Discourse Against the Arians, Book 2

I did indeed think that enough had already been said against the hollow followers of Arius's madness, whether to refute them or on behalf of the truth, to bring about an end to their evil thoughts and words about the Savior and their repentance. They, however, for whatever reason, still do not give in; but, like pigs and dogs wallowing in their own vomit and their own mud, they invent new devices for their irreligion instead. So they misunderstand the passage in the Proverbs, 'The Lord has created me a beginning of His ways for His works,' and the words of the Apostle, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him,' and immediately argue that the Son of God is a work and a creature. They might have learned from what was said above, had they not utterly lost their power of understanding, that the Son is not from nothing nor among originated things at all, since the Truth bears witness to it (for, being God, He cannot be a work, and it is impious to call Him a creature, and it is of creatures and works that we say 'out of nothing' and 'it did not exist before its generation'). Yet since, as if afraid to abandon their own fiction, they are in the habit of citing the passages of divine Scripture mentioned above, which have a good meaning but are twisted by them, let us take up the question of their meaning afresh, to remind the faithful and to show from each of these passages that they have no knowledge of Christianity at all. Otherwise they would not have shut themselves up in the unbelief of the present-day Jews, but would have inquired and learned that, since 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' it was consequently when the Word became man by the good pleasure of the Father that it was said of Him, as by John, 'The Word became flesh'; and by Peter, 'He has made Him Lord and Christ'; and through Solomon, in the Person of the Lord Himself, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works'; and by Paul, 'having become so much better than the Angels'; and again, 'He emptied Himself and took on Himself the form of a servant'; and again, 'Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who was faithful to Him who made Him.' For all these texts have the same force and meaning, a reverent one, declaring the divinity of the Word, even those that speak of Him in human terms as having become the Son of Man. But though this distinction is enough to refute them, still, since from a misunderstanding of the Apostle's words (to mention them first) they consider the Word of God one of the works because it is written, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him,' I have thought it necessary to silence this further argument of theirs, taking up their statement, as before.

If, then, He is not a Son, let Him be called a work, and let everything that is said of works be said of Him; let Him not, alone of all, be called Son, nor Word, nor Wisdom; nor let God be called Father, but only Maker and Creator of the things that come to be through Him; and let the creature be the Image and Expression of His creating will, and let Him, as they would have it, be without a generative nature, so that there is neither Word, nor Wisdom, nor even Image of His proper substance. For if He is not Son, neither is He Image. But if there is no Son, how then do you say that God is a Creator? For all things that come to be are through the Word and in Wisdom, and without This nothing can exist; yet you say He does not have That in and through which He makes all things. For if the Divine Essence is not fruitful in itself but barren, as they hold, like a light that does not shine and a dry fountain, are they not ashamed to speak of His having creative energy? And while they deny what is by nature, do they not blush to put what is by will before it? But if He makes things that are external to Him and did not exist before, by willing them to be, and becomes their Maker, much more will He first be Father of an Offspring from His proper Essence. For if they attribute to God willing about things that do not exist, why do they not recognize in God what lies above the will? Now it is something that surpasses will that He should be by nature and should be Father of His own Word. If, then, what comes first, what is according to nature, did not exist, as they would have it in their folly, how could what is second, what is according to will, come to be? For the Word is first, and then the creation. On the contrary, the Word exists, whatever those irreligious people claim; for creation came to be through Him, and God, as Maker, plainly also has His creating Word, not external but proper to Him — for this must be repeated. If He has the power of will, and His will is effective and enough to give existence to the things that come to be, and His Word is effective and a Maker, that Word must surely be the living Will of the Father, an essential energy, and a real Word, in whom all things both hold together and are excellently governed. No one can even doubt that the one who arranges is prior to the arrangement and to the things arranged. And so, as I said, God's creating is second to His begetting; for Son implies something proper to Him and truly from that blessed and everlasting Essence, but what is from His will comes into existence from outside and is made through His proper Offspring, who is from that Essence.

As we have shown, then, those who say that the Lord is not the Son of God but a work are guilty of great absurdity, and it follows that we all must necessarily confess that He is Son. And if He is Son, as indeed He is, and a son is acknowledged to be not external to his father but from him, let them not quarrel over the terms, as I said before, that the sacred writers use of the Word Himself, namely, not 'to Him who begot Him' but 'to Him who made Him'; for once it is acknowledged what His nature is, the word used in such cases need raise no question. For terms do not diminish His Nature; rather, that Nature draws those terms to Itself and changes them. For terms do not come before essences; essences are first, and terms second. So when the essence is a work or creature, the words 'He made,' 'He became,' and 'He created' are used of it properly and indicate the work. But when the Essence is an Offspring and Son, then 'He made,' 'He became,' and 'He created' no longer properly belong to it, nor do they indicate a work; we use 'He made' without question for 'He begot.' So fathers often call the sons born of them their servants, without denying the genuineness of their nature; and they often call their own servants children affectionately, without losing sight of having bought them originally; for they use the one name from their authority as fathers, but in the other they speak from affection. So Sarah called Abraham lord, though she was not a servant but a wife; and while the Apostle joined Onesimus the servant to Philemon the master as a brother, Bathsheba, though a mother, called her son a servant, saying to his father, 'Your servant Solomon'; and afterward Nathan the Prophet also came in and repeated her words to David, 'Solomon your servant.' Nor did they hesitate to call the son a servant; for while David heard it, he recognized his 'nature,' and while they said it, they did not forget his 'genuineness,' praying that the one they called a servant might be made his father's heir; for to David he was a son by nature.

So, just as when we read this we interpret it fairly, without counting Solomon a servant because we hear him called one, but a natural and genuine son, so too, if the saints say of the Savior, who is acknowledged to be truly the Son and the Word by nature, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him,' or if He says of Himself, 'The Lord created me,' and, 'I am Your servant and the Son of Your handmaid,' and the like, let no one on this account deny that He is proper to the Father and from Him; but, as in the case of Solomon and David, let them have a right idea of the Father and the Son. For if, though they hear Solomon called a servant, they acknowledge him to be a son, do they not deserve many deaths, who, instead of keeping the same explanation in the case of the Lord, forcibly misinterpret and deny the natural and genuine generation of the Son from the Father whenever they hear 'Offspring,' 'Word,' and 'Wisdom'; but on hearing words and terms proper to a work, immediately sink to the notion that He is a work by nature and deny the Word — and this, though it is possible to refer all these terms to His humanity, since He was made man? And are they not proved to be 'an abomination to the Lord' as well, having 'differing weights' with them, measuring those other cases with one and blaspheming the Lord with the other? But perhaps they grant that the word 'servant' is used with a certain understanding, but lay stress on 'who made' as some great support for their heresy. But this prop of theirs too is only a broken reed; for if they are familiar with the style of Scripture, they must at once pass sentence on themselves. For just as Solomon, though a son, is called a servant, so, to repeat what was said above, although parents call the sons who spring from them 'made,' 'created,' and 'becoming,' they do not deny their nature for all that. So Hezekiah, as it is written in Isaiah, said in his prayer, 'From this day I will make children, who shall declare Your righteousness, O God of my salvation.' He said, then, 'I will make'; but the Prophet, in that very book and in the Fourth Book of Kings, speaks this way: 'And the sons who shall come forth from you.' He uses 'make,' then, for 'beget,' and calls those who were to spring from him 'made,' and no one questions whether the term refers to natural offspring. Again, Eve, on bearing Cain, said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord'; so she too used 'gotten' for 'brought forth.' For she first saw the child, and then she said, 'I have gotten.' Nor would anyone think, because of 'I have gotten,' that Cain was bought from outside instead of being born from her. Again, the Patriarch Jacob said to Joseph, 'And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who became yours in Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine.' And Scripture says of Job, 'And there came to him seven sons and three daughters.' As Moses too has said in the Law, 'If sons become to anyone,' and 'If he makes a son.' Here again they speak of those who are begotten as 'become' and 'made,' knowing that, since they are acknowledged to be sons, we need not quarrel over 'they became,' 'I have gotten,' or 'I made.' For nature and truth draw the meaning to themselves.

Since this is so, when people ask whether the Lord is a creature or a work, it is right to ask them this first: whether He is Son, Word, and Wisdom. For if this is shown, the guess about work and creation collapses at once and is finished. For a work could never be Son and Word, nor could the Son be a work. And again, since this is how the case stands, the proof is plain to all that the phrase 'to Him who made Him' does not serve their heresy, but rather condemns it. For it has been shown that the expression 'He made' is applied in divine Scripture even to genuine and natural children; so, since the Lord has been proved to be the Father's Son naturally and genuinely, and Word and Wisdom, even though 'He made' or 'He became' is used of Him, this is not said of Him as of a work; the saints have no hesitation in using the expression, as in the case of Solomon and of Hezekiah's children. For though the fathers had begotten them from themselves, it is still written, 'I have made,' 'I have gotten,' and 'He became.' Therefore God's enemies, despite their repeated citing of such phrases, ought now, though late in the day, after what has been said, to disown their irreligious thoughts and think of the Lord as the true Son, Word, and Wisdom of the Father, not a work, not a creature. For if the Son is a creature, by what word, then, and by what wisdom was He made Himself? For all the works were made through the Word and the Wisdom, as it is written, 'In wisdom You have made them all,' and, 'All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.' But if it is He who is the Word and the Wisdom through which all things come to be, it follows that He is not among the works, nor, in short, among originated things, but is the Offspring of the Father.

For consider how serious an error it is to call God's Word a work. Solomon says in one place in Ecclesiastes that 'God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.' If, then, the Word is a work, do you mean that He, as well as the others, will be brought into judgment? And what room is there for judgment when the Judge is on trial? Who will give the just their blessing and the unworthy their punishment, when the Lord, as you must suppose, stands on trial with the rest? By what law will He, the Lawgiver, be judged Himself? These things belong to the works: to be on trial, and to be blessed or punished by the Son. Now, then, fear the Judge, and let Solomon's words convince you. For if God will bring all the works without exception into judgment, but the Son is not among those put on trial, but is rather Himself the Judge of all the works without exception, is the proof not clearer than the sun that the Son is not a work but the Father's Word, in whom all the works both come to be and come into judgment? Further, if the expression 'who was faithful' troubles them, from the thought that 'faithful' is used of Him as of others, as if He exercises faith and so receives the reward of faith, they must go on at this rate to find fault with Moses for saying, 'God faithful and true,' and with St. Paul for writing, 'God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.' But when the saints spoke this way, they were not thinking of God in a human way; they recognized two senses of the word 'faithful' in Scripture, first 'believing,' then 'trustworthy,' of which the former belongs to man and the latter to God. So Abraham was faithful, because he believed God's word; and God is faithful, for, as David says in the Psalm, 'The Lord is faithful in all His words,' that is, trustworthy, and He cannot lie. Again, 'If any faithful woman has widows,' she is so called for her right faith; but 'It is a faithful saying,' because what He has spoken has a claim on our faith, for it is true and is not otherwise. Accordingly, the words 'who is faithful to Him who made Him' imply no parallel with others, nor do they mean that He became pleasing by having faith; they mean that, being Son of the True God, He too is faithful and ought to be believed in all He says and does, Himself remaining unchangeable and not changed in His human Dispensation and bodily presence.

In this way, then, we can meet these shameless men and show from the single expression 'He made' that they are wrong in thinking that the Word of God is a work. But further, since the drift of the context is also orthodox, showing the time and the relation to which this expression points, I ought to show from it too how the heretics lack reason, namely, by considering, as we have done above, the occasion on which it was used and for what purpose. Now the Apostle is not discussing things before creation when he speaks this way, but the time when 'the Word became flesh'; for it is written, 'Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who was faithful to Him who made Him.' Now when did He become 'Apostle,' except when He put on our flesh? And when did He become 'High Priest of our confession,' except when, after offering Himself for us, He raised His Body from the dead, and, as now, Himself brings near and offers to the Father those who approach Him in faith, redeeming all and making atonement to God for all? It was not, then, to indicate the Essence of the Word or His natural generation from the Father that the Apostle said, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him' — perish the thought! For the Word is not made, but makes — but to indicate His descent to humankind and the High-priesthood that did 'come to be,' as one may easily see from the account given of the Law and of Aaron. I mean that Aaron was not born a high priest, but a man; and in the course of time, when God willed, he became a high priest; yet he did not become so simply, nor as shown by his ordinary clothes, but by putting on over them the ephod, the breastplate, and the robe, which the women made at God's command, and going into the holy place in them he offered the sacrifice for the people; and in them, as it were, he mediated between the vision of God and the sacrifices of men. So it is with the Lord: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'; but when the Father willed that ransoms should be paid for all and grace given to all, then truly the Word, as Aaron took his robe, took earthly flesh, having Mary as the Mother of His Body, as if virgin earth, so that, as a High Priest having an offering like the others, He might offer Himself to the Father, cleanse us all from sins in His own blood, and rise from the dead.

For what happened long ago was a shadow of this, and Aaron foreshadowed according to the Law what the Savior did when He came. So, just as Aaron was the same and did not change by putting on the high-priestly dress, but, remaining the same, was only robed — so that if anyone had seen him offering and had said, 'Look, Aaron has become high priest today,' he would not have implied that Aaron had then been born a man, for he was a man even before he became high priest, but that he had been made high priest in his ministry by putting on the garments made and prepared for the high priesthood — in the same way it is possible in the Lord's case too to understand rightly that He did not become other than Himself on taking the flesh, but, being the same as before, He was robed in it. And the expressions 'He became' and 'He was made' must not be understood as if the Word, considered as the Word, were made, but that the Word, being the Maker of all, was afterward made High Priest by putting on a body that was originated and made, and such as He could offer for us; and that is why He is said to be made. If, then, the Lord did not in fact become man, that is a point for the Arians to fight over; but if 'the Word became flesh,' what ought to have been said of Him once He had become man but 'who was faithful to Him who made Him'? For just as it is proper to the Word to have it said of Him, 'In the beginning was the Word,' so it is proper to man to 'become' and to be 'made.' Who, then, on seeing the Lord walking about as a man, yet appearing to be God from His works, would not have asked, Who made Him man? And who, again, faced with such a question, would not have answered that the Father made Him man and sent Him to us as High Priest? And the Apostle himself, the writer of the words 'who is faithful to Him who made Him,' will make this meaning, time, and character plainest to us if we pay attention to what comes before them. For there is one train of thought, and the passage is all about One and the Same. He writes, then, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 'Since, then, the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For surely He did not take on the nature of Angels, but He took on the seed of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted. Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who was faithful to Him who made Him.'

Who can read this whole passage without condemning the Arians and admiring the blessed Apostle, who has spoken well? For when was Christ 'made,' when did He become 'Apostle,' except when, like us, He 'shared in flesh and blood'? And when did He become 'a merciful and faithful High Priest,' except when 'He was made like His brothers in all things'? And He was 'made like' them when He became man, having put on our flesh. So Paul was writing about the Word's human Dispensation, not about His Essence, when he said, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him.' So do not be mad enough any longer to say that the Word of God is a work, since He is Son by nature, Only-begotten, and came to have 'brothers' when He took on flesh like ours; and by offering Himself, He was named and became 'merciful and faithful' — merciful, because in mercy to us He offered Himself for us, and faithful, not as sharing faith with us or having faith in anyone as we do, but as deserving to be believed in all He says and does, and as offering a faithful sacrifice, one that remains and does not come to nothing. For the sacrifices offered under the Law did not have this faithfulness, passing away with the day and needing further cleansing; but the Savior's sacrifice, taking place once, has perfected everything, and has become faithful as remaining forever. And Aaron had successors, and, in short, the priesthood under the Law exchanged its first ministers as time and death went on; but the Lord, having a high priesthood without transfer and without succession, has become a 'faithful High Priest' as continuing forever, and faithful too in His promise, so that He may hear and not mislead those who come to Him. This may also be learned from the Epistle of the great Peter, who says, 'Let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.' For He is faithful as not changing, but remaining forever and giving what He has promised.

Now the so-called gods of the Greeks, unworthy of the name, are faithful neither in their essence nor in their promises; for the same gods are not everywhere, and indeed the local deities come to nothing over time and undergo a natural dissolution. That is why the Word cries out against them that 'faith is not strong in them,' but they are 'waters that fail,' and 'there is no faith in them.' But the God of all, being truly and really one and true, is faithful, who is always the same and says, 'See now that I, even I, am He,' and 'I do not change.' And therefore His Son is 'faithful,' being always the same and unchanging, deceiving neither in His essence nor in His promise — as the Apostle again says, writing to the Thessalonians, 'Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it'; for in doing what He promises, 'He is faithful to His words.' And he writes this way to the Hebrews about the word's meaning 'unchangeable': 'If we do not believe, He still remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.' So the Apostle, speaking about the bodily presence of the Word, reasonably says 'Apostle, and faithful to Him who made Him,' showing us that, even when made man, 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,' and is unchangeable. And just as the Apostle mentions His being made man in his Epistle when mentioning His High Priesthood, so too he did not stay silent long about His Godhead, but mentions it immediately, giving us a safeguard on every side, and most of all when he speaks of His humility, so that we may at once know His loftiness and His majesty, which is the Father's. For instance, he says, 'Moses as a servant, but Christ as a Son'; the former 'faithful in his house,' and the latter 'over the house,' as having built it Himself and being its Lord and Maker, and as God sanctifying it. For Moses, a man by nature, became faithful by believing God, who spoke to him through His Word; but the Word was not in a body like one of the originated things, nor as a creature in a creature, but as God in flesh, the Maker of all and Builder in what was built by Him. And human beings are clothed in flesh in order to exist and subsist; but the Word of God was made man in order to sanctify the flesh, and, though He was Lord, He was in the form of a servant; for the whole creation, which came to be and was made through Him, is the Word's servant.

