§11. Second reason for the Incarnation. God, knowing that man was not by nature sufficient to know Him, gave him, in order that he might have some profit in being, a knowledge of Himself. He made them in the Image of the Word, that thus they might know the Word, and through Him the Father. Yet man, despising this, fell into idolatry, leaving the unseen God for magic and astrology; and all this in spite of God’s manifold revelation of Himself.

God, Who has the power over all things, when He was making the race of men through His own Word, seeing the weakness of their nature, that it was not sufficient of itself to know its Maker, nor to get any idea at all of God; because while He was uncreate, the creatures had been made of nought, and while He was incorporeal, men had been fashioned in a lower way in the body, and because in every way the things made fell far short of being able to comprehend and know their Maker—taking pity, I say, on the race of men, inasmuch as He is good, He did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of Himself, lest they should find no profit in existing at all42    Cf. 13. 2.. 2. For what profit to the creatures if they knew not their Maker? or how could they be rational without knowing the Word (and Reason) of the Father, in Whom they received their very being? For there would be nothing to distinguish them even from brute creatures if they had knowledge of nothing but earthly things. Nay, why did God make them at all, as He did not wish to be known by them? 3. Whence, lest this should be so, being good, He gives them a share in His own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and makes them after His own Image and after His likeness: so that by such grace perceiving the Image, that is, the Word of the Father, they may be able through Him to get an idea of the Father, and knowing their Maker, live the happy and truly blessed life. 4. But men once more in their perversity having set at nought, in spite of all this, the grace given them, so wholly rejected God, and so darkened their soul, as not merely to forget their idea of God, but also to fashion for themselves one invention after another. For not only did they grave idols for themselves, instead of the truth, and honour things that were not before the living God, “and43    Cf. Rom. i. 25 serve the creature rather than the Creator,” but, worst of all, they transferred the honour of God even to stocks and stones and to every material object and to men, and went even further than this, as we have said in the former treatise. 5. So far indeed did their impiety go, that they proceeded to worship devils, and proclaimed them as gods, fulfilling their own44    αὐτῶν may refer to the δαίμονες, in which case compare c. Gent. 25. sub fin. lusts. For they performed, as was said above, offerings of brute animals, and sacrifices of men, as was meet for them45    See c. Gent. 25. 1, τα ὅμοια τοῖς ὁμοίοις. Or the text may mean simply “as their due.”, binding themselves down all the faster under their maddening inspirations. 6. For this reason it was also that magic arts were taught among them, and oracles in divers places led men astray, and all men ascribed the influences of their birth and existence to the stars and to all the heavenly bodies, having no thought of anything beyond what was visible. 7. And, in a word, everything was full of irreligion and lawlessness, and God alone, and His Word, was unknown, albeit He had not hidden Himself out of men’s sight, nor given the knowledge of Himself in one way only; but had, on the contrary, unfolded it to them in many forms and by many ways.

