, the other cooling, and the heavy drawing downwards while the light drew upwards from its contraries, and the sun illuminating while the air darkened. The stars, too, would have revolted against each other, in that some have their position higher up and others lower down; and the night would not have yielded to the day, but would always have remained fighting and revolting against it. And if these things were happening, it would remain to see not a cosmos but a lack of order, D no longer arrangement but chaos, no longer a constitution but an unconstituted whole, no longer measures but immoderation. For by the strife and battle of each, either all things would be destroyed, or only the stronger would appear. And this again would show the lack of order in the whole. For that which was left alone and lacking the need of the others would make the whole unharmonious; just as if only a foot or only a hand were to remain, it would not have saved the whole body. For what sort of world would it be if only the sun shone, or the moon alone revolved, or only night existed, or day always happened to be? What harmony, again, would there be, if the heaven alone existed without the stars, or the stars without the heaven? And what use would there be if the sea alone existed, or if the land lay alone without the waters and the other parts of creation? And how could man or any animal at all have appeared on earth, while the elements were revolting against each other, and there was only one who was stronger, yet not able to suffice for the constitution of bodies? For it would not be from heat alone, or cold alone, or moisture alone, or dry...
or from only the hot element, or from only the cold, or from only the moist or dry; but all things in the universe would have been inordinate and uncompounded. But not even that which appeared to dominate could have existed without the assistance of the others, since it only exists now in this manner.
38. Therefore, since there is no confusion but order in the universe: since nothing in it is inordinate and chaotic, but all things fit together harmoniously and most aptly, we must acknowledge and grasp the concept of the Master who gathered them together, bound them, and harmonized them, by means of our mind and reflection. For even if He is not seen with the eyes, yet from the order and harmony of opposing things, their moderator, ruler, and sovereign can easily be understood. For just as if we were to see a city composed of many and diverse B men—small and great, rich and poor, old and young, men and women—well-administered and governed, and that those who compose it, although diverse, are nonetheless in concord with one another, and that neither the rich are warring against the poor, nor the greater against the lesser, nor the younger against the elders, but all are living in peace according to equality—if, I say, we were to see these things, we would fully understand that the presence of a ruler is the cause of this concord, even if we did not behold him with our eyes. For indeed, where there is no order but confusion, it is an argument that there is no moderator there; but order is a clear sign of a guide and ruler. Likewise, when we observe the concord of the members among themselves in the body, and that the eye does not war against the ear, nor does the hand dissent from the foot, but each member performs its own function without sedition, we conclude from this necessarily that there is a soul in the body that rules them, even if we do not see it. Thus, therefore, from the order and harmony of the universe, it is necessary to conceive of God as the governor of the world, and that He is one, not many. For the very order of the disposition, and the concordant conspiracy of all parts, shows clearly that there are not many, but one leader and moderator of the world, namely the Word. For if many were presiding over the world, such an order of all things could not be preserved; but all things would be in confusion and full of disturbance, while each one dragged all things to his own will and fought against the other. For as we said that many gods mean no god, so it must be said that many rulers mean no ruler. For when one overturned the rule of another, there would certainly be no one to command and dominate, no one to guide and govern. But where there is no ruler, there is necessarily no order, but only confusion. Contrariwise, however, the single order and concord of many and diverse things shows that their ruler and guide is one. Just as we said...
A if any one from a distance hears a lyre composed of many and different strings, and admires the harmony of the symphony—that the bass note alone does not produce the sound, nor the treble alone, nor the middle alone, but all sound together in equal counterpoint—he certainly understands from this that the lyre does not move itself, nor is it struck by many people; but that there is one musician who, with his skill, has blended the sound of each string into a harmonious and perfect symphony, even if he does not see him. So too, since in the whole world there is the most fitting order, and neither do things above war against things below, nor things below against things above, but all things together form a single order, it is consistent to understand that there is one, and not many, director and king of the B whole creation, who illumines and moves all things by his own light.
39. For there is no need to think that there are many directors and creators of creation, but it is proper for the sake of true piety and truth to believe in one creator of it; and this, the creation itself clearly shows. For this is a sure proof that the creator of the whole is one: the fact that there is not many, but one world. For if there were many gods, there would necessarily be many and different worlds. Neither is it fitting for many to construct one world, nor for one to be made by many: for many absurdities would follow from this. Firstly, that if the one world had been made by many, it would argue for the weakness of the makers, since many were needed to complete one work; and from this, it would be no small sign of the imperfect skill of each one in creating. For if one sufficed, the many would not be filling up their mutual lack. But to say that there is anything lacking in God is not only impious, but goes beyond all that is forbidden. For we would not call even a human craftsman perfect, but weak, if he could not complete a work alone, but only with many. Or if it is said that each individual could have completed the whole universe, but that all contributed their mutual effort for the sake of the communion of the work, that would be truly ridiculous if they each labored for the sake of acquiring glory, so that C no one of them might be thought incapable and weak. For to ascribe empty and vain glory to gods can only appear most absurd. Furthermore, if each was sufficient for the creation of the whole, what was the need for many, when one was sufficient for everything? And this will appear especially impious and absurd if the work is one, but the authors are different and many; since natural reason teaches that the one and perfect is better than the diverse. And this also should be observed, that if the world had been made by many, it would possess diverse and differing motions. D
A certain that if the world were created by many, it would have had diverse and mutually inconsistent movements? For it could not happen otherwise than that, looking toward each of the several makers, it would have had various movements. But in that variety, as was said above, no order could be preserved in the world; rather, all things would be confused and disordered. For neither can a ship steered by many be carried in a straight course, unless one helmsman holds its tiller; nor will a lyre struck by many produce a harmonious melody, unless one musician strikes it. Since, therefore, the creation is one, and the world is one, and its order is one, one B must also understand its ruler and maker, the Lord. For this very reason the Creator Himself made the whole world one, so that, by the forming of many things, many creators might not be supposed, but rather, as the work is one, one creator of it might be believed in. Yet it is not because the creator is one that the world is one—for God could have fashioned other worlds—but because the world which was brought into being is one, it is necessary to believe that its maker is also one.
40. But who at last is he? It would be worth our while to explain and declare this first, so that no one, led astray by ignorance of this, might suspect another, and fall back into the same impiety which C we refuted above. I believe, however, that no one any longer has any doubt about this matter. For if we have proved by our reasonings that those whom the poets call gods are not gods, and have exposed those who deify the creation as being in error, and have demonstrated that the idolatry of the nations, taken as a whole, is the height of impiety—once those gods are set aside, it is absolutely necessary that among us there should be only pious religion, and that He whom we worship and proclaim should be believed to be the only true God, who is both the Lord of created things and the D maker of all nature. Who then could this be, other than the most holy Father of Christ, who is far superior to all created things? As an excellent governor, by His own Wisdom and His own Word—our Lord and Saviour Christ—He everywhere governs and disposes all things in a saving manner, and does as He sees to be right. And it is right that things are as they have been made and as we see them being brought into being, since He Himself wills it to be so, which indeed no one could deny. For if the movement of created things occurred without reason, and the world were moved recklessly, then quite rightly no credence would be given to our words. But if it has been founded by reason, wisdom, and knowledge, and is arrayed with every beauty, it is necessary that its author and exorner be no other than the Word or Reason of God. Reason—
A I do not mean the word which is implicit, embedded, and innate in each created thing—which some are accustomed to call "seminal," being inanimate and possessing no power of reasoning or intelligence, but acting only by external art according to the skill of the one who implants it. Nor do I mean the kind of word belonging to the rational race, which consists of syllables and is expressed in the air. Rather, I speak of the living and active Word of the good God of all things, God Himself, the self-Word, B who is other than the generated things and the whole of creation, but who is the peculiar and sole Word of the good Father, who has arranged and illuminates this whole universe by His own providence. For being the good Word of the good Father, He Himself arranged the order of all things, joining opposites to opposites and, from them, composing one harmony. This Being, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God, revolves the heavens, and having suspended the earth, established it upon nothing by His own nod. By Him the sun is illuminated to shine upon the inhabited world, and the moon possesses its measured light. Because of Him, water is suspended in the clouds, rains irrigate the earth, the sea is bounded, and the earth is luxuriant and green with all manner of plants. And if any skeptic should inquire concerning what is said, whether there is indeed a Word of God at all, such a person would be mad to doubt the Word of God; yet he has the proof from the things that are seen, that all things consist by the Word of God and His Wisdom, and none of the things that have been generated would have been established C had they not come to be by the Word and by the divine Word, as has been said.
