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having extolled in this way this creative Word of God of all things; but indeed also his son Solomon in some such way personifies wisdom itself, saying: "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I have called upon knowledge and understanding. By me kings reign, and rulers decree 7.12.5 justice." to which he adds next: "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works, before the age he established me, in the beginning, before he made the earth and before the abysses came to be, before the mountains were settled, and before all the hills he begets me. When he prepared the heaven, I was with him, and as he set the secure springs under heaven, I was with him, fitting things together. I was she in whom he delighted daily, and I rejoiced before him at all times, 7.12.6 when he rejoiced at having completed the world." These things Solomon says in Proverbs. and these things also are said in some such way from his own person: "But what wisdom is and how she came to be, I will declare, and I will not hide mysteries from you, but I will trace her out from the beginning of her generation." to which he adds next: "For she is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, 7.12.7 pure, most subtle. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion, and she pervades and penetrates all things because of her purity. For she is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, and a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. She extends from end to end with strength and orders all 7.12.8 things well." And indeed, holy scripture introduces this divine Word as having been sent in various ways by the Father for the salvation of mankind. It relates, therefore, that he revealed himself both to Abraham and Moses and the other prophets who were dear to God, and that he taught many things by oracles and foretold the future, whenever it records that God and Lord was seen and came into conversation with the 7.12.9 prophets. That he also came to the knowledge of all men, as a savior of the sick and a physician of souls sent from the greater one, it proclaims in some such way: "He sent his word, and healed them and delivered them from their corruptions." and again another time it says: "His word will run swiftly." Hence also the teaching of the Gospel, renewing the prophetic and ancestral doctrine, clarifies the theology in some such way as this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the 7.12.10 light of men." Rightly, then, by the same spirit also Moses the all-wise, beginning his cosmogony, says that God made the heaven and the earth in the aforementioned beginning; and he introduces God as communicating with him, as with his own and first-born Word, at the creation of man in the things he writes: "And God said: Let us make 7.12.11 man in our image and after our likeness." And this the psalmist also hinted at, when discoursing on the first cause: "He," he says, "spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created," directly positing the command and exhortation of the first cause to the second, as of a father to a son. For it is surely clear in every way, that everyone who says something 7.12.12 says it to another, and he who commands, commands another besides himself. And again, Moses, expressly mentioning two Lords, namely father and son, relates in some such way concerning the punishment of the ungodly, saying: "And the Lord rained 7.12.13 upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord." with which David also agrees, saying in a psalm: "The Lord said to the

