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from your face where shall I hide? if I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Hades, you are present. If I should take up my wings at dawn and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; for even there your hand will lead me.” 7.11.9 But these things and others like them belong to the theologians after Moses, who were themselves also Hebrews, theologizing in harmony with the most ancient forefathers; but of the God-loving and thrice-blessed men before Moses, who were also the first Hebrews, and first of all of them, Abraham, who is also 7.11.10 called the forefather of the whole Jewish nation, listen: “And Abraham said to the king of Sodom: I will stretch out my hand to God most high, who created the heaven and the earth.” And even before Abraham, Melchizedek is introduced as a priest of God most high, blessing Abraham with these words: “Blessed be Abraham by God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand; and blessed be God, who created 7.11.11 the heaven and the earth.” Further to these, the word introduces Abraham speaking as follows to his servant: “Place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth.” And he adds: “The Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, who took me from 7.11.12 my father’s house, and from the land where I was born.” In addition to all these, in the theophany to Moses himself, when Moses asked what he should consider God to be, the oracle says: “I am who I am; thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, He who is has sent me to you.” 7.11.13 Let these things then be set forth from countless examples of Hebrew theology. Is it then worthwhile to compare with them the theologies of the wise Greeks, of whom some declared that there is no god at all, and others that the stars are gods, which are also red-hot masses fixed in the sky like nails and metal plates, and others that god is an artisan fire proceeding on a path, and of some that the world is not governed by the providence of God, but by some irrational nature, and of others that only the heavenly things are governed by God, but not the things on earth, and again that the world is uncreated and not created by God at all, but subsists automatically and by chance, and of others that the constitution of the universe has come from certain soulless and irrational atoms and fine bodies? 7.11.14 But such, in brief, are the things from the Hebrew oracles concerning the God of all; it follows to consider also what the Hebrews have philosophized concerning the origin of created things after the God of all.

7.12.1 14. CONCERNING THE THEOLOGY OF THE SECOND CAUSE Thales the Milesian declared water to be the beginning of all things, Anaximenes air, Heraclitus fire, Pythagoras numbers, Epicurus together with Democritus atomic bodies, Empedocles the four elements. 7.12.2 Let us therefore look also at the oracles among the Hebrews. After the unoriginate and uncreated substance of the God of all, which is unmixed and beyond all comprehension, they introduce a second substance and divine power, the first principle of all created things to have subsisted and to have been begotten from the first cause, 7.12.3 calling it Word and Wisdom and Power of God. Job first teaches this, saying: “But where was wisdom found? And what is the place of understanding? Mortal man does not know its way, nor has it been found among men. But we have heard the fame of it. The Lord established its way, and he 7.12.4 knows its place.” And David somewhere in the Psalms, addressing wisdom by another name, says: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made firm,” of the

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ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου σου ποῦ κρυβῶ; ἐὰν ἀναβῶ εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, σὺ ἐκεῖ εἶ· ἐὰν στρώσω εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, πάρει. εἰ ἀναλάβοιμι τὰς πτέρυγάς μου κατ' ὄρθρον καὶ κατασκηνώσαιμι εἰς τὰ ἔσχατα τῆς θαλάσσης· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖ ἡ χείρ σου ὁδηγήσει με.» 7.11.9 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια τῶν μετὰ Μωσέα θεολόγων, τῶν δὴ καὶ αὐτῶν Ἑβραίων, τυγχάνει, συνῳδὰ τοῖς παλαιτάτοις προπάτορσι θεολογούντων· τῶν δέ γε πρὸ Μωσέως θεοφιλῶν καὶ τρισμακαρίων ἀνδρῶν, τῶν δὴ καὶ πρώτων Ἑβραίων, αὐτοῦ τε πρώτου πάντων Ἁβραάμ, ὃς καὶ 7.11.10 προπάτωρ τοῦ παντὸς Ἰουδαίων ἔθνους ἀνείρηται, ἄκουε· «Εἶπε δὲ Ἁβραὰμ πρὸς βασιλέα Σοδόμων· Ἐκτενῶ τὴν χεῖρά μου πρὸς τὸν θεὸν τὸν ὕψιστον, ὃς ἔκτισε τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.» καὶ πρό γε τοῦ Ἁβραὰμ εἰσάγεται ὁ Μελχισεδὲκ ἱερεὺς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου, τὸν Ἁβραὰμ εὐλογῶν τούτοις τοῖς ῥήμασιν· «Εὐλογημένος Ἁβραὰμ τῷ θεῷ τῷ ὑψίστῳ, ὃς παρέδωκε τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου ὑποχειρίους σοι· καὶ εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός, ὃς ἔκτισε 7.11.11 τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.» ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ὁ λόγος τὸν Ἁβραὰμ εἰσάγει τῷ οἰκείῳ τοιάδε προσδιαλεγόμενον· «Θὲς τὴν χεῖρά σου ὑπὸ τὸν μηρόν μου, καὶ ἐξορκιῶ σε κύριον τὸν θεὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τὸν θεὸν τῆς γῆς.» καὶ ἐπιλέγει· «Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ὁ θεὸς τῆς γῆς, ὃς ἔλαβέ με ἐκ 7.11.12 τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός μου, καὶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, ἧς ἐγεννήθην.» ἐπὶ πᾶσι τούτοις ἐν τῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν Μωσέα θεοφανείᾳ, πυθομένῳ τῷ Μωσεῖ, τίνα χρὴ τὸν θεὸν ἡγεῖσθαι, φησὶν ὁ χρησμός· «Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ, ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέ με πρὸς ὑμᾶς.» 7.11.13 Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἀπὸ μυρίων ὅσων τῆς Ἑβραίων θεολογίας ἐκκείσθω. ἆρ' οὖν ἄξιον ἐν συγκρίσει παραβάλλειν αὐτοῖς τὰς τῶν σοφῶν Ἑλλήνων θεολογίας, τῶν μὲν μηδ' ὅλως εἶναι θεὸν ἀποφηναμένων, τῶν δὲ τοὺς ἀστέρας εἶναι φασκόντων, οὓς καὶ μύδρους τυγχάνειν διαπύρους ἥλων καὶ πετάλων δίκην ἐμπεπηγότας τῷ οὐρανῷ, τῶν δὲ πῦρ εἶναι τεχνικὸν ὁδῷ βαδίζον, καὶ τῶν μὲν μὴ προνοίᾳ θεοῦ διοικεῖσθαι τὸν κόσμον, φύσει δέ τινι ἀλόγῳ, τῶν δὲ τὰ μὲν οὐράνια μόνα ὑπὸ θεοῦ διοικεῖσθαι, οὐ μὴν καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς, καὶ πάλιν ἀγένητον εἶναι τὸν κόσμον καὶ μήθ' ὅλως ὑπὸ θεοῦ γενέσθαι, αὐτομάτως δὲ καὶ συντυχικῶς ὑφεστάναι, τῶν δὲ ἐξ ἀτόμων καὶ λεπτῶν σωμάτων ἀψύχων τινῶν καὶ ἀλόγων τὴν τοῦ παντὸς σύστασιν γεγονέναι; 7.11.14 ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐκ τῶν παρ' Ἑβραίοις λογίων περὶ τοῦ τῶν ὅλων θεοῦ ὡς ἐν βραχέσι τοιαῦτα· συνιδεῖν δὲ ἕπεται καὶ τὰ μετὰ τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν περὶ τῆς τῶν γενητῶν ἀρχῆς Ἑβραίοις πεφιλοσοφημένα.

7.12.1 ιδʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ∆ΕΥΤΕΡΟΥ ΑΙΤΙΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ Θαλῆς μὲν ὁ Μιλήσιος ἀρχὴν τῶν ἁπάντων τὸ ὕδωρ εἶναι ἀπεφήνατο, Ἀναξιμένης δὲ τὸν ἀέρα, Ἡράκλειτος τὸ πῦρ, Πυθαγόρας ἀριθμούς, Ἐπίκουρος ἅμα ∆ημοκρίτῳ σώματα ἄτομα, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα. 7.12.2 ἴδωμεν τοιγαροῦν καὶ τὰ παρ' Ἑβραίοις λόγια. μετὰ τὴν ἄναρχον καὶ ἀγένητον τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων οὐσίαν, ἄμικτον οὖσαν καὶ ἐπέκεινα πάσης καταλήψεως, δευτέραν οὐσίαν καὶ θείαν δύναμιν, ἀρχὴν τῶν γενητῶν ἁπάντων πρώτην τε ὑποστᾶσαν κἀκ τοῦ πρώτου αἰτίου γεγενημένην, εἰσάγουσι, 7.12.3 λόγον καὶ σοφίαν καὶ θεοῦ δύναμιν αὐτὴν προσαγορεύοντες. τοῦτο δὲ πρῶτος διδάσκει λέγων Ἰώβ· «Ἡ δὲ σοφία πόθεν εὑρέθη; ποῖος δὲ τόπος ἐστὶ τῆς ἐπιστήμης; οὐκ οἶδε βροτὸς ὁδὸν αὐτῆς οὐδὲ μὴν εὑρέθη ἐν ἀνθρώποις, ἀκηκόαμεν δὲ αὐτῆς τὸ κλέος. ὁ κύριος συνέστησεν αὐτῆς τὴν ὁδόν, αὐτὸς δὲ 7.12.4 οἶδε τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς.» καὶ ὁ ∆αβὶδ δέ που ἐν ψαλμῳδίαις, ἑτέρῳ προσειπὼν τὴν σοφίαν ὀνόματι, φησί· «Τῷ λόγῳ κυρίου οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἐστερεώθησαν,» τὸν τῶν