Ὁ Θεός, ὁ πάντων ἔχων τὸ κράτος, ὅτε τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου Λόγου ἐποίει, κατιδὼν πάλιν τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῆς φύσεως αὐτῶν, ὡς οὐχ ἱκανὴ εἴη ἐξ ἑαυτῆς γνῶναι τὸν δημιουργόν, οὐδ' ὅλως ἔννοιαν λαβεῖν Θεοῦ, τῷ τὸν μὲν εἶναι ἀγέννητον, τὰ δὲ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων γεγενῆσθαι, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἀσώματον εἶναι, τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπους κάτω που σώματι πεπλάσθαι, καὶ ὅλως πολλὴν εἶναι τὴν τῶν γενητῶν ἔλλειψιν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πεποιηκότος κατάληψιν καὶ γνῶσιν· ἐλεήσας πάλιν τὸ γένος τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἅτε δὴ ἀγαθὸς ὤν, οὐκ ἀφῆκεν αὐτοὺς ἐρήμους τῆς ἑαυτοῦ γνώσεως, ἵνα μὴ ἀνόνητον ἔχωσι καὶ τὸ εἶναι. Ποία γὰρ ὄνησις τοῖς πεποιημένοις μὴ γινώσκουσι τὸν ἑαυτῶν ποιητήν; Ἢ πῶς ἂν εἶεν λογικοὶ μὴ γινώσκοντες τὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον, ἐν ᾧ καὶ γεγόνασιν; Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ ἀλόγων διαφέρειν ἔμελλον, εἰ πλέον οὐδὲν τῶν περιγείων ἐπεγίνωσκον. Τί δὲ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐποίει τούτους, ἀφ' ὧν οὐκ ἠθέλησε γινώσκεσθαι; Ὅθεν, ἵνα μὴ τοῦτο γένηται, ἀγαθὸς ὢν τῆς ἰδίας εἰκόνος αὐτοῖς τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μεταδίδωσι, καὶ ποιεῖ τούτους κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ εἰκόνα καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν· ἵνα διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης χάριτος τὴν εἰκόνα νοοῦντες, λέγω δὴ τὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον, δυνηθῶσιν ἔννοιαν δι' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Πατρὸς λαβεῖν, καὶ γινώσκοντες τὸν ποιητὴν ζῶσι τὸν εὐδαίμονα καὶ μακάριον ὄντως βίον. Ἀλλ' ἄνθρωποι πάλιν παράφρονες, κατολιγωρήσαντες καὶ οὕτως τῆς δοθείσης αὐτοῖς χάριτος, τοσοῦτον ἀπεστράφησαν τὸν Θεόν, καὶ τοσοῦτον ἐθόλωσαν ἑαυτῶν τὴν ψυχὴν ὡς μὴ μόνον ἐπιλαθέσθαι τῆς περὶ Θεοῦ ἐννοίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἕτερα ἀνθ' ἑτέρων ἑαυτοῖς ἀναπλάσασθαι. Εἴδωλά τε γὰρ ἀντὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἑαυτοῖς ἀνετυπώσαντο, καὶ τὰ οὐκ ὄντα τοῦ ὄντος Θεοῦ προετίμησαν, τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα λατρεύοντες, καὶ τό γε χείριστον, ὅτι καὶ εἰς ξύλα καὶ εἰς λίθους καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν ὕλην καὶ ἀνθρώπους τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμὴν μετετίθουν, καὶ πλείονα τούτων ποιοῦντες, ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται. Τοσοῦτον δὲ ἠσέβουν, ὅτι καὶ δαίμονας ἐθρήσκευον λοιπὸν καὶ θεοὺς ἀνηγόρευον, τὰς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῶν ἀποπληροῦντες. Θυσίας τε γὰρ ζῴων ἀλόγων, καὶ ἀνθρώπων σφαγάς, ὥσπερ εἴρηται πρότερον, εἰς τὸ ἐκείνων καθῆκον ἐπετέλουν, πλεῖον ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς ἐκείνων οἰστρήμασι καταδεσμεύοντες. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γοῦν καὶ μαγεῖαι παρ' αὐτοῖς ἐδιδάσκοντο, καὶ μαντεῖα κατὰ τόπον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐπλάνα, καὶ πάντες τὰ γενέσεως καὶ τοῦ εἶναι ἑαυτῶν τὰ αἴτια τοῖς ἄστροις καὶ τοῖς κατ' οὐρανὸν πᾶσιν ἀνετίθουν, μηδὲν πλέον τῶν φαινομένων λογιζόμενοι. Καὶ ὅλως πάντα ἦν ἀσεβείας καὶ παρα νομίας μεστά, καὶ μόνος ὁ Θεὸς οὐδὲ ὁ τούτου Λόγος ἐπεγινώσκετο, καίτοι οὐκ ἀφανῆ ἑαυτὸν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐπικρύψας, οὐδὲ ἁπλῆν τὴν περὶ ἑαυτοῦ γνῶσιν αὐτοῖς δε δωκώς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποικίλως καὶ διὰ πολλῶν αὐτὴν αὐτοῖς ἐφαπλώσας.