41. Being the Word, He is not, as I said, composite like the word of men, consisting of syllables, but is the exact image of His own Father. For men, being composed of parts and created from non-being, possess a word of their own that is composite and dissoluble; but God, being essentially God, is not composite. Wherefore the Word of Him, being what He is, is not composite either, but is one and the only-begotten God, who, proceeding as from a good fountain from the Father, the good from the good, adorns and holds together all things. The reason, moreover, why the Word, the Word of God, has come to generated things is truly admirable and demonstrates that it was not fitting for them to be D in any other way than as they are. For the nature of generated things, inasmuch as it came into existence from non-being, is by itself fleeting, weak, and mortal; but the God of all is by nature good and exceeding fair. Therefore He is also a lover of mankind. For the good would have no envy towards anyone; hence He does not begrudge existence to anyone, but
A wills that all exist, in order that He may also show mankind His loving-kindness. Seeing, therefore, that all originated nature, in so far as it exists by its own principles, is fluid and dissoluble; in order that this might not happen, and that the whole might not again be dissolved into non-existence, for this reason He made all things by His own eternal Word, and having given substance to creation, He did not leave it to be carried and tossed about by its own nature, lest it be in danger of failing into non-existence again. But as the Good, He governs and establishes all things by His Word, who is also God, so that the creation, illuminated by the steering, providence, and ordering of the Word, might be able to remain steadfast, inasmuch as it partakes of the Word who is truly from the Father and is assisted by Him into being; lest it happen to suffer that which it would have suffered were the Word not keeping it—I say, lest it fall into non-existence. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in Him and through Him all things hold together, both visible and invisible, as the ministers of truth teach in the holy scriptures.
B And He Himself is the head of the Church.
42. Therefore, the almighty and all-perfect Word of the Father, having come upon all things and having extended His own powers everywhere, and having illuminated all things, both visible and invisible, contains and binds them in Himself, so that He leaves nothing devoid of His power, but enlivens and preserves all things at once and through all things, each individually and altogether as a whole. And He blends the principles of all sensible substance, which are the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry, and makes them not to conflict, but to form one harmonious and consonant whole. Through Him and His power, neither does fire fight with cold, nor liquid with dry; but those things which are by themselves contrary, as if friends and kin, having come together, provide life to visible things and become the source of existence for bodies. C Obeying this same God the Word, earthly things possess life, and heavenly things subsist. By His command, the whole sea and the great ocean restrain their own motions within their own limits, and the whole earth is adorned with herbage and various plants, as has already been said. And that I may not linger by recounting each individual thing in plain view, there is nothing at all among things that are and come to be that does not exist and hold together in Him and through Him, as the theological man also teaches in these words: *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing.* For just as a musician, having tuned his lyre, and having joined the bass notes with the D high notes, and the notes in between with others, creates a single musical composition,
A so too the Wisdom of God, holding the whole universe like a lyre, and joining things in the air with things on earth, and things in heaven with things in the air, and connecting all things to their parts and directing them by His own nod and will, creates the one world and its single order beautifully and harmoniously. While He Himself remains immovable with the Father, He moves all things by His own constitution, as it may seem best to His Father for each one. For this is the paradox of His divinity: that by one and the same B nod, He directs and governs all things at once—not through intervals of time, but all together—both the straight and the curved, the upper, the middle, and the lower, the wet, the cold, the hot, the visible and the invisible, according to the nature of each. For at the same moment, by that same nod of His, what is straight is moved straightly, and what is round is moved roundly; what is in the middle is moved as it is; the hot is heated, and the dry is dried; and all things, as they have their nature, live and consist by His giving of life, and through Him a wondrous and truly divine harmony is produced.
43. And that such a thing might be understood by an example, let what is being said be imagined as in the image of a great choir. For just as when a choir is composed of different people, C children, women, and old men, and those who are still young, and there is one leader indicating the measure, each one sings according to his own nature and ability—the man as a man, the boy as a boy, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young man—yet all together they form one harmony; or as our soul at the same time moves the senses within us according to the activity of each, so that when some object is present, all are moved at once, and D the eye sees, the ear hears, the hand touches, the sense of smell perceives, and the sense of taste tastes—and often the other members of the body as well, so that even the feet walk; or, that the matter may be signified by a third example, it is like a great city that has been built, and is managed in the presence of the ruler and king who built it. For when he is present, and commanding, and directing his eye toward everything, all follow: some hasten to cultivate the fields, some to the aqueducts to draw water, another goes forth to procure food; one seeks the senate, another enters the church; the judge prepares himself to judge, the leader to establish laws; likewise the craftsman immediately applies himself to his work, the sailor descends to the sea, the carpenter to carpentry, the physician to healing, the builder to building; one goes out into the field, another returns from the field; and some move about the city, while others go out from the city and return back into it again. Now all these things are managed and done by the presence and command of the one ruler. Thus, indeed, the case is also in the universal nature of things, although the example is very slight, yet it serves for a higher understanding.
A For by a single movement of the nod of the Word of God, all things are simultaneously ordered, and each receives what is proper to it, and from them all together one order is perfected.
44. By the nod and power of the divine and paternal Word, the ruler and moderator of all things, the heavens revolve, the stars move, the sun shines, the moon wanders, the air is illuminated by it, the ether is heated, the winds blow; the mountains stand raised to a height, the sea billows, and the living creatures in it are nourished; the earth, remaining immovable, brings forth fruit; man is formed, lives, and then dies again. B And, in simple terms, all things are quickened and moved: fire burns, water cools, fountains gush forth, rivers overflow, seasons and times succeed one another, rains descend, clouds are filled, hail comes to pass, snow and ice are congealed, birds fly, reptiles crawl, aquatic animals swim, the sea is sailed, the earth is sown and produces buds in its own proper times, plants and trees grow, of which some are tender and recent, others are mature; others, after they have grown, grow old and fail, and while some perish, others are produced again and spring up from the earth. All these things, and more besides, which we are unable to recount on account of their number, the admirable Word of God, by infusing light and life, moves and governs with His own nod, and makes one world. Nor does He leave the invisible powers devoid of His own virtue; but these also, C as He is their creator, He embraces among the universal things, and by His nod and providence He sustains and endows them with life. Nor can anything be proposed that would make this seem incredible. For just as by His providence bodies grow, and the rational soul is moved, and possesses both the power to reason and to live—and this is easily proven, as we behold the thing itself with our own eyes—so the same Word of God, with one and simple nod, by His own virtue, moves and embraces the visible world and the invisible powers, imparting to each its proper efficiency, so that divine things are moved in a more divine way, and visible things in the way that we perceive. D He Himself, however, being the ruler, emperor, and consistency of all things, so conducts all things toward the promoting of the knowledge and glory of His own Father, that through the works which are done He seems, as it were, to teach and say: "From the greatness and beauty of created things, the Creator is correspondently perceived." 24
24 Wis. xiii, 5.
25 A For just as by looking up to heaven and beholding its order, and the light of the stars, it is easy to understand the Word who arranged these things; so, by understanding the Word of God, it is necessary to understand also God his Father, from whom He proceeds, being reasonably called the interpreter and messenger of his own Father; and this one may see from things among us. For if, when a word proceeds from men, we B consider its source to be the mind, and by attending to the word we see the mind signified by the reasoning, much more, by beholding the power of the Word with a greater phantasy and incomparable transcendence, do we receive a conception also of his good Father, as the Savior Himself says: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 26 These things, moreover, all Scripture inspired by God proclaims more clearly and in a greater sense, from which we also, having taken courage, write these things to you, and you, by engaging with these, will be able to have the faith of the things being said. For a word confirmed from greater things has an irrefutable proof. From above, therefore, concerning the removal of idols, C the divine Word was securing the Jewish people, saying: "Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor the likeness of anything, whatsoever is in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath." The cause, however, of the removal of these, he signifies otherwise, saying: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth, and will not speak; they have eyes, and will not see; they have ears, and will not hear; they have noses, and will not smell; they have hands, and will not handle; they have feet, and will not walk." 27 Nor has He passed over the teaching concerning the creation; but, knowing well even their beauty, so that some, by looking fixedly upon their beauty, might not worship them as gods—but as works of God—He secures men, saying: D "And lest, having looked up with thine eyes and seen the sun and the moon and all the order of heaven, thou shouldest be led astray and worship them, which the Lord thy God allotted to all the nations that are under heaven." 28 He allotted them, not that they should be gods to them, but so that by the operation of these, those from the nations might know the Creator of all things, God, as has been said. For the people of the Jews formerly had the teaching more abundantly, because they had the knowledge concerning God, not only from the works of creation, but also from the divine Scriptures. And in general, drawing men away from the error concerning idols and irrational phantasy, He says: "There shall not be to thee other gods beside me." Not as though other gods truly existed does He forbid them to have these, but so that no one, having rejected the true God, might begin to fashion for himself as gods things which are nothing, such as those which are mentioned among the poets and writers, which we have shown not to be gods. These words, however, "There shall not be to thee other gods," manifestly prove that those are not gods, insofar as...
what is to be in the future is not yet existing at the time when these things are spoken. A
46. Did the divine teaching, then, remain silent after having abolished the impiety and idol-worship of the nations, and simply permit the human race to be carried away, lacking any knowledge of God? Certainly not; but it even anticipates the mind, saying: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one." And again: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength." And again: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve, and shall cleave to Him." That the providence and administration of the Word over all things, B which is through all things, is testified to by all the divinely inspired Scripture, is sufficiently proven by these things which are set forth by the holy men: "You have founded the earth, and it abides; by your ordinance the day abides." And again: "Sing to our God upon the harp, who covers the heaven with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth; who brings forth grass upon the mountains, and herb for the service of men, and who gives food to the beasts." But through whom does He give, if not through Him through whom all things have been made? For it is a necessary consequence that things should be administered by the providence of Him through whom they were created. Who, then, could this be, other than the Word of God, of whom it is said in another Psalm: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of His mouth"? For Scripture asserts that all things C were made in Him and through Him, and persuades us with these words: "He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created." Just as Moses, a man great in all things, testifies at the beginning of the history of the creation of the world, who explains those same words in this manner: "And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness." Moreover, when the creation of the heaven, and the earth, and all things was finished, the Father said to Him: "Let there be D heaven, and let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear, and let the earth bring forth grass and every living thing"; by which words one might refute the Jews, who do not search the Scriptures legitimately. For with whom, I ask, was God speaking, that He should also speak by commanding? For if He was commanding and speaking to things being created, the speech was superfluous; for they were not yet in existence, but were only to be in the future. But no one has a conversation with a thing that does not exist; nor even with a thing that is not yet made.
A For if God were giving orders to things that were to be, He ought to have said, "Be made, heaven, and be made, earth, and come forth, herb, and be formed, man." But now He did not do this; rather, He commands, saying: "Let us make man," and "Let the herb come forth." From which it is shown that God B is speaking about these things with someone close to Him. It is necessary, therefore, for someone to have been with Him, with whom He was also speaking while He made all things. Who, then, could this be, if not His own Word? For with whom could one say that God is conversing, if not with His own Word? Or who was with Him when He was making the whole created substance, if not His Wisdom, who says: "When He was making the heaven and the earth, I was with Him"? By the name of heaven and earth, He includes everything that was made in heaven and on earth. And being present as Wisdom, and as the Word looking upon the Father, He was creating the whole, and setting it in order, and arranging it. And as the power of the Father, He was strengthening all things into existence, just as the Savior also says: "All things that I see the Father doing, I also do in like manner." And that through Him and into Him C all things have been made, His holy disciples teach, and that as a good offspring from a good source, and being the true Son, He is the power of the Father, and Wisdom, and the Word—not being these by participation, nor having them as things added from without, as is the case for those who partake of Him and are made wise through Him, and become powerful and rational in Him—but He is self-wisdom, self-word, and self-power proper to the Father; He is self-light, self-truth, self-justice, self-virtue, and indeed also the character, the radiance, and the image. And to sum it up: He is the most perfect fruit of the Father, and He alone is the Son, the unchanging image of the Father.
47. Who, then, could enumerate the Father, and find the powers of this Word? For just as He is the Word and Wisdom of the Father, so too, by condescending to created things, He becomes for the knowledge and understanding of the Begetter, self-sanctification, self-life, D and door, and shepherd, and way, and king, and leader, and over all, Savior, and life-giver, and light, and providence of all. Since, therefore, the Father has such a good and creating Son from Himself, He did not hide Him from created things as something invisible; but He reveals Him to all, day by day, through the constitution and life of all things through Him. In Him and through Him, He also reveals Himself, just as the Savior testifies: "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." So that the Word of necessity exists in the Begetter, and the Begotten abides perpetually with the Father. Since these things are so, and nothing exists outside of Him, but heaven