things in heaven, and concerning the earth and the plants that are in the earth, not also to be enlightened by the divinely-inspired Scripture concerning our own generation. For just as our eyes, seeing the things outside themselves, do not see themselves unless they chance upon some smooth and solid surface, and from there the sight, being reflected, as if from a reflux, makes them see what is behind them, so also our mind, seeing other things, does not see itself otherwise than if it apply itself to the Scriptures; for the light therein, being reflected, becomes the cause of each of us being seen. Since we are ignorant of ourselves, and thoughtless of our own construction; we do not know what we are, and what we are; for we are disposed most carelessly toward ourselves, possessing no knowledge of the things of knowledge that are ready to hand and the smallest things within us. Many arts and sciences revolve around our human body; and not a few of those before us have consumed all their labor and study in searching it out. If you examine the medical art, you will easily find how much it discourses concerning the utility of the things within us; how many hidden paths it has discovered concerning our inner construction, in its anatomical operations; piercings in the unseen, one symphony from the body, conduits of breath, aqueducts of blood, the drawing of breath, the lodging of the hearth of heat upon the heart, the perpetual motion of the pericardial spirit. Myriads of things have been philosophized by them, and not one of us is experienced in them, because we assign no leisure to this part of our examination, nor does each of us know who he is. We are easier to know the heaven rather than ourselves. Therefore, do not despise the miracle that is in you; for you are small, as you think, but the word coming over you shall find you great. For this reason the wise David, knowing exactly how to examine himself, says, "Your knowledge is become wonderful from me"; that is, I have wonderfully discovered the knowledge concerning You; from where? From myself. "Your knowledge is become wonderful from me"; and having considered the art that is in me, with how much wisdom my body was constructed, from this small but wonderful construction, I perceived the great Creator. B
APPENDIX TO TOMI I OF THE WORKS OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT. ORATION I - CONCERNING THE STRUCTURE OF MAN
2. "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." C It was shown before in passing, and sufficiently shown, who is the Speaker, and to whom the word is directed. The Church has proofs concerning these things; or rather, it has faith, more firm than any proof. "Let us make man." Learn yourself, starting here. Not yet in any other work of creation is that voice written down. Light was created, and a simple command: "God said, Let there be light"; heaven, and the heaven without any consultation; luminaries, and no counsel preceded them; the sea, and the seas that exceed number, and they were brought into being by a command, that they might be in the nature of things; kinds of fish of every sort, bidden
A to exist; beasts and cattle, swimming things and flying things. "He said, and they were made." Here, the man is not yet, and yet there is counsel concerning man. He did not say, as with all other things, "Let man come into being." Learn your worth and your dignity. He did not cast your origin into being by a naked precept and command; but in God, counsel is held concerning you, in what way the superior and noble animal is to be brought into life, for "Let us make," He says. The wise man takes counsel; the artisan reflects. Does he lack the skill for his art, so that because of his concern he wishes to fashion his artistic work complete and perfect and exact, or is it to show you that you are perfect before God? You have learned, then, that there are two persons in God: the one who speaks, and the one to whom the word is addressed. Why did He not say, "Make," but "Let us make man"? B Assuredly, that you might understand the lordship, so that, in acknowledging the Father, you might not be held in ignorance of the Son; that you might know that the Father created through the Son, and the Son created by the Father's will; and that you might glorify the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In this way you exist as a common work, so that you may also be a common worshiper and adorant of both, not dividing the adoration, but joining the divinity. See: the history [is] simple in its form, but divine teaching in its meaning. "And God made man." "Let us make"—and He did not say, "And they made," lest you take occasions for polytheism. For if the creation itself had also been introduced in the plural number, men would have become unrestrained, piling up for themselves many multitudes of gods. Now, however, "Let us make," that you may know the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. "Then indeed," "And God made man," that you might understand one C God and three persons; not unifying the subsistences, but considering the one essence and power; and that you might have one glory, not being divided in your worship, nor falling into polytheism. For He did not say, "The gods made man," but "God made." For even if the person of the Father is proper, and [that] of the Son is proper, and [that] of the Holy Spirit is proper, yet [there are] not also three gods, because the one and the same substantial divinity is contemplated in the three. For the divinity that I behold in the Father, this is also in the Son; and that which is in the Son, this is also in the Holy Spirit; because the form contemplated in them is one, and the principle is the same. For this reason, there is for us also one adoration and glorification to the three as [to] one God. The prologue, therefore, of our creation is understood as true theology.
4. "Let us make man after our image and after our likeness." That we have been created after the image of God is clear from Scripture. But how is the "after the image of God" to be understood? It is necessary that nothing bodily or earthly be thought of. Let us cleanse our heart of ignorant, uninstructed prejudice, [and] of unlearned assumptions about God, such as some people speak of. For if "after the image" D
A of God we have been made, is He altogether of similar form to us? And are there, perhaps, eyes, and ears, and a head, and hands, and thighs about God upon which He is supported? For it is said in Scripture that God sits; and that He has feet, with which He walks. Is God, then, such as this? Cast away A from your heart all unbecoming phantasms; cast out from yourself a conception that is inconsistent with the magnitude of God. God is without figure, simple, without magnitude, without quantity. Do not imagine a form in God within your own mind. Do not, in the Jewish manner, force Him who is great into a narrow compass. Do not embrace God with corporeal thoughts, lest you circumscribe Him by the narrowness of your own mind. He is incomprehensible in magnitude. Think of the great, and to the great add still more than you have conceived, and to that greater still, more; and persuade your own reason that it will not reach the infinite.
5. Do not, therefore, imagine a figure; God is understood by power. Not quantity; for He is everywhere, and surpasses the entire universe in greater modes; He who can neither be handled, nor seen, nor understood by the mind, who is neither restricted by figure, nor circumscribed by magnitude, nor has a measure of power, nor is concluded by the narrowness of time, nor is defined by three limits. For there is nothing at all in God of the kind that is in us, or even in those things which can only be understood by the mind. How, then, did Scripture say that we were made after the image of God? B
6. Let us recognize what is proper to God, and that what is "after the image" can by no means be understood in a corporeal form. For this is indeed upon a visible body; but the invisible cannot be fashioned in the visible. Nor, indeed, would that which is liable to corruption be the image of that which is incorruptible. For the body increases, suffers diminution, grows old, and is changed from one quality to another. It is one thing in youth, and another in old age; one thing when it is in good health, and another when it is tossed by diseases; one thing when it rejoices, and another when it lingers in pains; one thing when it is confident, and another when it fears; one thing in want, and another in abundance and satiety; one thing in peace, and another in war. The color of one who is awake is different from that of one who is asleep. The waking person blooms more, and is suffused with redness, because the heat is proceeding outwardly; but of the sleeping person, the heat grows cold and is pushed into the depths; and this is the reason why those who are lulled in sleep are somewhat pale. How, then, can that which is subject to change be like to the unchangeable? That which never stands nor remains the same, [be like] to Him who is always the same and exists in the same way? C It escapes us like a flowing thing: before we have caught sight of it, it steals away more swiftly; one human body appearing from another. "After our image." In what way can the fluid and changing D image be able to represent that which is of an unmoving nature? The fashioned [image] represent that which is without form? How, then, shall we seek the "after the image"? In those things which He Himself said immediately. If I say something of my own, do not accept it; but if [it is] the Master's, accept it. "Let us make man after our image and likeness; and let them rule over the fish..."
A of the sea." By what, I beg you, do you hold rule over the fish, and do you command them? By the body, or by reason? Is the power of rule placed in the soul, or in the flesh?
7. For as regards the human body, it is weaker than many irrational animals; nor could our flesh ever be compared in strength to that of the camel, or the elephant, or the horse, or the ox, or any of the largest beasts you might mention. Human flesh is easily overcome B if compared with the flesh of a beast. But in what, then, is the capacity for rule? In the abundance of reason; for as much as it lacks in the strength of the body, by just so much does it exceed in the constitution of reason. For our soul, and the mind within it, has been able to subject all these things easily. From where does man shift great weights? By cleverness, or by physical sinews? So that the capacity for rule in us, and [the fact that we are] after the image and likeness of God, is to be seen in the constitution of reason, not in the form of the body. "Let us make man after our image." He speaks of the inner man, "Let us make man." But you will say, "Why does He not speak to us about reason?" He said that man is after the image of God; but is reason man? Hear the Apostle saying: "Though our outward man perisheth, yet the inward man is renewed day by day C" (II Cor. IV, 16). How then shall I recognize one and the same man as two? Yes, he says, one who is visible, and one who is hidden beneath the visible, the invisible, the inner man, who is also the more sovereign and truer man. We have, therefore, an inner man, and we are in a way twofold; and it is truly said that we are within. For I am according to the inner man; the things outside are not "I," but "mine"; but I am the rational faculty of the soul. Thus, we possess that which is perfect in the rational faculty of the soul. The body, therefore, is mine; the body is an instrument of the man, an instrument of the soul; but the man properly so called is that which is according to the soul itself. "Let us make man after our image"—that is, we shall give him an abundance of reason, and thus "let them rule over D the fish, and over the beasts, and over all things." But He did not say, "Let us make man after our image, and let them be angry, and let them desire, and let them be grieved." For irrational passions were not taken into the image of God; but reason is the master of the passions, the ruler of all bodily things, and stands above things that are visible and deceptive. But you, for your part, admire the care and providence of God for you from the very beginning, that you were created and immediately created as a ruler, and you hold a perpetual and unbroken rule. For when a human being receives some authority from a human being, as a mortal from a mortal, and as one who has nothing from one who has nothing (for what authority over the soul does a human being have?), he has naturally and very quickly relinquished it; but you received this from Him, from God,
A and you possess it as something indelible: not written on wood, nor on corruptible tablets, nor consumed by moths, but engraved and sculpted into your very nature by the gift of the divine voice—namely, "Let them have dominion." For from that time forward, and even until the end, all these things remain subject to human authority. For it says, "Let them have dominion over the fish [of the sea], the beasts of the earth, the birds of the air, the cattle, and the creeping things that creep upon the earth." It does not say, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," and [immediately] "let him eat of every fruit-bearing tree that has fruit in itself." For these things came later, after the planting of Paradise, so that you might learn to treat the necessities of the flesh as secondary to those things that pertain to the soul, which are of greater importance and were intended first.
8. For not only was the power to rule established for us from the beginning, but also the abundance of the delights of Paradise was granted to us as an addition. You are a creature destined for rule, O man; why then do you become a slave to passions? Why do you cast down your own dignity and become a slave to sin? Why do you deliver yourself captive to the devil? You were appointed B as a prince of creation, yet you have cast away the gravity of your own nature. Have you been placed in some worldly office? There is something more that is owed, namely, that you should also have your reason governing and mastering the passions, so that you do not become a laughingstock and a mockery to those you rule—so that instead of being a ruler and superior, they do not perceive you as subject and driven about, like a bound and useless slave. Were you called while a slave? What does the slavery of the body trouble you? Why do you not rather think higher thoughts and glory in the lordship granted to you by God, in that you possess a reason that is master over the passions? When you see your own master being a slave to pleasure, while you are temperate, know that you are a slave in name only, while he, though he possesses lordship in name only, has in reality dragged upon himself the yoke of slavery. For since that man is dragged along, enslaved by the vice of fornication, for example, while you—through the mastery of reason—have ascended above it, how is it not the case that you are truly the master, being superior to pleasure and lust, while he is rather the slave, being subject to the passion that you have trampled underfoot? For wherever there is the power to rule, there is the image of God; and wherever there is the image of God, there is the man who was fashioned by Him. C
9. "Let them have dominion over the fish." The authority over those things that are far removed was given to us first. He did not say, "And let them have dominion over the animals that are reared with them," but, "over the fish," for their dwelling is in the waters. Therefore, the authority over the fish was entrusted to us first, so that, through the things that are further away and aquatic, we might much more easily, and later on, encompass the things that are closer at hand—that is, the land animals and those reared with us. How then do we appear to have dominion over the fish, we who do not [live with them]
If you have ever noticed yourself appearing in a lake, and have watched how your shadow alone terrified all the little fish A dwelling therein, you would surely have quickly recognized the power of your authority. For what head of a household, when his house is in an uproar, stands forth all of a sudden, brings about silence, and restores everything to order by the power of his presence, just as the entire aquatic creation changes its nature upon the appearance of a single man? It no longer pursues its life in freedom; it does not dare to swim upon the surface of the sea or lake.
10. B The dolphin, when it sees a human near, even though it is the most kingly of fish, is as it were ashamed, and no longer moves, nor does it leap as is its habit. The dolphin, most kingly of the swimmers, is ashamed; thus was given to man the authority over the swimming creatures. And when you see your own reason pervading all things and mastering all things by its arts, how do you not also have dominion over the great sea monsters?
11. I have seen, therefore, the subtle invention of man, the construction of certain hooks, and the attaching to these of bait suited to the size of the monsters that swallow them; then, at the ends of those ropes to which the hooks are suspended at one extremity, they stretch out skins filled with air, and tying them to the ends of those lines, they cast them adrift upon the surface of the sea. When, therefore, the wild sea monsters have taken the bait and received the hooks within themselves, they drag the skins into the deep; but the nature of the skins being buoyant, it pulls them back again to the surface, and, fixed by their own food, they thrash about above and below, and in their distress explore the depths, changing from one sea to another; and having labored much to no avail, at last, by a small hook, the great and invincible beast becomes a catch, tamed by toil, worn out by hunger, and dragged along dead with the skins, it becomes prey to the hunter—the large to the small, that which is invincible in strength to the weak. Why? Because man, having received the power to rule through the abundance of his reason, brings the most disobedient creatures to compliance like recalcitrant slaves; and those who cannot be brought to heel through gentleness, these he enslaves through necessity. Thus, the power to rule, implanted by the Creator in man, exists everywhere. Hence it is that swordfish, and hammerheads, and whales, and sawfish, and seals, and all those other fearsome C names of sea monsters have become subject to man.
12. Let them have dominion over the fish, and over the beasts of the earth. Do you not see the heavy lion, the roaring beast, whose very name is unbearable to the ear, and whose roar makes the earth tremble? To whom among you is it so bearable as to be able to withstand his charge? None of the irrational and largest animals trusts in such an abundance of strength as to be able to withstand the onset of a lion. And yet you see him shut up in a small cage. Who is it that has confined...
the big beast in a small prison? Who has contrived the respiration for the beast enclosed A therein by means of the gaps in those wooden slats, so as not to suffocate it with its own breath, but rather to give it free aeration and to manage its safety? Who? Is it not man, who makes a sport of the fiercest beasts? 13. Is it not man who mocks the panthers, when a figure fashioned in the likeness of a man is thrown down from above, and the panther tears the paper to shreds, while the man, lying below, laughs at the madness of the beast? Does not man excel all creatures by the abundance of his reason? In what way? I shall tell you regarding the birds, that man does not indeed ascend into the air with his body, for he is not endowed with wings; yet, by the power of his mind, he flies together with the birds. Nothing restrains the reason of man. It searches out what is in the deep, it hunts what is upon the earth, it anticipates what is in the air, and, dragging them down to the ground, it carries them off. 14. Have you ever seen a bird sitting upon the highest branch of a tree, mocking the men moving about on the ground below, as if it were relying on the swiftness of its wings? You may see, nevertheless, that even here it is caught by a boy at play. For he joins reeds to reeds and smears the tips with birdlime; then he hides and positions them among the branches and leaves in such a way that the birdlime does not appear, and deceives the wandering and uplifted gaze of the bird. By a light touch, he has held fast the creature traveling through the air; he has bound with birdlime the bird that was being carried through the ether. For while man lies on the ground, and his hands and feet are on the ground, his mind and spirit, in truth, ascend on high together with the birds; and by the labor of art, the heavenly things become accessible to him, and those things which are winged become capturable. For nets are spread for the birds, and archers take aim at the flyers, and those that are more gluttonous give themselves up as prey to the lure of food. 15. And have you never seen an eagle, having rushed with great force upon its prey, suddenly become entangled in the traps on the ground? Thus, that which was high is brought low, having been drawn down by human lures. For God has placed all things under the hand of man; He has apportioned the creation, and He has not made man destitute of dominion. Do not say, "Those things which are carried in the air, how do they pertain to me?" For even those things become subject and subordinate to you by means of your reason. 16. And as for the reptiles that creep upon the earth: do you see where your being created in the image of God lies? It is, specifically, in your sovereign nature and in the intelligent and rational part of your soul. *And God made man.* What then is man? We shall define him from what we have read and what we have heard. For there is no longer any need to borrow definitions from others, nor to introduce things sought from external vanity into the thought and understanding of the truth. Man is a rational work of God, created in the image of Him who fashioned him. If anything is wanting...
A in this definition, let those consider it who have expended much labor in the studies of fallacious wisdom; but let us proceed further. Man was made in the image of God.
17. And God blessed man, and said: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. This is the blessing of the fish also. And God said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls; and it was so. And God said: [Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters.] What, then, does man have more? Necessarily He bestowed these common things upon you; and those which are proper to you await you. For you grow even as the rest of the animals, and gradually reach from a small stature to a just and perfect size. So it is with horses and dogs; so with eagles and swans, and whatever other animals you might name; they reach from a first, small birth, gradually by continuous additions, to their absolute growth, and then again by degrees are reduced to a smaller bulk. What, therefore, are common to nature, these He has granted to us as well. "Increase": that is, be nourished, and although you are born small, become great; and let there be a limit to your growth. For it is not because we are nourished and changed in such a way during the first seven-year period that we are changed into another age during the second seven-year period, that we must therefore be changed from age to age throughout our whole life by seven-year periods.
18. B The shedding of the teeth manifests the limits of infantile age; for some have fallen, and others have grown in their place. Growth takes a second beginning up to the end of the fourteenth year. The second age, then, is that of children; for first one is an infant, then a child, and after that a youth from the fourteenth year: here are the limits of the third growth. C Then follows the man. Increase, therefore. It is not that you will receive growth from the first year up to the hundredth if you live a hundred years; but that one word, "Increase," spoken with wise counsel, orders matters with providence. Increase, but up to a certain limit. According to the ratio of that first constitution in the womb, the reasons for growth were also laid as a foundation. For that which is added later is not a more recent gift of stature; but the maternal womb brought forth, at the same time, seeds suited for growth. The teeth fell out; we know that just so much growth has been added. A father has measured his three-year-old child; he knows that, at the completeness of growth, the child will attain double that size. For whatever height a man appears in his third year, he will be twice as much at the completion of his growth. This is the measure of human nature, up to an end, up to a limit. From the first week (of years) one passes to the second; there, heat now abounds, D the body's constitution is more porous, moisture decreases, the limbs are strengthened; they take up stronger tasks, such as those of the adolescent, who are not yet perfect; for their flesh is recently formed and is not yet suitable for robust labors. The animal has now received only lightness and agility. And in the third...
week, the completion of growth is granted, A but after the third week, the extension of the body in length does not occur. But when nature has rested from the labors of growing upward, it henceforth begins to transfer the growth to the widths, as it were laying foundations for what has been raised, adding thickness to it, and thus strengthening and fortifying the limbs of the body, and restoring it to a sturdier state. Nature does these things daily without fail according to its own order, but it is one that arises from the Lord’s command, and having been spoken then, it continues through all creation forever. "Increase and multiply." "Increase," He says, so that nature may not remain incomplete; "multiply," so that the race may not run to a single individual, but to many. Hence He also added: "And replenish the earth." "Replenish," however, not by habitation; for thus the statement would be false, since even now we see a large part of the earth which is not inhabited, but, "Replenish." He bestowed B upon us, He says, the power of mastering the earth. For the saying, "Replenish the earth," has no place in habitation; for neither that which is scorched by the sun's heat, and uncultivated, or rigid with frost and impassable and inaccessible—do men inhabit this too and replenish the earth? But He made us masters of replenishing the earth, and we replenish it through reason, because we know how much of its part is uninhabitable and scorched by the sun's heat, and because we know how much of its northern region is uncultivated and fruitless due to the excess of cold. Have we not replenished the earth? Have we not, by choosing what was useful, cast off whatever was of little convenience for passing human C life? Therefore, the fact that it was said, "Replenish," made us masters of the thing. It is not because we do not have the use of everything that we have not been established as masters of the whole. For not even when you have purchased wheat, are you therefore not master of it all because you find in the wheat something edible and something that cannot be used for food, and you cast it away; and you throw away pebbles as useless, and whatever else is mixed in that is not fit for use, and having blown away the chaff and the straw, and having separated the darnel, you choose whatever is pure for the sustenance of life.
19. Thus therefore also the earth: a part of it D is suitable for us for habitation; a part is necessary for tilling the fields; a part has been set aside for the pastures of four-footed animals and cattle; and another part according to some other use, advantageous for you to maintain your way of life, and you dispose of it as you please and as you wish, because the Lord established you as master of His own creation. It is therefore permitted for me to dispose of what I wish, since I have become master by the gift of the Lord who created me. "And replenish the earth. And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the beasts of the earth." This then is the blessing of that which is, "Replenish the earth," this is the enacted law, this is the
A dignity bestowed upon us by God. "And God made man. In the image of God He made him." Have you not observed that what is rendered is maimed and diminished? "Let us make man according to our image and according to likeness." The counsel had two points: "according to the image," and "according to likeness," while the creation has but one: that which is "according to the image." Did He perhaps resolve one way and then, having changed His counsel, execute it another way? Did any repentance follow in the creation? Did the powers of the Creator perhaps fail or shrink, so that whereas He had purposed great things, He executed lesser ones in the work? Or must we perhaps suppose that there is foolish talk in the former words and that the addition made in the second place is superfluous, inasmuch as both expressions possess the same meaning and signify B the same thing without any distinction? But whatever we may suspect and allege out of all this will result in no slight indictment against the Scripture. For if anyone says that "according to likeness" is something redundant, as if it said the same thing twice, he charges the term with being idle; and this is a grievous blasphemy against the Scripture, whose custom it is never to speak idly. Therefore, both are necessary and have their own proper significance, both that which is written "according to the image" and that which is written "according to likeness." Why then, even after the creation of man, was it not said likewise that "God made him according to the image and according to likeness," but only "according to the image"? If it be because the Creator was lacking in power, the statement is impious and absurd; if it be because He who commanded repented, the thought is more impious still; and if it be that He corrected—perhaps—the former counsel, which was not altogether correct, C at the time of the creation, this thought likewise adheres to impiety. But the Creator is neither deficient in power, nor does the Good One, who knows all things, repent or delay the fulfillment of His promises, nor does the Wise One change His counsel, nor does the Scripture speak of anything of the kind. What, then, is the reason why the divine Moses, in the creation of man, said only "according to the image," while passing over in silence "according to likeness," even though in the former counsel he had joined both together equally? Here is the solution: That which is "according to the image" is given to us by nature, and is immutable, accompanying us from the beginning and until the end; but that which is "according to likeness" we achieve later, by our own free choice and of our own accord. Therefore, in the first counsel, God, when He says, "Let us make man according to our image," added also "and according to likeness," showing that He would also implant in us a free will, capable of making us become like unto God. And, in fact, we have indeed been accomplished as such, according to the D prediction of God. For many are those who have become like unto Him, and many will certainly yet become so, even if we do not all hasten toward this, but rather walk the contrary path of our own accord through sloth. But in the subsequent structure of man, He said only "according to the image," inasmuch as He had fashioned only this as perfect and immutable in human nature; but as to that which is "according to likeness," since He had implanted it in man for the time being only in potentiality,
A and it had not yet appeared in its actuality, but still needed the work of action in order to be perfected, the Creator justly remained silent about it, waiting for the soul to acquire the choice. For if God, without having taken any counsel in advance, had stated "according to likeness," and by that first word had immediately granted the power to become like God, we would not have been able to receive that great gift later by our own authority alone, and for this reason it would necessarily have been received at that time. But since we were already brought into being, and we received our existence out of nothing, that which was given by the Creator to our nature as something, so to speak, co-essential, and thereby perfected, we possess immediately; and because of it we are called, namely, "according to the image" of God. But that which was not immediately perfected along with us, nor did it accompany our nature naturally from the creation, but [was to come] from the choice that would later arise—since it was our own act—was destined to be fitted to us later; I mean that which is "according to the likeness" of God—this we were not yet able even to be called. For the Creator purposely left this incomplete, B so that the work of the good might be accomplished by us, and the good might appear as our own, so that we might also receive from it the reward that is due, so that we might not be like inanimate images, fashioned indeed by the art of painters but lying about in vain, contributing nothing to their own beauty, such that one who looks at them and observes how accurately they are depicted deservedly admires and praises the painter, but deems the colors themselves or the panels on which they are painted to be of no account. Therefore, that the wonder might also be my own, and that I might share with God the praise for the excellent creation, He left it to me to become "according to the likeness" of God. Therefore, the rational and intelligent faculty that is in me is "in potentiality," and this demonstrates that I was made "according to the image" of God; but "in actuality" it is when I lay hold of virtue, and accomplish the good by action, and thus arrive through the best manner of life at the "likeness" of God. So that which is "according to the image" of God is the beginning and root of the good, which I possessed C as having been cast as a foundation in my nature at the very moment of my creation; but that which is "according to the likeness" of God is achieved by me later from my works, and from the labors spent on good things, and from a life lived throughout in the exercise of virtue. Reasonably, therefore, the Creator did not decree that "according to the likeness" of God should come to be for me at the same time as my creation. For hear what He says in the Gospel: "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
21. You have seen where and when the Lord renders to us that which is "according to the likeness." For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. If you hate wickedness, D if you do not avenge yourself on your enemy, if you do not remember a past enmity, if you show love to one who has offended you...
if you are brotherly, if you are compassionate, you have been made like God. If you become toward the brother who has sinned against you such as God is toward you—the sinner who opposes Him every single day—in perfect love and sympathy toward your neighbor, you have been made like God. Thus, you possess the "in the image" because you are a rational being; but you become "in the likeness" by taking on goodness. Take up, therefore, the bowels of mercy, of kindness, that you may put on Christ; for by whatever means you take up kindness, by those same means you put on Christ, and through that relationship to Him, you are brought into relationship with God. In this way, the story of the formation of man is the formation and discipline of our life.
Let us make man according to our image and likeness.
Let man have "in the image" in his very creation, but let him become "in the likeness" through his own diligence and work, since he has the capacity for this, having received it within his own nature. If God had made him "in the likeness" from the beginning, where would your grace be? From whence would you be crowned? For if the Creator had bestowed everything as a gift of nature, by what means, then, would the kingdom of heaven be opened to you? But as it is, one thing was given, while the other was left incomplete, so that by perfecting yourself, you might become worthy of the reward from God. How, then, do we become "in the likeness"? Through the Gospel. For what is Christianity? It is a likeness to God, as far as is possible for human nature. If you have undertaken to be a Christian, hasten to become like God; put on Christ. But how will you put Him on if you have not been sealed? How will you put Him on if you have not yet received baptism? For he who has not received the garment of incorruption remains very far removed from the likeness to God. If I said to you, "Come, be like the emperor," would you not deem me a friend and a benefactor, and hasten as quickly as possible to where you are invited? But because I strive to make you like God, you flee the word that would deify you, stopping your ears so that you cannot even hear the words of salvation. A B C22.
And God made man: He made him according to the image of God.
Perhaps the woman might say here: "What does this discourse have to do with me? The man was created then." For it does not say "the human" (feminine), she says, or simply "human," but by the addition of the definite article, it indicated the male sex. But so that no one might ignorantly think that the term "human" is used only of the man, He added:Male and female He made them;
so that you may know that the woman also has the capacity to have been made in the image of God, just as the man does. For both natures were fashioned as equals, and their deeds are equal, their rewards are equal, and their condemnation is equal. Let not the woman plead the excuse of being the "weaker" vessel; for this is only in the flesh; the soul, however, has possessed an equal power with that of the man. Since they have not received an unequal "in the image of God," they possess an equal virtue, and an equal... DA demonstration of good works; and there is no excuse if any woman happens to exhibit the frailty of her body. For although it may be by nature more soft, yet it is ready for compassion, energetic for endurance, and intense in vigils. For the female sex far exceeds the male in its zeal for honor, in the persistence of its labor, and in its endurance; and never shall it happen that a man is equal to a woman, whether in the practice of fasting and other virtues, or in the abundance of tears, or in the labor of reason, or in the profusion of benevolence. I have seen a woman, secretly from her husband, taking away what was necessary for the use of the household—a pious and salutary theft—and distributing these things to the poor in secret, bestowing favors without his knowledge or consent, and likewise to the household servants. For on his behalf, and for the increase of the house and the security of the children, she performed works of benevolence.
23. B Therefore, the female sex has, no less than the male, both that which is "in the image" and that which is "in the likeness," since these are considered and established not in the man who appears on the outside—that is, in the body—but in the inner and more principal part. And for this reason, we also direct our discourse to both as if to one. But this will surely be yours through kindness, through long-suffering, through fellowship, through the hatred of evil, and through the mastery of the passions of sin; for from this follows the mastery of the irrational. C
24. And "let them have dominion," he says, "over the beasts." Perhaps, then, you will say: "And over what beasts am I to have dominion? And where are these present for me?" Are you unaware, then, that ten thousand beasts are around you, and that you carry about with you such a great multitude of them, and that they dwell within you continuously? Is anger and fury a small beast, when it barks in the heart and rages more fiercely than any dog? And when deceit and fraud lurk in the mind and plot snares, is it not a beast more savage than a fox and harder to tame than a bear? And he who is headlong in D the insolence of insults, is he not plainly a scorpion? And he who takes vengeance secretly from ambush, is he not more savage than a viper? What beast do we not harbor within in our mind, and in ourselves, seeing that even those who rage with lust for women are like maddened horses? "For horses," he says, "have become maddened for women; each one neighed at his neighbor's wife." [Jerem. V, 8]. For he transferred himself into the disposition and nature of irrational animals, by which he bound himself to lust and vice. Therefore, there are many beasts within us, over which you must strive to have dominion. For if you have dominion over the beasts outside, but leave those within ungoverned, or rather, unsubjugated, consider what you will appear to be to those who see you—you who are the victor of a lion, a mute animal, and who despise its very roar, yet are overcome by the anger in your heart; and while you grind your teeth, you often utter an inarticulate sound, under the influence of the madness that has seized you; and perhaps you stretch out your hands
to the defense of the one present. For is not anyone who is ruled, even if he thrives otherwise, more miserable and more ridiculous than this, in that anger rules you more than your own mind, having displaced reason and seized the dominion of the soul, leading you wherever it happens, just like a prisoner, you whom God established as the ruler of all things? B You were created a ruler, a ruler of the passions. Rule the beasts, rule the reptiles, rule the birds. Do not be puffed up in your thoughts, do not be light-minded and unstable; for you were judged worthy to rule the birds, not to be likened to the birds. Do not, then, be inflated, do not be over-proud, do not think things greater than the human and earthly nature; do not be puffed up when praised, do not boast of yourself, nor magnify your own things, so that you may not be reckoned with the birds, being raised up equally with them, and carried hither and thither by flight. Rule the thoughts within you, that you may become a ruler of all existing things; thus, the authority granted over the animals regulates us toward ruling ourselves. For it is absurd to rule over nations while being a subject at home, and to be a leader of a city in public while being mastered by another power within. You must first arrange your own affairs well, and having adorned the interior with good order, thus take on the stewardship of external and foreign things; for the word will be turned back upon you by those you rule: "Physician, heal yourself." Consequently, let us hasten to heal ourselves first. For no one was ever blamed because he did not hunt a lion; but if he did not master his anger, he was mocked by everyone. Thus, someone who has not been able to prevail over wild beasts is not yet worthy of blame, but one who has been too weak to master a troubling passion is utterly subject to condemnation; because the former does not contribute to the one who has been deemed worthy of the rational rule, while the latter is necessary and required. May the Lord who ordained these things to be written, who also prepared our small and weak tongue to speak to you thus far, who through our weak understanding sowed great treasures for you in the thin shadows of the truth, give you through the small things the great, through the few seeds the perfection of knowledge; and may He grant to us the full reward of our intention, and to you the full fruit of the enjoyment of the divine words; for to Him be the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On the Same: On the Structure of Man, Oration II
That wise Solomon, not persuaded by the words of human wisdom, but having been instructed by the teachings of the Holy Spirit, in those things which were just recently read to us, praising man and celebrating him with an eulogy, cried out saying: "Man is a great and precious thing." But I...