21

distinguishing very well the lives of each, and responding to their characters and differences of manners, caring for the life and nourishment not only of rational beings but also of irrational animals for the use of the rational, 12.6 and providing to some the enjoyment of a mortal and temporary life, but to others a share in immortality; and He Himself, as the Word of God, effects all things, being present to all and traversing all things with rational power, and looking up to His own Father, He governs the things below in accordance with His commands, and as the common Savior of all, rules them in succession after Him, in some way mediating and bringing together the created substance to the uncreated. 12.7 This Word of God happens to be a kind of unbreakable bond in the middle, binding together things that are separate and not allowing them to fall far apart, He is universal Providence, He is the guardian and corrector of the universe, He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, He is the only-begotten God, the Word begotten from God; “For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” the sacred voices of theologians teach; He is the common planter of all things, through whom the substance of the universe grows and flourishes, being continually watered by the showers from Him, providing for the universe an ever-youthful prime and most beautiful season. 12.8 And He who has taken up the reins drives straight onward, steering the great vessel of the whole universe by His Father's will. Such a master-craftsman, an only-begotten Son, the God who is beyond all things, as a good father begetting a good fruit, has bestowed on this world as a very great good, just as a soul to a soulless body, having cast His own Word into the irrational nature of bodies, and having both enlightened and ensouled the formless and shapeless, soulless and unfigured substance by the divine power of the Word. whom we must indeed both recognize and reverence, as one who continually sojourns in matter and the elements of bodies, and gives life to all things, but is Himself light and the intellectual offspring of ineffable light, and one in substance, as being from one Father, but possessing many powers in Himself. 12.9 For we must not think that because there are many parts of the world, there are for this reason also many powers, nor because many things have been made, that it is fitting for this reason for many gods to exist. But the children of polytheistic men, being like infants in their souls, have wandered into a terrible error, by deifying the parts of the universe and dividing the one world into many, 12.10 just as if someone, taking the eyes of a single man separately, should say that these were a man, and again the ears another man, and likewise the head, and having cut up the neck and breast and shoulders, feet and hands, and the other members, and dividing the powers of the senses in his account, should say that the one man was very many men, incurring nothing more from the sensible than laughter for his foolishness. Such also would be the one who sets up for himself countless gods from the parts of one world, or who supposes this created world, which consists of many parts, to be itself God, not knowing that the divine nature could never consist of parts; for if it were composite, it would need another to compose it; nor again, being of many parts, could it be divine; for how could it, consisting of dissimilar differences, of worse and better things? But being simple and without parts and uncompounded, it is beyond all the visible arrangement of the world. 12.11 Wherefore indeed the herald of the truth, speaking in this way, has cried out plainly: The Word of God alone before all things would be the Savior of all rational beings, but God is the One beyond, the originator of the Word, being alone the cause of all things, He might properly be called the Father of the Word as of an only-begotten, but He Himself will not be inscribed with a higher cause; wherefore He is also God alone, and from Him proceeds the only-begotten Savior of all, one Word of God, who is through all things. The sensible world, therefore, like some many-stringed lyre out of dissimilar

21

διακρίνων τε εὖ μάλα τοὺς ἑκάστων βίους, ἤθη τε καὶ τρόπων διαφορὰς ἀμειβόμενος, ζωῆς τε καὶ τροφῆς οὐ λογικῶν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ζώων ἀλόγων ἐπὶ χρήσει τῶν λογικῶν ἐπιμελόμενος, 12.6 καὶ τοῖς μὲν θνητῆς καὶ προσκαίρου ζωῆς ἀπόλαυσιν, τοῖς δ' ἀθανάτου μετουσίαν παρέχων· πάντα τε αὐτὸς οἷα θεοῦ λόγος ἐνεργεῖ, τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐπιπαρὼν καὶ τὰ πάντα λογικῇ δυνάμει ἐπιπορευόμενος, ἄνω τε πρὸς τὸν αὐτοῦ πατέρα βλέπων τοῖς ἐκείνου νεύμασι τὰ κάτω καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν ἀκολούθως οἷα κοινὸς ἁπάντων σωτὴρ διακυβερνᾷ, μεσεύων ἁμηγέπη καὶ συνάγων πρὸς τὸν ἀγέννητον τὴν γεννητὴν οὐσίαν. 12.7 δεσμός τις οὗτος ἀρραγὴς θεοῦ λόγος μέσος τυγχάνει συνδέων τὰ διεστῶτα καὶ μὴ μακρὰν ἀποπίπτειν αὐτὰ συγχωρῶν, οὗτος ἡ καθόλου πρόνοια, κηδεμὼν οὗτος καὶ διορθωτὴς τοῦ παντός, οὗτος θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία, οὗτος μονογενὴς θεός, ἐκ θεοῦ γεγεννημένος λόγος· «ἐν ἀρχῇ γὰρ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος· πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν ὃ γέγονε» θεολόγων ἀνδρῶν ἱεραὶ διδάσκουσι φωναί· οὗτος ὁ κοινὸς ἁπάντων φυτουργός, δι' ὃν ἡ τῶν ὅλων οὐσία φύει καὶ θάλλει, ὀμβρήμασι τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ διὰ παντὸς ἀρδομένη, νεαράν τε εἰς ἀεὶ τὴν ἀκμὴν καὶ τὴν ὥραν περικαλλῆ τοῦ παντὸς παρεχομένη. 12.8 ὁ δὲ τῶν ἡνίων ἐπειλημμένος εὐθείᾳ περαίνει, πατρικῷ νεύματι τὸ μέγα τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου πηδαλιουχῶν σκάφος. τοιοῦτον καλλιτέχνην υἱὸν μονογενῆ ὁ τῶν ὅλων ἐπέκεινα θεός, οἷα πατὴρ ἀγαθὸς ἀγαθὸν ἀπογεννήσας καρπόν, τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν ἐδωρήσατο, ἅτε ψυχὴν ἀψύχῳ σώματι, τῇ τῶν σωμάτων ἀλόγῳ φύσει τὸν αὐτοῦ λόγον ἐμβαλών, καὶ τὴν ἄμορφον καὶ ἀνείδεον ἄψυχόν τε καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον οὐσίαν θείᾳ δυνάμει λόγου φωτίσας τε καὶ ψυχώσας. ὃν δὴ ἡμῖν καὶ γνωριστέον τε καὶ σεπτέον, ἐν ὕλῃ μὲν καὶ σωμάτων στοιχείοις διὰ παντὸς ἐπιχωριάζοντα καὶ τὰ πάντα ζωογονοῦντα, τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ φῶς καὶ γέννημα νοερὸν φωτὸς ἀλέκτου, καὶ ἕνα μὲν τὴν οὐσίαν, ὡς ἂν ἐξ ἑνὸς ὄντα πατρός, πολλὰς δὲ τὰς ἐν αὐτῷ κεκτημένον δυνάμεις. 12.9 οὐ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ πολλὰ μέρη κόσμου, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ πολλὰς δυνάμεις ἡγητέον, οὐδ' ἐπεὶ πολλὰ τὰ πεποιημένα, ταύτῃ καὶ θεοὺς ὑφίστασθαι προσήκει πλείους. δεινὴν δὲ οἷα νήπιοι τὰς ψυχὰς πολυθέων ἀνδρῶν παῖδες πλάνην ἐπλανήθησαν τὰ μέρη τοῦ παντὸς θεοποιήσαντες καὶ τὸν ἕνα κόσμον εἰς πολλὰ διελόντες, 12.10 ὡς εἰ καὶ ἀνθρώπου συνεστῶτος ἑνὸς ἀπολαβών τις ἰδίως ὀφθαλμούς, ἄνθρωπον εἶναι λέγοι τούτους, καὶ ὦτα πάλιν ἄλλον ἄνθρωπον καὶ κεφαλὴν ὁμοίως, αὐχένα τε καὶ στέρνα καὶ ὤμους πόδας τε καὶ χεῖρας καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κατακερματίσας μέλη, τάς τε τῶν αἰσθητηρίων δυνάμεις καταδιελὼν τῷ λόγῳ παμπόλλους λέγοι εἶναι ἀνθρώπους τὸν ἕνα, πλεῖον οὐδὲν ἢ μωρίας γέλωτα παρὰ τοῖς ἔμφροσιν ὀφλισκάνων. τοιοῦτος ἂν εἴη καὶ ὁ μυρίους ἑαυτῷ θεοὺς ἐξ ἑνὸς κόσμου τῶν μερῶν ὑφιστάμενος, ἢ καὶ αὐτὸν εἶναι θεὸν τὸν γεννητὸν τουτονὶ κόσμον πολλῶν ἐκ μερῶν ὑφεστῶτα νομίζων καὶ οὐκ εἰδὼς ὅτι θεία φύσις οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐκ μερῶν συσταίη· εἰ δὲ σύνθετος γένοιτο, καὶ ἑτέρου δέοιτο ἂν τοῦ συνθήσοντος αὐτήν· οὐδ' αὖ πολυμερὴς οὖσα ὑπάρχοι ἂν θεία· πῶς γάρ; ἐξ ἀνομοίων διαφορῶν, χειρόνων τε καὶ ἀμεινόνων ὑφεστῶσα. ἁπλῆ δὲ καὶ ἀμερὴς καὶ ἀσύνθετος οὖσα, πάσης ἐπέκεινα τυγχάνει τῆς ὁρωμένης τοῦ κόσμου διατάξεως. 12.11 διὸ δὴ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁ κήρυξ ὧδέ πη λέγων διαρρήδην κέκραγεν· θεοῦ μὲν λόγος ὁ πρὸ πάντων μόνος ἂν εἴη λογικῶν πάντων σωτήρ, θεὸς δὲ ὁ ἐπέκεινα, λόγου γενεσιάρχης, μόνος ἁπάντων αἴτιος ὤν, αὐτοῦ μὲν οἷα μονογενοῦς κυρίως ἂν λεχθείη τοῦ λόγου πατήρ, αὐτὸς δ' ἀνώτερον αἴτιον οὐκ ἐπιγράψεται· διὸ δὴ καὶ μόνος θεὸς αὐτός, μονογενὴς δ' ἐξ αὐτοῦ πρόεισιν ὁ τῶν ὅλων σωτήρ, θεοῦ λόγος εἷς, ὁ διὰ πάντων. ὁ μὲν οὖν αἰσθητὸς κόσμος, οἷά τις πολύχορδος λύρα ἐξ ἀνομοίων