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ἁπάντων δημιουργικὸν λόγον θεοῦ τοῦτον ἀνευφημήσας τὸν τρόπον· οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ τούτου παῖς Σολομῶν ὧδέ πη ἐξ αὐτῆς προσωποποιεῖ τῆς σοφίας λέγων· «Ἐγὼ ἡ σοφία κατεσκήνωσα βουλὴν καὶ γνῶσιν, καὶ ἔννοιαν ἐγὼ ἐπεκαλεσάμην. δι' ἐμοῦ βασιλεῖς βασιλεύουσι, καὶ οἱ δυνάσται γράφουσι 7.12.5 δικαιοσύνην.» οἷς ἐπιλέγει ἑξῆς· «Κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ, πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐθεμελίωσέ με, ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸ τοῦ τὴν γῆν ποιῆσαι καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὰς ἀβύσσους γενέσθαι, πρὸ τοῦ ὄρη ἑδρασθῆναι, πρὸ δὲ πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾷ με, ἡνίκα ἡτοίμαζε τὸν οὐρανόν, συμπαρήμην αὐτῷ, καὶ ὡς ἀσφαλεῖς ἐτίθει πηγὰς τῆς ὑπ' οὐρανόν, ἤμην σὺν αὐτῷ ἁρμόζουσα. ἐγὼ ἤμην ᾗ προσέχαιρε καθ' ἡμέραν, ηὐφραινόμην δὲ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ, 7.12.6 ὅτε ηὐφραίνετο τὴν οἰκουμένην συντελέσας.» ταῦτα Σολομῶν ἐν Παροιμίαις. καὶ ταῦτα δέ πη ἐξ αὐτοῦ λέγεται τοῦ προσώπου· «Τί δέ ἐστι σοφία καὶ πῶς ἐγένετο, ἀπαγγελῶ καὶ οὐκ ἀποκρύψω ὑμῖν μυστήρια, ἀλλ' ἐξ ἀρχῆς γενέσεως ἐξιχνιάσω.» οἷς ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· «Ἔστι γὰρ αὕτη πνεῦμα νοερόν, ἅγιον, μονογενές, πολυμερές, λεπτόν, εὐκίνητον, τρανόν, ἀμόλυντον, παντοδύναμον, πανεπίσκοπον καὶ διὰ πάντων χωροῦν πνευμάτων, νοερῶν, 7.12.7 καθαρῶν, λεπτοτάτων. πάσης γὰρ κινήσεως κινητικώτερον σοφία, διήκει δὲ καὶ χωρεῖ διὰ πάντων διὰ τὴν καθαρότητα. ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστι τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀπόρροια τῆς τοῦ παντοκράτορος δόξης εἰλικρινής· διὸ οὐδὲν μεμολυσμένον εἰς αὐτὴν παρεμπίπτει. ἀπαύγασμα γάρ ἐστι φωτὸς ἀϊδίου καὶ ἔσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνεργείας καὶ εἰκὼν τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ. διατείνει δὲ ἀπὸ πέρατος ἐπὶ πέρας εὐρώστως καὶ διοικεῖ τὰ 7.12.8 πάντα χρηστῶς.» καὶ δὴ τόνδε τὸν ἔνθεον λόγον διαφόρως ἡ θεία γραφὴ πρὸς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων σωτηρίᾳ πεπεμμένον εἰσάγει. αὐτὸν δ' οὖν καὶ τῷ Ἁβραὰμ Μωσεῖ τε καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις θεοφιλέσι προφήταις φῆναι ἑαυτὸν καὶ χρησμοῖς τὰ πολλὰ παιδεῦσαί τε καὶ θεσπίσαι τὰ μέλλοντα ἱστορεῖ, ὁπηνίκα θεὸν καὶ κύριον ὦφθαί τε καὶ εἰς λόγους τῶν 7.12.9 προφητῶν ἐλθεῖν μνημονεύει. τοῦτον καὶ πᾶσιν εἰς γνῶσιν ἐλθεῖν ἀνθρώποις, οἷα νοσούντων σωτῆρα καὶ ψυχῶν ἰατρὸν πρὸς τοῦ μείζονος ἀπεσταλμένον, ὧδέ πη θεσπίζει· «Ἀπέστειλε τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐρρύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν.» καὶ πάλιν ἄλλοτέ φησιν· «Ἕως τάχους δραμεῖται ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ.» ἔνθεν καὶ ἡ εὐαγγελικὴ διδασκαλία τὸ προφητικὸν καὶ πάτριον ἀνανεουμένη δόγμα ταύτη πη διασαφεῖ τὴν θεολογίαν· «Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν ὃ γέγονεν. ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ 7.12.10 φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.» εἰκότως δῆτα τῷ αὐτῷ πνεύματι καὶ Μωσῆς ὁ πάνσοφος, ἀρχόμενος τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν κοσμογονίας, ἐν τῇ προαποδοθείσῃ ἀρχῇ, πεποιηκέναι τὸν θεὸν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν φησιν· αὐτῷ τε εἰσάγει, ὡς ἂν οἰκείῳ καὶ πρωτογόνῳ αὐτοῦ λόγῳ, κοινολογούμενον ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου δημιουργίας τὸν θεὸν ἐν οἷς γράφει· «Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεός· ποιήσωμεν 7.12.11 ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν.» τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ὁ ψαλμῳδὸς ᾐνίττετο, ὁπηνίκα περὶ τοῦ πρώτου αἰτίου διεξιών· «Αὐτός», φησίν, «εἶπε, καὶ ἐγενήθησαν· αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο, καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν,» ἄντικρυς τὴν τοῦ πρώτου πρὸς τὸ δεύτερον αἴτιον, ὡς ἂν πατρὸς πρὸς υἱόν, διάταξίν τε καὶ παρακέλευσιν ὑφιστάμενος. πάντη γὰρ δήπουθεν δῆλον, ὡς πᾶς ὁ λέγων τι 7.12.12 ἑτέρῳ λέγει καὶ ὁ ἐντελλόμενος ἑτέρῳ παρ' ἑαυτὸν ἐντέλλεται. διαρρήδην δ' αὖ πάλιν ὁ Μωσῆς ἄμφω δυοῖν μνημονεύων κυρίων, πατρὸς δηλαδὴ καὶ υἱοῦ, ὧδέ πη ἐπὶ τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν τιμωρίας ἱστορεῖ λέγων· «Καὶ ἔβρεξε 7.12.13 κύριος παρὰ κυρίου ἐπὶ Σόδομα καὶ Γόμορρα θεῖον καὶ πῦρ.» οἷς συμφώνως καὶ ὁ ∆αβὶδ ψάλλων ἔφησεν· «Εἶπεν ὁ κύριος τῷ