So it follows that the Apostle's expression 'He made' does not prove that the Word is made, but that the body He took, like ours, is made; and consequently He is called our brother, as having become man. But if it has been shown that, even if the word 'made' is referred to the Word Himself, it is used for 'begot,' what further perverse device will they be able to resort to, now that the present discussion has cleared up the word from every point of view and shown that the Son is not a work, but in Essence the Father's offspring, while in the Dispensation, according to the good pleasure of the Father, He was made on our behalf and exists as man? This is why the Apostle says, 'who was faithful to Him who made Him,' and why creation is even spoken of in the Proverbs. For as long as we confess that He became man, there is no question, as was observed before, about saying 'He became,' or 'He has been made,' or 'created,' or 'formed,' or 'servant,' or 'son of a handmaid,' or 'son of man,' or 'was appointed,' or 'set out on His journey,' or 'bridegroom,' or 'brother's son,' or 'brother.' All these terms happen to be proper to the human constitution, and terms like these do not indicate the Essence of the Word, but that He has become man. The same is the meaning of the passage in the Acts that they also cite, where Peter says that 'He has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.' For here too it is not written, 'He made a Son for Himself,' or 'He made Himself a Word,' that they should have such notions. If, then, they have not forgotten that they are speaking about the Son of God, let them search whether it is written anywhere, 'God made Himself a Son,' or 'He created a Word for Himself,' or again whether it is written anywhere in plain terms, 'The Word is a work or creation'; and then let them go on to make their case, senseless men, so that here too they may receive their answer. But if they can produce nothing of the kind, and only seize on stray expressions such as 'He made' and 'He has been made,' I am afraid that, from hearing 'In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth,' and 'He made the sun and the moon,' and 'He made the sea,' they will in time come to call the Word the heavens, and the Light that came about on the first day, and the earth, and each particular thing that has been made, so as to end up resembling the so-called Stoics — the Stoics extending their God into all things, and these men ranking God's Word with each work in particular; which they have nearly done already by saying that He is one of His works.

But here they must be given the same answer as before, and first be told that the Word is a Son, as has been said above, and not a work, and that such terms are not to be understood of His Godhead, but the reason and manner of them must be investigated. To those who inquire this way, the human Dispensation He undertook for our sake will plainly present itself. For Peter, after saying, 'He has made Him Lord and Christ,' immediately added, 'this Jesus whom you crucified,' which makes it plain to anyone — even, perhaps, to them, if they pay attention to the context — that it is not the Essence of the Word but He according to His humanity who is said to have been made. For what was crucified but the body? And how could what was bodily in the Word be expressed, except by saying 'He made'? That phrase 'He made' especially has a meaning consistent with orthodoxy, in that he has not said, as I observed before, 'He made Him Word,' but 'He made Him Lord,' and that not in general terms, but 'toward' us and 'in the midst of' us, as if to say, 'He revealed Him.' And Peter himself expressed this carefully when he began this first teaching, saying to them, 'Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man revealed by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know.' So the term he uses at the end, 'made,' he has explained at the beginning by 'revealed'; for by the signs and wonders the Lord did, He was revealed to be not merely a man, but God in a body, and Lord too, the Christ. Such also is the passage in the Gospel according to John: 'Therefore the Jews persecuted Him all the more, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His own Father, making Himself equal with God.' For the Lord did not then make Himself God — indeed, a made God is inconceivable — but He revealed it by His works, saying, 'Even if you do not believe Me, believe My works, so that you may know that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.' In this way, then, the Father has 'made' Him Lord and King in our midst and toward us, who were once disobedient; and it is plain that He who is now displayed as Lord and King does not then begin to be King and Lord, but begins to show His Lordship and to extend it even over the disobedient.

If, then, they suppose that the Savior was not Lord and King even before He became man and endured the Cross, but began to be Lord only then, let them know that they are openly reviving the statements of the Samosatene. But if, as we have quoted and declared above, He is everlasting Lord and King — since Abraham worships Him as Lord, and Moses says, 'Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven,' and David in the Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand,' and, 'Your Throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom,' and, 'Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom' — it is plain that even before He became man He was everlasting King and Lord, being the Image and Word of the Father. And since the Word is everlasting Lord and King, it is again very plain that Peter did not say that the Essence of the Son was made, but spoke of His Lordship over us, which 'came to be' when He became man and, redeeming all by the Cross, became Lord and King of all. But if they continue the argument on the ground that it is written 'He made,' not willing that 'He made' should be taken in the sense of 'He revealed,' either from lack of understanding or from their anti-Christian purpose, let them pay attention to another sound explanation of Peter's words. For whoever becomes Lord of others comes into possession of beings that already exist; but if the Lord is Maker of all and everlasting King, and when He became man He then gained possession of us, here too is a way in which Peter's language evidently does not mean that the Essence of the Word is a work, but the later subjection of all things and the Savior's Lordship that came to be over all. And this agrees with what we said before; for just as we then brought in the words 'Become my God and defense' and 'the Lord became a refuge for the oppressed,' and it was clear that these expressions do not show that God is originated, but that His kindness 'comes to be' toward each individual, so the expression of Peter has the same sense.

For the Son of God, being Himself the Word, is indeed Lord of all; but we were subject from the first to the slavery of corruption and the curse of the Law; then, gradually inventing for ourselves things that did not exist, we served, as the blessed Apostle says, 'those who by nature are not gods,' and, ignorant of the true God, we preferred things that did not exist to the truth. But afterward, just as the ancient people groaned when they were oppressed in Egypt, so, when we too had the Law 'implanted' in us and, according to the unspeakable sighs of the Spirit, made our plea, 'O Lord our God, take possession of us,' then, as 'He became a house of refuge' and a 'God and defense,' so also He became our Lord. Nor did He begin to exist then; rather, we began to have Him as our Lord. For at this, God, being good and Father of the Lord, in pity and wanting to be known by all, makes His own Son put on a human body, become man, and be called Jesus, so that, offering Himself for all in this body, He might deliver all from false worship and corruption, and might Himself become Lord and King of all. His becoming Lord and King in this way is what Peter means by 'He has made Him Lord' and 'has sent Christ'; that is to say, the Father, in making Him man (for being made belongs to man), did not simply make Him man, but made Him so that He might be Lord of all people and might sanctify all through the Anointing. For though the Word, existing in the form of God, took a servant's form, the assumption of the flesh did not make a servant of the Word, who was Lord by nature; rather, not only did that emancipation of all humanity take place through the Word, but that very Word who was Lord by nature, and was then made man, has been made Lord of all and Christ by means of a servant's form, that is, in order to sanctify all by the Spirit. And just as God, when 'becoming a God and defense' and saying, 'I will be a God to them,' does not then become God more than before, nor begin then to become God, but becomes then to those who need Him, when it pleases Him, what He always is, so too Christ, being Lord and everlasting King by nature, does not become more Lord than He was at the time He is sent out, nor does He begin then to be Lord and King; but what He always is, He is then made according to the flesh, and, having redeemed all, He again becomes in this way Lord of the living and the dead. For from then on all things serve Him, and this is David's meaning in the Psalm: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.' For it was fitting that the redemption should take place through no one other than Him who is Lord by nature, so that, though created by the Son, we would not name another Lord and fall into the Arian and Greek folly of serving the creature rather than the all-creating God.

This, at least as far as my nothingness can see, is the meaning of this passage; moreover, these words of Peter have a true and good meaning with regard to the Jews. For the Jews, having strayed from the truth, do indeed expect the Christ to come, but do not think that He undergoes suffering, saying what they do not understand: 'We know that when the Christ comes, He remains forever; so how can You say that He must be lifted up?' Next, they suppose Him to be not the Word coming in the flesh, but a mere man, as all the kings were. The Lord, then, rebuking Cleopas and the other, taught them that the Christ must first suffer; and He taught the rest of the Jews that God had come among them, saying, 'If He called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, You are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God?'

Peter, then, having learned this from the Savior, corrected the Jews on both points, saying: Jews, the divine Scriptures announce that Christ is coming, and you consider Him a mere man, one of David's descendants; but what is written of Him shows Him to be not such as you say, but rather announces Him as Lord and God, immortal, and giver of life. For Moses has said, 'You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes.' And David in the hundred and ninth Psalm: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool'; and in the fifteenth: 'You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see corruption.' Now David himself bears witness that these passages do not have him in view, declaring that the one who was coming was his own Lord. Indeed, you yourselves know that he is dead and his remains are with you. That the Christ, then, must be such as the Scriptures say, you will plainly confess yourselves. For those announcements come from God, and there can be no falsehood in them. If, then, you can state that such a one has come before, and can prove him to be God from the signs and wonders he did, you have reason to keep up the contest; but if you are not able to prove His coming, and are still waiting for such a one, recognize the true time from Daniel, for his words relate to the present time. But if this present time is the one announced long ago, and you have seen what has taken place among us, be sure that this Jesus whom you crucified is the expected Christ. For David and all the Prophets died, and all their tombs are with you; but the Resurrection that has now taken place has shown that these passages have Jesus in view. For the crucifixion is indicated by 'You shall see your Life hanging,' and the wound in the side by the spear answers to 'He was led like a sheep to the slaughter'; and the resurrection — indeed, more than that, the rising of the ancient dead from their tombs (for most of you have seen these) — this is 'You will not leave My soul in Hades,' and 'He swallowed up death in strength,' and again, 'God will wipe away.' For the signs that actually took place show that He who was in a body was God, and also the Life and Lord of death. For it was fitting that the Christ, when giving life to others, should not be held by death Himself; but this could not have happened had He been a mere man, as you suppose. But in truth He is the Son of God, for human beings are all subject to death. So let no one doubt, but let the whole house of Israel know for certain that this Jesus, whom you saw in the form of a man doing signs and works such as no one had ever done before, is Himself the Christ and Lord of all. For though He was made man and called Jesus, as we said before, He suffered no loss through that human suffering; rather, in being made man, He is revealed as Lord of the living and the dead. For since, as the Apostle said, 'in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.' And so, since we human beings would not acknowledge God through His Word, nor serve the Word of God, our natural Master, it pleased God to show His own Lordship in man, and so to draw all people to Himself. But to do this through a mere man was not fitting, or, having a man as our Lord, we would become worshipers of man. Therefore the Word Himself became flesh, and the Father called His Name Jesus, and so 'made' Him Lord and Christ, as if to say, 'He made Him rule and reign'; so that, while every knee bows at the Name of Jesus, whom you crucified, we may acknowledge as Lord and King both the Son and, through Him, the Father.

The Jews, then, most of them, on hearing this, came to their senses and immediately acknowledged the Christ, as it is written in the Acts. But the Ario-maniacs, on the contrary, choose to remain Jews and to argue with Peter; so let us go on to set some parallel phrases before them; perhaps it may have some effect on them to find out what the usage of divine Scripture is. Now that Christ is everlasting Lord and King has become plain from what has gone before, and no one doubts it; for being Son of God, He must be like Him, and being like Him, He is certainly both Lord and King, for He says Himself, 'Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.' On the other hand, that Peter's mere words, 'He has made Him both Lord and Christ,' do not imply that the Son is a creature may be seen from Isaac's blessing, though this illustration is only a faint one for our subject. Now he said to Jacob, 'Be lord over your brother,' and to Esau, 'Look, I have made him your lord.' Even if the word 'made' had implied Jacob's essence and his coming into being, it would not be right for them even to imagine the same of the Word of God, for the Son of God is not a creature as Jacob was; besides, they might inquire and so rid themselves of that absurdity. But if they do not understand it of his essence or of his coming into being, though Jacob was by nature a creature and a work, is their madness not worse than the Devil's, if they attach to the Son of God, saying that He is a creature, what they do not dare to attribute, on the basis of a similar phrase, even to things that are originated by nature? For Isaac said 'Be' and 'I have made,' meaning neither Jacob's coming into being nor his essence (for he said this more than thirty years after his birth), but his authority over his brother, which came about afterward.

Much more, then, did Peter say this without meaning that the Essence of the Word was a work; for he knew Him to be God's Son, confessing, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God'; but he meant His Kingdom and Lordship, which was formed and came to be by grace and in relation to us. For while saying this, he did not stay silent about the everlasting Godhead of the Son of God, which is the Father's; he had already said that He had poured out the Spirit on us; and to give the Spirit with authority is not in the power of a creature or work, but the Spirit is God's Gift. For the creatures are sanctified by the Holy Spirit; but the Son, since He is not sanctified by the Spirit but, on the contrary, is Himself the Giver of it to all, is therefore not a creature, but the true Son of the Father. And yet the same one who gives the Spirit is also said to be made; that is, to be made Lord among us because of His humanity, while giving the Spirit because He is God's Word. For He always was and is, as Son, so also Lord and Sovereign of all, being like the Father in all things and having all that is the Father's, as He Himself has said. Next, let us consider the passage in the Proverbs, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works'; although, in showing that the Word is not a work, it has also been shown that He is not a creature. For it is the same thing to say work or creature, so the proof that He is not a work is also a proof that He is not a creature. One may well wonder at these men, devising excuses to be irreligious in this way, and not at all daunted by the refutations they meet on every point. For first they set about deceiving the simple with their questions, 'Did He who is make from what was not one who was not, or one who was?' and, 'Did you have a son before begetting him?' And when this had been proved worthless, they next invented the question, 'Is the Unoriginate one or two?' Then, when they had been refuted on this, they immediately formed another: 'Does He have free will and a changeable nature?' But being forced to give this up, they next set about saying, 'having become so much better than the Angels'; and when the truth exposed this pretense, now again, gathering them all together, they think to commend their heresy with 'work' and 'creature.' For they mean those very things over again, and are true to their own perversity, putting the same errors into various shapes and turning them this way and that, in the hope of deceiving some by that variety. So although abundant proof has been given above against this reckless device of theirs, yet since they make every place ring with this passage from the Proverbs, and seem to many who are ignorant of the Christian faith to be saying something, it is necessary to examine 'He created' separately, as well as 'who was faithful to Him who made Him,' so that, as in all the others, so in this text too, they may be proved to have gotten no further than a fantasy.

And first let us look at the answers they gave to Alexander of blessed memory at the outset, while their heresy was taking shape. They wrote this: 'He is a creature, but not as one of the creatures; a work, but not as one of the works; an offspring, but not as one of the offspring.' Let everyone consider the shamelessness and craftiness of this heresy; for knowing the bitterness of its own malice, it tries to dress itself up in fair words, and says what it really means — that He is a creature — yet thinks it can screen itself by adding, 'but not as one of the creatures.' However, in writing this way they rather convict themselves of irreligion; for if, in your opinion, He is simply a creature, why add the pretense, 'but not as one of the creatures'? And if He is simply a work, how is He 'not as one of the works'? In this we can see the poison of the heresy. For by saying 'offspring, but not as one of the offspring,' they count many sons and declare the Lord to be one of these; so that according to them He is no longer Only-begotten, but one of many brothers, and is called offspring and son. What use, then, is this pretense of saying that He is a creature and not a creature? For though you say 'not as one of the creatures,' I will prove this sophism of yours to be foolish. For you still declare Him to be one of the creatures; and whatever one might say of the other creatures, you hold the same of the Son, truly 'fools and blind.' For is any one of the creatures just the same as another, that you should claim this of the Son as some special privilege? All the visible creation was made in six days: on the first, the light, which He called day; on the second, the firmament; on the third, gathering the waters together, He laid bare the dry land and brought out the various fruits in it; on the fourth, He made the sun, the moon, and all the host of the stars; on the fifth, He created the race of living things in the sea and of birds in the air; and on the sixth, He made the four-footed animals on the earth, and finally man. And 'the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made'; and the light is not like the night, nor the sun like the moon, nor the irrational like rational man, nor the Angels like the Thrones, nor the Thrones like the Authorities; yet they are all creatures, and each of the things made exists according to its kind and remains in its own essence, as it was made.

Let the Word, then, be excepted from the works and restored to the Father as Creator, and be confessed to be Son by nature; or, if He is simply a creature, let Him be assigned the same condition as all the rest, and let each of them, as well as He, be said to be 'a creature, but not as one of the creatures; an offspring or work, but not as one of the works or offspring.' For you say that an offspring is the same as a work, writing 'generated or made.' For even if the Son surpasses the rest by comparison, He is still a creature nevertheless, as they are; since among things that are creatures by nature, one may find some surpassing others. Star, for instance, differs from star in glory, and the rest all have their differences from one another when compared; yet it does not follow from all this that some are lords and others servants to the superior, nor that some are efficient causes while others come into being through them; but all have a nature that comes to be and is created, confessing their Maker in themselves, as David says in the Psalms, 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork'; and as Zerubbabel the wise says, 'All the earth calls upon the Truth, and the heavens bless it; all works shake and tremble at it.' But if the whole earth sings praise to the Maker and the Truth, blesses it, and fears it, and its Maker is the Word, and He Himself says, 'I am the Truth,' it follows that the Word is not a creature, but alone proper to the Father, in whom all things are arranged, and He is celebrated by all as Maker; for 'I was beside Him, arranging,' and 'My Father is working until now, and I am working.' And the words 'until now' show His eternal existence in the Father as the Word; for it is proper to the Word to work the Father's works and not to be external to Him.

