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correction. But those who do not search the meaning of the scripture say that God said through Moses the lawgiver: “You shall not make any likeness of anything in heaven and of anything on the earth.” and through David the prophet: “Let all be ashamed who worship carved images, who boast in their idols,” and many other such things. For whatever they may bring forward from the divine scripture and from the holy fathers, is of the same meaning. What then do we say to these things? What else but that which was said by the Lord to the Jews, “search the scriptures”? For the investigation of the scriptures is good. But here pay attention wisely. It is impossible, O beloved, for God to lie; for there is one God, one lawgiver of the old and new covenant, who in the past spoke in many parts and in many ways to the fathers through the prophets and in the last days through his only-begotten Son. Pay attention therefore with accuracy. The word is not mine. The Holy Spirit declared through Paul the holy apostle: “In many parts and in many ways God spoke in the past to the fathers through the prophets.” See that God spoke in many parts and in many ways. For just as a skilled physician does not always give the same kind to all, but provides to each the suitable and appropriate remedy, distinguishing place and disease and hour, that is, season and condition and age; and one thing for the infant, another for the one who is mature in age; another for the sick and another for the healthy, and for each of the sick not the same, but according to the condition and the disease; and one thing for the summer and another for the winter, and for autumn and for spring, and in each place according to the suitability of the place. So also the best physician of souls forbade the making of images to those who are still infants and are sick with the disease of idolatry, and who consider idols to be gods and worship them as gods and reject the worship of God and offer his glory to creation. For of God who is bodiless and invisible and immaterial and has neither form nor circumscription nor comprehension, it is impossible to make an image; for how will that which is not seen be depicted? “No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” and “no one shall see my face and live,” said God. But that they worshipped idols as gods, listen to what the scripture says in the Exodus of the sons of Israel, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai and tarried, attending upon God to receive the law, when the ungrateful people rose up against Aaron the servant of God, saying: “Make us gods who will go before us; for this man Moses, we do not know what has become of him.” Then, when they took off the ornaments of their women and melted them down, they ate and drank and became drunk both from wine and from error and began to play in folly, saying: “These are your gods, O Israel.” Do you see that they held the idols to be gods? For they did not make an idol of Zeus or of this one or that one, but, as it happened, they gave the gold to make an idol, whatever it might be, and there came forth the image of a bull's head. So that they held the molten images themselves to be gods and worshipped these as gods, which were the dwellings of demons. And that they served creation rather than the creator, the divine apostle also says: “who exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a likeness in the image of mortal man and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles, and served creation rather than the creator.” For this reason God forbade making any likeness, as Moses says in Deuteronomy: 1,4 I know the one who spoke without falsehood: “The Lord your God is one Lord,” and “you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve,” and “you shall have no other gods,” and “you shall not make a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,” and “let all be ashamed

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διόρθωσιν. Ἀλλὰ λέγουσιν οἱ μὴ ἐρευνῶντες τὸν νοῦν τῆς γραφῆς, ὅτι εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ Μωσέως τοῦ νομοθέτου· «Οὐ ποιήσεις πᾶν ὁμοίωμα, ὅσα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ ὅσα ἐν τῇ γῇ.» καὶ διὰ ∆αυὶδ τοῦ προφήτου· «Αἰσχυνθήτωσαν πάντες οἱ προσκυνοῦντες τοῖς γλυπτοῖς οἱ ἐγκαυχώμενοι ἐν τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν», καὶ τοιαῦτα πολλὰ ἕτερα. Ὅσα γὰρ ἂν ἐκ τῆς θείας γραφῆς καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων προενέγκωσι, τῆς αὐτῆς ἐννοίας εἰσί. Τί οὖν ἡμεῖς φαμεν πρὸς ταῦτα; Τί ἄλλο εἰ μὴ τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις εἰρημένον «ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφάς»; Καλὴ γὰρ ἡ τῶν γραφῶν ἔρευνα. Ἀλλ' ἐνταῦθα νουνεχῶς προσέχετε. Ἀδύνατον, ὦ ἀγαπητοί, θεὸν ψεύσασθαι· εἷς γάρ ἐστι θεός, εἷς νομοδότης παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης ὁ πάλαι λαλήσας πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις καὶ ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐν τῷ μονογενεῖ αὐτοῦ υἱῷ. Προσέχετε τοίνυν μετὰ ἀκριβείας. Οὐκ ἐμὸς ὁ λόγος ἐστί. Τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον διὰ Παύλου τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου ἀπεφήνατο· «Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ θεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις.» Ὅρα, ὅτι πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως ἐλάλησεν ὁ θεός. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπιστήμων ἰατρὸς οὐ τὸ αὐτὸ εἶδος πᾶσι δίδωσιν πάντοτε, ἀλλ' ἑκάστῳ τὸ ἐπιτήδειον παρέχει καὶ πρόσφορον φάρμακον διακρίνων καὶ χώραν καὶ νόσον καὶ ὥραν τουτέστι καιρὸν καὶ ἕξιν καὶ ἡλικίαν· καὶ τῷ μὲν νηπίῳ ἕτερον, τῷ δὲ τελείῳ κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν ἕτερον· ἄλλο τῷ ἀσθενεῖ καὶ ἄλλο τῷ ὑγιαίνοντι, καὶ ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἀσθενούντων οὐ τὸ αὐτό, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν ἕξιν καὶ τὴν νόσον· καὶ ἄλλο τῷ θέρει καὶ τῷ χειμῶνι ἕτερον, μετοπώρῳ τε καὶ ἔαρι, καὶ ἐν ἑκάστῳ τόπῳ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ τόπου ἐπιτηδειότητα. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ ἄριστος τῶν ψυχῶν ἰατρὸς τοῖς ἔτι νηπίοις καὶ ἀρρωστοῦσι τὴν πρὸς εἰδωλολατρείαν νόσον καὶ τὰ εἴδωλα θεοὺς ἡγουμένοις καὶ ὡς θεοῖς αὐτοῖς προσκυνοῦσι καὶ ἀθετοῦσιν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ προσκύνησιν καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ δόξαν τῇ κτίσει προσάγουσιν ἀπηγόρευσε τοῦ ποιεῖν εἰκόνας. Θεοῦ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ ἀσωμάτου καὶ ἀοράτου καὶ ἀύλου καὶ μήτε σχῆμα μήτε περιγραφὴν μήτε κατάληψιν ἔχοντος ἀδύνατον ποιεῖν εἰκόνα· πῶς γὰρ τὸ μὴ ὁραθὲν εἰκονισθήσεται; «Θεὸν δὲ οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε· ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς ὁ ὢν ἐν τοῖς κόλποις τοῦ πατρός, αὐτὸς ἐξηγήσατο.» καὶ «οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸ πρόσωπόν μου καὶ ζήσεται», ἔφη ὁ θεός. Ὅτι δὲ τοῖς εἰδώλοις ὡς θεοῖς προσεκύνουν, ἄκουε, τί φησιν ἡ γραφὴ ἐν τῇ ἐξόδῳ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, ὅτε ἀνῆλθε Μωσῆς εἰς τὸ ὄρος Σινᾶ καὶ ἐχρόνισε προσεδρεύων τῷ θεῷ λαβεῖν τὸν νόμον, ὅτε ἐπανέστη ὁ ἀγνώμων λαὸς Ἀαρὼν τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ θεράποντι λέγοντες· «Ποίησον ἡμῖν θεούς, οἳ προπορεύσονται ἡμῶν· ὁ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος ὁ Μωσῆς, οὐκ οἴδαμεν, τί γέγονεν αὐτῷ.» Εἶτα, ὅτε περι είλοντο τὸν κόσμον τῶν γυναικῶν αὐτῶν καὶ ἐχώνευσαν, ἔφαγον καὶ ἔπιον καὶ ἐμεθύσθησαν ὑπό τε τοῦ οἴνου καὶ τῆς πλάνης καὶ ἤρξαντο παίζειν ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ λέγοντες· «Οὗτοι οἱ θεοί σου, Ἰσραήλ.» Ὁρᾷς, ὅτι θεοὺς εἶχον τὰ εἴδωλα· οὐ γὰρ ἐποίησαν ∆ιὸς εἴδωλον ἢ τοῦδε ἢ τοῦδε, ἀλλ', ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἔδωκαν τὸν χρυσὸν ἐπὶ τὸ ποιῆσαι εἴδωλον, ὅπερ ἂν τύχῃ, καὶ ἀνῆλθεν ἐκτύπωμα βουκράνου. Ὥστε αὐτὰ τὰ χωνευτὰ θεοὺς εἶχον καὶ τούτοις ὡς θεοῖς προσεκύνουν, ἅτινα δαιμόνων ἦσαν κατοικητήρια. Καὶ ὅτι τῇ κτίσει ἐλάτρευον παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα, φησὶ καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος· «Οἵτινες ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν καὶ ἐλάτρευσαν τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα.» Τούτου χάριν ἀπηγόρευσεν ὁ θεὸς ποιεῖν πᾶν ὁμοίωμα, καθὼς Μωσῆς ἐν τῷ ∆ευτερονομίῳ φησί· 1,4 Οἶδα τὸν ἀψευδῶς εἰπόντα· «Κύριος ὁ θεός σου κύριος εἷς ἐστι», καὶ «κύριον τὸν θεόν σου προσκυνήσεις καὶ αὐτῷ μόνῳ λατρεύσεις», καὶ «οὐκ ἔσονταί σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι», καὶ «οὐ ποιήσεις γλυπτὸν πᾶν ὁμοίωμα, ὅσα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ ὅσα ἐν τῇ γῇ κάτω», καὶ «αἰσχυνθήτωσαν πάντες