therefore, "to be created" is said of all things; but "he is before all things" is fitting only for the Son. 3.1 Therefore, an offspring according to nature from a perfect one is perfect. begotten "before all the hills," that is, before every rational and intellectual substance. as also in another place Paul says that he is "the firstborn of all creation." 3.2 But by declaring him firstborn, [it shows] that he is not a creature but an offspring of the Father. For it is foreign to his divinity to be called a creature. 3.3 For all things were created by the Father through the Son, but the Son alone was eternally begotten of the Father. 3.4 Therefore the Word of God is "the firstborn of all creation"; unchangeable from the unchangeable. The body which he put on for our sake is, therefore, a creature. 3.5 Concerning which Jeremiah says according to the version of the seventy interpreters: "The Lord has created for us a new salvation for a planting, in which salvation men shall walk about." 3.6 But according to Aquila, concerning the same saying, it is written: "The Lord created a new thing in a female." And the salvation created for us for a planting, new and not old, for us and not before us, is Jesus, the man who came to be according to the Savior. 3.7 who is interpreted partly as salvation, partly as savior. For salvation is from the savior in the same way that illumination is from the light. 3.8 Therefore the salvation from the savior, having been newly created, as Jeremiah says "he created for us a new salvation" and as Aquila says "the Lord created a new thing in a female," that is, in Mary. 3.9 For nothing new was created in a female except the Lord's body, born of Mary the virgin without intercourse. 3.10 As also in Proverbs it says from the person of Jesus: "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works." But it does not say, "he created me before his works," so that no one might take the saying to refer to the divinity of the Word. 4.1 Therefore both sayings concerning the creature are written corporeally with respect to Jesus. For the Lord's man was created as the beginning of the ways, which he revealed to us for salvation. 4.2 For through him we have access to the Father. For he is the way, as he says: "I am the way" which leads you up to the Father. 4.3 But a way is a corporeal sight, which is the Lord's man. For the Word of God created all things, not being a creature but an offspring. 4.4 For none of the creatures created anything equal or similar to itself. To beget is fitting for a father, but to create for a craftsman. 4.5 Therefore a product and a creature is the body which the Lord put on for our sake, "who was born for us," as Paul says, "from God wisdom and sanctification and righteousness and redemption." Although before us and all creation, the Word was and is the wisdom of the Father. 4.6 And the Holy Spirit, being a procession from the Father, is always in the hands of the Father who sends and of the Son who brings, through whom he has filled all things. 4.7 The Father, possessing being from himself, begot the Son, as we said, and did not create him, as a river from a spring, and as a shoot from a root, and as radiance from a light, things which nature knows to be indivisible, through whom to the Father be glory, power, majesty before all the ages and for all the ages of ages. Amen.