But if what the Father works the Son works too, and what the Son creates is the creation of the Father, and yet the Son is the Father's work or creature, then either He will work Himself and be His own creator (since what the Father works is the Son's work too), which is absurd and impossible; or, since He creates and works the things of the Father, He Himself is not a work or a creature. Otherwise, being Himself an efficient cause, He may cause in the case of things caused what He Himself has become, or rather He may have no power to cause at all. For how, if, as you hold, He has come from nothing, is He able to bring things that are nothing into being? Or if He, a creature, nevertheless makes a creature, the same will be conceivable in the case of every creature, namely, the power to make others. And if you like this, what need is there of the Word, since inferior things can be brought into being by superior ones? Or in any case, everything brought into being could have heard God's words at the beginning, 'Become' and 'be made,' and so would have been made. But this is not what is written, nor could it be. For none of the things brought into being is an efficient cause; all things were made through the Word, who would not have made all things if He Himself were among the creatures. For neither would the Angels be able to make anything, since they too are creatures, though Valentinus, Marcion, and Basilides think so, and you are their copyists; nor will the sun, being a creature, ever make what is not into what is; nor will man fashion man, nor stone devise stone, nor wood make wood grow. It is God who fashions man in the womb, fixes the mountains, and makes wood grow; but man, being capable of knowledge, puts together and arranges that material and works on things that exist, as he has learned; and he is content if they are only brought into being, and, conscious of what his nature is, he knows to ask God for whatever he needs.

If, then, God too worked and assembled things out of materials, this indeed is a pagan thought, according to which God is a craftsman and not a Maker; but even in that case let the Word work the materials at the command and in the service of God. But if He calls into existence, by His proper Word, things that did not exist, then the Word is not among the things that did not exist and were called; or we must look for another Word through whom He too was called; for it is through the Word that the things that were not have come to be. And if He creates and makes through Him, He Himself is not among things created and made; rather, He is the Word of the Creator God and is known from the Father's works, which He Himself works, to be 'in the Father, and the Father in Him,' and 'whoever has seen Him has seen the Father,' because the Son's Essence is proper to the Father and He is like Him in all respects. How, then, does He create through Him, unless He is His Word and His Wisdom? And how can He be Word and Wisdom unless He is the proper offspring of His Essence, and did not come to be out of nothing like others? And since all things are from nothing and are creatures, and the Son, as they say, is also one of the creatures and of the things that once did not exist, how does He alone reveal the Father, and no one but He know the Father? For if He, a work, could possibly know the Father, then the Father must also be known by all, in proportion to each one's measure; for they are all works, as He is. But if it is impossible for originated things either to see or to know Him, for the sight and knowledge of Him surpass all (since God Himself says, 'No one shall see My face and live'), and yet the Son has declared, 'No one knows the Father except the Son,' then the Word is different from all originated things, since He alone knows and alone sees the Father, as He says, 'Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from the Father,' and 'No one knows the Father except the Son,' though Arius thinks otherwise. How, then, did He alone know, except that He alone was proper to Him? And how proper, if He were a creature and not a true Son from Him? (For one must not mind saying the same thing often for religion's sake.) Therefore it is irreligious to think that the Son is one of all things, and blasphemous and meaningless to call Him 'a creature, but not as one of the creatures; a work, but not as one of the works; an offspring, but not as one of the offspring.' For how is He not as one of these if, as they say, He did not exist before His generation? For it is proper to the creatures and works not to exist before their origination and to come into existence out of nothing, even if they surpass other creatures in glory; for this difference between one and another will be found in all creatures, as appears in those that are visible.

Moreover, if, as the heretics hold, the Son were a creature or work, but not as one of the creatures because He surpasses them in glory, it would be natural for Scripture to describe and present Him by a comparison in His favor with the other works; for instance, to say that He is greater than the Archangels, more honorable than the Thrones, brighter than the sun and moon, and greater than the heavens. But in fact He is not spoken of this way; rather, the Father shows Him to be His own proper and only Son, saying, 'You are My Son,' and 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Accordingly the Angels served Him as one beyond themselves; and they worship Him, not as greater in glory, but as someone beyond all the creatures and beyond themselves, and alone the Father's proper Son according to essence. For if He was worshiped as surpassing them in glory, each subordinate thing ought to worship what surpasses itself. But this is not the case; for creature does not worship creature, but servant worships Lord, and creature worships God. So Peter the Apostle stops Cornelius when he would worship him, saying, 'I myself am also a man.' And an Angel, when John would worship him in the Apocalypse, stops him, saying, 'See that you do not do it; for I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the Prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book: worship God.' Therefore worship belongs to God alone, and the Angels themselves know that, though they surpass other beings in glory, they are all creatures and not to be worshiped, but worship the Lord. So Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the Angel, was stopped by him at once, who said, 'Do not offer to me, but to God.' On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the Angels, for it is written, 'Let all the Angels of God worship Him'; and by all the Gentiles, as Isaiah says, 'The labor of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be your servants'; and then, 'they shall fall down before you and shall make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is in you, and there is no other; there is no God.' And He accepts His disciples' worship and assures them who He is, saying, 'Do you not call Me Lord and Master? And you say well, for so I am.' And when Thomas said to Him, 'My Lord and my God,' He allows his words, or rather accepts him instead of stopping him. For He is, as the other Prophets declare and David says in the Psalm, 'the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Sabaoth,' which means 'the Lord of Armies,' and God True and Almighty, though the Arians may burst at the news.

But He would not have been worshiped this way, nor spoken of this way, if He were merely a creature. But as it is, since He is not a creature but the proper offspring of the Essence of the God who is worshiped, and His Son by nature, He is therefore worshiped and believed to be God, and is Lord of armies, in authority, and Almighty, as the Father is; for He has said Himself, 'All things that the Father has are Mine.' For it is proper to the Son to have the things of the Father, and to be such that the Father is seen in Him, that all things were made through Him, and that the salvation of all comes about and is established in Him. And here it would be well to ask them this question too, for a still clearer refutation of their heresy. Why, when all things are creatures, and all are brought into existence from nothing, and the Son Himself, according to you, is a creature and work and once did not exist — why has He made 'all things through Him' alone, 'and without Him not one thing was made'? Or why is it that when 'all things' are spoken of, no one thinks the Son is included in the number, but only originated things; whereas when Scripture speaks of the Word, it does not understand Him as included in 'all,' but places Him with the Father, as the one in whom Providence and salvation for 'all' are worked out and accomplished by the Father — though all things surely might have come to be at the same command at which He was brought into being by God alone? For God does not grow tired from commanding, nor is His strength unequal to making all things, so that He should create the only Son alone and need His service and help for making the rest. For He lets nothing wait that He wills to be done; He only willed, and all things existed, and no one 'has resisted His will.' Why, then, were not all things brought into being by God alone at the same command at which the Son came into being? Or let them tell us why all things came to be through Him, who was Himself only originated. How devoid of reason! However, they say of Him that 'God, wishing to create originated nature, when He saw that it could not endure the untempered hand of the Father and being created by Him, makes and creates first and alone one only, and calls Him Son and Word, so that through Him as a medium all things might then be brought into being.' Not only have they said this, but they have dared to put it in writing — namely Eusebius, Arius, and Asterius, who sacrificed.

Is this not full proof of the irreligion with which they have drugged themselves into such madness that they are not ashamed to be drunk against the truth? For if they give the labor of making all things as the reason why God made only the Son, the whole creation will cry out against them for saying things unworthy of God; and so will Isaiah, who said in Scripture, 'The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.' And if God made the Son alone, as not condescending to make the rest, but committed them to the Son as an assistant, this, on the other hand, is unworthy of God, for there is no pride in Him. Indeed, the Lord rebukes the thought when He says, 'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?' and 'Not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father who is in heaven.' And again, 'Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his height? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. So if God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith?' If, then, it is not unworthy of God to exercise His Providence even down to things so small — a hair of the head, a sparrow, and the grass of the field — it was not unworthy of Him to make them either. For He is the Maker, through His proper Word, of the things that are the objects of His Providence. Indeed, a worse absurdity awaits those who speak this way; for they distinguish between the creatures and the making, and consider the latter the work of the Father and the creatures the work of the Son; whereas either all things must be brought into being by the Father with the Son, or, if everything originated comes to be through the Son, we must not call Him one of the originated things.

Next, their folly can be exposed this way. If the Word too is of originated nature, how, since this nature is too weak to be God's own handiwork, could He alone of all endure being made by the unoriginate and untempered Essence of God, as you say? For it follows either that, if He could endure it, all could endure it; or, if no one could endure it, the Word could not endure it either, since you say that He is one of the originated things. And again, if a mediator became necessary because originated nature could not endure being God's own handiwork, it must follow that, since the Word is originated and a creature, a medium is needed for His making too, since He too is of that originated nature that cannot endure being made by God and needs a medium. But if some being is found as a medium for Him, then again a new mediator is needed for that second one; and so, tracing back and following it out, we will invent a huge crowd of mediators piling up; and so it will be impossible for creation to exist, since it always lacks a mediator, and that medium does not come into being without another mediator; for all of them will be of that originated nature which cannot endure being made by God alone, as you say. How abundant is the folly that forces them to hold that what has already come into being cannot come to be! Or perhaps they think that things have not even come to be, since they are still looking for their mediator; for, on the basis of their irreligious and futile notion, what exists would have no existence for lack of the medium.

But again they claim this: 'Look, through Moses too He led the people out of Egypt, and through him He gave the Law, yet he was a man; so it is possible for like to be brought into being by like.' They should veil their faces when they say this, to hide their great shame. For Moses was not sent to make the world, or to call into being things that did not exist, or to fashion men like himself, but only to be the minister of words to the people and to King Pharaoh. And this is a very different thing; for to serve belongs to originated things, as servants, but to make and to create belongs to God alone and to His proper Word and His Wisdom. So in the matter of making we will find no one but God's Word; for 'all things are made in Wisdom,' and 'without the Word not one thing was made.' But as regards services, there is not one only, but many out of their whole number, whomever the Lord will send. For there are many Archangels, many Thrones, Authorities, and Dominions, thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads, standing before Him, serving and ready to be sent. And there are many Prophets, twelve Apostles, and Paul. And Moses himself was not alone, but Aaron was with him, and then seventy others were filled with the Holy Spirit. And Moses was succeeded by Joshua the Son of Nun, and he by the Judges, and they not by one but by a number of Kings. If, then, the Son were a creature and one of the originated things, there must have been many such sons, so that God might have many such ministers, just as there is a multitude of those others. But if this is not to be seen, and while the creatures are many, the Word is one, anyone will conclude from this that the Son differs from all and is not on a level with the creatures, but is proper to the Father. So there are not many Words, but only one Word of the one Father, and one Image of the one God. 'But look,' they say, 'there is only one sun, and one earth.' Let them maintain, senseless as they are, that there is one water and one fire, and then they may be told that everything brought into being is one in its own essence, but that by itself it is neither adequate nor sufficient alone for the ministry and service committed to it. For God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light on the earth and to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.' And then he says, 'And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night.'

Look: there are many lights, not the sun only, nor the moon only; each is one in essence, and yet the service of all is one and shared; what each lacks is supplied by the other, and the work of giving light is done by all. So the sun has authority to shine throughout the day and no more, and the moon through the night; and the stars together with them complete the seasons and years and serve as signs, each according to the need that calls for it. So too the earth is not for all things, but only for the fruits, and to be ground to walk on for the living things that live on it. And the firmament is to divide waters from waters and to be a place to set the stars in. So also fire and water, along with other things, have been brought into being to be the constituent parts of bodies; and, in short, no one thing is alone, but all the things that are made, as if members of one another, make up as it were one body, namely the world. If, then, they think of the Son this way, let everyone throw stones at them for considering the Word a part of this universe, and a part insufficient without the rest for the service committed to Him. But if this is plainly irreligious, let them acknowledge that the Word is not among originated things, but is the sole and proper Word of the Father and their Maker. 'But,' they say, 'though He is a creature and one of the originated things, He has learned to make as from a master and craftsman, and so has served God who taught Him.' For the Sophist Asterius, having learned to deny the Lord, has dared to write this, not noticing the absurdity that follows. For if making is something to be taught, let them beware of saying that God Himself is a Maker not by nature but by knowledge, so that He could lose the power. Besides, if the Wisdom of God attained to making by being taught, how is He still Wisdom, when He needs to learn? And what was He before He learned? For it was not Wisdom if it needed teaching; it was surely some empty thing, not essential Wisdom, but had the name of Wisdom from its progress, and will be Wisdom only as long as it can keep what it has learned. For what has come not by nature but by learning can at some time be unlearned. But to speak this way of the Word of God is not the part of Christians, but of Greeks.

For if the power of making comes to anyone through teaching, these senseless men are attributing jealousy and weakness to God: jealousy, in that He has not taught many how to make, so that there might be many makers around Him, as there are many Archangels and Angels; and weakness, in that He could not make by Himself, but needed a co-worker or assistant — and that, though it has already been shown that created nature can be made by God alone, since they consider the Son to be of such a nature and made in that way. But God lacks nothing — perish the thought! For He has said Himself, 'I am full.' Nor did the Word become the Maker of all through teaching; but, being the Image and Wisdom of the Father, He does the things of the Father. Nor did He make the Son for the purpose of making created things; for look, though the Son exists, the Father is still seen to work, as the Lord Himself says, 'My Father is working until now, and I am working.' If, however, as you say, the Son came into being for the purpose of making the things after Him, and yet the Father is seen to work even after the Son, then you must consider the making of such a Son superfluous in this light too. Besides, why, when He wants to create us, does He look for a mediator at all, as if His will were not enough to establish whatever seemed good to Him? Yet the Scriptures say, 'He has done whatever pleased Him,' and 'Who has resisted His will?' And if His mere will is enough for making all things, you make the office of a mediator superfluous; for your example of Moses, and of the sun and the moon, has been shown not to hold. And here again is an argument to silence you. You say that God, willing the creation of originated nature and deliberating about it, plans and creates the Son, so that He may make us through Him. Now, if so, consider how great an irreligion you have dared to utter.

First, the Son appears to have been brought into being for us, rather than we for Him; for we were not created for Him, but He is made for us; so He owes thanks to us, not we to Him, as the woman does to the man. 'For man,' says Scripture, 'was not created for woman, but woman for man.' Therefore, as 'the man is the image and glory of God, and the woman the glory of the man,' so we are made in God's image and for His glory, but the Son is our image and exists for our glory. And we were brought into being so that we might exist; but God's Word was made, as you must hold, not so that He might exist, but as an instrument for our need, so that we are not established from Him, but He is established from our need. Are not people who even conceive such thoughts beyond senseless? For if the Word was made for us, He does not take precedence over us with God; for God did not take counsel about us having Him within Himself, but, having us in Himself, took counsel, as they say, about His own Word. But if so, perhaps the Father did not even have a will for the Son at all; for He did not create Him as having a will for Him, but, having a will for us, He formed Him for our sake; for He planned Him after planning us; so that, according to these irreligious men, the Son, who was made as an instrument, is from now on superfluous, now that those for whom He was created have been made. But if the Son alone was made by God alone because He could endure it, while we, because we could not, were made by the Word, why does He not first take counsel about the Word, who could endure His making, instead of taking counsel about us? Or why does He not make more of the one who was strong than of us who were weak? Or why, making Him first, does He not take counsel about Him first? Or why, taking counsel about us first, does He not make us first, since His will is enough to establish all things? But He creates Him first, yet takes counsel first about us; He wills us before the Mediator; and when He wills to create us and takes counsel about us, He calls us creatures; but Him, whom He makes for us, He calls Son and proper Heir. But we, for whose sake He made Him, ought rather to be called sons; or certainly He who is His Son is rather the object of His earlier thoughts and of His will, the one for whom He makes all of us. Such is the sickness, such the vomit of the heretics.

But the sense of Truth in this matter must not be hidden, but must be proclaimed aloud. For the Word of God was not made for us; rather, we were made for Him, and 'in Him all things were created.' Nor was He strong and made by the Father alone because we were weak, so that He might make us by means of Him as an instrument — perish the thought! It is not so. For even if it had seemed good to God not to make originated things, the Word would have been with God no less, and the Father in Him. At the same time, originated things could not be brought into being without the Word; so they were made through Him, and reasonably so. For since the Word is the Son of God by nature, proper to His essence, from Him and in Him, as He said Himself, the creatures could not have come to be except through Him. For just as the light illuminates all things by its radiance, and without its radiance nothing would be lit up, so also the Father worked all things in the Word, as by a hand, and makes nothing without Him. For instance, God said, as Moses relates, 'Let there be light,' and 'Let the waters be gathered together,' and 'Let the dry land appear,' and 'Let Us make man'; as holy David also says in the Psalm, 'He spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created.' And He spoke, not so that, as with human beings, some assistant might hear and, learning the will of the speaker, go away and do it; for this is what is proper to creatures, but it is improper to think or speak this way of the Word. For the Word of God is Maker and Creator, and He is the Father's Will. That is why divine Scripture does not say that someone heard and answered about the manner or nature of the things He wanted made; God only said, 'Let it be,' and it adds, 'And it was'; for what He thought good and planned, the Word immediately began to do and to complete. For when God commands others, whether He commands the Angels, or speaks with Moses, or commands Abraham, then the hearer answers; and the one says, 'How shall I know?' and the other, 'Send someone else'; and again, 'If they ask me what His Name is, what shall I say to them?' And the Angel said to Zechariah, 'Thus says the Lord'; and he asked the Lord, 'O Lord of hosts, how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem?' and waits to hear good and comforting words. For each of these has the Word as Mediator, and the Wisdom of God, which makes known the will of the Father. But when that Word Himself works and creates, there is no question and answer, for the Father is in Him and the Word in the Father; it is enough to will, and the work is done; so the words 'He said' are a sign of the will for our sake, and 'It was so' indicates the work that is done through the Word and the Wisdom, in which Wisdom the Will of the Father also is. And 'God said' is explained by 'the Word,' for, he says, 'You have made all things in Wisdom,' and 'By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made firm,' and 'There is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.'

It is plain from this that the Arians are not fighting with us about their heresy; while they pretend to be fighting us, their real fight is against the Godhead Itself. For if the voice that says, 'This is My Son,' were ours, our complaint against them would be small; but if it is the Father's voice, and the disciples heard it, and the Son too says of Himself, 'Before all the mountains He begot me,' are they not fighting against God, like the giants in the story, having a tongue, as the Psalmist says, that is a sharp sword for irreligion? For they neither feared the voice of the Father, nor revered the Savior's words, nor trusted the Saints, one of whom writes, 'Who, being the Brightness of His glory and the Expression of His subsistence,' and 'Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God'; and another says in the Psalm, 'With You is the fountain of life, and in Your Light we shall see light,' and 'You made all things in Wisdom'; and the Prophets say, 'And the Word of the Lord came to me'; and John, 'In the beginning was the Word'; and Luke, 'Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word handed them down to us'; and as David again says, 'He sent His Word and healed them.' All these passages condemn the Arian heresy from every angle and indicate the eternity of the Word, and that He is not foreign but proper to the Father's Essence. For when did anyone see light without radiance? Or who dares to say that the expression can be different from the subsistence? Or has a person not lost his mind who even entertains the thought that God was ever without Reason and without Wisdom? For Scripture has proposed such illustrations and images so that, considering the inability of human nature to comprehend God, we might be able to form ideas even from these, however poorly and dimly, and as far as is attainable. And just as creation contains abundant material for knowing that there is a God and a Providence ('for from the greatness and beauty of the creatures their Maker is correspondingly seen'), and we learn from them without asking for voices, but, hearing the Scriptures, we believe, and, surveying the very order and harmony of all things, we acknowledge that He is Maker, Lord, and God of all, and grasp His marvelous Providence and governance over all things; so in the same way, about the Son's Godhead, what has been said above is sufficient, and it becomes superfluous, or rather very mad, to dispute about it or to ask in a heretical way, How can the Son be from eternity? Or how can He be from the Father's Essence and yet not be a part? Since what is said to be from another is a part of him, and what is divided is not whole.

These are the evil sophistries of the heterodox; yet, though we have already shown their shallowness, the exact meaning of these passages themselves and the force of these illustrations will serve to show the baselessness of their loathsome teaching. For we see that reason always exists, and is from the one whose reason it is and proper to his essence, and does not admit a before and an after. So again we see that the radiance from the sun is proper to it, and the sun's essence is not divided or diminished; its essence is whole and its radiance perfect and whole, without diminishing the essence of light, but as a true offspring from it. We understand in the same way that the Son is begotten not from outside but from the Father, and while the Father remains whole, the Expression of His Subsistence always exists and preserves the Father's likeness and unvarying Image, so that whoever sees Him sees in Him the Subsistence too, of which He is the Expression. And from the working of the Expression we understand the true Godhead of the Subsistence, as the Savior Himself teaches when He says, 'The Father who dwells in Me does the works' that I do; and 'I and the Father are one,' and 'I in the Father and the Father in Me.' Therefore let this Christ-opposing heresy first try to divide the examples found in originated things, and say, 'Once the sun was without its radiance,' or, 'Radiance is not proper to the essence of light,' or, 'It is indeed proper, but it is a part of light by division'; and then let it divide Reason and declare that it is foreign to mind, or that once it did not exist, or that it was not proper to its essence, or that it is a part of mind by division. And so with His Expression, the Light, and the Power, let it do violence to these as in the case of Reason and Radiance, and imagine instead whatever it likes. But if such absurdity is impossible for them, are they not completely out of their minds, presumptuously intruding into what is higher than originated things and their own nature, and attempting the impossible?

For if, in the case of these originated and irrational things, offspring are found that are not parts of the essences they come from, do not come into existence through passion, and do not diminish the essences of their sources, are they not mad again in looking for and imagining parts and passions in the case of the immaterial and true God, and attributing divisions to Him who is beyond passion and change, so as to confuse the ears of the simple and turn them away from the Truth? For who hears of a son without thinking of what is proper to the father's essence? Who heard in his first instruction that God has a Son and has made all things through His proper Word without understanding it in the sense in which we now mean it? Who, when this odious heresy of the Arians arose, was not at once startled at what he heard, as something strange and a second sowing, besides the Word that had been sown from the beginning? For what is sown in every soul from the beginning is that God has a Son, the Word, the Wisdom, the Power, that is, His Image and Radiance; from which it at once follows that He always is; that He is from the Father; that He is like Him; that He is the eternal offspring of His essence; and there is no idea of creature or work involved in these. But when the enemy, while people slept, made a second sowing of 'He is a creature,' and 'There was once when He was not,' and 'How can it be?' from then on the wicked heresy of Christ's enemies sprang up like weeds; and immediately, as if stripped of every right thought, they meddle like robbers and dare to say, 'How can the Son always exist with the Father? For human beings come from human beings and are sons after a time; and the father is thirty years old when the son begins to exist, being begotten; and, in short, of every son of man it is true that he did not exist before his generation.' And again they whisper, 'How can the Son be Word, or the Word be God's Image? For the word of human beings is made up of syllables, and only expresses the speaker's will, and then it is over and is lost.'

So they once again, as if forgetting the proofs already brought against them, 'pierce themselves through' with these bonds of irreligion and argue this way. But the word of truth refutes them as follows. If they were disputing about some man, then let them reason in this human way about his word and his son; but if they are disputing about God who created man, let them no longer entertain human thoughts, but others that are above human nature. For as the one who begets is, so the offspring must necessarily be; and as the Word's Father is, so His Word must also be. Now man, begotten in time, also begets his child in time; and since he came to be from nothing, his word too is over and does not continue. But God is not like man, as Scripture has said; He exists and always is; therefore His Word too exists and is everlastingly with the Father, as the radiance of light. And man's word is made up of syllables, and neither lives nor accomplishes anything, but only expresses the speaker's intention, and merely goes out and passes by, never to appear again, since it did not exist at all before it was spoken; so man's word neither lives nor accomplishes anything, nor, in short, is it a man. And this happens to it, as I said before, because man, who begets it, has his nature from nothing. But God's Word is not merely uttered, so to speak, nor a sound of syllables, nor is His command what is meant by His Son; but as the radiance of light, so He is the perfect offspring from the perfect. So He is God too, as God's Image; for 'the Word was God,' says Scripture. And human words are of no use for action; so man does not work by means of words but with his hands, for they have being, and man's word does not subsist. But the 'Word of God,' as the Apostle says, 'is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.' He is, then, the Maker of all, 'and without Him not one thing was made,' nor can anything be made without Him.

Nor must we ask why the Word of God is not like our word, since God is not like us, as has been said before; nor again is it right to ask how the word is from God, or how He is God's radiance, or how God begets, and what the manner of His begetting is. For a person must be out of his mind to venture on such points, since he demands that something ineffable and proper to God's nature, known to Him alone and to the Son, be explained in words. It is the same as if they asked where God is, how God is, and of what nature the Father is. But just as asking such questions is irreligious and shows ignorance of God, so it is not holy to venture such questions about the generation of the Son of God, nor to measure God and His Wisdom by our own nature and weakness. Nor is anyone free on that account to swerve from the truth in his thoughts; nor, if anyone is perplexed in such inquiries, should he disbelieve what is written. For it is better to be silent and believe in perplexity than to disbelieve because of the perplexity; for one who is perplexed may obtain mercy in some way, because, though he has questioned, he has still kept quiet; but when a person is led by his perplexity to form doctrines for himself that are not fitting, and says what is unworthy of God, such daring incurs a sentence without mercy. For in such perplexities divine Scripture can give him some relief, so that he may take what is written rightly and dwell on our word as an illustration: that as it is proper to us and from us, and not a work external to us, so too God's Word is proper to Him and from Him, and is not a work; and yet it is not like the word of man, or else we must suppose God to be a man. For notice: human words are many and various and pass away day by day, because those that come before others do not continue, but vanish. This happens because their authors are human, and have seasons that pass away and ideas that follow one another; and they utter what occurs to them first and second, so that they have many words, and yet after all of them nothing at all remains; for the speaker stops, and his word is immediately spent. But God's Word is one and the same, and, as it is written, 'The Word of God endures forever,' not changed, not before or after another, but always existing the same. For it was fitting, since God is One, that His Image should be One too, and His Word One, and His Wisdom One.

So I am amazed that, while God is One, these men introduce, according to their own private notions, many images, wisdoms, and words, and say that the Father's proper and natural Word is other than the Son, and that He even made the Son by it, and that He who is really Son is called Word only notionally, as He is called vine, way, door, and tree of life; and that He is called Wisdom in name only, while the proper and true Wisdom of the Father, which coexists with Him without origin, is other than the Son, and by it He even made the Son and named Him Wisdom as sharing in it. They have not confined this to talk; Arius composed it in his Thalia, and the Sophist Asterius wrote what we stated above, as follows: 'Blessed Paul did not say that he preached Christ, the Power of God or the Wisdom of God,' but, without adding the article, 'God's power' and 'God's wisdom,' 'thus preaching that the proper Power of God Himself, which is natural to Him and coexists in Him without origin, is something besides, which is indeed generative of Christ and creative of the whole world; about which he teaches in his Epistle to the Romans this way: "The invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead." For as no one would say that the Godhead mentioned there was Christ, but the Father Himself, so, as I think, His eternal Power and Godhead too is not the Only Begotten Son, but the Father who begot Him.' And he teaches that there is another power and wisdom of God, revealed through Christ. And shortly after, the same Asterius says, 'However, His eternal power and wisdom, which truth argues to be without beginning and unoriginate, must surely be one. For there are many wisdoms which are created by Him one by one, of whom Christ is the firstborn and only-begotten; all of them, however, depend equally on their Possessor. And all the powers are rightly called His who created and uses them; as the Prophet says that the locust, which came as a divine punishment for human sins, was called by God Himself not only a power but a great power; and blessed David, in most of the Psalms, calls not only the Angels but also the Powers to praise God.'

Now do they not deserve to be hated by everyone for merely saying this? For if, as they hold, He is Son not because He is begotten from the Father and is proper to His Essence, but is called Word only because of rational things, Wisdom because of things gifted with wisdom, and Power because of things gifted with power, then surely He must be named Son because of those who are made sons; and perhaps, because there are things that exist, He has even His existence only in our notions. And then, after all, what is He? For He is none of these Himself, if they are only His names; and He has only an appearance of being, and is decorated with these names by us. Rather, this is some recklessness of the devil, or worse, if they are not unwilling to subsist truly themselves, yet think that God's Word exists only in name. Is this not monstrous: to say that Wisdom coexists with the Father, yet not to say that this is the Christ, but that there are many created powers and wisdoms, one of which is the Lord, whom they go on to compare to the caterpillar and the locust? And are they not shameless, who, when they hear us say that the Word coexists with the Father, immediately mutter, 'Are you not speaking of two Unoriginates?' yet, in speaking themselves of 'His Unoriginate Wisdom,' do not see that they have already brought on themselves the charge they so rashly press against us? Moreover, what folly there is in that thought of theirs, that the Unoriginate Wisdom coexisting with God is God Himself! For what coexists does not coexist with itself, but with someone else, as the Evangelists say of the Lord that He was together with His disciples; for He was not together with Himself, but with His disciples — unless indeed they would say that God is of a compound nature, having wisdom as a constituent or complement of His Essence, unoriginate as He is, which, moreover, they pretend is the maker of the world, so that they may deprive the Son of making it. For there is nothing they would not maintain rather than hold the truth about the Lord.

For where in divine Scripture have they found, or from whom have they heard, that there is another Word and another Wisdom besides this Son, that they should invent such a doctrine for themselves? It is true that it is written, 'Are not My words like fire, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?' and in the Proverbs, 'I will make My words known to you'; but these are precepts and commands, which God has spoken to the saints through His proper and only true Word, about which the Psalmist said, 'I have held back my feet from every evil way, so that I may keep Your words.' Accordingly, the Savior indicates that such words are distinct from Himself when He says in His own person, 'The words that I have spoken to you.' For certainly such words are not offspring or sons, nor are there so many words that make the world, nor so many images of the One God, nor so many who have become men for us, as if out of many such there were one who has become flesh, as John says; but He was preached by John as the only Word of God: 'The Word became flesh,' and 'all things were made through Him.' So the testimonies are written and set out about Him alone, our Lord Jesus Christ, and about His oneness with the Father — both the testimony of the Father, indicating that the Son is One, and that of the saints, who are aware of this and say that the Word is One and that He is Only-Begotten. And His works are also set out; for all things, visible and invisible, have been brought into being through Him, and 'without Him not one thing was made.' But they have no thought of another or of anyone else, nor do they invent words or wisdoms, whose name and deeds Scripture does not indicate, but which are named only by these men. For it is their invention and anti-Christian guess, and they make the most of the name of the Word and the Wisdom; and, inventing others for themselves, they deny the true Word of God and the real and only Wisdom of the Father, and in this, miserable men, they rival the Manichees. For they too, when they see the works of God, deny Him, the only and true God, and invent another for themselves, whom they can show neither by any work nor in any testimony drawn from the divine oracles.

Therefore, if no other wisdom besides this Son is found in the divine oracles, and we have heard of no such thing from the fathers, yet they have confessed and written of the Wisdom coexisting with the Father without origin, proper to Him, and the Maker of the world, this must be the Son, who even according to them eternally coexists with the Father. For He is the Maker of all, as it is written, 'In Wisdom You have made them all.' Indeed, Asterius himself, as if forgetting what he wrote before, afterward, in the manner of Caiaphas, unintentionally, when pressing the Greeks, confesses only one, instead of naming many wisdoms or the caterpillar, in these words: 'God the Word is one, but rational things are many; and the essence and nature of Wisdom is one, but wise and beautiful things are many.' And soon afterward he says again: 'Who are those whom they honor with the title of God's children? For they will not say that they too are words, nor maintain that there are many wisdoms. For since the Word is one and Wisdom has been set forth as one, it is not possible to distribute the Essence of the Word to the multitude of children and to give them the title of Wisdom.' It is not surprising at all, then, that the Arians should fight against the truth, when they clash with their own principles and conflict with each other: at one time saying that there are many wisdoms, at another maintaining one; at one time classing wisdom with the caterpillar, at another saying that it coexists with the Father and is proper to Him; now that the Father alone is unoriginate, and then again that His Wisdom and His Power are unoriginate too. And they fight with us for saying that the Word of God always is, yet forget their own doctrines, and say themselves that Wisdom coexists with God without origin. So dizzy are they in all these matters, denying the true Wisdom and inventing one that does not exist, like the Manichees, who make another God for themselves after denying the One who is.

But let the other heresies, and the Manichees too, know that the Father of Christ is One, and is Lord and Maker of creation through His proper Word. And let the Ario-maniacs in particular know that the Word of God is One, being the only Son, proper and genuine, from His Essence, and having with His Father the indivisible oneness of Godhead, as we have said many times, having been taught it by the Savior Himself. For if this were not so, why does the Father create through Him, reveal Himself in Him to whomever He wills, and enlighten them? Or why, too, is the Son named together with the Father in the baptismal consecration? For if they say that the Father is not all-sufficient, their answer is irreligious; but if He is — for this is the right thing to say — what need is there of the Son for making the worlds, or for the holy washing? For what fellowship is there between creature and Creator? Or why is a thing made classed with its Maker in the consecration of all of us? Or why, as you hold, is faith in one Creator and in one creature handed down to us? For if it was so that we might be joined to the Godhead, what need is there of the creature? But if it was so that we might be united to the Son, a creature, then this naming of the Son in Baptism is, according to you, superfluous; for God, who made Him a Son, is able to make us sons too. Besides, if the Son is a creature, since the nature of rational creatures is one, no help will come to creatures from a creature, since all need grace from God. We said a few words just now on how fitting it is that all things should be made by Him; but since the course of the discussion has led us also to mention holy Baptism, it is necessary to state, as I think and believe, that the Son is named with the Father not as if the Father were not all-sufficient, nor without meaning, nor by accident; but since He is God's Word and own Wisdom, and, being His Radiance, is always with the Father, it is impossible, if the Father bestows grace, that He should not give it in the Son; for the Son is in the Father as the radiance is in the light. For it is not as if in need, but as a Father, that God has founded the earth in His own Wisdom, made all things in the Word who is from Him, and confirms the Holy Washing in the Son. For where the Father is, there is the Son, and where the light is, there is the radiance; and just as what the Father works He works through the Son, and the Lord Himself says, 'What I see the Father do, I do too,' so also when baptism is given, whomever the Father baptizes, the Son baptizes; and whomever the Son baptizes is consecrated in the Holy Spirit. And again, just as when the sun shines one might say that the radiance illuminates, for the light is one and indivisible and cannot be detached, so where the Father is, or is named, there plainly the Son is too. And is the Father named in Baptism? Then the Son must be named with Him.

Therefore, when He made His promise to the saints, He spoke this way: 'I and the Father will come and make Our home with him'; and again, 'so that, as I and You are One, they too may be one in Us.' And the grace given is one, given from the Father in the Son, as Paul writes in every Epistle: 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' For the light must be with the ray, and the radiance must be contemplated together with its own light. So the Jews, since they deny the Son just as these men do, do not have the Father either; for, having left the 'Fountain of Wisdom,' as Baruch reproaches them,⁠a they put away from themselves the Wisdom that springs from it, our Lord Jesus Christ (for 'Christ,' says the Apostle, is 'God's power and God's wisdom'), when they said, 'We have no king but Cæsar.' The Jews, then, have the penalty for their denial; for their city as well as their reasoning came to nothing. And these men too put at risk the fullness of the mystery, I mean Baptism. For if the consecration is given to us into the Name of Father and Son, and they do not confess a true Father, because they deny what is from Him and like His Essence, and also deny the true Son, naming another of their own making, created out of nothing, is not the rite they administer altogether empty and useless, making a show, but in reality no help toward religion? For the Arians do not baptize into Father and Son, but into Creator and creature, into Maker and work. And just as a creature is other than the Son, so the Baptism supposedly given by them is other than the truth, though they pretend to name the Name of the Father and the Son because of the words of Scripture. For it is not the one who simply says 'O Lord' who gives Baptism, but the one who has the right faith along with the Name. For this reason our Savior too did not simply command to baptize, but first says, 'Teach,' then this: 'Baptize into the Name of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit,' so that the right faith might follow on learning, and the consecration of Baptism might come together with faith.

There are many other heresies too that use the words only, but not in a right sense, as I have said, nor with sound faith; and consequently the water they administer is useless, lacking in piety, so that whoever is sprinkled by them is polluted by irreligion rather than redeemed. So the Gentiles too, though the name of God is on their lips, incur the charge of Atheism, because they do not know the real and true God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Manichees, the Phrygians, and the disciples of the Samosatene, though they use the Names, are heretics nonetheless; and the Arians follow the same course: though they read the words of Scripture and use the Names, they too mock those who receive the rite from them, being more irreligious than the other heresies and going beyond them, making them seem innocent by their own recklessness of speech. For these other heresies lie against the truth in some particular respect, either erring about the Lord's Body — as if He did not take flesh from Mary, or as if He did not die at all, nor become man, but only appeared and was not truly so, and seemed to have a body when He did not, and seemed to have the shape of a man, like visions in a dream — but the Arians are openly irreligious against the Father Himself. For hearing from the Scriptures that His Godhead is represented in the Son as in an image, they blaspheme, saying that it is a creature, and everywhere they carry around with them, about that Image, the phrase 'He was not,' like mud in a bag, and spit it out as serpents spit their venom. Then, since their doctrine is sickening to everyone, they immediately prop up the heresy with human patronage as a support against its fall, so that the simple, at the sight of it or even out of fear, may overlook the mischief of their perversity. It is right indeed to pity their dupes, and right to weep over them, because they sacrifice their own interest for the immediate fantasy that pleasures provide, and lose their future hope. In thinking to be baptized into the name of one who does not exist, they will receive nothing; and, ranking themselves with a creature, they will have no help from creation; and, believing in one unlike and foreign to the Father in essence, they will not be joined to the Father, since they do not have His own Son by nature, who is from Him, who is in the Father and in whom the Father is, as He Himself has said; but, led astray by them, the wretched people remain from then on destitute and stripped of the Godhead. For this fantasy of earthly goods will not follow them at their death; nor, when they see the Lord whom they have denied sitting on His Father's throne and judging the living and the dead, will they be able to call on any of those who have now deceived them for help; for they will see them too at the judgment seat, repenting of their deeds of sin and irreligion.

We have gone through this much before coming to the passage in the Proverbs, resisting the senseless fables their hearts have invented, so that they may know that the Son of God ought not to be called a creature, and may learn to read correctly what in truth admits of a right explanation. For it is written, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways, for His works.' Since, however, these are proverbs, and it is expressed in the manner of proverbs, we must not explain them bluntly in their first sense, but we must inquire into the person, and so reverently give the meaning. For what is said in proverbs is not said plainly, but is put forward in a hidden way, as the Lord Himself has taught us in the Gospel according to John, saying, 'I have spoken these things to you in proverbs, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but plainly.' Therefore it is necessary to unfold the meaning of what is said and to seek it as something hidden, and not to explain it bluntly as if the meaning were spoken 'plainly,' so that we do not stray from the truth by a false interpretation. If, then, what is written is about an Angel or any other originated thing, as about one of us who are works, let 'created me' be said; but if it is the Wisdom of God, in whom all originated things have been made, that is speaking about Itself, what should we understand but that 'He created' means nothing contrary to 'He begot'? Nor does It count Itself among the creatures, as though forgetting that It is Creator and Maker, or ignorant of the difference between the Creator and the creatures; rather, It indicates a certain meaning, as in proverbs, not 'plainly' but hidden, which It inspired the saints to use in prophecy, while soon afterward It Itself gives the meaning of 'He created' in other but parallel expressions, saying, 'Wisdom built herself a house.' Now it is plain that our body is Wisdom's house, which It took on Itself to become man; so John consistently says, 'The Word became flesh'; and through Solomon Wisdom says of Itself with careful precision, not 'I am a creature,' but only 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works' — yet not 'created me so that I might have being,' nor 'because I have a creature's beginning and origin.'

For in this passage the Word, speaking through Solomon, is not indicating the Essence of His Godhead, nor His own everlasting and genuine generation from the Father, but rather His humanity and His Dispensation toward us. And, as I said before, He has not said 'I am a creature' or 'I became a creature,' but only 'He created.' For the creatures, having a created essence, are originated and are said to be created, and of course the creature is created; but this bare term 'He created' does not necessarily indicate the essence or the generation, but indicates something else as coming about in the one of whom it speaks, and not simply that the one who is said to be created is at once a creature in His Nature and Essence. And divine Scripture recognizes this difference, saying of the creatures, 'The earth is full of Your creation,' and 'the creation itself groans together and labors together in pain'; and in the Apocalypse it says, 'And the third part of the creatures in the sea that had life died'; as Paul also says, 'Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving'; and in the book of Wisdom it is written, 'Having ordained man through Your wisdom, so that he should have dominion over the creatures You have made.' And these, being creatures, are also said to be created, as we may further hear from the Lord, who says, 'He who created them made them male and female'; and from Moses in the Song, who writes, 'Ask now about the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other.' And Paul in Colossians: 'Who is the Image of the Invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, for in Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through Him and for Him, and He is before all.'

These passages are enough to remind us that being called creatures and being created belong to things that have a created essence by nature, though Scripture is full of similar ones. On the other hand, David shows in the Psalm that the single word 'He created' does not simply indicate the essence and manner of generation: 'This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord'; and again, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God'; and Paul in Ephesians says, 'having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man out of the two'; and again, 'Put on the new man, who is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.' For David did not speak of any people created in essence, nor did he pray to have a heart other than the one he had; he meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul mean two persons created in essence in the Lord, nor again did he advise us to put on some other man; he called the life of virtue the 'man after God,' and by those 'created' in Christ he meant the two peoples who are renewed in Him. Such too is the language of the book of Jeremiah: 'The Lord created a new salvation for a planting, in which salvation people shall walk to and fro'; and in speaking this way he does not mean any essence of a creature, but prophesies the renewal of salvation among people that has taken place in Christ for us. Since this, then, is the difference between 'the creatures' and the single word 'He created,' if you find the Lord called a 'creature' anywhere in divine Scripture, produce it and fight; but if it is nowhere written that He is a creature, and only He Himself says of Himself in the Proverbs, 'The Lord created me,' shame on you, both because of the distinction just mentioned and because the wording is like that of proverbs. Accordingly, let 'He created' be understood not of His being a creature, but of the human nature that became His, for creation belongs to this. Indeed, is it not plainly unfair of you, when David and Paul say 'He created,' not to understand it of essence and generation but of renewal, yet when the Lord says 'He created,' to count His essence among the creatures? And again, when Scripture says, 'Wisdom built herself a house; she set it on seven pillars,' to understand 'house' allegorically, but to take 'He created' as it stands and fasten the idea of creature on it? Neither His being the Maker of all has carried any weight with you, nor have you feared His being the sole and proper Offspring of the Father; but recklessly, as if you had enlisted against Him, you fight and think less of Him than of men.

For the very passage proves that calling the Lord a creature is merely your own invention. For the Lord, knowing that His own Essence is the Only-begotten Wisdom and Offspring of the Father, and other than originated things and natural creatures, says out of love for humankind, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' as if to say, 'My Father has prepared a body for Me and has created Me for people, for the sake of their salvation.' For just as, when John says, 'The Word became flesh,' we do not conceive the whole Word Himself to be flesh, but to have put on flesh and become man; and on hearing, 'Christ has become a curse for us,' and 'He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,' we do not simply conceive that the whole Christ has become curse and sin, but that He has taken on Himself the curse that lay against us (as the Apostle has said, 'He has redeemed us from the curse,' and as Isaiah has said, 'He has carried our sins,' and as Peter has written, 'He has borne them in His body on the wood'); so, if it is said in the Proverbs 'He created,' we must not conceive that the whole Word is a creature by nature, but that He put on the created body, and that God created Him for our sake, preparing the created body for Him, as it is written, for us, so that in Him we might be capable of being renewed and made divine. What, then, deceived you, you senseless men, into calling the Creator a creature? Or where did you buy this new thought, to parade it? For the Proverbs say 'He created,' but they do not call the Son a creature, but Offspring; and, according to the distinction in Scripture mentioned above between 'He created' and 'creature,' they acknowledge what is proper to the Son by nature: that He is the Only-begotten Wisdom and Maker of the creatures; and when they say 'He created,' they say it not with respect to His Essence, but indicate that He was becoming a beginning of many ways; so that 'He created' is in contrast to 'Offspring,' and His being called the 'Beginning of ways' is in contrast to His being the Only-begotten Word.

For if He is Offspring, how do you call Him a creature? For no one says that He begets what He creates, nor calls His own offspring creatures; and again, if He is Only-begotten, how does He become 'beginning of the ways'? For necessarily, if He was created as a beginning of all things, He is no longer alone, since He has those who came into being after Him. For Reuben, when he became a beginning of the children, was not only-begotten; he was first in time, but in nature and relationship one among those who came after him. Therefore, if the Word too is 'a beginning of the ways,' He must be such as the ways are, and the ways must be such as the Word, even if in point of time He was created first of them. For the beginning or foundation of a city is such as the other parts of the city are, and the members, being joined to it, make the city whole and one, like the many members of one body; nor does one part of it make while another comes to be and is subject to the first, but the whole city equally has its government and constitution from its founder. If, then, the Lord is created as a 'beginning' of all things in such a sense, it would follow that He and all other things together make up the unity of creation, and He neither differs from all the others, though He becomes the 'beginning' of all, nor is He their Lord, though older in point of time; but He has the same manner of making and the same Lord as the rest. Indeed, if He is a creature, as you hold, how can He be created alone and first at all, so as to be the beginning of all? For it is plain from what has been said that among the creatures none is of a fixed nature and earlier formation, but each has its origin with all the rest, however much it may surpass others in glory. For as to the individual stars or the great lights, it was not that this one appeared first and that one second, but they were all called into being on one day and by the same command. And such was the original formation of the four-footed animals, birds, fish, cattle, and plants; so too the race made in God's Image, namely human beings, has come to be; for though Adam alone was formed out of the earth, the succession of the whole race was contained in him.

And from the visible creation we clearly see that His invisible things too, 'being perceived through the things that are made,' are not independent of one another; for it was not first one and then another, but all were established at once according to their kind. For the Apostle did not count them individually, so as to say 'whether Angel, or Throne, or Dominion, or Authority,' but he mentions all together according to their kind, 'whether Angels, or Archangels, or Principalities'; for this is how the creatures originate. If, then, as I have said, the Word were a creature, He must have been brought into being not first of them, but with all the other Powers, however much He surpasses the rest in glory. For this is how we find it to be in their case: they came to be at once, with neither first nor second, and they differ from one another in glory, some on the right of the throne, some all around, and some on the left, but all alike praising and standing in service before the Lord. Therefore, if the Word were a creature, He would not be first or the beginning of the rest; yet if He is before all, as indeed He is, and is Himself alone First and Son, it does not follow that He is the beginning of all things as to His Essence, for what is the beginning of all is counted among all. And if He is not such a beginning, then neither is He a creature; it is very plain that He differs in essence and nature from the creatures and is other than they, and is the Likeness and Image of the sole and true God, being sole Himself too. So He is not classed with creatures in Scripture; rather, David rebukes those who dare even to think of Him as such, saying, 'Who among the gods is like the Lord?' and 'Who is like the Lord among the sons of God?' and Baruch, 'This is our God, and no other shall be compared with Him.'⁠a For the One creates, and the rest are created; and the One is the very Word and Wisdom of the Father's Essence, and through this Word the things that came to be, which did not exist before, were made.

Your famous assertion, then, that the Son is a creature is not true, but is only your fantasy; indeed, Solomon convicts you of having slandered Him many times. For he has not called Him a creature, but God's Offspring and Wisdom, saying, 'God established the earth in Wisdom,' and 'Wisdom built herself a house.' And the very passage in question proves your irreligious spirit; for it is written, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works.' Therefore, if He is before all things, yet says 'He created me' — not 'so that I might make the works,' but 'for the works' — then, unless 'He created' relates to something later than Himself, He will seem later than the works, finding them already in existence before Him at His creation, for whose sake He is also brought into being. And if so, how is He nevertheless before all things? And how were all things made through Him and hold together in Him? For look: you say that the works existed before Him, for which He is created and sent. But it is not so — perish the thought! The heretics' supposition is false. For the Word of God is not a creature but Creator, and says in the manner of proverbs, 'He created me,' when He put on created flesh. And something more may be understood from the passage itself; for though He is Son and has God as His Father, since He is His proper Offspring, yet here He names the Father Lord — not that He was a servant, but because He took the servant's form. For it was fitting for Him, on the one hand, being the Word from the Father, to call God Father, for this is proper to a son toward his father; and on the other hand, having come to finish the work and having taken a servant's form, to name the Father Lord. And He Himself has taught this difference by an apt distinction, saying in the Gospels, 'I thank You, Father,' and then, 'Lord of heaven and earth.' For He calls God His Father, but names Him Lord of the creatures, showing clearly by these words that it was when He put on the creature that He called the Father Lord. For in the prayer of David the Holy Spirit marks the same distinction, saying in the Psalms, 'Give Your strength to Your Child, and help the Son of Your handmaid.' For the natural and true child of God is one, and the sons of the handmaid, that is, of the nature of originated things, are others. So the One, as Son, has the Father's might, but the rest need salvation.

(But if they idly talk because He was called a child, let them know that Isaac too was named Abraham's child, and the son of the Shunammite was called a young child.) Reasonably, then, since we are servants, when He became like us He too calls the Father Lord, as we do; and He has done this out of love for humankind, so that we too, being servants by nature and receiving the Spirit of the Son, might have confidence to call Him Father by grace, who is our Lord by nature. But just as we, in calling the Lord Father, do not deny our servitude by nature (for we are His works, and it is 'He who has made us, and not we ourselves'), so when the Son, on taking the servant's form, says, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' let them not deny the eternity of His Godhead, and that 'in the beginning was the Word,' and 'all things were made through Him,' and 'in Him all things were created.' For the passage in the Proverbs, as I have said before, indicates not the Essence but the humanity of the Word; for if He says that He was created 'for the works,' He shows His intention of indicating not His Essence but the Dispensation that took place 'for His works,' which comes second to being. For things that are being formed and created are made first so that they may be and exist, and next they have to do whatever the Word commands them, as may be seen in the case of all things. For Adam was created, not so that he might work, but so that he might first be a man; for it was after this that he received the command to work. And Noah was created, not because of the ark, but so that he might first exist and be a man; for after this he received the command to prepare the ark. And the same will be found in every case on looking into it: so the great Moses was first made a man, and next was entrusted with the government of the people. Therefore here too we must suppose the same; for you see that the Word is not created into existence, but 'In the beginning was the Word,' and afterward He is sent 'for the works' and the Dispensation toward them. For before the works were made, the Son always was, and there was not yet any need for Him to be created; but when the works had been created and the need for the Dispensation for their restoration arose afterward, it was then that the Word took on Himself this condescension and likeness to the works, which He has shown us by the word 'He created.' And wishing to indicate the same through the Prophet Isaiah, He says again: 'And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to gather Jacob to Him, and Israel; I shall be gathered and be glorified before the Lord.'

Notice here too: He is formed, not into existence, but in order to gather together the tribes, which existed before He was formed. For as the earlier passage has 'He created,' this one has 'He formed'; and as there it is 'for the works,' here it is 'to gather together'; so that from every point of view it appears that 'He created' and 'He formed' are said after 'the Word was.' For just as the tribes for whose sake He was formed existed before His forming, so it appears that the works for which He was created exist. And when 'in the beginning was the Word,' the works did not yet exist, as I have said before; but when the works had been made and the need required it, then 'He created' was said. It is as if some son were sent by his father to help and recover the servants when they had been lost and were in the hands of the enemy through their own carelessness, and the need was urgent; and on setting out he put on clothing like theirs and made himself look like them, so that the captors would not recognize him as the master, take flight, and prevent him from going down to those they had hidden under the earth. And then, if anyone asked him why he did this, he would answer, 'My Father formed and prepared me this way for his works'; and in speaking this way he neither implies that he is a servant or one of the works, nor speaks of the beginning of his origin, but of the charge given him afterward over the works. In the same way the Lord too, having put on our flesh and 'being found in appearance as a man,' if He were questioned by those who saw Him like this and marveled, would say, 'The Lord created Me the beginning of His ways for His works,' and 'He formed Me to gather Israel together.' The Spirit again foretells this in the Psalms, saying, 'You set Him over the works of Your hands,' which the Lord indicated of Himself elsewhere: 'I am set as King by Him on His holy hill of Zion.' And just as, when He shone in the body on Zion, He did not have the beginning of His existence or of His reign, but, being God's Word and everlasting King, He granted that His kingdom should shine in a human way in Zion, so that, redeeming them and us from the sin that reigned in them, He might bring them under His Father's Kingdom; so, on being set 'for the works,' He is not set over things that did not yet exist, but over things that already existed and needed restoration.

'He created,' then, and 'He formed' and 'He set,' having the same meaning, do not indicate the beginning of His being, or of His essence as created, but the kindly renewal that came about for us. Accordingly, though He speaks this way, He also taught that He Himself existed before this, when He said, 'Before Abraham came to be, I am'; and 'When He prepared the heavens, I was present with Him'; and 'I was with Him, arranging things.' And just as He Himself existed before Abraham came to be, and Israel came into being after Abraham, and He plainly exists first and is formed afterward, and His forming indicates not His beginning of being but His taking on humanity, in which He also gathers together the tribes of Israel; so, 'being always with the Father,' He Himself is the Maker of creation, and His works are evidently later than Himself, and 'He created' indicates not His beginning of being, but the Dispensation that took place for the works, which He carried out in the flesh. For it was fitting for Him, being other than the works, or rather their Maker, to take their renewal on Himself, so that, since He is created for us, all things may now be created in Him. For when He said 'He created,' He immediately added the reason, naming 'the works,' so that His creation for the works might indicate His becoming man for their renewal. And this is the usual way of divine Scripture; for when it indicates the bodily origin of the Son, it also adds the reason why He became man; but when He speaks, or His servants declare anything about His Godhead, all is said in simple wording and in an absolute sense, without any reason being added. For He is the Father's Radiance; and just as the Father is, but not for any reason, neither must we look for the reason of that Radiance. So it is written, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' and it gives no reason why; but when 'the Word became flesh,' it then adds the reason, saying, 'and dwelt among us.' And again the Apostle, saying, 'who, being in the form of God,' has not introduced the reason until 'He took on Himself the form of a servant'; for then he continues, 'He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross'; for it was for this that He both became flesh and took the form of a servant.

And the Lord Himself has spoken many things in proverbs; but when giving us information about Himself, He has spoken absolutely: 'I in the Father and the Father in Me,' and 'I and the Father are one,' and 'Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father,' and 'I am the Light of the world,' and 'I am the Truth' — not setting down the reason or the why in every case, so that He would not seem secondary to the things for which He was made. For that reason would necessarily take precedence over Him, since without it not even He Himself would have come into being. Paul, for instance, 'set apart as an Apostle for the Gospel, which the Lord had promised beforehand through the Prophets,' was in this way made subordinate to the Gospel of which he was made a minister; and John, being chosen to prepare the Lord's way, was made subordinate to the Lord. But the Lord, not being made subordinate to any reason why He should be Word, except only that He is the Father's Offspring and Only-begotten Wisdom, gives the reason why He is about to take flesh when He becomes man. For the need of humankind came before His becoming man, and apart from it He would not have put on flesh. And He Himself indicates what the need was for which He became man: 'I came down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.' And again: 'I have come as a light into the world, so that whoever believes in Me should not remain in darkness.' And again He says, 'For this purpose I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.' And John has written, 'For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.'

The Savior came, then, to bear witness and to undergo death for our sake, to raise man up and destroy the works of the devil; and this is the reason for His incarnate presence. For otherwise there would have been no resurrection unless there had been death; and how could there have been death unless He had a mortal body? The Apostle, learning this from Him, sets it out this way: 'Since, then, the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.' And, 'Since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.' And again, 'For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.' And John says, 'For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.' And again, the Savior has said in His own person, 'For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.' He has come, then, not for Himself, but for our salvation, to abolish death, to condemn sin, to give sight to the blind, and to raise all from the dead; but if He came not for Himself but for us, it follows that He is created not for Himself but for us. But if He is created not for Himself but for us, then He is not Himself a creature, but uses such language as having put on our flesh. And that this is the meaning of the Scriptures we may learn from the Apostle, who says in Ephesians, 'Having broken down the dividing wall between us, having abolished in His flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man out of the two, making peace.' But if the two are created in Him, and these are in His body, then, bearing the two in Himself, He is reasonably as if created Himself; for He made those who were created in Himself one, and He was in them as they were. And so, since the two are created in Him, He may fittingly say, 'The Lord created me.' For just as, by taking on our weaknesses, He is said to be weak Himself, though He is not weak Himself, for He is the Power of God; and He became sin and a curse for us, though He had not sinned Himself, but because He Himself bore our sins and our curse; so, by creating us in Him, let Him say, 'He created me for the works,' though He is not Himself a creature.

For if, as they hold, He says, 'The Lord created me,' because the Essence of the Word is of created nature, being a creature, then He was not created for us; but if He was not created for us, we are not created in Him; and if we are not created in Him, we have Him not in ourselves but outside us, as, for instance, receiving instruction from Him as from a teacher. And if this is how it is with us, sin has not lost its reign over the flesh, since it is inherent and not cast out of it. But the Apostle opposes such a doctrine a little earlier, when he says, 'For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus'; and if we are created in Christ, then it is not He who is created, but we in Him; and so the words 'He created' are for our sake. For because of our need, the Word, though Creator, endured words that are used of creatures, which are not proper to Him as the Word, but are ours, who are created in Him. And just as, since the Father always is, so is His Word, and, always existing, He always says, 'I was His delight daily, rejoicing always before Him,' and 'I am in the Father and the Father in Me'; so, when He became man for our need, He consistently uses language like ours, 'The Lord has created Me,' so that by His dwelling in the flesh sin might be completely expelled from the flesh and we might have a free mind. For what ought He to say when made man? 'In the beginning I was man'? This would be neither fitting for Him nor true; and as it was not fitting to say this, so it is natural and proper in the case of man to say, 'He created' and 'He made' Him. For this reason, then, the reason for 'He created' is added, namely the need of the works; and where the reason is added, the reason surely explains the passage rightly. So here, when He says 'He created,' He gives the cause, 'the works'; on the other hand, when He indicates the generation from the Father absolutely, He immediately adds, 'Before all the hills He begets me'; but He does not add the 'why,' as in the case of 'He created,' saying 'for the works,' but says absolutely, 'He begets me,' as in the text, 'In the beginning was the Word.' For even if no works had been created, 'the Word' of God still 'was,' and 'the Word was God.' And His becoming man would not have taken place had not the need of humankind become a cause. The Son, then, is not a creature.

For had He been a creature, He would not have said, 'He begets me'; for the creatures are from outside and are works of the Maker, but the Offspring is not from outside nor a work, but from the Father and proper to His Essence. So they are creatures; this is God's Word and Only-begotten Son. For instance, Moses did not say of creation, 'In the beginning He begot,' nor 'In the beginning was,' but 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' Nor did David say in the Psalm, 'Your hands have begotten me,' but 'made me and fashioned me,' everywhere applying the word 'made' to the creatures. But with the Son it is the opposite; for He has not said 'I made,' but 'I begot,' and 'He begets me,' and 'My heart uttered a good Word.' And in the case of creation it is 'In the beginning He made,' but in the case of the Son, 'In the beginning was the Word.' And there is this difference: the creatures are made at a beginning and have a beginning of existence connected with an interval; so what is said of them, 'In the beginning He made,' is the same as saying of them, 'From the beginning He made' — as the Lord, knowing what He had made, taught when He silenced the Pharisees with the words, 'He who made them from the beginning made them male and female'; for originated things were brought into being and created from some beginning, when they did not yet exist. The Holy Spirit has also indicated this in the Psalms, saying, 'You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth'; and again, 'Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased from the beginning.' Now it is plain that what takes place at the beginning has a beginning of creation, and that God purchased His congregation from some beginning. And that 'In the beginning He made,' since he says 'made,' means 'began to make,' Moses himself shows by saying, after all things had been completed, 'And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He had rested from all His work which God began to make.' Therefore the creatures began to be made; but the Word of God, having no beginning of being, certainly did not begin to exist or begin to come into being, but always was. And the works have their beginning in their making, and their beginning precedes their coming into being; but the Word, not being among the things that come into being, is rather the Maker of those that have a beginning. And the being of originated things is measured by their coming into being, and God begins to make them through the Word from some beginning, so that it may be known that they did not exist before their origination; but the Word has His being in no other beginning than the Father, whom they admit to be without beginning, so that He too exists without beginning in the Father, being His Offspring, not His creature.

This is how divine Scripture recognizes the difference between the Offspring and things made, and shows that the Offspring is a Son, not begun from any beginning but eternal, while the thing made, as an external work of the Maker, began to come into being. So John, delivering divine doctrine about the Son and knowing the difference between the phrases, did not say, 'In the beginning has become' or 'been made,' but 'In the beginning was the Word,' so that we might understand 'Offspring' from 'was,' and not measure Him by intervals, but believe that the Son always and eternally exists. And with these proofs, how, you Arians, misunderstanding the passage in Deuteronomy, did you venture a new act of irreligion against the Lord, saying that 'He is a work,' or 'creature,' or indeed 'offspring'? For you take offspring and work to mean the same thing; but here too you will be shown to be as unlearned as you are irreligious. Your first passage is this: 'Is He not your Father who bought you? Did He not make you and create you?' And shortly after, in the same Song, he says, 'You deserted the God who begot you, and forgot the God who nourished you.' Now the meaning conveyed in these passages is very remarkable. For he does not say 'He begot' first, so that the term would not be taken as interchangeable with 'He made,' and these men would not have a pretext for saying, 'Moses tells us indeed that God said from the beginning, Let Us make man, but soon after he says himself, You deserted the God who begot you, as if the terms were interchangeable; for offspring and work are the same.' But after the words 'bought' and 'made,' he has added 'begot' last of all, so that the sentence might carry its own interpretation; for by the word 'made' he accurately indicates what belongs to human beings by nature, to be works and things made; but by the word 'begot' he shows God's loving-kindness exercised toward human beings after He had created them. And since they proved ungrateful for this, Moses reproaches them, saying first, 'Is this how you repay the Lord?' and then adds, 'Is He not your Father who bought you? Did He not make you and create you?' And next he says, 'They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know. New and strange gods came up, whom your fathers did not know; you deserted the God who begot you.'

For God not only created them to be human beings, but called them to be sons, as having begotten them. For the term 'begot' here, as elsewhere, expresses a Son, as He says through the Prophet, 'I begot sons and exalted them'; and in general, when Scripture wishes to indicate a son, it does so not with the term 'created' but undoubtedly with 'begot.' And John seems to say this: 'He gave them power to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' And here too the careful distinction is well maintained; for first he says 'become,' because they are not called sons by nature but by adoption; then he says 'were begotten,' because they too had in any case received the name of son. But the People, as the Prophet says, 'despised' their Benefactor. Yet this is God's kindness to humankind: of those whose Maker He is, He afterward becomes Father too by grace — becomes so, that is, when human beings, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, 'the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father.' And these are the ones who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for being creatures by nature, they could not become sons in any other way than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son. So, in order for this to happen, 'the Word became flesh,' so that He might make man capable of Godhead. The same meaning may also be gathered from the Prophet Malachi, who says, 'Has not One God created us? Do we not all have one Father?' For first he puts 'created,' then 'Father,' to show, like the other writers, that from the beginning we were creatures by nature, and God is our Creator through the Word; but afterward we were made sons, and from then on God the Creator becomes our Father too. Therefore 'Father' is proper to the Son; and not 'creature' but 'Son' is proper to the Father. Accordingly this passage also proves that we are not sons by nature, but the Son who is in us is; and again, that God is not our Father by nature, but the Father of that Word in us, in whom and because of whom we 'cry, Abba, Father.' And so in the same way the Father calls sons all those in whom He sees His own Son, and says, 'I begot'; since begetting indicates a Son, and making indicates the works. And so it is that we are not begotten first, but made; for it is written, 'Let Us make man'; but afterward, on receiving the grace of the Spirit, we are said from then on to be begotten too; just as the great Moses in his Song, with apt meaning, says first 'He bought' and afterward 'He begot,' so that, on hearing 'He begot,' they would not forget their own original nature, but would know that from the beginning they are creatures, and that when they are said by grace to be begotten as sons, they are still works by nature no less than before.

And the Lord Himself shows even in the Proverbs that creature and offspring are not the same, but differ from each other in nature and in the meaning of the words. For having said, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' He has added, 'But before all the hills He begot me.'⁠a If, then, the Word were a creature by nature and in His Essence, and there were no difference between offspring and creature, He would not have added, 'He begot me,' but would have been content with 'He created,' as if that term implied 'He begot.' But as it is, after saying, 'He created me a beginning of His ways for His works,' He has added not simply 'begot me,' but with the connecting conjunction 'But,' as if guarding the term 'created' by it, when He says, 'But before all the hills He begot me.' For 'begot me,' following so closely on 'created me,' makes the meaning one, and shows that 'created' is said with a purpose, but that 'begot me' comes before 'created me.' For just as, if He had said the reverse — 'The Lord begot me,' and gone on, 'But before the hills He created me' — 'created' would certainly come before 'begot,' so, having said 'created' first and then added 'But before all the hills He begot me,' He necessarily shows that 'begot' came before 'created.' For in saying, 'Before all He begot me,' He indicates that He is other than all things, since it was shown to be true in an earlier part of this book that no one creature was made before another, but all originated things came into existence at once together at one and the same command. Therefore the words that follow 'created' do not also follow 'begot me'; but in the case of 'created,' 'beginning of ways' is added, while of 'begot me' He does not say, 'He begot me as a beginning,' but 'before all He begot me.' But He who is before all is not a beginning of all, but is other than all; and if He is other than all (in which 'all' the beginning of all is included), it follows that He is other than the creatures; and it becomes clear that the Word, being other than all things and before all, is afterward created 'a beginning of the ways for works,' because He became man, so that, as the Apostle has said, He who is the 'Beginning' and 'Firstborn from the dead' 'might have first place in all things.'

Since, then, this is the difference between 'created' and 'begot me,' and between 'beginning of ways' and 'before all,' God, being first Creator, next becomes, as has been said, Father of human beings, because of His Word dwelling in them. But in the case of the Word it is the reverse; for God, being His Father by nature, afterward becomes both His Creator and Maker, when the Word puts on the flesh that was created and made and becomes man. For just as human beings, receiving the Spirit of the Son, become children through Him, so the Word of God, when He Himself puts on human flesh, is then said both to be created and to have been made. If, then, we are sons by nature, He is a creature and work by nature; but if we become sons by adoption and grace, then the Word too, when He became man in grace toward us, said, 'The Lord created me.' And next, when He put on a created nature and became like us in body, He was reasonably called both our Brother and 'Firstborn' on that account. For though it was after us that He was made man for us, and became our brother by likeness of body, He is still called, and is, our 'Firstborn' for this reason: since all people were lost through the transgression of Adam, His flesh was saved and set free before all others, as being the Word's body; and from then on we, becoming one body with It, are saved after Its pattern. For in It the Lord becomes our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven and to His own Father, saying, 'I am the way' and 'the door,' and 'through Me all must enter.' That is also why He is said to be 'Firstborn from the dead' — not that He died before us, for we had died first, but because, having undergone death for us and abolished it, He was the first to rise, as man, raising His own Body for our sake. From then on, since He has risen, we too rise from the dead in due course from Him and because of Him.

