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23

coming into being, is a certain movement and change of non-being into being, being transferred according to the divine will. And just as the Gospel calls the impression on the bronze Caesar's image, through which we learn that according to the outward appearance there is a likeness of the one represented to Caesar, but in the underlying substance there is a difference; so also in the present argument, having understood the things observed in both the divine and human nature instead of impressions, in which things there is likeness, we find the difference in the underlying substance, which is seen in the uncreated and the created. Since, therefore, the one is in the same state, and always, but the one that has come to be through creation began to be from a change, and is naturally disposed to such a change; for 185 this reason He who knows all things before their coming to be, as the prophecy says, having followed, or rather having foreseen with His foreknowing power, to what the movement tends according to the sovereign and free will of human choice, since He saw what was to be, He skillfully adds to the image the difference concerning male and female, which no longer looks to the divine archetype, but, as has been said, has been appropriated to the more irrational nature. But the cause of such a skillful addition only they would know who are eyewitnesses of the truth, and servants of the Word. But we, as far as is possible, having imagined the truth through certain conjectures and images, do not set forth what has come to mind dogmatically, but will offer it as in the manner of an exercise to the well-disposed among our hearers. What then is it, that we have thought about these things? The scripture, in saying that God made man, by the indefiniteness of the meaning indicates all of humanity. For Adam was not now named along with the creation, as the history says in what follows; but the name for the created man is not the particular, but the universal. Therefore, by the universal designation of the nature we are led to suppose something of this kind, that by the divine foreknowledge and power all of humanity was included in the first creation.

For one must not think there is anything indefinite in God in the things that have come to be from Him; but that for each of the beings there is some limit and measure, measured out by the wisdom of the maker. Just as, therefore, the particular man is circumscribed by the bodily quantity, and the measure of his substance is the size, which is constituted by the surface of the body; so I think that, as in one body, the whole fullness of humanity was comprehended by the foreknowing power of the God of all, and that the scripture teaches this which said, that God made man, and in the image of God He made him. For the image is not in a part of the nature, nor the grace in any of the individuals considered by themselves; but such a power extends equally over the whole race. And a sign is, that the mind is established in all in the same way; all have the power of thinking and planning, and all the other things, through which the divine nature is imaged in that which has come to be according to it. The man who appeared along with the first creation of the world, and he who will be born at the consummation of all things, are in the same state; they equally bear in themselves the divine image. For this reason the whole was named one man, because in the power of God nothing has passed away, nor is yet to come, but even what is expected is held equally with what is present by His all-embracing energy. The whole nature therefore, extending from the first to the last, is one image of Him who is; but the difference of the race into male and female was additionally fashioned last for the created being, for this reason, as I think.

188 CHAPTER 17.

23

πάροδος, κίνησίς τίς ἐστι, καὶ ἀλλοίωσις τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι, κατὰ τὸ θεῖον βούλημα μεθισταμένου. Καὶ ὥσπερ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ χαλκοῦ χαρακτῆρα Καίσαρος εἰκόνα λέγει τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον, δι' οὗ μανθάνομεν κατὰ μὲν τὸ πρό σχημα τὴν ὁμοίωσιν εἶναι τοῦ μεμορφωμένου πρὸς Καίσαρα, ἐν δὲ τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ τὴν διαφορὰν ἔχειν· οὕτω καὶ κατὰ τὸν παρόντα λόγον, ἀντὶ χαρακτήρων τὰ ἐπιθεωρούμενα τῇ τε θείᾳ φύσει καὶ τῇ ἀνθρω πίνῃ κατανοήσαντες, ἐν οἷς ἡ ὁμοιότης ἐστὶν, ἐν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ τὴν διαφορὰν ἐξευρίσκομεν, ἥτις ἐν τῷ ἀκτίστῳ καὶ τῷ κτιστῷ καθορᾶται. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν τὸ μὲν ὡσαύτως ἔχει, καὶ ἀεὶ, τὸ δὲ διὰ κτίσεως γε γενημένον ἀπ' ἀλλοιώσεως τοῦ εἶναι ἤρξατο, καὶ συγγενῶς πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἔχει τροπήν· διὰ 185 τοῦτο ὁ εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα πρὶν γενέσεως αὐτῶν, καθώς φησιν ἡ προφητεία, ἐπακολουθήσας, μᾶλλον δὲ προ κατανοήσας τῇ προγνωστικῇ δυνάμει, πρὸς ὅ τι ῥέ πει κατὰ τὸ αὐτοκρατές τε καὶ αὐτεξούσιον τῆς ἀν θρωπίνης προαιρέσεως ἡ κίνησις, ἐπειδὴ τὸ ἐσόμενον εἶδεν, ἐπιτεχνᾶται τῇ εἰκόνι τὴν περὶ τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυν διαφορὰν, ἥτις οὐκέτι πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀρχέτυπον βλέπει, ἀλλὰ καθὼς εἴρηται, τῇ ἀλογωτέρᾳ προσ ωκείωται φύσει. Τὴν δὲ αἰτίαν τῆς τοιαύτης ἐπιτε χνήσεως μόνοι μὲν ἂν εἰδεῖεν οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας αὐτό πται, καὶ ὑπηρέται τοῦ λόγου. Ἡμεῖς δὲ, καθώς ἐστι δυνατὸν, διὰ στοχασμῶν τινων καὶ εἰκόνων φαντασθέν τες τὴν ἀλήθειαν, τὸ ἐπὶ νοῦν ἐλθὸν οὐκ ἀποφαντικῶς ἐκτιθέμεθα, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν γυμνασίας εἴδει τοῖς εὐγνώ μοσι τῶν ἀκροωμένων προσθήσομεν. Τί τοίνυν ἐστὶν, ὃ περὶ τούτων διενοήθημεν; Εἰπὼν ὁ λόγος ὅτι ἐποί ησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τῷ ἀορίστῳ τῆς σημασίας ἅπαν ἐνδείκνυται τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Οὐ γὰρ συνωνομά σθη τῷ κτίσματι νῦν ὁ Ἀδὰμ, καθὼς ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς ἡ ἱστορία φησίν· ἀλλ' ὄνομα τῷ κτισθέντι ἀνθρώπῳ οὐχ ὁ τὶς, ἀλλ' ὁ καθόλου ἐστίν. Οὐκοῦν τῇ καθολικῇ τῆς φύσεως κλήσει τοιοῦτόν τι ὑπονοεῖν ἐναγόμεθα, ὅτι τῇ θείᾳ προγνώσει τε καὶ δυνάμει πᾶσα ἡ ἀν θρωπότης ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ κατασκευῇ περιείληπται.

Χρὴ γὰρ Θεῷ μηδὲν ἀόριστον ἐν τοῖς γεγενημένοις παρ' αὐτοῦ νομίζειν· ἀλλ' ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων εἶναί τι πέρας καὶ μέτρον, τῇ τοῦ πεποιηκότος σοφίᾳ περιμετρούμενον. Ὥσπερ τοίνυν ὁ τὶς ἄνθρωπος τῷ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ποσῷ περιείργεται, καὶ μέτρον αὐτῷ τῆς ὑποστάσεως ἡ πηλικότης ἐστὶν, ἡ συναπαρτιζο μένη τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τοῦ σώματος· οὕτως οἶμαι καθά περ ἐν ἐνὶ σώματι ὅλον τὸ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος πλήρωμα τῇ προγνωστικῇ δυνάμει παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὄλων περισχεθῆναι, καὶ τοῦτο διδάσκειν τὸν λόγον τὸν εἰ πόντα, ὅτι καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐν μέρει τῆς φύσεως ἡ εἰκὼν, οὐδὲ ἕν τινι τῶν καθ' αὑτὸν θεωρουμένων ἡ χάρις· ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἅπαν τὸ γένος ἐπί σης ἡ τοιαύτη διήκει δύναμις. Σημεῖον δὲ, ὅτι πᾶ σιν ὡσαύτως ὁ νοῦς ἐγκαθίδρυται· πάντες τοῦ διανοεῖσθαι καὶ προβουλεύειν τὴν δύναμιν ἔχουσι, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, δι' ὧν ἡ θεία φύσις ἐν τῷ κατ' αὐτὴν γεγονότι ἀπεικονίζεται. Ὁμοίως ἔχει ὅ τε τῇ πρώτῃ τοῦ κόσμου κατασκευῇ συναναδειχθεὶς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ὁ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς συντέλειαν γενησόμενος, ἐπίσης ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν φέρουσι τὴν θείαν εἰκόνα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο εἷς ἄνθρωπος κατωνομάσθη τὸ πᾶν, ὅτι τῇ δυ νάμει τοῦ Θεοῦ οὔτε τι παρῴχηκεν, οὔτε μέλλει, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ προσδοκώμενον ἐπίσης τῷ παρόντι τῇ περιεκτικῇ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνεργείᾳ περικρατεῖται. Πᾶσα τοίνυν ἡ φύσις ἡ ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων μέχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων διήκουσα, μία τις τοῦ ὄντος ἐστὶν εἰκών· ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυ τοῦ γένους διαφορὰ προσκατεσκευάσθη τελευταῖον τῷ πλάσματι, διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν, ὡς οἶμαι, ταύτην.

188 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΙΖʹ.