Chapter XVII.122    According to Pamelius, ch. xxv.  Argument.—It Is, Moreover, Proved by Moses in the Beginning of the Holy Scriptures.

What if Moses pursues this same rule of truth, and delivers to us in the beginning of his sacred writings, this principle by which we may learn that all things were created and founded by the Son of God, that is, by the Word of God? For He says the same that John and the rest say; nay, both John and the others are perceived to have received from Him what they say. For if John says, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made,”123    John i. 3. the prophet David too says, “I tell my works to the King.”124    Ps. xlv. 1.  Moses, moreover, introduces God commanding that there should be light at the first, that the heaven should be established, that the waters should be gathered into one place, that the dry land should appear, that the fruit should be brought forth according to its seed, that the animals should be produced, that lights should be established in heaven, and stars. He shows that none other was then present to God—by whom these works were commanded that they should be made—than He by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.  And if He is the Word of God—“for my heart has uttered forth a good Word”125    Ps. xlv. 1. [As understood by the Father passim. See Justin, vol. i. p. 213; Theophilus, ii. 98; Tertullian, iv. 365; Origen, iv. 352, 421; and Cyprian, v. p. 516, supra.]—He shows that in the beginning the Word was, and that this Word was with the Father, and besides that the Word was God, and that all things were made by Him. Moreover, this “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,”126    John i. 14.—to wit, Christ the Son of God; whom both on receiving subsequently as man according to the flesh, and seeing before the foundation of the world to be the Word of God, and God, we reasonably, according to the instruction of the Old and New Testament, believe and hold to be as well God as man, Christ Jesus. What if the same Moses introduces God saying, “Let us make man after our image and likeness;”127    Gen. i. 26. and below, “And God made man; in the image of God made He him, male and female made He them?”128    Gen. i. 27. If, as we have already shown, it is the Son of God by whom all things were made, certainly it was the Son of God by whom also man was ordained, on whose account all things were made. Moreover, when God commands that man should be made, He is said to be God who makes man; but the Son of God makes man, that is to say, the Word of God, “by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.” And this Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us: therefore Christ is God; therefore man was made by Christ as by the Son of God. But God made man in the image of God; He is therefore God who made man in the image of God; therefore Christ is God: so that with reason neither does the testimony of the Old Testament waver concerning the person of Christ, being supported by the manifestation of the New Testament; nor is the power of the New Testament detracted from, while its truth is resting on the roots of the same Old Testament. Whence they who presume Christ the Son of God and man to be only man, and not God also, do so in opposition to both Old and New Testaments, in that they corrupt the authority and the truth both of the Old and New Testaments. What if the same Moses everywhere introduces God the Father infinite and without end, not as being enclosed in any place, but as one who includes every place; nor as one who is in a place, but rather one in whom every place is, containing all things and embracing all things, so that with reason He can neither descend nor ascend, because He Himself both contains and fills all things, and yet nevertheless introduces God descending to consider the tower which the sons of men were building, asking and saying, “Come;” and then, “Let us go down and there confound their tongues, that each one may not understand the words of his neighbour.”129    Gen. xi. 7. Whom do they pretend here to have been the God who descended to that tower, and asking to visit those men at that time? God the Father? Then thus He is enclosed in a place; and how does He embrace all things? Or does He say that it is an angel descending with angels, and saying, “Come;” and subsequently, “Let us go down and there confound their tongues?” And yet in Deuteronomy we observe that God told these things, and that God said, where it is written, “When He scattered abroad the children of Adam, He determined the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.”130    Deut. xxxii. 8. [ἔστησεν ὀρια ἐθνῶν κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀλλέλων Θεοῦ, Sept.]  Neither, therefore, did the Father descend, as the subject itself indicates; nor did an angel command these things, as the fact shows. Then it remains that He must have descended, of whom the Apostle Paul says, “He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things,”131    Eph. iv. 10. that is, the Son of God, the Word of God. But the Word of God was made flesh, and dwelt among us. This must be Christ. Therefore Christ must be declared to be God.

CAPUT XVII. al. XXV. Item ex Moyse in principio sacrarum Litterarum.

Quid si Moyses hanc eamdem regulam veritatis exequitur, et hoc in principio suarum nobis tradidit Litterarum, quo discamus omnia creata et condita esse per Dei Filium, hoc est per Dei Verbum? Id enim dicit quod Joannes, quod caeteri; immo et Joannes 0917B et caeteri ab hoc intelliguntur accepisse quod dicant. Si enim Joannes dicit: Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil (Joan. I, 3); Prophetes autem refert: Dico ego opera mea Regi (Psal. XLIV, 2); Moyses autem introducit praecipientem Deum ut lux fiat in primis, coelum firmetur, aquae congregentur, arida ostendatur, fructus secundum semina provocetur, animalia producantur, luminaria in coelo atque astra ponantur (Gen. I): non alium ostendit tunc adfuisse Deo cui praeciperentur haec opera ut fierent, nisi eum per quem facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil. Ac si hic Verbum Dei est, nam eructavit cor meum verbum bonum; ostendit in principio Verbum fuisse, et Verbum hoc apud Patrem fuisse, Deum praeterea Verbum fuisse, 0917C omnia per ipsum facta esse. Sed enim hoc Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Joan. I, 14), Christus scilicet Filius Dei; quem, dum et postmodum secundum carnem hominem accipimus, et ante mundi institutionem Dei Verbum et Deum videmus; merito secundum institutionem Veteris et Novi Testamenti, et Deum et hominem Christum Jesum et credimus et tenemus. Quid si idem Moyses introducit dicentem Deum: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Gen. I, 26, 27): et infra, Et fecit Deus hominem, ad imaginem Dei fecit illum, masculum et feminam fecit eos? Si, ut jam docuimus, Dei Filius est per quem facta sunt omnia; utique Dei Filius est per quem etiam homo institutus est, propter quem facta sunt omnia. Sed enim Deo praecipiente 0917D ut homo fiat, Deus refertur esse qui hominem facit: facit autem hominem Dei Filius, Verbum scilicet Dei, per quem facta sunt omnia, et sine quo factum est nihil. Hoc autem Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit 0918A in nobis: ergo Christus est Deus. Per Christum igitur homo factus est, ut per Dei Filium. Sed Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei fecit; Deus est ergo qui fecit hominem ad imaginem Dei, Deus ergo Christus est: ut merito nec Veteris Testamenti circa personam Christi vacillet auctoritas, dum Novi Testamenti manifestatione fulcitur: nec Novi Testamenti intercepta sit potestas, dum radicibus veteris Testamenti ejusdem nititur veritas. Ex quo, qui Christum, Dei Filium et hominis, tantummodo praesumunt hominem, non et Deum, contra Testamentum et Vetus et Novum faciunt, dum et Veteris et Novi Testamenti auctoritatem veritatemque corrumpunt. Quid si idem Moyses ubique introducit Deum Patrem immensum atque sine fine, non qui loco cludatur, sed qui omnem 0918B locum cludat: nec eum qui in loco sit, sed potius in quo omnis locus sit: omnia continentem et cuncta complexum; ut merito nec descendat nec ascendat, quoniam ipse omnia et continet et implet: et tamen nihilominus introducit Deum descendentem ad turrem quam aedificabant filii hominum considerare quaerentem, et dicentem: Venite; et mox: Descendamus, et confundamus illic ipsorum linguas, ut non audiat unusquisque vocem proximi sui? (Gen. XI, 7.) Quem volunt heic Deum descendisse ad turrem illam, et homines tunc illos visitare quaerentem? Deum Patrem? Ergo jam loco clauditur: et quomodo ipse omnia complectitur? Aut numquid Angelum cum Angelis dicit descendentem, et dicentem: Venite; et mox: Descendamus et confundamus illic ipsorum linguas?0918C Sed enim in Deuteronomio animadvertimus retulisse Deum haec, Deumque dixisse, ubi ponitur: Cum disseminaret filios Adam, statuit fines gentium juxta numerum angelorum Dei (Deut. XXXII, 8). Neque ergo Pater descendit, ut res indicat; neque Angelus ista praecipit, ut res probat. Superest ergo, ut ille descenderit, de quo apostolus Paulus: Qui descendit, ipse est qui ascendit super omnes coelos, ut impleret omnia (Ephes. IV, 10); hoc est Dei Filius, Dei Verbum. Verbum autem Dei caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: hic erit Christus: Deus ergo pronuntiabitur Christus.