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we call, and these he said 4.36 are ministers of the God of all things. And he has written praiseworthy things also in the Republic; "To the things that have come into being," for he says, "one must say that not only their coming to be is present from the good, but also their being and their substance are added to them from that, the good not being substance, but beyond substance, surpassing in seniority and power." For not only, he says, has he put a common form in them, as a bronze-smith or a goldsmith, but he also created and gave them their substance, not having himself the same nature as the things that have come into being; for he is above substance and beyond substance, being superior to his creations not only in eternity, but also in power. 4.37 And through these words he has clearly shown that God did not make all things out of pre-existing matter, but he brought them forth from not being, as he willed. And those things of his are also admirable and worthy of wonder: "Was it always, having no beginning of coming into being, or did it come to be, starting from some beginning?" Then he answers and says, "It has come to be." And he offers the proof: "For," he says, "being visible, it is also tangible; and being tangible, it also has a body; and all such things are perceptible; and perceptible things were shown to be apprehended by opinion and to be generated. And we say that what has come to be must necessarily have come to be by some cause." 4.38 Having said these things about created things, he taught most wisely what one ought to think about the creator. For he said: "To find the maker and creator of this universe is a task, and having found him it is impossible to declare him to all; for he is in no way expressible 4.39 as other subjects of learning are." And he shows us also the Word of God creating all things. For from the Hebrew scripture he was taught these things also, and he cries out saying: "Therefore, by the word and thought of God, for the generation of time, so that time might come to be, the sun and moon and five other stars, having the name 'planets', came to be for the determination and guardianship of the numbers of time. And having made their 4.40 bodies, God placed them in their orbits." And in these words he taught us that not only did God make creation through the Word, but also that the sun and the moon and the stars are created bodies and have received their being from God. And nothing of such things, even according to the argument of Plato, is God; for they have come to be for the use of men. And this Euripides has shown in the Phoenician Women, saying thus: 'Then the sun and the night serve mortals, and will you not endure to have an equal share of the house?' 4.41 But Euripides said the sun and the moon serve mortals; but you endure to serve your own slaves and you assign divine worship to them. But I will return again to Plato. For I praise him for also saying things similar to us concerning the 4.42 end of the universe. For having said, "If indeed this cosmos is beautiful and the creator is good, it is clear that he looked to the eternal," and having added concerning the heaven, "For the one is the most beautiful of the things that have come to be, and the other is the best of causes," and again having added, "he constructed a visible and tangible heaven," he added after a little: "Time, then, came into being with heaven, so that having come into being together they might also be dissolved together, if ever 4.43 any dissolution of them should occur." And in the Statesman he said such things: "To be in the same state and in the same way always and to be the same belongs altogether only to the most divine things, but the nature of a body is not of such an order. And indeed what we have named heaven and cosmos has partaken of many blessed things from its maker, but yet it has also shared in body; whence it is impossible for it to be without a share of change 4.44 throughout all time." And again, these words of his: "Then indeed the helmsman of the universe, as if letting go the handles of the rudders, withdrew to his own watchtower, and the cosmos was turned back again by fate and innate desire. All the gods, therefore, who co-rule in their regions with the greatest divinity, knowing already what was happening, again released the parts of the cosmos from their own care; but it, turning and clashing, having been set in motion with an impulse opposite to its beginning and end, a great earthquake in it

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προσαγορεύομεν, καὶ τούτους γε λειτουργοὺς ἔφησεν 4.36 εἶναι τοῦ τῶν ὅλων Θεοῦ. Ἀξιέπαινα δὲ κἀν τῇ Πολιτείᾳ ξυγ γέγραφεν· "Τοῖς γενομένοις" γάρ φησι "μὴ μόνον τὸ γενέσθαι φάναι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ παρεῖναι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ εἶναί τε καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῖς ὑπ' ἐκείνου προσεῖναι, οὐκ οὐσίας ὄντος τἀγαθοῦ, ἀλλ' ἐπέκεινα οὐσίας, πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος." Οὐ γάρ τοι μόνον, φησί, κοινὸν τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῖς, καθάπερ δὴ χαλκο τύπος καὶ χρυσοχόος, ἐντέθεικεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῖς ἐδημιούργησέ τε καὶ δέδωκεν, οὐ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχων αὐτὸς τοῖς γεγονόσι φύσιν· ὑπὲρ οὐσία γάρ ἐστι καὶ οὐσίας ἐπέκεινα, οὐκ ἀϊδιότητί γε μόνῃ, ἀλλὰ καὶ δυνάμει τῶν ποιημάτων ὑπέρτερος 4.37 ὤν. Σαφῶς δέ γε διὰ τούτων δεδήλωκεν, ὡς οὐκ ἐξ ὑποκειμένης ὕλης τὰ πάντα πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός, ἀλλὰ μὴ ὄντα παρήγαγεν ὡς ἠθέλησεν. Ἀγαστὰ δὲ αὐτοῦ κἀκεῖνα καὶ θαύματος ἄξια· "Πό τερον ἦν ἀεὶ γενέσεως ἀρχὴν ἔχων οὐδεμίαν, ἢ γέγονεν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τινος ἀρξάμενος;" Εἶτα ἀποκρίνεται καί φησι· "Γέγονεν." Καὶ παρέχεται τὴν ἀπόδειξιν· "Ὁρατὸς γάρ" φησιν "ὤν, καὶ ἁπτός ἐστιν· ἁπτὸς δὲ ὤν, καὶ σῶμα ἔχει· πάντα δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα αἰσθητά· τὰ δὲ αἰσθητὰ δόξῃ περιληπτὰ καὶ γενητὰ ἐφάνη. Τῷ δ' αὖ γενομένῳ φαμὲν ὑπ' αἰτίου τινὸς ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι γενέσθαι." 4.38 Ταῦτα περὶ τῶν γενητῶν εἰρηκώς, ἅπερ δεῖ φρονεῖν περὶ τοῦ πεποιηκότος, σοφώτατα ἐξεπαίδευσεν. Ἔφη γάρ· "Τὸν μὲν οὖν ποιητὴν καὶ δημιουργὸν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον, καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας ἐξειπεῖν ἀδύνατον· ῥητὸν γὰρ οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν 4.39 ὡς τὰ ἄλλα μαθήματα." ∆είκνυσι δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον τὰ πάντα δημιουργοῦντα. Ἐκ γὰρ τῆς Ἑβραίων καὶταῦτα ἐδιδάχθη γραφῆς καὶ βοᾷ λέγων· "Ἐξ οὖν λόγου καὶ δια νοίας θεοῦ πρὸς χρόνου γένεσιν, ἵνα γενήθῃ χρόνος, ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη καὶ πέντε ἄλλα ἄστρα, ἐπίκλην ἔχοντα πλάνητες, εἰς διορισμὸν καὶ φυλακὴν ἀριθμῶν χρόνου γέγονεν. Σώματα δὲ 4.40 αὐτῶν ποιήσας ὁ θεὸς ἔθηκεν εἰς τὰς περιφοράς." Ἐν τούτοις δὲ ἡμᾶς ἐδίδαξεν, ὡς οὐ μόνον διὰ τοῦ Λόγου τὴν κτίσιν πεποίηκεν ὁ Θεός, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ ὁ ἥλιος καὶ ἡ σελήνη καὶ οἱ ἀστέρες σώματά τέ εἰσι γενητὰ καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸ εἶναι εἰλή φασιν. Οὐδὲν δὲ τῶν τοιούτων, καὶ κατά γε τὸν τοῦ Πλάτωνος λόγον, Θεός· εἰς χρείαν γὰρ ἀνθρώπων γεγένηνται. Καὶ τοῦτό γε ἐν ταῖς Φοινίσσαις Εὐριπίδης δεδήλωκε, λέγων ὡδί· εἶθ' ἥλιος μὲν νύξ τε δουλεύει βροτοῖς, σὺ δ' οὐκ ἀνέξει δωμάτων ἔχειν ἴσον; 4.41 Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Εὐριπίδης τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην δουλεύειν ἔφη βροτοῖς· ὑμεῖς δὲ δουλεύειν τοῖς ὑμετέροις γε δούλοις ἀνέχεσθέ τε καὶ τὸ θεῖον αὐτοῖς ἀπονέμετε σέβας. Ἐγὼ δὲ αὖθις ἐπὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα μεταβήσομαι. Ἐπαινῶ γὰρ αὐτὸν καὶ περὶ τῆς 4.42 τοῦ παντὸς ξυντελείας παραπλήσια ἡμῖν λέγοντα. Εἰπὼν γάρ· "Εἰ μὲν δὴ καλός ἐστιν ὅδε ὁ κόσμος ὅ τε δημιουργὸς ἀγαθός, δῆλον ὡς πρὸς τὸ ἀΐδιον ἔβλεπεν", καὶ περί γε τοῦ οὐρανοῦ προστεθεικώς· "Ὁ μὲν γὰρ κάλλιστος τῶν γεγονότων, ὁ δὲ ἄριστος τῶν αἰτίων", καὶ πάλιν ἐπαγαγών· "ξυνεστήσατο οὐρα νὸν ὁρατὸν καὶ ἁπτόν", ἐπήγαγε μετ' ὀλίγα· "Χρόνος οὖν μετ' οὐρανοῦ γέγονεν, ἵν' ἅμα γενηθέντες ἅμα καὶ λυθῶσιν, ἄν ποτε 4.43 λύσις τις αὐτῶν γένηται." Κἀν τῷ Πολιτικῷ δὲ τοιαῦτα ἔφη· "Τὸ κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχειν ἀεὶ καὶ ταὐτὸν εἶναι πάν τως τοῖς θειοτάτοις προσήκει μόνοις, σώματος δὲ φύσις οὐ τῆς τοιαύτης τάξεως. Καὶ δὴ ὃν οὐρανὸν καὶ κόσμον ἐπωνομάκαμεν, πολλῶν μὲν καὶ μακαρίων παρὰ τοῦ πεποιηκότος μετείληφεν, ἀτὰρ οὖν δὴ κεκοινώνηκέ γε καὶ σώματος· ὅθεν αὐτῷ μεταβολῆς 4.44 ἀμοίρῳ γενέσθαι διὰ παντὸς ἀδύνατον." Αὐτοῦ δὲ πάλιν καὶ ταῦτα· "Τότε δὴ τοῦ παντὸς ὁ κυβερνήτης, οἷον πηδαλίων οἴακας ἀφέμενος, εἰς τὴν αὑτοῦ περιωπὴν ἀπέστη, τὸν δὲ κόσμον πάλιν ἀνέστρεφεν εἱμαρμένη τε καὶ ξύμφυτος ἐπιθυμία. Πάντες οὖν οἱ κατὰ τοὺς τόπους ξυνάρχοντες τῷ μεγίστῳ δαίμονι θεοί, γνόντες ἤδη τὸ γινόμενον, ἀφίεσαν αὖ τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιμελείας· ὁ δὲ μεταστρεφόμενος καὶ ξυμβαλών, ἀρχῆς τε καὶ τελευτῆς ἐναντίαν ὁρμὴν ὁρμηθείς, σεισμὸν πολὺν ἐν αὐτῷ