γοῦν ἐκτίσθαι ἐπὶ πάντων κεῖται· τὸ δὲ ἔστι πρὸ πάντων μόνῳ τῷ υἱῷ ἁρμόζει. 3.1 Γέννημα τοίνυν κατὰ φύσιν ἐκ τελείου τέλειόν ἐστι. "πρὸ πάντων βουνῶν" γεννηθέν, τουτέστι πρὸ πάσης λογικῆς καὶ νοερᾶς οὐσίας. ὡς καὶ ἐν ἑτέρῳ τόπῳ φησὶν αὐτὸν ὁ Παῦλος "πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως." 3.2 ἀλλὰ πρωτότοκον δηλῶν μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν κτίσμα ἀλλὰ γέννημα τοῦ πατρός. ξένον γὰρ ἐπὶ τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ τὸ λέγεσθαι κτίσμα. 3.3 τὰ γὰρ πάντα ἐκτίσθησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς μόνος ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀϊδίως ἐγεννήθη. 3.4 διὸ "πρωτότοκός ἐστι πάσης κτίσεως" ὁ θεὸς λόγος· ἄτρεπτος ἐξ ἀτρέπτου. ἔστι τοίνυν τὸ ὃ δι' ἡμᾶς ἐφόρεσε σῶμα κτίσμα. 3.5 περὶ οὗ λέγει ὁ Ἰερεμίας κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἑβδομήκοντα ἑρμηνευτῶν ἔκδοσιν· "κύριος ἡμῖν ἔκτισεν εἰς καταφύτευμα σωτηρίαν καινήν, ἐν ᾗ σωτηρίᾳ περιελεύσονται ἄνθρωποι." 3.6 κατὰ δὲ τὸν Ἀκύλαν περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ῥητοῦ κεῖται· "ἔκτισε κύριος καινὸν ἐν τῇ θηλείᾳ." ἡ δὲ κτισθεῖσα ἡμῖν εἰς καταφύτευμα σωτηρία καινὴ καὶ οὐ παλαιά, ἡμῖν τε καὶ οὐ πρὸ ἡμῶν, Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ κατὰ τὸν σωτῆρα γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος. 3.7 ὃς ἑρμηνεύεται πῇ μὲν σωτηρία, πῇ δὲ σωτήρ. ἔστι δὲ ἐκ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡ σωτηρία ὃν τρόπον ἐκ τοῦ φωτὸς ὁ φωτισμός. 3.8 ἡ οὖν ἐκ τοῦ σωτῆρος σωτηρία κτισθεῖσα καινὴ καθὼς λέγει Ἰερεμίας "ἔκτισεν ἡμῖν σωτηρίαν καινὴν" καὶ ὡς Ἀκύλας φησὶν "ἔκτισε κύριος καινὸν ἐν τῇ θηλείᾳ," τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ Μαρίᾳ. 3.9 οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐκτίσθη καινὸν ἐν τῇ θηλείᾳ εἰ μὴ τὸ ἐκ Μαρίας, τῆς παρθένου, τεχθὲν ἄνευ συνουσίας κυριακὸν σῶμα. 3.10 ὡς καὶ ἐν παροιμίαις ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ Ἰησοῦ λέγει· "κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ." οὐ λέγει δὲ πρὸ ἔργων ἔκτισέ με, ἵνα μή τις εἰς τὴν θεότητα τοῦ λόγου ἐκλάβοι τὸ ῥητόν. 4.1 Ἑκάτερα τοίνυν τὰ περὶ τὸ κτίσμα ῥητὰ σωματικῶς εἰς τὸν Ἰησοῦν γέγραπται. ἀρχὴ γὰρ ὁδῶν ἐκτίσθη ὁ κυριακὸς ἄνθρωπος, ὧν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἡμῖν ἐφανέρωσε. 4.2 διὰ τούτου γὰρ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ἔχομεν προσαγωγήν. αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ὁδός, καθὼς λέγει· "ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς" ἡ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ἀνάγουσα ὑμᾶς. 4.3 ὁδὸς δὲ σωματικόν τί ἐστι θέαμα, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ κυριακὸς ἄνθρωπος. τὰ πάντα γοῦν ἔκτισεν ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος οὐκ ὢν κτίσμα ἀλλὰ γέννημα. 4.4 οὐδὲν γὰρ τῶν κτισμάτων ἔκτισέ τι ἴσον ἢ ὅμοιον ἑαυτῷ. πατρὶ δὲ ἔοικε τὸ γεννᾶν, τεχνίτῃ δὲ τὸ κτίζειν. 4.5 ποίημα γοῦν ἐστι καὶ κτίσμα τὸ ὃ δι' ἡμᾶς ἐφόρεσε σῶμα ὁ κύριος, "ὃ ἐγεννήθη ἡμῖν", ὥς φησιν ὁ Παῦλος, "ἀπὸ θεοῦ σοφία καὶ ἁγιασμὸς καὶ δικαιοσύνη καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις." καίπερ πρὸ ἡμῶν καὶ πάσης κτίσεως σοφία τοῦ πατρὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος καὶ ἔστι. 4.6 τὸ δὲ ἅγιον πνεῦμα ἐκπόρευμα ὂν τοῦ πατρὸς ἀεί ἐστιν ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ τοῦ πέμποντος πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ φέροντος υἱοῦ, δι' οὗ ἐπλήρωσε τὰ πάντα. 4.7 ὁ πατὴρ συνέχων ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ τὸ εἶναι ἐγέννησε τὸν υἱόν, ὡς ἔφαμεν, καὶ οὐκ ἔκτισεν ὡς ποταμὸν ἀπὸ πηγῆς καὶ ὡς βλαστὸν ἀπὸ ῥίζης καὶ ὡς ἀπαύγασμα ἀπὸ φωτός, ἃ οἶδεν ἡ φύσις ἀδιαίρετα, δι' οὗ τῷ πατρὶ δόξα, κράτος, μεγαλοσύνη πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων καὶ εἰς τοὺς σύμπαντας αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν.