10. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and willing and uttering the word, He made it; and straightway it appeared, formed as it had pleased Him. For us, then, it is sufficient simply to know that there was nothing contemporaneous with God. Beside Him there was nothing; but50    See, on this passage, Bull’s Defens. Fid. Nic., sec. iii. cap. viii. § 2, p. 219. He, while existing alone, yet existed in plurality.51    πολὺς ἦν. For He was neither without reason, nor wisdom, nor power, nor counsel.52    ἄλογος, ἄσοφος, ἀδύνατος, ἀβούλευτος. And all things were in Him, and He was the All. When He willed, and as He willed,53    On these words see Bossuet’s explanation and defence, Avertiss., vi. § 68, sur les lettres de M. Jurieu. He manifested His word in the times determined by Him, and by Him He made all things. When He wills, He does; and when He thinks, He executes; and when He speaks, He manifests; when He fashions, He contrives in wisdom. For all things that are made He forms by reason and wisdom—creating them in reason, and arranging them in wisdom. He made them, then, as He pleased, for He was God. And as the Author, and fellow-Counsellor, and Framer54    ἀρχηγόν, καὶ σύμβουλον, καὶ ἐργάτην. of the things that are in formation, He begat55    The “begetting” of which Hippolytus speaks here is not the generation, properly so called, but that manifestation and bringing forth of the Word co-existing from eternity with the Father, which referred to the creation of the world. So at least Bull and Bossuet, as cited above; also Maranus, De Divinit. J. C., lib. iv. cap. xiii. § 3, p. 458. the Word; and as He bears this Word in Himself, and that, too, as (yet) invisible to the world which is created, He makes Him visible; (and) uttering the voice first, and begetting Him as Light of Light,56    φως ἐκ φωτός. This phrase, adopted by the Nicene Fathers, occurs before their time not only here, but also in Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Athenagoras, as is noticed by Grabe, ad Irenæum, lib. ii. c. xxiii. Methodius also, in his Homily on Simeon and Anna, p. 152, has the expression, σὺ εἶ φῶς ἀληθινὸν ἐκ φωτὸς ἀληθινοῦ Θεὸς ἀληθινὸς ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ.  Athanasius himself also uses the phrase λύχνον ἐκ λύχνου, vol. i. p. 881, ed. Lips. [Illustrating my remarks (p. v. of this volume), in the preface, as to the study of Nicene theology in Ante-Nicene authors.] He set Him forth to the world as its Lord, (and) His own mind;57    νοῦν. and whereas He was visible formerly to Himself alone, and invisible to the world which is made, He makes Him visible in order that the world might see Him in His manifestation, and be capable of being saved.

[10] Θεὸς μόνος ὑπάρχων καὶ μηδὲν ἔχων ἑαυτῷ σύνχρονον, ἐβουλήθη κόσμον κτίσαι. ὃν κόσμον ἐννοηθεὶς θελήσας τε καὶ φθεγξάμενος ἐποίησεν: ᾧ παραυτίκα πάρεστι τὸ γινόμενον ὡς ἠθέλησεν, ὃ ἐτέλεσεν καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. αὔταρκες οὖν ἡμῖν ἐστιν μόνον εἰδέναι ὅτι σύνχρονον Θεοῦ οὐδὲν πλὴν αὐτὸς ἦν. αὐτὸς δὲ μόνος ὢν πολὺς ἦν. οὔτε γὰρ ἄλογος οὔτε ἄσοφος οὔτε ἀδύνατος οὔτε ἀβούλευτος ἦν. πάντα δὲ ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ, αὐτὸς δὲ ἦν τὸ πᾶν. ὅτε ἠθέλησεν, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν, ἔδειξεν τὸν Λόγον αὐτοῦ καιροῖς ὡρισμένοις παρ' αὐτῷ: δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐποίησεν. ὅτε μὲν θέλει, ποιεῖ: ὅτε δὲ ἐνθυμεῖται, τελεῖ: ὅτε δὲ φθέγγεται, δεικνύει: ὅτε πλάσσει, σοφίζεται. πάντα γὰρ τὰ γενόμενα διὰ Λόγου καὶ σοφίας τεχνάζεται, ⌊Λόγῳ μὲν κτίζων⌋, σοφίᾳ δὲ κοσμῶν. ἐποίησεν ⌊οὖν⌋ ὡς ἠθέλησεν: Θεὸς γὰρ ἦν. τῶν δὲ γινομένων ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σύμβουλον καὶ ἐργάτην ἐγέννα Λόγον. ὃν Λόγον ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἀόρατόν τε ὄντα τῷ κτιζομένῳ κόσμῳ ὁρατὸν ποιεῖ. προτέραν φωνὴν φθεγγόμενος καὶ φῶς ἐκ φωτὸς γεννῶν, προῆκεν τῇ κτίσει κύριον τὸν ἴδιον νοῦν αὐτῷ μόνῳ πρότερον ὁρατὸν ὑπάρχοντα: τῷ δὲ γινομένῳ κόσμῳ ἀόρατον ὄντα ὁρατὸν ποιεῖ, ὅπως διὰ τοῦ φανῆναι ἰδὼν ὁ κόσμος σωθῆναι δυνηθῇ.