without him not even one thing was made"), but in saying that the Word was God, he did not divide the Godhead, since the Word is in him and he is in the Word; "for," he says, "the Father is in me, and I in the Father." 53 You hear, therefore, the harmony of the Holy Spirit, testifying through many and various persons to the eternity of the Word. And for this reason he begins with the eternity of the Word, saying "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Using three successive testimonies, he wishes to show the eternity of the Word. 54 What, then, was this that came down before the incarnation? He will surely say: Spirit. For if he should wish to say anything besides this, the angel who spoke to the virgin will not permit him: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you." But if he says it is Spirit, let him hear the Savior saying, "God is Spirit." 55 But it seems that the Father is in the Word, even if it does not seem so to Asterius and to those who think the same things as he. For this seems so to the divine prophet Isaiah, who says through the Holy Spirit, "And they will worship you, and in you they will pray: because in you is God, and there is no other besides you. For you are God." You see how he utterly overthrows the skillful malevolence of those who teach other doctrines. 56 And here likewise the prophet discourses concerning the Word who has taken on our flesh. 57 A spirit that makes a shadow could never be. But that he himself is God, the Savior said, "God is Spirit." And that God is light, he himself teaches us, saying, "I am the light." 58 For who among the holy angels or righteous men was so trustworthy as to be able to remit the punishment decreed for him from the face of God, except the Word himself who was present with and co-fashioning, to whom the Father said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," there being no other god who could fashion with him. "For I am," he says, "the first God and I am after these things, and besides me there is no other God." Therefore, there was neither a younger god, nor any other being God "after these things" who was able to co-operate with God. But if someone, using a small and human example according to our ways, were to examine the divine action as through an image: just as some skilled sculptor, wishing to fashion a statue, first considers its forms and features within himself, then conceives of the proper breadth and length, and examines the proportion of the whole in each individual part, and having prepared the suitable material of bronze and having prefigured the future statue in his own mind and considering that he sees it in his mind, and being conscious that his reason co-operates with him, with which he reasons and with which he is accustomed to do all things (for nothing that comes to be without reason is good), beginning this sensible work, he exhorts himself as if another, saying: Come, let us make, come, let us fashion a statue; so the Lord God of all, making the living statue from the earth, exhorts not another, but his own Word, saying, "Let us make man," not in the same manner as the others; for by the Word all creation came into being. 59 For God did not need other preparation, such as matter or any other human thing, for construction, but this preparation in his own mind. Since, therefore, it was impossible for God to conceive of the construction of heaven without reason and the wisdom inherent in reason, he rightly said, "when he prepared the heaven, I was present with him." 60 For before the world existed, the Word was in the Father. But when the almighty God purposed to make all things in the heavens and on earth, the generation of the world required an effective energy; and for this reason, there being no other besides God (for all things are acknowledged to have been made by him), then the Word, coming forth, became the maker of the world, he who also previously was preparing it intelligibly within, as the prophet Solomon teaches us, saying, "when he prepared the heaven, I was present with him," and "when he made the springs of what is under heaven secure, when he made the foundations of the earth strong, I was with him, fitting things together; I was she in whom he delighted;" for he delighted

αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν"), ἐν δὲ τῷ θεὸν εἶναι τὸν λόγον εἰρηκέναι μὴ διαιρεῖν τὴν θεότητα, ἐπειδὴ ὁ λόγος τε ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ· "ἐν ἐμοὶ" γάρ φησιν "ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί". 53 ἀκούεις τοίνυν τῆς συμφωνίας τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, διὰ πολλῶν καὶ διαφόρων προσώπων τῇ τοῦ λόγου μαρτυρούσης ἀιδιότητι. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἄρχεται μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀιδιότητος τοῦ λόγου, "ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος" λέγων "καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος". τρισὶν ἐπαλλήλοις μαρτυρίαις χρώμενος τὴν ἀιδιότητα τοῦ λόγου δεικνύναι βούλεται. 54 τί τοίνυν ἦν τὸ κατελθὸν τοῦτο πρὸ τοῦ ἐνανθρωπῆσαι; πάντως πού φησιν· πνεῦμα. εἰ γάρ τι παρὰ τοῦτο ἐθέλοι λέγειν, οὐ συγχωρήσει αὐτῷ ὁ πρὸς τὴν παρθένον εἰρηκὼς ἄγγελος "πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ". εἰ δὲ πνεῦμα εἶναι φήσει, ἀκουέτω τοῦ σωτῆρος λέγοντος "πνεῦμα ὁ θεός". 55 ἀλλ' ἔοικεν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ ὁ πατὴρ εἶναι, κἂν Ἀστερίῳ μὴ δοκῇ 55 καὶ τοῖς τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνῳ φρονοῦσιν. δοκεῖ γὰρ τοῦτο τῷ θεσπεσίῳ προφήτῃ Ἡσαΐᾳ, τῷ δι' ἁγίου λέγοντι πνεύματος "καὶ προσκυνήσουσίν σοι, καὶ ἐν σοὶ προσεύξονται· ὅτι ἐν σοὶ ὁ θεός, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος πλὴν σοῦ. σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ θεός." ὁρᾷς ὅπως πρόρριζον ἀνατρέπει τὴν τῶν ἑτεροδιδασκαλούντων ἔντεχνον κακουργίαν. 56 κἀνταῦθα ὁμοίως ὁ προφήτης περὶ τοῦ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἀνειληφότος σάρκα λόγου διαλέγεται. 57 πνεῦμα σκιᾶς ποιητικὸν οὐκ ἄν ποτε γένοιτο. πνεῦμα δὲ ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ θεός, ὁ σωτὴρ ἔφη "πνεῦμα ὁ θεός". ὅτι δὲ ὁ θεὸς φῶς ἐστιν, αὐτὸς διδάσκει ἡμᾶς "ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς" λέγων. 58 τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἢ τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων ἢ ἀνδρῶν δικαίων ἀξιόπιστος ἦν τὴν ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ ὁρισθεῖσαν αὐτῷ τιμωρίαν λῦσαι, εἰ μὴ αὐτὸς ὁ λόγος ὁ συμπαρών τε καὶ συμπλάττων, πρὸς ὃν ὁ πατὴρ "ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον" ἔφη "κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ ὁμοίωσιν", οὐκ ὄντος ἑτέρου θεοῦ τοῦ συμπλάττειν αὐτῷ δυναμένου. "ἐγὼ" γάρ εἰμι, φησίν, "θεὸς πρῶτος καὶ ἐγὼ μετὰ ταῦτα, καὶ πλὴν ἐμοῦ θεὸς ἕτερος οὐκ ἔστιν". οὔτε οὖν νεώτερός τις θεὸς ἦν, οὔτε ἄλλος τις "μετὰ ταῦτα" θεὸς ὢν θεῷ συνεργεῖν δυνατὸς ἦν. ἀλλ' εἴ τις μικρῷ τινι καὶ ἀνθρωπίνῳ καθ' ἡμᾶς παραδείγματι χρώμενος ὡς διὰ εἰκόνος τὴν θείαν ἐξετάζοι πρᾶξιν· ὥσπερ ἄν τις ἀνδριαντοποιὸς ἐπιστήμων ἀνήρ, ἀνδριάντα πλάσαι βουλόμενος, πρῶτον μὲν τοὺς τύπους αὐτοῦ καὶ χαρακτῆρας ἐν ἑαυτῷ σκοπεῖ, ἔπειτα πλάτος τε καὶ μῆκος ὅσον εὐπρεπὲς ἐννοεῖ, ἀναλογίαν τε τοῦ παντὸς ἐν τῷ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐξετάζει μέρει, χαλκοῦ τε τὴν πρόσφορον ἑτοιμάσας ὕλην καὶ τὸν ἐσόμενον ἀνδριάντα τῇ ἑαυτοῦ προτυπώσας διανοίᾳ καὶ νοητῶς ὁρᾶν νομίσας συνειδώς τε ἑαυτῷ συνεργεῖν τὸν λόγον, ᾧ λογίζεται καὶ ᾧ πάντα πράττειν εἴωθεν (οὐδὲν γὰρ μὴ λόγῳ γιγνόμενον καλόν), ἀρχόμενος τῆς αἰσθητῆς ταύτης ἐργασίας πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ὡς πρὸς ἕτερον παρακελεύεται λέγων· ἄγε ποιήσωμεν, ἄγε πλάσωμεν ἀνδριάντα· οὕτως ὁ τῶν ὅλων δεσπότης θεὸς τὸν ἔμψυχον ἐκ γῆς ἀνδριάντα ποιῶν οὐκ ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἀλλὰ τῷ ἑαυτοῦ λόγῳ παρακελεύεται λέγων "ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον", οὐ τὸν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἄλλοις τρόπον· λόγῳ γὰρ ἡ πᾶσα ἐγένετο κτίσις. 59 οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἑτέρας ἑτοιμασίας, οἷον ὕλης ἢ ἄλλης τινὸς ἀνθρωπίνης, ὁ θεὸς ἐδεῖτο πρὸς κατασκευήν, ἀλλὰ ταύτης τῆς ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ διανοίᾳ ἑτοιμασίας. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἀδύνατον ἦν χωρὶς λόγου καὶ τῆς προσούσης τῷ λόγῳ σοφίας ἐννοῆσαι περὶ τῆς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατασκευῆς τὸν θεόν, εἰκότως ἔφη "ἡνίκα ἡτοίμαζεν τὸν οὐρανόν, συμπαρήμην αὐτῷ". 60 πρὸ γὰρ τοῦ τὸν κόσμον εἶναι ἦν ὁ λόγος ἐν τῷ πατρί. ὅτε δὲ ὁ παντοκράτωρ θεὸς πάντα τὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ποιῆσαι προέθετο, ἐνεργείας ἡ τοῦ κόσμου γένεσις ἐδεῖτο δραστικῆς· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, μηδενὸς ὄντος ἑτέρου πλὴν θεοῦ (πάντα γὰρ ὁμολογεῖται ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι), τότε ὁ λόγος προελθὼν ἐγίνετο τοῦ κόσμου ποιητής, ὁ καὶ πρότερον ἔνδον νοητῶς ἑτοιμάζων αὐτόν, ὡς διδάσκει ἡμᾶς ὁ προφήτης Σολομὼν "ἡνίκα ἡτοίμαζεν τὸν οὐρανόν" λέγων "συμπαρήμην αὐτῷ" καὶ "ὡς ἀσφαλεῖς ἐτίθει πηγὰς τῆς ὑπ' οὐρανόν, ἡνίκα ἰσχυρὰ ἐποίει τὰ θεμέλια τῆς γῆς, ἤμην παρ' αὐτῷ ἁρμόζουσα· ἐγὼ ἤμην ᾗ προσέχαιρεν"· ἔχαιρεν γὰρ