But if He is also called 'Firstborn of creation,' this is still not as if He were put on a level with the creatures and were only first of them in point of time (for how could that be, since He is 'Only-begotten'?), but because of the Word's condescension to the creatures, by which He has become the 'Brother' of 'many.' For the term 'Only-begotten' is used where there are no brothers, but 'Firstborn' because of brothers. Accordingly, it is nowhere written in the Scriptures 'the firstborn of God' or 'the creature of God'; but 'Only-begotten,' 'Son,' 'Word,' and 'Wisdom' refer to Him as proper to the Father. So: 'We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father'; and 'God sent His Only-begotten Son'; and 'O Lord, Your Word endures forever'; and 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God'; and 'Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God'; and 'This is My beloved Son'; and 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.' But 'firstborn' implied the descent to creation, for it is of creation that He has been called firstborn; and 'He created' implies His grace toward the works, for it is for them that He is created. If, then, He is Only-begotten, as indeed He is, 'Firstborn' needs some explanation; but if He is really Firstborn, then He is not Only-begotten. For the same one cannot be both Only-begotten and Firstborn except in different relations: Only-begotten because of His generation from the Father, as has been said; and Firstborn because of His condescension to creation and His making the many His brothers. Certainly, since these two terms are inconsistent with each other, one should say that being Only-begotten rightly takes precedence in the case of the Word, since there is no other Word or other Wisdom, but He alone is truly Son of the Father. Moreover, as was said before, it is said of Him absolutely, not in connection with any reason, 'The Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father'; but the word 'Firstborn' again has creation connected with it as a reason, which Paul goes on to give: 'for in Him all things were created.' But if all the creatures were created in Him, He is other than the creatures, and is not a creature, but the Creator of the creatures.

He was called 'Firstborn,' then, not because He was from the Father, but because creation came to be in Him; and just as He was the Son before creation, and creation came to be through Him, so too, before He was called the Firstborn of all creation, the Word Himself was no less with God, and the Word was God. But not understanding this either, these irreligious men go about saying, 'If He is Firstborn of all creation, it is plain that He too is one of the creation.' Senseless men! If He is simply 'Firstborn of the whole creation,' then He is other than the whole creation; for he does not say, 'He is Firstborn above the rest of the creatures,' so that He would not be counted as one of the creatures, but it is written 'of the whole creation,' so that He may appear other than creation. Reuben, for instance, is not said to be the firstborn of all the children of Jacob, but of Jacob himself and his brothers, so that he would not be thought to be someone other than the children of Jacob. Indeed, even of the Lord Himself the Apostle does not say, 'so that He may become Firstborn of all,' so that He would not be thought to bear a body other than ours, but 'among many brothers,' because of the likeness of the flesh. If, then, the Word were also one of the creatures, Scripture would have said of Him too that He was Firstborn of other creatures; but since the saints in fact say that He is 'Firstborn of the whole creation,' the Son of God is plainly shown to be other than the whole creation and not a creature. For if He is a creature, He will be Firstborn of Himself. How, then, is it possible, you Arians, for Him to be before and after Himself? Next, if He is a creature, and the whole creation came to be through Him and holds together in Him, how can He both create creation and be one of the things that hold together in Him? Since, then, such a notion is improper in itself, the truth proves against them that He is called 'Firstborn among many brothers' because of the relationship of the flesh, and 'Firstborn from the dead' because the resurrection of the dead is from Him and after Him, and 'Firstborn of the whole creation' because of the Father's love for humankind, which brought it about that in His Word not only 'all things hold together,' but creation itself, of which the Apostle speaks, 'waiting for the revelation of the sons of God, shall be delivered' at some time 'from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God.' Of this creation, thus delivered, the Lord will be Firstborn, both of it and of all those who are made children, so that by His being called first, those who come after Him may endure, as depending on the Word as their beginning.

And I think that the irreligious men themselves will be ashamed of such a thought; for if the case is not as we have said, but they insist that He is 'Firstborn of the whole creation' as in essence a creature among creatures, let them reflect that they will be thinking of Him as the brother and fellow of things without reason and life. For these too are parts of the whole creation; and the 'Firstborn' must indeed be first in point of time, but only in this way, and must be the same as all in kind and likeness. How, then, can they say this without going beyond every measure of irreligion? Or who will put up with them if this is their language? Or who can help hating them for even imagining such things? For it is evident to all that He has been called 'Firstborn' of creation neither for His own sake, as being a creature, nor as having any connection in essence with the whole creation, but because the Word, when He made the creatures in the beginning, condescended to originated things so that it might be possible for them to come into being. For they could not have endured His nature, which was untempered splendor, the very splendor of the Father, unless, condescending through the Father's love for humankind, He had supported them, taken hold of them, and brought them into existence. And next, because by this condescension of the Word creation too is made a son through Him, so that He might be 'Firstborn' of it in every respect, as has been said, both in creating and in being brought into this very world for the sake of all. For so it is written: 'When He brings the Firstborn into the world, He says, Let all the Angels of God worship Him.' Let Christ's enemies hear and tear themselves to pieces, because it is His coming into the world that makes Him called 'Firstborn' of all; and so the Son is the Father's 'Only-begotten' because He alone is from Him, and He is the 'Firstborn of creation' because of this adoption of all as sons. And as He is Firstborn among brothers and rose from the dead as 'the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep,' so, since it was fitting for Him 'to have first place in all things,' He is therefore created 'a beginning of ways,' so that we, walking along it and entering through Him who says, 'I am the Way' and 'the Door,' and sharing in the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, 'Blessed are the blameless in the Way,' and 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

And so, since the truth declares that the Word is not a creature by nature, it is fitting now to say in what sense He is the 'beginning of ways.' For when the first way, which was through Adam, was lost, and instead of paradise we turned aside to death and heard the words, 'You are dust, and to dust you shall return,' the Word of God, who loves humankind, therefore puts on created flesh at the Father's will, so that, whereas the first man had made it dead through the transgression, He Himself might give it life in the blood of His own body, and might open 'a new and living way for us,' as the Apostle says, 'through the veil, that is, His flesh.' He indicates this elsewhere too: 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; look, all things have become new.' But if a new creation has come about, someone must be first of this creation; and a man made of earth only, such as we have become through the transgression, could not be. For in the first creation people had become unfaithful, and through them that first creation had been lost; and there was need of someone else to renew the first creation and preserve the new one that had come to be. Therefore, out of love for humankind, none other than the Lord, the 'beginning' of the new creation, is created as 'the Way,' and consistently says, 'The Lord created me a beginning of ways for His works,' so that man might no longer walk according to that first creation, but, with a beginning of a new creation, as it were, and with Christ as 'a beginning of its ways,' we might follow Him from now on, who says to us, 'I am the Way,' as the blessed Apostle teaches in Colossians, saying, 'He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that in all things He might have first place.'

For if, as has been said, He is called a beginning because of the resurrection from the dead, and a resurrection took place when He, bearing our flesh, had given Himself to death for us, it is evident that His words 'He created me a beginning of ways' point not to His essence but to His bodily presence. For death belonged to the body; and in the same way the words 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways' belong to the bodily presence. For since the Savior was created in this way according to the flesh, and had become a beginning of the things newly created, and had our first fruits, namely the human flesh He took to Himself, the people to come are therefore also created after Him, as is fitting, as David says: 'Let this be written for another generation, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.' And again in the twenty-first Psalm: 'The generation to come shall declare to the Lord, and they shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord made.' For we will no longer hear, 'On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die,' but 'Where I am, there you' shall 'be also'; so that we may say, 'We are His workmanship, created for good works.' And again, since God's work, that is, man, though created perfect, has become deficient through the transgression and dead through sin, and it was not fitting that the work of God should remain imperfect (which is why all the saints prayed about this, as in the hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, saying, 'Lord, You will repay for me; do not despise the works of Your hands'), the perfect Word of God therefore puts on an imperfect body and is said to be created 'for the works,' so that, paying the debt in our place, He might by Himself complete what man lacked. Now what man lacked was immortality and the way to paradise. This, then, is what the Savior says: 'I glorified You on the earth; I have completed the work You gave Me to do'; and again, 'The works that the Father has given Me to complete, the very works that I do, bear witness about Me.' But 'the works' He says here that the Father had given Him to complete are those for which He is created, as He says in the Proverbs, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways, for His works'; for it is all the same to say, 'The Father has given me the works,' and 'The Lord created me for the works.'

When, then, did He receive the works to complete, you enemies of God? For 'He created' will be understood from this too. If you say, 'At the beginning, when He brought them into being out of what did not exist,' it is untrue; for they had not yet been made, whereas He appears to speak as receiving what already existed. Nor is it reverent to refer it to the time before the Word became flesh, or His coming would then seem superfluous, since that coming took place for the sake of these works. So all that is left for us is to say that it was when He had become man that He received the works. For it was then that He completed them, by healing our wounds and granting us the resurrection from the dead. But if the works were given to Him when the Word became flesh, it is plain that it was also when He became man that He is created for the works. 'He created,' then, does not point to His essence, as has been said many times, but to His bodily generation. For then, because the works had become imperfect and maimed through the transgression, He is said to be created with respect to the body, so that by completing them and making them whole He might present the Church to the Father, as the Apostle says, 'without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish.' Humankind, then, is perfected in Him and restored as it was made at the beginning — indeed, with greater grace. For on rising from the dead we will no longer fear death, but will reign forever with Christ in the heavens. And this has been done because God's own Word Himself, who is from the Father, has put on the flesh and become man. For if He had become man while being a creature, man would have remained just what he was, not joined to God; for how could a work be joined to the Creator by a work? Or what help would have come from like to like, when both needed it? And how, if the Word were a creature, would He have had power to undo God's sentence and forgive sin, when it is written in the Prophets that this is God's doing? For 'who is a God like You, who pardons wickedness and passes over transgression?' For since God has said, 'You are dust, and to dust you shall return,' human beings have become mortal; how, then, could originated things undo sin? But the Lord is the one who has undone it, as He says Himself, 'Unless the Son makes you free'; and the Son, who made us free, has shown in truth that He is not a creature, nor one of the originated things, but the proper Word and Image of the Father's Essence, who passed sentence at the beginning and alone forgives sins. For since it is said in the Word, 'You are dust, and to dust you shall return,' it is fitting that freedom and the undoing of the condemnation have come about through the Word Himself and in Him.

'Yet,' they say, 'even if the Savior were a creature, God was able just to speak the word and undo the curse.' And someone else will tell them in the same way, 'Without His coming among us at all, God was able just to speak and undo the curse.' But we must consider what was good for humankind, and not simply what is possible with God. He could have destroyed the transgressors of that time before Noah's Ark; but He did it after the ark. He could also have spoken the word only and brought the people out of Egypt without Moses; but it was beneficial to do it through Moses. And God was able to save His people without the judges; but it was beneficial for the people that judges should be raised up for them for a time. The Savior too might have come among us from the beginning, or on His coming might not have been handed over to Pilate; but He came 'at the fullness of the ages,' and when He was sought, said, 'I am He.' For what He does is beneficial for people and was not fitting in any other way; and He provides for what is beneficial and fitting. Accordingly He came 'not to be served, but to serve,' and to work out our salvation. Certainly He was able to speak the Law from heaven, but He saw that it was good for people for Him to speak from Sinai; and He did this so that Moses could go up, and so that they, hearing the word near them, might believe all the more. Moreover, the good reason for what He did may be seen this way. If God had only spoken, because it was in His power, and the curse had been undone in that way, the power of the one who gave the word would have been shown, but man would have become just what Adam was before the transgression, having received grace from outside and not having it united to the body (for that is what he was like when he was placed in Paradise); indeed, he would perhaps have become worse, because he had learned to transgress. If, then, in that condition he had been seduced by the serpent, there would have been fresh need for God to give a command and undo the curse; and so the need would have become endless, and people would have remained under guilt no less than before, enslaved to sin; and, always sinning, they would always have needed someone to pardon them, and would never have become free, being flesh in themselves and always defeated by the Law because of the weakness of the flesh.

Again, if the Son were a creature, man would have remained mortal as before, not being joined to God; for a creature would not have joined creatures to God, since it would itself be looking for someone to join it; nor would a portion of creation have been creation's salvation, since it would need salvation itself. To provide against this too, He sends His own Son, and He becomes Son of Man by taking created flesh, so that, since all were under sentence of death, He, being other than them all, might Himself offer His own body to death for all; and so that from then on, as if all had died through Him, the word of that sentence might be fulfilled (for 'all died' in Christ), and all might then become free through Him from sin and from the curse that came on it, and might truly remain forever, risen from the dead and clothed in immortality and incorruption. For since the Word was clothed in the flesh, as has been explained many times, every bite of the serpent began to be completely stopped from within it; whatever evil sprang from the impulses of the flesh began to be cut away; and with these death too was abolished, the companion of sin, as the Lord Himself says: 'The ruler of this world is coming, and he finds nothing in Me'; and 'For this purpose He was revealed,' as John has written, 'to destroy the works of the devil.' And once these had been destroyed from the flesh, we were all set free in this way by kinship of the flesh, and from then on were joined, even we, to the Word. And being joined to God, we no longer remain on earth; but, as He Himself has said, where He is, there we will be too; and from then on we will no longer fear the serpent, for he was brought to nothing when he was attacked by the Savior in the flesh and heard Him say, 'Get behind Me, Satan,' and so he is cast out of paradise into the eternal fire. Nor will we have to guard against a woman deceiving us, for 'in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the Angels'; and in Christ Jesus there will be 'a new creation,' and 'neither male nor female, but Christ is all and in all'; and where Christ is, what fear, what danger can still arise?

But this would not have come about had the Word been a creature; for the devil, himself a creature, would always have kept up the battle with a creature, and man, being between the two, would always have been in danger of death, having no one in whom and through whom he might be joined to God and delivered from all fear. So the truth shows us that the Word is not one of the originated things, but rather their Maker. For this is why He took on the originated and human body: so that, having renewed it as its Maker, He might make it divine in Himself, and so might bring us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness. For man would not have been made divine if joined to a creature, or unless the Son were true God; nor would man have been brought into the Father's presence unless the one who had put on the body had been His natural and true Word. And just as we would not have been delivered from sin and the curse unless the flesh the Word put on had been human by nature (for we would have had nothing in common with what was foreign), so too man would not have been made divine unless the Word who became flesh had been from the Father by nature, and true and proper to Him. For the union was of this kind for this reason: so that He might unite what is human by nature to Him who is in the nature of the Godhead, and man's salvation and deification might be sure. Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence deny also that He took true human flesh from Mary Ever-Virgin; for in neither case would it have been of benefit to us human beings, whether the Word were not truly and naturally Son of God, or the flesh He assumed were not true. But surely He took true flesh, though Valentinus may rave; indeed the Word was truly God by nature, though the Ario-maniacs may rave; and in that flesh the beginning of our new creation has come about, since He was created man for our sake and made that new way for us, as has been said.

The Word, then, is neither creature nor work; for creature, thing made, and work are all one; and if He were a creature and a thing made, He would also be a work. Accordingly He has not said, 'He created Me a work,' nor 'He made Me with the works,' so that He would not appear to be a creature in nature and essence; nor 'He created Me to make works,' so that, on the other hand, He would not seem, according to the perversity of the irreligious, to be an instrument made for our sake. Nor again has He declared, 'He created Me before the works,' so that, since He really is before all as an Offspring, He would not, if also created before the works, give 'Offspring' and 'He created' the same meaning. But He has said, with precise distinction, 'for the works,' as if to say, 'The Father has made Me into flesh, so that I might be man,' which again shows that He is not a work but an offspring. For just as someone who comes into a house is not part of the house but other than the house, so He who is created for the works must be other than the works by nature. But if otherwise, as you hold, Arians, the Word of God is a work, by what Hand and Wisdom did He Himself come into being? For all things that came to be came by the Hand and Wisdom of God, who Himself says, 'My hand has made all these things'; and David says in the Psalm, 'And You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands'; and again, in the hundred and forty-second Psalm, 'I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; indeed, I ponder the works of Your hands.' Therefore, if the works are made by the Hand of God, and it is written that 'all things were made through the Word,' and 'without Him not one thing was made,' and again, 'One Lord Jesus, through whom are all things,' and 'in Him all things hold together,' it is very plain that the Son cannot be a work, but is the Hand of God and the Wisdom. Knowing this, the martyrs in Babylon, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, condemn the Arian irreligion. For when they say, 'All you works of the Lord, bless the Lord,' they list things in heaven, things on earth, and the whole creation as works; but they do not name the Son. For they do not say, 'Bless, O Word, and praise, O Wisdom,' to show that all other things are both praising and works, but that the Word is not a work, nor one of those who praise, but is praised with the Father, worshiped, and confessed as God, being His Word and Wisdom and the Maker of the works. The Spirit too has declared this in the Psalms with a most fitting distinction: 'The Word of the Lord is true, and all His works are faithful'; as in another Psalm too He says, 'O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In Wisdom You have made them all.'

But if the Word were a work, then certainly He, like the others, would have been made in Wisdom; and Scripture would not distinguish Him from the works, nor, while naming them works, proclaim Him as the Word and very Wisdom of God. But as it is, by distinguishing Him from the works, it shows that Wisdom is the Maker of the works, and not a work. Paul also observes this distinction, writing to the Hebrews: 'The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart; and no creature is hidden before Him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.' For look: he calls originated things 'creature,' but recognizes the Son as the Word of God, as being other than the creatures. And again, in saying, 'All things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account,' he indicates that He is other than all of them. For that is why He judges, while each of all originated things is bound to give account to Him. And so also, when the whole creation is groaning together with us in order to be set free from the slavery of corruption, the Son is shown by this to be other than the creatures. For if He were a creature, He too would be one of those who groan, and would need someone to bring adoption and deliverance to Himself as well as to others. But if the whole creation groans together for the sake of freedom from the slavery of corruption, while the Son is not among those who groan, nor among those who need freedom, but is Himself the one who gives sonship and freedom to all, saying to the Jews of His time, 'The servant does not remain in the house forever, but the Son remains forever; if, then, the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed,' it is clearer than light from these considerations too that the Word of God is not a creature but the true Son of the Father, genuine by nature. As for 'The Lord has created me a beginning of the ways,' then, this is enough, I think, though in few words, to give the learned material for framing fuller refutations of the Arian heresy. But since the heretics, reading the next verse, also take a perverse view of it, because it is written, 'He founded me before the world,' claiming that this is said of the Godhead of the Word and not of His incarnate Presence, it is necessary to explain this verse too and show their error.

It is written, 'The Lord founded the earth in Wisdom'; if, then, the earth is founded by Wisdom, how can He who founds be founded? No, this too is said in the manner of proverbs, and we must investigate its meaning in the same way, so that we may know that, while the Father makes and founds the earth through Wisdom to be firm and steady, Wisdom Itself is founded for us, so that It may become the beginning and foundation of our new creation and renewal. Accordingly, here as before, He does not say, 'Before the world He has made me Word or Son,' so that there would not be, as it were, a beginning of His making. For this is what we must look into before all things: whether He is Son; 'and on this point especially search the Scriptures.' For this is what Peter answered when the Apostles were questioned, saying, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.' The father of the Arian heresy also asked this as one of his first questions: 'If You are the Son of God'; for he knew that this is the truth and the governing principle of our faith, and that if He were Himself the Son, the tyranny of the devil would come to an end; but if He were a creature, He too was one of those descended from the Adam whom he had deceived, and he had no cause for worry. For the same reason the Jews of that day were angered, because the Lord said that He was the Son of God and that God was His own Father. For had He called Himself one of the creatures, or said, 'I am a work,' they would not have been startled at the news, nor thought such words blasphemy, knowing as they did that even Angels had come among their fathers; but since He called Himself Son, they perceived that this was not the mark of a creature, but of Godhead and of the Father's nature. The Arians, then, ought, even in imitation of their own father the devil, to take special care on this point; and if He has said, 'He founded me to be Word or Son,' then let them think as they do; but if He has not said so, let them not invent for themselves what is not there.

For He does not say, 'Before the world He founded me as Word or Son,' but simply 'He founded me,' to show again, as I have said, that here too He speaks in the manner of proverbs, not for His own sake but for those who are built on Him. Knowing this, the Apostle also writes, 'No one can lay any foundation other than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ; but let each one take care how he builds on it.' And the foundation must be like the things built on it, so that they can be well fitted together. Being the Word, then, He has, as Word, no one like Himself who could be fitted together with Him, for He is Only-begotten; but having become man, He has those like Him, namely those whose likeness of flesh He has put on. Therefore He is founded according to His humanity, so that we, as precious stones, may be built on Him and become a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And just as He is a foundation and we are stones built on Him, so again He is a Vine and we are joined to Him as branches — not according to the Essence of the Godhead, for this is surely impossible, but according to His humanity, for the branches must be like the vine, since we are like Him according to the flesh. Moreover, since the heretics have such human notions, we may fittingly refute them with human comparisons drawn from the very matter they press. So He does not say, 'He made me a foundation,' so that He would not seem to be made and to have a beginning of being, and they would not find a shameless occasion for irreligion in it; but 'He founded me.' Now what is founded is founded for the sake of the stones raised on it; it is not a random process, but a stone is first brought from the mountain and set down in the depth of the earth. And while a stone is in the mountain, it is not yet founded; but when need demands, and it is brought and laid in the depth of the earth, then immediately, if the stone could speak, it would say, 'He has now founded me, who brought me here from the mountain.' So the Lord too did not begin to exist when He was founded, for He was the Word before that; but when He put on our body, which He took and drew from Mary, then He says, 'He has founded me,' as if to say, 'He has wrapped Me, the Word, in a body of earth.' For in this way He is founded for our sake, taking on Himself what is ours, so that we, incorporated, fitted, and bound together in Him through the likeness of the flesh, may attain to a perfect man and remain immortal and incorruptible.

Nor let the words 'before the world,' 'before He made the earth,' and 'before the mountains were settled' disturb anyone; for they fit very well with 'founded' and 'created,' since here again the reference is to the Dispensation according to the flesh. For though the grace that came to us from the Savior appeared just now, as the Apostle says, and came when He lived among us, this grace had been prepared even before we came into being — indeed, before the foundation of the world — and the reason is kind and wonderful. It was not fitting for God to plan for us afterward, or He would appear ignorant of our fate. So the God of all, creating us by His own Word, knowing our destinies better than we do, and foreseeing that, though made 'good,' we would in the event transgress the commandment and be thrust out of paradise for disobedience, being loving and kind, prepared beforehand in His own Word, through whom He also created us, the Dispensation of our salvation; so that, though we fell from Him through the serpent's deceit, we might not remain completely dead, but, having in the Word the redemption and salvation prepared for us beforehand, might rise again and remain immortal, at the time when He would have been created for us 'a beginning of the ways,' and He who was the 'Firstborn of creation' would become 'firstborn' of the 'brothers,' and again would rise as 'first fruits of the dead.' Paul the blessed Apostle teaches this in his writings; for, as if interpreting the words of the Proverbs 'before the world' and 'before the earth was,' he speaks this way to Timothy: 'Share in the sufferings of the Gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life to light.' And to the Ephesians: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as children through Jesus Christ to Himself.'

How, then, has He chosen us before we came into existence, unless, as he says himself, we were represented in Him beforehand? And how at all, before human beings were created, did He predestine us to adoption, unless the Son Himself was 'founded before the world,' taking on Himself the Dispensation that was for our sake? Or how, as the Apostle goes on to say, do we have 'an inheritance, having been predestined,' unless the Lord Himself was founded 'before the world,' since He had the purpose, for our sake, of taking on Himself through the flesh the whole inheritance of judgment that lay against us, so that from then on we were made sons in Him? And how did we receive it 'before the world was,' when we did not yet exist, but came afterward in time, unless the grace that has reached us was stored up in Christ? That is why in the Judgment too, when each one receives according to his conduct, He says, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' How, then, or in whom, was it prepared before we came to be, except in the Lord, who was founded 'before the world' for this purpose: so that we, built on Him like well-fitted stones, might share in the life and grace that is from Him? And this took place, as naturally occurs to the reverent mind, so that, as I said, we, rising after our brief death, may be capable of an eternal life, of which we, being human, formed of earth, would not have been capable unless the hope of life and salvation had been prepared for us in Christ 'before the world.' Therefore there is good reason why the Word, on coming into our flesh and being created in it as 'a beginning of ways for His works,' is laid as a foundation, according as the Father's will was in Him before the world, as has been said, before there was land, before the mountains were settled, and before the springs burst out; so that, though the earth, the mountains, and the forms of visible nature pass away in the fullness of the present age, we, on the contrary, may not grow old after their pattern, but may be able to live after them, having the spiritual life and blessing that were prepared for us in the Word Himself according to election before these things. For in this way we will be capable of a life that is not temporary, but will always remain and live in Christ from then on, since even before this our life had been founded and prepared in Christ Jesus.

Nor was it fitting for our life to be founded in any other way than in the Lord, who is before the ages and through whom the ages were brought into being, so that, since it was in Him, we too might be able to inherit that everlasting life. For God is good; and, being always good, He willed this, knowing that our weak nature needed the help and salvation that is from Him. And just as a wise architect, intending to build a house, also plans for repairing it in case it ever falls into disrepair after it is built, and, planning for this, makes preparations and gives the workmen materials for a repair, so that the means of repair are provided before the house; in the same way the repair of our salvation is founded in Christ before us, so that in Him we might even be created anew. And the will and the purpose were made ready 'before the world,' but took effect when the need required it and the Savior came among us. For the Lord Himself will take the place of all things in the heavens for us when He receives us into everlasting life. This, then, is enough to prove that the Word of God is not a creature, but that the meaning of the passage is right. But since that passage, when examined, has a right meaning from every point of view, it may be well to state what that meaning is; perhaps many words may bring these senseless men to shame. Now here I must return to what has been said before, for what I have to say relates to the same proverb and the same Wisdom. The Word has not called Himself a creature by nature, but has said in proverbs, 'The Lord created me'; and He plainly indicates a meaning not spoken 'plainly' but hidden, such as we will be able to find by taking away the veil from the proverb. For who, on hearing the creating Wisdom say, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' does not at once ask what it means, wondering how that creative Wisdom can be created? Who, on hearing the Only-begotten Son of God say that He was created 'a beginning of ways,' does not look into the meaning, wondering how the Only-begotten Son can become a Beginning of many others? For it is a riddle; but 'a man of understanding,' he says, 'will understand a proverb and its interpretation, the words of the wise and their riddles.'

Now the Only-begotten and true Wisdom of God is the Creator and Maker of all things; for 'in Wisdom You have made them all,' he says, and 'the earth is full of Your creation.' But so that what came into being might not only exist but be good, it pleased God that His own Wisdom should condescend to the creatures, so as to place an impression and likeness of Its Image on all in common and on each, so that what was made might plainly be wise works and worthy of God. For just as our word is an image of the Son of God considered as the Word, so the wisdom implanted in us is an image of the same Son considered as Wisdom; and in this wisdom, having the power of knowledge and thought, we become recipients of the All-creating Wisdom, and through It we are able to know Its Father. 'For whoever has the Son,' He says, 'has the Father also'; and 'whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.' Since, then, such an impression of Wisdom has been created in us and is in all the works, the true and creating Wisdom reasonably takes to Itself what belongs to Its own impression and says, 'The Lord created me for His works'; for what the wisdom in us says, the Lord Himself speaks as if it were His own; and though He is not created Himself, being Creator, He says this as if of Himself because of His image created in the works. And just as the Lord Himself has said, 'Whoever receives you receives Me,' because His impression is in us, so, though He is not among the creatures, yet because His image and impression is created in the works, He says, as if in His own person, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works.' And this impression of Wisdom in the works has been brought into being so that, as I said before, the world might recognize in it its own Creator, the Word, and through Him the Father. And this is what Paul said: 'Because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God has shown it to them; for the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.' But if so, the Word is not a creature in essence; rather, the so-called wisdom that is in us is what is spoken of in this passage in the Proverbs.

But if this too fails to persuade them, let them tell us themselves whether there is any wisdom in the creatures or not. If not, how is it that the Apostle complains, 'For since, in the Wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God'? Or how is it, if there is no wisdom, that a 'multitude of wise men' is found in Scripture? For 'a wise man fears and turns away from evil'; and 'by wisdom a house is built'; and the Preacher says, 'A man's wisdom makes his face shine'; and he rebukes the headstrong this way: 'Do not say, Why were the former days better than these? For you do not ask about this in wisdom.' But if, as the Son of Sirach says, 'He poured her out on all His works; she is with all flesh according to His gift, and He has given her to those who love Him,'⁠a and this outpouring is a mark not of the Essence of the true and Only-begotten Wisdom, but of the wisdom that is imaged in the world, how is it unbelievable that the All-creating and true Wisdom Itself, whose impression is the wisdom and knowledge poured out in the world, should say, as I have already explained, as if of Itself, 'The Lord created me for His works'? For the wisdom in the world is not creative, but is what is created in the works, according to which 'the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.' If people have this within them, they will acknowledge the true Wisdom of God, and will know that they are truly made in God's Image. Consider a king's son, when his father wished to build a city: he might have his own name stamped on each of the works as they rose, both to assure them that the works would last, because his name appeared on everything, and to make them remember him and his father from the name; and when he had finished the city and was asked how it was made, he would answer, 'It is made securely, for according to my father's will I am imaged in each work, for my name was placed in the works.' But in saying this he does not mean that his own essence is created, but the impression of himself by means of his name. In the same way, to apply the illustration, the true Wisdom answers those who admire the wisdom in the creatures, 'The Lord created me for the works,' for My impression is in them, and I have condescended in this way for the making of all things.

Moreover, no one should be startled that the Son speaks of the impression within us as if it were Himself, considering (for we must not shrink from repetition) that when Saul was persecuting the Church, in which His impression and image were, He said, as if He Himself were being persecuted, 'Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' Therefore (as has been said), just as no one would have been startled if the impression of Wisdom that is in the works had itself said, 'The Lord created me for the works,' so, if He, the True and Creating Wisdom, the Only-begotten Word of God, should use what belongs to His image as if about Himself, namely, 'The Lord created me for the works,' let no one overlook the wisdom created in the world and in the works and think that 'He created' is said of the Substance of the true Wisdom, or, watering down the wine, he will be judged a cheat of the truth. For It is Creative and Maker, but Its impression is created in the works, as the copy of the image. And He says 'Beginning of ways,' since such wisdom becomes a kind of beginning and, as it were, the first elements of the knowledge of God; for a person first entering on this way, so to speak, and keeping to it in the fear of God (as Solomon says, 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'), then advancing upward in his thoughts and perceiving the Creating Wisdom that is in creation, will perceive Its Father in It too, as the Lord Himself has said, 'Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father,' and as John writes, 'Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.' And He says, 'Before the world He founded me,' since in Its impression the works remain settled and eternal. Then, so that no one, hearing about the wisdom created in this way in the works, would think the true Wisdom, God's Son, to be a creature by nature, He found it necessary to add, 'Before the mountains, before the earth, before the waters, and before all hills He begets me,' so that, in saying 'before every creature' (for He includes the whole creation under these headings), He may show that He is not created together with the works according to Essence. For if He was created 'for the works,' yet is before them, it follows that He exists before He was created. He is not, then, a creature by nature and essence, but, as He Himself has added, an Offspring. And how a creature differs from an offspring, and how it is distinct by nature, has been shown in what has gone before.

But since He goes on to say, 'When He prepared the heavens, I was present with Him,' we should know that He does not say this as if the Father prepared the heavens or the clouds above without Wisdom (for there is no room to doubt that all things are created in Wisdom, and without It not one thing was made); rather, this is what He says: 'All things took place in Me and through Me; and when there was need for Wisdom to be created in the works, I was with the Father in My Essence, but by condescension to originated things I was setting My own impression on the works, so that the whole world, as being in one body, might not be at odds with itself but in harmony.' All those, then, who come to contemplate the creatures with upright understanding, according to the wisdom given to them, can say for themselves, 'By Your appointment all things continue'; but those who make light of this must be told, 'Claiming to be wise, they became fools'; for 'what can be known about God is plain to them, for God has revealed it to them; for the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, but served the creature rather than the Creator of all, who is blessed forever. Amen.' And they will surely be put to shame on hearing, 'For since, in the wisdom of God (in the way we have explained above), the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.' For God no longer willed, as in former times, to be known by an image and shadow of wisdom, namely the wisdom that is in the creatures; He made the true Wisdom Itself take flesh, become man, and undergo the death of the cross, so that from then on all who believe may obtain salvation through faith in Him. However, it is the same Wisdom of God that first revealed Itself, and through Itself Its own Father, by means of Its own Image in the creatures (which is also why It is said to be created); and afterward, being Itself the Word, It 'became flesh,' as John says, and after abolishing death and saving our race, revealed Himself still more, and through Him His own Father, saying, 'Grant them to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.'

So the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of Him; for the knowledge of the Father through the Son and of the Son from the Father is one and the same; and the Father delights in Him, and in the same joy the Son rejoices in the Father, saying, 'I was beside Him, His delight daily, rejoicing always before Him.' And this again proves that the Son is not foreign, but proper to the Father's Essence. For look: He has not come to be because of us, as the irreligious men say, nor is He out of nothing (for God did not get a cause for rejoicing for Himself from outside); the words indicate what is His own and like Him. When, then, was there a time when the Father did not rejoice? But if He always rejoiced, the one in whom He rejoiced always existed. And in whom does the Father rejoice, except in seeing Himself in His own Image, which is His Word? And though He also had delight in the sons of men on finishing the world, as it is written in these same Proverbs, this too has a consistent meaning. For even then He had delight, not because joy was added to Him, but again on seeing the works made after His own Image; so even this rejoicing of God is because of His Image. And how does the Son have delight, except in seeing Himself in the Father? For this is the same as saying, 'Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father,' and 'I am in the Father and the Father in Me.' Your boast, then, is empty, as is shown on every side, you enemies of Christ, and you paraded and spread your text everywhere in vain — 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways' — twisting its meaning and publishing not Solomon's meaning but your own commentary. For look: your interpretation is proved to be mere fantasy; but the passage in the Proverbs, as well as all that has been said above, proves that the Son is not a creature in nature and essence, but the proper Offspring of the Father, true Wisdom and Word, through whom 'all things were made,' and 'without Him not one thing was made.'