Theophilus to Autolycus 2

Since on a former day we had a conversation, my most excellent Autolycus, when you inquired who my God is, and after you had for a little while lent your ears to my discourse, I set before you an account of my religion; and then, having taken leave of one another with the greatest cordiality, we each went home, though at first you bore yourself rather harshly toward me. For you know and remember that you supposed our doctrine to be folly. Since, then, you afterward urged me on, although I am unskilled in eloquence, nevertheless I wish even now, by means of this present treatise, to demonstrate to you more exactly the vain labor and empty worship in which you are held fast; and at the same time, by means of a few of the very histories which you read, and which perhaps you do not yet understand, I wish to make the truth plain to you.

For it seems to me ridiculous that stonemasons and modellers, or painters, or casters, should fashion and draw and carve and cast, and manufacture gods, which, when they have been made by the craftsmen, are reckoned by them as nothing; but when they have been bought by certain people and set up in what is called a temple, or in some house, then not only do those who purchased them sacrifice to them, but even those who made and sold them come with eager zeal and an array of sacrifices and libations to worship them, and they regard them as gods, not knowing that they are just such things as they were when they were made by the craftsmen, that is, stone, or bronze, or wood, or paint, or some other material. And this same thing has happened to you who read the histories and genealogies of the so-called gods; for whenever you come upon the accounts of their births, you understand them to be men, yet afterward you call them gods and worship them, neither stopping to consider nor understanding that they were begotten just such as you read them to have been.

And of the gods of that time, if indeed they were begotten, many a generation used to be found; but where now is any generation of gods shown? For if they then begot and were begotten, it is clear that gods ought to be begotten down to the present day; otherwise such a notion will be reckoned feeble. For either they grew old, and therefore beget no more, or they died, and exist no longer. For if gods were begotten, they ought to be begotten down to the present day, just as men also are begotten. Nay rather, the gods ought even to be more numerous than men, as the Sibyl says: 'But if gods beget and yet remain immortal, the gods would be more in number than men have come to be, and there would be no room left for mortals to stand.' For if the children begotten by mortal and short-lived men are seen down to the present day, and the begetting of men has not ceased, so that cities and villages are filled, and moreover whole regions are inhabited, how much more ought not gods, who according to the poets do not die, to beget and be begotten, just as you say the generation of gods came about? And why was the mountain called Olympus then inhabited by gods, but is now deserted? Or why did Zeus once dwell on Ida, and was known to dwell there according to Homer and the rest of the poets, but is now unknown? And why was he not everywhere, but was found only in one part of the earth? For either he neglected the rest, or he was unable to be everywhere and to provide for all things. For if he were, say, in an eastern place, he was not in a western place; and if again he were in the western parts, he was not in the eastern. But of God the Most High and Almighty, and the One who truly is God, this is the property: not only to be everywhere, but also to behold all things and to hear all things, and yet not to be contained in any place; otherwise the place that contains Him would be found greater than Himself, for that which contains is greater than that which is contained. For God is not contained, but is Himself the place of all things. And why did Zeus leave Ida? Was it because he died, or because that mountain no longer pleased him? And where did he go? To the heavens? No. But you will say, to Crete? Yes, where his tomb is shown down to this very day. And again you will say, to Pisa, which to this day glories in the hands of Pheidias. Let us come, then, to the writings of the philosophers and poets.

Some of the Stoa deny even that God exists at all; or, if He does, they say that God cares for nothing except Himself; and these things the senselessness of Epicurus and Chrysippus declared outright. Others said that all things came about by spontaneous chance, and that the world is unbegotten and nature eternal; and on the whole they dared to assert that there is no providence of God, but they say that the conscience of each individual is the only god. And still others lay it down that the spirit which pervades all things is god. But Plato and those of his school confess that God is unbegotten, and the Father and Maker of all things; yet then they posit God and matter as both unbegotten, and they say that matter has coexisted with God. But if God is unbegotten and matter unbegotten, then God is no longer the Maker of all things according to the Platonists, nor is the sole sovereignty of God demonstrated, so far as concerns their view. Moreover, just as God, being unbegotten, is also unchangeable, so likewise if matter too were unbegotten, it would also be unchangeable and equal to God; for that which is begotten is mutable and changeable, but the unbegotten is immutable and unchangeable. And what great thing is it if God made the world out of pre-existent matter? For even a human craftsman, when he gets material from someone, makes out of it whatever he pleases. But the power of God is manifested in this: that He makes whatever He pleases out of things that are not; just as the giving of soul and motion belongs to none other than God alone. For a man indeed makes an image, but he cannot give reason and breath or sensation to the thing made by him. But God has more than this: the power to make a thing rational, breathing, and capable of sensation. Therefore, just as in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also is He in this: that out of things that are not He makes, and has made, the things that are, and whatsoever He pleases, even as He pleases.

