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defined in every way by some bulk and size? And all the other things that are seen concerning matter, how or from where did He produce them, He who has nothing of the sort in His own nature; For we have one solution for each of the things proposed concerning matter: neither to suppose the wisdom of God to be powerless, nor His power to be unwise; but that these exist with one another. And both are shown as one, so that at the same time and in the same way the one is seen together with the other. For His wise will was made manifest by the power of its operations, and His operative power was perfected in His wise will. If, then, wisdom and power are in the same and according to the same, He is neither ignorant of how matter for the construction of beings might be found, nor is He unable to bring what is conceived into operation. And being able to do all things, He laid down at once all things through which matter is composed by His wise and powerful will for the working out of beings: the light, the heavy, the dense, the rare, the soft, the resistant, the moist, the dry, the cold, the hot, the color, the shape, the outline, the interval; all of which are in themselves concepts and bare thoughts. For none of these is matter by itself, but by running together with one another, they become matter. If, therefore, by the preeminence of His wisdom and power, He both knows all things and can do all things, perhaps we somehow approach the lofty voice of Moses, who says: 'In summary' (for Aquila has rendered this instead of 'in the beginning') 'the heaven and the earth were made by God.' For since the prophet has made the book of Genesis an introduction to the knowledge of God, and the aim for Moses is to lead by the hand those who are enslaved to sense-perception through things that are seen to the things that lie beyond sensible apprehension, and our knowledge through sight is bounded by the heaven and the earth; for this reason the account has named as containing all beings the outermost of the things known to us through the senses, so that by saying that the containers were created by God, it might include all that is contained within the extremes,72 and instead of saying that God made all beings at once, it said that 'in summary,' or 'in the beginning,' God made the heaven and the earth. The meaning of the two expressions is one, that of 'beginning' and that of 'summary.' For 'at once' is equally indicated by both; for in 'summary,' it establishes that all things came to be collectively, while through 'beginning' is indicated that which is instantaneous and without interval. For the beginning is foreign to any concept of interval. As the point is the beginning of the line, and the atom of bulk, so also is the instant of the temporal interval. The foundation, then, of all beings at once by the ineffable power of God was named 'beginning' by Moses, or 'summary,' in which the universe is said to have been constituted. Stating the extremes of beings; but implying the intermediates along with the extremes by his silence. And I say extremes, on account of human perception, which neither penetrates into the things under the earth, nor passes through the heaven. Therefore, the beginning of the cosmogony proposes this for us to understand: that God laid down collectively in an instant the principles and the causes and the powers of all beings, and in the first impulse of His will, the substance of each of the beings ran together: heaven, ether, stars, fire, air, sea, earth, animal, plants; all of which were seen by the divine eye, being revealed by the Word of power, to Him who, as the prophecy says, 'knows all things before their genesis.' And to the power and wisdom laid down together for the completion of each of the parts of the cosmos, a certain necessary connection followed in a certain order, so that fire came first and was manifested before the other things seen in the universe, and so after that, what necessarily followed what came before, and third upon this, as the artful nature compelled; a fourth and a fifth, and the rest of the sequence in succession, not appearing in this way by some automatic chance, according to some disordered and random motion. But as the necessary order of nature seeks in the things that come into being

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πάντως ὄγκῳ τινὶ καὶ πηλικότητι ὀριζόμενον; καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα ὅσα περὶ τὴν ὕλην ὁρᾶται, πῶς ἢ πόθεν παρήγαγεν ὁ μηδὲν ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ φύσει τοιοῦτον ἔχων· Μία γὰρ ἑκάστου τῶν περὶ τῆς ὕλης προφερομένων ἡμῖν ἡ λύσις, τὸ μήτε ἀδύνατον τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑποτί θεσθαι, μήτε τὴν δύναμιν ἄσοφον· ἀλλὰ μετ' ἀλλή λων εἶναι ταῦτα. καὶ ἒν ἀμφότερα δείκνυσθαι, ὡς ἅμα καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν τῷ ἑτέρῳ συγκαθορᾶσθαι τὸ ἕτερον. Τό τε γὰρ σοφὸν αὐτοῦ θέλημα τῇ δυνάμει τῶν ἐνεργουμένων ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ἡ ἐνεργητικὴ αὐτοῦ δύναμις ἐν τῷ σοφῷ θελήματι ἐτελειώθη. Εἰ οὖν ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ κατὰ ταὐτόν ἐστιν ἡ σοφία καὶ ἡ δύναμις οὔτε ἀγνοεῖ ὅπως ἂν ὕλη πρὸς τὴν κατα σκευὴν εὑρεθείη τῶν ὄντων, οὔτ' ἀδυνατεῖ τὸ νοηθὲν προαγαγεῖν εἰς ἐνέργειαν. Πάντα δὲ δυνάμενος, ὁμοῦ τὰ πάντα δι' ὧν ἡ ὕλη συν ίσταται τῷ σοφῷ τε καὶ δυνατῷ θελήματι κατεβάλετο πρὸς τὴν ἀπεργασίαν τῶν ὄντων, τὸ κοῦφον, τὸ βαρὺ, τὸ ναστὸν, τὸ ἀραιὸν, τὸ μαλακὸν, τὸ ἀντίτυπον, τὸ ὑγρὸν, τὸ ξηρὸν, τὸ ψυχρὸν, τὸ θερμὸν, τὸ χρῶμα, τὸ σχῆμα, τὴν περιγραφὴν, τὸ διάστημα· ἃ πάντα μὲν καθ' ἑαυτὰ ἔννοιαί ἐστι καὶ ψιλὰ νοήματα. Οὐ γάρ τι τούτων ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ὕλη ἐστὶν, ἀλλὰ συνδραμόντα πρὸς ἄλληλα, ὕλη γίνεται. Εἰ οὖν τῷ ὑπερέχοντι τῆς σοφίας καὶ τῆς δυ νάμεως, καὶ πάντα οἶδε καὶ πάντα δύναται, τάχα πως προσεγγίζομεν τῇ ὑψηλῇ τοῦ Μωϋσέως φωνῇ, ὅς φησιν· Ἐν κεφαλαίῳ (τοῦτο γὰρ ἀντὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς Ἀκύλας ἐκδέδωκε) πεποιῆσθαι παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἰσαγωγικὸν πρὸς θεογνω σίαν τὸ τῆς γενέσεως βιβλίον ὁ προφήτης πεποίηται, καὶ σκοπός ἐστι τῷ Μωϋσῇ, τοὺς τῇ αἰσθήσει δεδου λωμένους χειραγωγῆσαι διὰ τῶν φαινομένων πρὸς τὰ ὑπερκείμενα τῆς αἰσθητικῆς καταλήψεως οὐρανῷ δὲ καὶ τῇ γῇ ὁρίζεται ἡμῖν ἡ διὰ τῆς ὄψεως γνῶσις· διὰ τοῦτο ὡς περιεκτικὰ τῶν ὄντων τὰ ἔσχατα τῶν διὰ τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἡμῖν γινωσκομένων ὁ λόγος ὠνόμασεν, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ τὰ περιέχοντα εἰπεῖν παρὰ Θεοῦ γεγενῆ σθαι, συμπεριλάβῃ πᾶν τὸ ἐντὸς τῶν ἄκρων περιεχόμενον72, καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἀθρόως πάντα τὰ ὄντα ὁ Θεὸς ἐποίησεν, εἶπεν ἐν κεφαλαίῳ, ἤτοι ἐν ἀρχῇ πε ποιηκέναι τὸν Θεὸν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Μία δὲ τῶν δύο φωνῶν ἡ σημασία, τῆς τε ἀρχῆς καὶ τοῦ κεφαλαίου. ∆ηλοῦται γὰρ ἐπίσης δι' ἑκατέρων τὸ ἀθρόον· ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ κεφαλαίῳ, τὸ συλλήβδην τὰ πάντα γεγενῆσθαι περιίστησι, διὰ δὲ τῆς ἀρχῆς δηλοῦται τὸ ἀκαρές τε καὶ ἀδιάστατον. Ἡ γὰρ ἀρχὴ παντὸς διαστηματικοῦ νοήματος ἀλλοτρίως ἔχει. Ὡς τὸ σημεῖον ἀρχὴ τῆς γραμμῆς, καὶ τοῦ ὄγκου τὸ ἄτομον, οὕτως καὶ τὸ ἀκαρὲς τοῦ χρονικοῦ διαστήματος. Ἡ οὖν ἀθρόα τῶν ὄντων παρὰ ἦς ἀφράστου δυνάμεως τοῦ Θεοῦ καταβολὴ, ἀρχὴ παρὰ τοῦ Μωϋσέως, ἤτουν κεφάλαιον κατωνομάσθη, ἐν ᾗ τὸ πᾶν συστῆναι λέγεται. Τὰ μὲν ἄκρα τῶν ὄντων εἰπών· τὰ δὲ μέσα κατὰ τὸ σιωπώμενον τοῖς ἄκροις συνενδειξάμενος. Ἄκρα δέ φημι, διὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπί νην αἴσθησιν, ἢ οὔτε εἰς τὰ ὑπὸ γῆν διαδύεται, οὔτε τὸν οὐρανὸν διαβαίνει. Οὐκοῦν τοῦτο νοεῖν, ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κοσμογονίας ὑποτίθεται, ὅτι πάντων τῶν ὄντων τὰς ἀφορμὰς καὶ τὰς αἰτίας, καὶ τὰς δυνάμεις, συλ λήβδην ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀκαρεῖ κατεβάλλετο, καὶ ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ τοῦ θελήματος ὁρμῇ, ἡ ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων οὐσία συνέδραμεν, οὐρανὸς, αἰθὴρ, ἀστέρες, πῦρ, ἀὴρ, θάλασσα, γῆ, ζῶον, φυτά· ἃ τῷ μὲν θείῳ ὀφ θαλμῷ πάντα καθεωρᾶτο, τῷ τῆς δυνάμεως λόγῳ δεικνύμενα, τῷ, καθώς φησιν ἡ προφητεία, «εἰδότι πάντα πρὸ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτῶν.» Τῇ δὲ συγκατα βληθείσῃ δυνάμει τε καὶ σοφίᾳ πρὸς τὴν τελείωσιν ἑκάστου τῶν μορίων τοῦ κόσμου, εἱρμός τις ἀναγκαῖος κατά τινα τάξιν ἐπηκολούθησεν, ὥστε τὸ πῦρ προλα βεῖν μὲν καὶ προεκφανῆναι τῶν ἄλλων τῶν ἐν τῷ παντὶ θεωρουμένων, καὶ οὕτω μετ' ἐκεῖνο, τὸ ἀναγ καίως τῷ προλαβόντι ἑπόμενον, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ τρί τον, ὡς ἡ τεχνικὴ συνηνάγκαζε φύσις· τέταρτόν τε καὶ πέμπτον, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς κατὰ τὸ ἐφεξῆς ἀκο λουθίας, οὐκ αὐτομάτῳ τινὶ συντυχίᾳ, κατὰ τινὰ ἄτακτον καὶ τυχαίαν φορὰν, οὕτως ἀναφαινόμενα. Ἀλλ' ὡς ἡ ἀναγκαία τῆς φύσεως τάξις ἐπιζητεῖ τὸ ἐν τοῖς γινομένοις