Thus the opinion among the philosophers and writers is discordant. For while these have made these declarations, we find the poet Homer, under another hypothesis, introducing a generation not only of the world but also of the gods; for he says somewhere: 'Ocean, the begetting of the gods, and mother Tethys, from whom all rivers and the whole sea proceed.' In saying which he no longer establishes God. For who does not know that the ocean is water? And if it is water, it is surely not God. But God, if He is the Maker of all things, as indeed He is, is then also the Creator of the water and of the seas. And Hesiod too himself proclaimed not only a generation of the gods, but also of the world itself; and having said that the world was begotten, he was at a loss to say by whom it came into being. Moreover, he said that the gods were Cronus and Zeus his offspring, and Poseidon and Pluto, and we find these later in origin than the world. Furthermore he relates that Cronus was warred upon by Zeus his own son. For so he says: 'Having conquered his father Cronus by might; and he well distributed each thing among the immortals alike, and assigned them their honors.' Then he goes on to speak of the daughters of Zeus, whom he also names the Muses, of whom he becomes a suppliant, desiring to learn from them in what manner all things came into being; for he says: 'Hail, children of Zeus! Grant me lovely song; celebrate the sacred race of the immortals who exist forever, who were born of Earth and of starry Heaven and of gloomy Night, and whom the briny Sea nourished. Tell how at the first the gods and the earth came into being, and the rivers, and the boundless sea raging with its swell, and the shining stars, and the wide heaven above; and who of these were born gods, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth and apportioned their honors, and how at the first they took possession of many-folded Olympus. These things tell me, O Muses who have your dwelling on Olympus, from the beginning, and say which of them came first.' But how did the Muses know these things, since they were later in origin than the world? Or how could they recount them to Hesiod, when their own father had not yet come into being?

And in a way he assumes matter and a making of the world, when he says: 'Verily first of all Chaos came into being; but next broad-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the immortals who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed earth, and Eros, who is fairest among the immortal gods, the loosener of limbs, who overcomes in the breasts of all gods and of all men their mind and prudent counsel. Out of Chaos came Erebus and black Night; and of Night again were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore after mingling in love with Erebus. And Earth first of all brought forth starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her all about, that there might be for the blessed gods an ever-sure dwelling place; and she brought forth the long mountains, the graceful haunts of the Nymphs who dwell among the wooded mountains; and she also bore the barren deep with its raging swell, the Sea, without delightful love; but afterward, having lain with Heaven, she bore deep-eddying Ocean.' And though he said this, not even thus did he make clear by whom they came into being. For if in the beginning there was Chaos, and some matter pre-existed, being unbegotten, who then was it that altered and re-shaped and transformed it? Did matter itself re-fashion and adorn itself? (For Zeus came into being long afterward, not only later than matter, but also later than the world and the multitude of men; and indeed later still than his father Cronus.) Or rather, was there some sovereign power that made it -- I mean God, who also set it in order? Moreover, he is found in every way to be talking nonsense, and contradicting himself; for having spoken of earth and heaven and sea, he wishes the gods to have come into being from them, and from these he announces certain most terrible men, kindred of the gods, the race of the Titans and the Cyclopes, and the multitude of the Giants, and the demons of Egypt, or rather vain men, as Apollonides, also surnamed Horapius, mentions in the book entitled Semenuthi, and in the rest of his histories concerning the religion of the Egyptians and their kings, and the vain labor that prevails among them.

But why should I recount the myths of the Greeks -- of Pluto reigning over darkness, and Poseidon diving beneath the sea, and embracing Melanippe and begetting a man-eating son; or all that the writers have dramatized concerning the children of Zeus? And that these were born men and not gods, they themselves recount their lineage. And Aristophanes the comic poet, in the play entitled The Birds, undertaking to treat of the making of the world, said that at the first the constitution of the world was an egg, saying: 'First of all black-winged Night brought forth a wind-egg.' But Satyrus too, recording the demes of the Alexandrians, beginning from Philopator who was also called Ptolemy, declares that of him Dionysus was the founding ancestor. Wherefore Ptolemy also established the Dionysian tribe as the first. Satyrus then says thus: that of Dionysus and Althaea the daughter of Thestius was born Deianeira, and of her and Heracles the son of Zeus, I suppose, Hyllus, and of him Cleodemus, and of him Aristomachus, and of him Temenus, and of him Ceisus, and of him Maron, and of him Thestius, and of him Acous, and of him Aristomidas, and of him Caranus, and of him Coenus, and of him Tyrimmas, and of him Perdiccas, and of him Philip, and of him Aeropus, and of him Alcetas, and of him Amyntas, and of him Bocrus, and of him Meleager, and of him Arsinoe, and of her and Lagus, Ptolemy also called Soter, and of him and Berenice, Ptolemy Philadelphus, and of him and Arsinoe, Ptolemy Euergetes, and of him and Berenice the daughter of Magas who reigned in Cyrene, Ptolemy Philopator. The kinship, then, of those who reigned in Alexandria with Dionysus is contained thus. Whence also in the Dionysian tribe demes have been registered: the Altheis from Althaea who became the wife of Dionysus, daughter of Thestius; the Deianeiris from Deianeira, daughter of Dionysus and Althaea, and wife of Heracles. Whence also the demes among them have their appellations: the Ariadnis from Ariadne the daughter of Minos, wife of Dionysus, a father-loving daughter, who united with Dionysus in the form of a ship's stern; the Thestis from Thestius the father of Althaea; the Thoantis from Thoas son of Dionysus; the Staphylis from Staphylus son of Dionysus; the Euaenis from Eunoos son of Dionysus; the Maronis from Maron son of Ariadne and Dionysus; for all these were sons of Dionysus. And there are many other appellations as well, which exist down to this day: those called Heracleidae from Heracles, and Apollonidae and Apollonii from Apollo, and Poseidonii from Poseidon; and from Zeus, the Dioi and Diogenae.

And why should I go on to recount the rest of the multitude of such appellations and genealogies? So that in every way the writers are made sport of -- all of them, both the so-called poets and philosophers, and moreover those who give heed to them. For they have composed myths and follies rather than truth concerning their gods. For they did not prove them to be gods, but men -- some of them drunkards, others fornicators and murderers. But also concerning the origin of the world they uttered things discordant with one another and worthless. First, that some declared the world to be unbegotten, as we have shown above; and those who asserted it to be unbegotten and of eternal nature said things not consistent with those who held it to be begotten. For they uttered these things by conjecture and human reasoning, and not according to truth. Others again said that there is providence, and they overthrew the doctrines of the former. Aratus, then, says: 'Let us begin from Zeus, whom men never leave unspoken; full of Zeus are all the streets, and all the gatherings of men, full too is the sea and the harbors; everywhere we all have need of Zeus. For we are also his offspring; and kindly to men he gives favorable signs, and rouses the peoples to work, reminding them of their livelihood; and he tells when the soil is best for oxen and for mattocks, and he tells when the seasons are right both to dig in the plants and to cast all the seeds.' In whom, then, shall we believe -- in this Aratus, or in Sophocles, who says: 'Of nothing is providence clear; it is best to live at random however one can'? But Homer again does not agree with him; for he says: 'Zeus both increases and diminishes virtue in men.' And Simonides: 'No one without the gods has taken virtue, neither city nor mortal man; God is the all-contriving. There is nothing unscathed among them.' Likewise Euripides: 'There is nothing for men apart from God.' And Menander: 'No one cares for us, save God alone.' And again Euripides: 'For when it seems good to God to save, He gives many occasions for salvation.' And Thestius: 'If God wills, even though you sail on a wicker mat, you are saved.' And having said innumerable such things, they uttered things discordant with themselves. Sophocles at least, speaking of the absence of providence, says in another place: 'But the mortal does not overleap the stroke of God.' Furthermore, they introduced a multitude of gods, yet spoke of a single sovereignty; and they spoke against those who said there is no providence, declaring that providence exists. Whence Euripides confesses, saying: 'We toil at many things in vain through hopes, having labors, yet knowing nothing.' And even unwillingly they confess that they do not know the truth; but being inspired by demons and puffed up by them, what they said, they said through them. For either the poets -- Homer indeed and Hesiod -- being inspired, as they say, by the Muses, spoke from imagination and error, and not by a pure spirit but by a deceitful one. And from this it is plainly shown, since even those possessed by demons are sometimes, down to the present day, exorcised in the name of the One who truly is God, and the deceiving spirits themselves confess that they are demons -- the same who then also worked in those men. Yet sometimes some of them, sobering up in soul, spoke things consistent with the prophets, so that it might be a testimony both to themselves and to all men concerning the sole sovereignty of God and the judgment, and the other things which they declared.

But the men of God, bearers of the Holy Spirit and become prophets, being inspired and made wise by God Himself, became taught of God and holy and righteous. Wherefore they were also counted worthy to receive this reward, becoming instruments of God and containing the wisdom that is from Him -- through which wisdom they spoke both concerning the creation of the world and concerning all the rest. For they foretold also concerning pestilences and famines and wars. And not one or two, but many, arose at various times and seasons among the Hebrews, and among the Greeks too the Sibyl; and all spoke things harmonious and consistent with one another -- both the things that had come to pass before them, and the things that occurred in their own time, and the things now being fulfilled in our day. Wherefore we are also persuaded concerning the things to come that they will be so, just as the first things have been accomplished.

And first they taught us with one accord that God made all things out of things that were not. For nothing coexisted with God; but He, being His own place, and lacking nothing, and existing before the ages, willed to make man by whom He might be known; for this man, therefore, He prepared the world beforehand. For that which is begotten is also in need, but the unbegotten lacks nothing. Having, then, His own Word indwelling within His own bowels, God begot Him together with His own Wisdom, uttering Him forth before all things. This Word He had as the minister of the things made by Him, and through Him He made all things. He is called Beginning, because He rules and is lord over all things fashioned through Him. This Word, then, being Spirit of God, and Beginning and Wisdom and Power of the Most High, came down upon the prophets, and through them spoke the things concerning the making of the world and all the rest. For the prophets did not exist when the world came into being; but the Wisdom of God which was in Him, and His holy Word who was always present with Him, did. Therefore He speaks thus through Solomon the prophet: 'When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him; and when He made strong the foundations of the earth, I was beside Him, fitting them together.' But Moses, who lived many years before Solomon -- or rather the Word of God speaking through him as through an instrument -- says: 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.' First he named Beginning and creation, then thus he set forth God. For one ought not to name God idly and in vain. For the divine Wisdom foreknew that certain ones would talk nonsense and name a multitude of gods that do not exist. In order, then, that the One who truly is God might be understood through His works, and that God made the heaven and the earth and the things in them by His Word, he said: 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth'; then, having mentioned their making, he shows us: 'But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God was borne upon the water.' These things the divine Scripture teaches at the first -- a kind of begotten matter, made by God, out of which God made and fashioned the world.

And the beginning of the creation is light, since light makes manifest the things that are being set in order. Wherefore it says: 'And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good' -- clearly good as having come into being for man. 'And He divided between the light and the darkness; and God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night; and there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it divide between water and water. And it was so. And God made the firmament; and God divided between the water which was under the firmament, and the water which was above the firmament. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God saw that it was good; and there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, Let the water under the heaven be gathered together into one gathering, and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And the water under the heaven was gathered into its gatherings, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings of the waters He called Seas; and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it according to its kind upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it according to its kind upon the earth. And God saw that it was good; and there was evening and there was morning, a third day. And God said, Let there be luminaries in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, so as to divide between the day and the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years; and let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for the beginnings of the day, and the lesser luminary for the beginnings of the night, and the stars. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and to rule the day and the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good; and there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls, and birds flying over the earth across the firmament of the heaven. And it was so. And God made the great sea-monsters, and every living soul of creeping things which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that they were good. And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea; and let the birds multiply upon the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, four-footed beasts and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind. And it was so; and God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and all the creeping things according to their kind. And God saw that they were good. And God said, Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. And God made man; according to the image of God He made him; male and female He made them. And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and have dominion over it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven, and over all the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed, which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in it the fruit of seed for sowing -- to you it shall be for food; and to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the heaven, and to every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, which has in it the breath of life, every green herb for food. And it was so. And God saw all things, whatsoever He had made, and behold, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their order. And God finished on the sixth day His works which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His works which God had begun to make.'

Now of the Hexaemeron (the six days' work) no man is able to set forth worthily the full exposition and ordering, not even if he had ten thousand mouths and ten thousand tongues; nay, not even if anyone should live for ten thousand years, sojourning in this present life, not even so would he be sufficient to say anything worthily about these things, on account of the surpassing greatness and the riches of the wisdom of God which is in this aforewritten Hexaemeron. Many of the writers, indeed, have imitated and wished to give an account of these things, even though they took their starting points from here -- whether concerning the creation of the world, or concerning the nature of man -- and yet they did not utter even a chance spark worthy of the truth. The things said by the philosophers or writers and poets seem indeed to be trustworthy, on account of being adorned in their phrasing. But their discourse is shown to be foolish and empty, because there is a great multitude of their nonsense, while not even a chance bit of the truth is found in them. For even if anything seems to have been uttered as true through them, it has admixture with error. Just as some deadly drug, when mixed with honey, or wine, or some other thing, makes the whole harmful and useless, so also the much-speaking found in them is vain labor, and rather a harm to those who are persuaded by it. Moreover, concerning the seventh day, which all men name, yet most are ignorant that what among the Hebrews is called Sabbath is in Greek interpreted 'seventh'; this name is named throughout every race of men, but for what cause they call it so they do not understand. And as for the poet Hesiod's saying that from Chaos came Erebus and the earth and Eros, who lords it over both the gods and men of his account -- vain and frigid is his word, and shown to be alien to all truth. For God ought not to be overcome by pleasure, seeing that even temperate men abstain from all shameful pleasure and evil desire.

But the fact that he (Hesiod) began from earthly things below and spoke of the making of the things that came into being is human and lowly and very feeble as a notion, as compared with God. For man, being below, begins to build from the ground, and is not able in proper order even to make the roof, unless he first lays the foundation. But the power of God is shown from this: that first He makes the things that come into being out of things that are not, and then as He wills. For the things impossible with men are possible with God; wherefore also the prophet said first that the making of the heaven came into being, holding the place of a roof, saying: 'In the beginning God made the heaven' -- that is, that through the Beginning the heaven came into being, as we have already shown. And by earth he means, in effect, the floor and foundation; and by the deep, the multitude of the waters; and by darkness, because the heaven, which was made by God, covered over the waters together with the earth like a lid. And the spirit which was borne over the water is that which God gave for the quickening of the creation, just as He gave soul to man, blending the fine with the fine; for the spirit is fine and the water is fine, in order that the spirit might nourish the water, and the water together with the spirit might nourish the creation, penetrating everywhere. The one spirit, holding the type of light, mediated between the water and the heaven, so that in a certain way the darkness might not have fellowship with the heaven, which was nearer to God, before God said: Let there be light. Just as a vault, then, the heaven, being such, held together the matter that resembled a clod. For another prophet also, named Isaiah, has said concerning the heaven: 'This is God who made the heaven as a vault, and stretched it out as a tent to be dwelt in.' The ordinance of God, then -- this is His Word -- shining like a lamp in a closed room, illuminated the region under heaven, having made the light separately from the world. And God called the light Day, and the darkness Night; since otherwise man would not have known to call the light Day, or the darkness Night, nor indeed the rest, had he not received the naming from God who made them. In the first hypothesis, then, of the history and the generation of the world, the holy Scripture spoke not of this firmament, but of another heaven which is invisible to us, after which this visible heaven has been called firmament, to which the half of the water was taken up, that it might be for mankind for rains and showers and dews. And the other half of the water was left on the earth for rivers and springs and seas. While, then, the water still covered the earth, especially the hollow places, God by His Word caused the water to be gathered into one gathering, and the dry land to become visible, which formerly had been invisible. The earth, then, having become visible, was still unformed. God therefore formed and adorned it with all kinds of green things and seeds and plants.

Consider now the variety and the diverse beauty and multitude in these things, and that through them the resurrection is shown, as a token of the resurrection of all men which is to come. For who, on considering it, will not marvel that out of a fig's tiny seed comes a fig tree, or that the very least of the other seeds produce trees of enormous size? And we say that the world is in a likeness to us of the sea. For just as the sea, if it had not the inflow and supply of the rivers and springs for nourishment, would long ago have been dried up because of its saltiness, so also the world, if it had not had the law of God and the prophets flowing and welling up with the sweetness and compassion and righteousness and teaching of the holy commandments of God, would already have failed because of the wickedness and sin abounding in it. And just as in the sea there are islands, some habitable and well-watered and fruitful, having anchorages and harbors, so that those storm-tossed may have refuges in them, so God has given to the world, surging and storm-tossed by sins, the gatherings -- we mean the holy churches -- in which, as in well-anchored harbors on islands, are the teachings of the truth; to which flee those who wish to be saved, becoming lovers of the truth and desiring to escape the wrath and judgment of God. And again, just as there are other islands, rocky and waterless and barren and full of wild beasts and uninhabitable, to the harm of those who sail and are storm-tossed, on which ships are battered and those who put in are destroyed -- so are the teachings of error, I mean of the heresies, which destroy those who approach them. For they are not guided by the word of truth, but, like pirates, when they have filled their ships, run them aground on the aforesaid places in order to destroy them; so it happens also to those who wander from the truth, that they are destroyed by error.

On the fourth day the luminaries came into being. Since God, being foreknowing, knew the follies of the vain philosophers -- that they were going to say that the things growing upon the earth come from the heavenly bodies, so as to set God aside -- in order, then, that the truth might be shown, the plants and seeds came into being earlier than the heavenly bodies. For the things later in origin cannot make the things prior to themselves. And these things hold a token and type of a great mystery. For the sun is in the type of God, and the moon of man. And just as the sun far surpasses the moon in power and glory, so far does God surpass mankind; and just as the sun always remains full, not becoming less, so God always remains perfect, being full of all power and understanding and wisdom and immortality and all good things. But the moon wanes month by month, and in a manner dies, being in the type of man; then it is born again and waxes, as a token of the resurrection that is to come. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries are types of the Trinity -- of God, and of His Word, and of His Wisdom. And in the fourth place is man, who is in need of light; that there might be God, Word, Wisdom, Man. For this reason also on the fourth day the luminaries came into being. And the placing of the stars holds the economy and order of the righteous and pious, and of those who keep the law and the commandments of God. For the conspicuous and bright stars are in imitation of the prophets; therefore they also remain fixed, not passing from place to place. But those holding another order of brightness are types of the people of the righteous. And those again that pass over and flee from place to place, which are also called planets, these too are a type of the men who depart from God, abandoning His law and His ordinances.

And on the fifth day the living creatures from the waters came into being, through which also in these is shown the manifold wisdom of God. For who could number the multitude in them and the all-variegated offspring? Moreover, the things produced from the waters were also blessed by God, that this too might be a token that men were going to receive repentance and remission of sins through water and the washing of regeneration -- all who come to the truth and are born again and receive blessing from God. But the sea-monsters and the flesh-eating birds are in a likeness to the rapacious and the transgressors. For just as, being of one nature, the water creatures and the birds -- some remain in accordance with nature, not wronging their weaker fellows, but keeping the law of God, and eating of the seeds of the earth; while some of them transgress the law of God by eating flesh, and wrong their weaker fellows -- so also the righteous, keeping the law of God, bite or wrong no one, living in holiness and righteousness; but the rapacious and murderers and godless resemble the sea-monsters and wild beasts and the flesh-eating birds. For in a manner they devour those weaker than themselves. The offspring of the water creatures and of the creeping things, then, having shared in the blessing of God, possesses nothing peculiar to itself at all.

And on the sixth day God, having made the four-footed beasts and the wild beasts and the land-creeping things, passed over the blessing for them in silence, reserving the blessing for man, whom He was about to make on the sixth day. At the same time the four-footed beasts and wild beasts came into being also as a type of some men who are ignorant of God and impious, and who mind earthly things and do not repent. For those who turn from lawlessness and live righteously fly up, as it were, like birds in the soul, minding the things above and being pleasing to the will of God. But those who are ignorant of God and impious are like the birds that have wings but cannot fly up, nor run to the heights of divinity. So also such men are indeed called men, but they mind the things that are low and earthly, being weighed down by their sins. And the animals are named wild beasts (thēria) from being hunted (thēreuesthai), not as having been made evil or venomous from the beginning. For nothing evil came into being from God, but all things were good, and very good; but the sin which is about man corrupted them. For when man transgressed, they also transgressed with him. For just as, if the master of a household himself does well, the servants too necessarily live in good order; but if the lord sins, the slaves also sin together with him -- in the same way it has come to pass that, man being lord having sinned, the things subject to him also sinned together with him. Whenever, then, man again runs up to that which is according to nature, no longer doing evil, those creatures too will be restored to their original gentleness.

But as for the things concerning the making of man, the fashioning of him is inexpressible as compared with man, even though the divine Scripture has the account concerning him in brief. For in God's saying, 'Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness,' He first declares the dignity of man. For having made all things by His Word, and having regarded them all as by-works, God reckons the making of man alone to be the work of His own hands. Moreover, God is also found speaking as though needing help: 'Let us make man according to our image and after our likeness.' But He said 'Let us make' to no other than His own Word and His own Wisdom. And having made him, and blessed him to increase and fill the earth, He subjected all things to him as subordinate and enslaved; and He commanded that man should have his sustenance, from the beginning, from the fruits of the earth and the seeds and the green things and the tree-fruits, at the same time also commanding that the animals should be fellow-dwellers with man, so that they too might eat of all the seeds of the earth.

Thus God, having finished the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them on the sixth day, rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made. Then thus the holy Scripture recapitulates, saying: 'This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when the day came in which God made the heaven and the earth, and every green thing of the field before it came to be, and all the grass of the field before it sprang up. For God had not rained upon the earth, and there was no man to work the earth.' By this it indicated to us that the whole earth was at that time watered by a divine spring, and had no need of a man to work it; but all things grew up spontaneously by the command of God, so that man might not toil in laboring. And in order that the fashioning might also be shown -- lest it should seem to be a matter among men incapable of being found out, since it had been said by God, 'Let us make man,' and the making of him had not yet been made manifest -- the Scripture teaches us, saying: 'But a spring went up out of the earth and watered the whole face of the earth, and God formed man, dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' Whence also the soul is named immortal by most people. And after forming man, God chose out for him a region in the eastern parts, distinguished by light, transparent with brighter air, with most beautiful plants, in which He placed the man.

But the express words of the sacred history the Scripture contains thus: 'And God planted the garden (paradise) in Eden toward the east, and there He placed the man whom He had formed. And God made to spring up out of the earth every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river goes out from Eden to water the garden; thence it is parted into four heads. The name of the one is Pheison; this is the one that encircles the whole land of Havilah; there, then, is gold; and the gold of that land is good; and there is the carbuncle and the green stone. And the name of the second river is Geon; this encircles the whole land of Ethiopia. And the third river, Tigris; this is the one that flows over against the Assyrians. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man whom He had formed, and placed him in the garden, to work it and to keep it. And God commanded Adam, saying: Of every tree that is in the garden you shall surely eat; but of the tree of knowing good and evil, you shall not eat of it. In whatever day you eat of it, you shall die the death. And the Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make for him a helper according to him. And God formed yet out of the earth all the wild beasts of the field, and all the birds of the heaven, and brought them to Adam. And whatever Adam called them, that is, a living soul, this was its name. And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the birds of the heaven, and to all the wild beasts of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper like to him. And God brought a trance upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh in its place, and the Lord God built the rib which He had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her man; for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. And the two were naked, both Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed.'

'Now the serpent was more cunning than all the wild beasts that were upon the earth, which the Lord God had made; and the serpent said to the woman: Why is it that God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent: Of every tree of the garden we shall eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman: You shall not die the death. For God knew that in whatever day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes to look at, and was beautiful to contemplate. And taking of its fruit she ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and they ate. And the eyes of the two were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves girdles. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of God in the midst of the tree of the garden. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where are you? And he said to Him: I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself. And He said to him: Who told you that you are naked, unless you have eaten of the tree of which alone I commanded you not to eat -- have you eaten of it? And Adam said: The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And God said to the woman: What is this you have done? And the woman said: The serpent deceived me, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts that are upon the earth. Upon your breast and your belly you shall go, and you shall eat earth all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall watch your head, and you shall watch his heel. And to the woman He said: I will greatly multiply your sorrows and your groaning; in sorrow you shall bring forth children, and your turning shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam He said: Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and ate of the tree of which alone I commanded you not to eat, you have eaten of it; cursed is the ground in your works; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the grass of your field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for earth you are, and to earth you shall return.'

You will say to me, then: You say that God ought not to be contained in any place, and how do you now say that He walked in the garden? Hear what I say. The God and Father of all things is indeed uncontainable, and is not found in any place; for there is no place of His rest. But His Word, through whom He made all things, being His power and His Wisdom, taking on the person of the Father and Lord of all, this Word came into the garden in the person of God, and conversed with Adam. For the divine Scripture itself teaches us that Adam said he heard the voice. But what else is the voice than the Word of God, who is also His Son? -- not as the poets and mythographers say, that the sons of the gods were begotten of intercourse, but as the truth declares the Word, who is forever indwelling in the heart of God. For before anything came into being, He had Him as counselor, being His own mind and intelligence. But when God willed to make whatsoever He purposed, He begot this Word, uttered forth, the firstborn of all creation -- not Himself being emptied of the Word, but having begotten the Word, and ever conversing with His Word. Whence the holy Scriptures teach us, and all the Spirit-bearers, among whom John says: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God' -- showing that at the first God alone was, and in Him the Word. Then he says: 'And the Word was God; all things came into being through Him, and without Him came into being not even one thing.' The Word, then, being God, and naturally produced from God, whenever the Father of all things wills, He sends Him to some place; and He, coming there, is both heard and seen, being sent by Him, and is found in a place.

God, then, made man on the sixth day, but manifested his fashioning after the seventh day, when also He had made the garden, that he might be in a better place and a more excellent region. And that these things are true, the very fact shows. For how is it not possible to perceive both the birth-pang which women suffer in childbirth, and afterward they make forgetfulness of the pain, that the word of God might be fulfilled, for the increasing and multiplying of the race of men? And why is it not possible to perceive also the condemnation of the serpent, how it is loathsome, creeping on its belly and eating earth? -- so that this too might be for a demonstration to us of the things foretold.

Having, then, made to spring up out of the earth yet every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food. For at the first only the things made on the third day existed -- plants and seeds and green things; but the things in the garden came into being with a different beauty and loveliness, since it was even named a plantation planted by God. And the rest of the plants the world too has like them; but the two trees -- that of life and that of knowledge -- no other land has had, but only the garden. And that the garden too is earth, and is planted upon the earth, the Scripture says: 'And God planted a garden in Eden toward the east, and there He placed the man; and God made to spring up yet out of the earth every tree beautiful to the sight, and good for food.' By the words 'yet out of the earth' and 'toward the east,' the divine Scripture clearly teaches us that the garden is under this heaven, under which also the east and the earth are. And Eden, the term in Hebrew, is interpreted 'delight.' And it indicated that a river goes out from Eden to water the garden, and from there is divided into four heads; of which two, those called Pheison and Geon, water the eastern parts -- especially Geon, which encircles the whole land of Ethiopia, and which they say appears in Egypt, called the Nile. And the other two rivers are clearly known among us, those called Tigris and Euphrates; for these border upon our regions. And God, having placed the man, as we said before, in the garden, to work and to keep it, commanded him to eat of all the fruits, evidently including that of life; but of the tree of knowledge alone He commanded him not to taste. And God transferred him from the earth, out of which he had come into being, into the garden, giving him an occasion for advancement, so that, growing and becoming perfect, and moreover being declared a god, he might thus also ascend into heaven. (For man had been made in a middle state, neither wholly mortal, nor altogether immortal, but capable of either. So also the region, the garden, in respect of beauty, was made between the world and heaven), having immortality. And by saying 'work it,' He indicates no other labor than the keeping of the commandment of God, lest by disobedience he should destroy himself, as indeed he did destroy himself through sin.

Now the tree of knowledge was itself good, and its fruit good. For it was not, as some suppose, the tree that had death, but the disobedience. For there was nothing else in the fruit than only knowledge; and knowledge is good when one uses it fittingly. But in respect of his actual age Adam was still an infant; wherefore he was not yet able worthily to contain knowledge. For even now, when a child is born, it cannot yet eat bread, but is first nourished with milk, and then, with the advance of age, it comes also to solid food. So it would have been with Adam too. Therefore God did not, as some suppose, out of envy toward him, command him not to eat of knowledge. Moreover, He also wished to test him, whether he would be obedient to His commandment; and at the same time He wished man to remain for a longer time simple and guileless, in childlike state. For this is holy, not only with God, but also with men, that in simplicity and innocence one should be subject to one's parents. And if children ought to be subject to their parents, how much more to God and the Father of all things? Moreover, it is unseemly for infant children to think beyond their age. For just as one grows in proper order with age, so also in understanding. But just as, when a law commands abstinence from something, and one does not obey, evidently it is not the law that supplies punishment, but the disobedience and the transgression. For a father also sometimes commands his own child to abstain from certain things, and when he does not obey the paternal command, he is beaten and meets with reproof on account of the disobedience. And the things themselves are not already blows, but it is the disobedience that procures abuse for the disobedient one. So also for the first-formed man the disobedience procured his being cast out of the garden -- not, however, as though the tree of knowledge had anything evil in it, but through the disobedience man drained out toil, pain, grief, and at the last fell under death.

And in this too God conferred a great benefit upon man: that He did not let him remain forever in sin, but in a manner, by way of a kind of banishment, cast him out of the garden, so that, having paid off his sin within the appointed time through the reproof, and having been disciplined, he might afterward be recalled. Wherefore also, man having been fashioned in this world, it is written mysteriously in Genesis, as though he had twice been placed in the garden: that the one might be fulfilled when he was placed there; and the second is to be fulfilled after the resurrection and judgment. For indeed, just as some vessel, when, after being fashioned, it has some fault, is re-melted or re-fashioned, so as to become new and whole, so it happens also to man through death. For in a manner he has been shattered, that in the resurrection he may be found sound -- I mean spotless and righteous and immortal. And the calling and saying of God, 'Where are you, Adam?' -- God did this not as though ignorant of it, but, being long-suffering, He was giving him an occasion for repentance and confession.

But someone will say to us: Was man made mortal by nature? By no means. Was he then immortal? Neither do we say this. But someone will say: Then he was made nothing at all? Not this either. I say, then, that he was made neither mortal by nature nor immortal. For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him a god. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the cause of his death. He made him, then, neither immortal nor yet mortal, but, as we have said above, capable of both: so that, if he should incline toward the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he might receive immortality as a reward from Him, and become a god; but if, on the other hand, he should turn toward the things of death, having disobeyed God, he might be himself the cause of his own death. For God made man free and self-determining. That, then, which he procured for himself through neglect and disobedience, this God now bestows upon him through His own love for man and His mercy, when man obeys Him. For just as man, by disobeying, drew death upon himself, so by obeying the will of God, whoever wills is able to procure for himself eternal life. For God gave us a law and holy commandments; which everyone who does is able to be saved, and, attaining to the resurrection, to inherit incorruption.