if each one should need it, and showing that such a great and immeasurable creation is not without a superintendent, through which things it is well-ordered and admired? For he says: For His invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, both His eternal power and divinity. And he seemed to think and say these things also to his own teachers; therefore Plutarch said concerning them, as we have already said before: And from these they received a concept of God; for always the sun and moon and the rest of the stars, having been carried under the earth, rise up similar in their colors, equal in their sizes, and in the same places. 2.53 Therefore, those of old, who also became the inventors of his doctrines, did not come to a concept of heaven by marveling at the course of the sun, but having observed all the rest of creation, orderly and harmonious and possessing a motion that is not discordant; they rather inferred the strength of the one who holds power, and understood his glorious and exalted rule; but he, on the complete contrary, also changes the opinion on this very matter, having submitted to nothing of a disorderly nature, saying, the heaven makes its order harmonious. Then who is it that defined its order and its harmonious motion? Who assigned the fitting times to each of the moon's illuminations? Who subjected the course of the sun to measures? Is not therefore the commander of all one, as I said? Why then do you carry away the truer concepts, not commanding those who marvel at these things toward a vision of God, but only to the knowledge that the heaven is a God, standing outside of alteration and change and all variation, being pure both of corruption and generation, being by nature immortal and indestructible. How, tell me, do you say that the created heaven has no share of turning and alteration and change? For if it has come to be at all, and has been moved, this is a turning and a change, since the privation of its not ever having been lies before it, as it were, in order. For if what has come to be is from what is not, alteration and turning would be understood in its being called to generation, but since it is acknowledged that it has come to be, how could what has come to be be outside of corruption? 2.54 And how is that which is tyrannized by generation and corruption immortal by nature? And how is that which was brought forth in time eternal? And yet Plato says clearly that time came to be with heaven, so that having been generated together they might also be dissolved together, if indeed a dissolution of them should occur. How then is that which can be dissolved immortal by nature? And how is that indestructible which received its not being corrupted by the will of the Creator alone? For indeed, nature does not have immovability in these things, nor indeed is it their own property to be well-established in those things in which each is by nature; but rather it is aided toward this by the nods of the one who holds it all together. Then he says that it is borne in a circle around the great Creator by a better and more divine soul dwelling in it, or it has its motion from God himself, just as, I suppose, our bodies do. But, O most excellent one, I would say, the ungenerated heaven according to you, and incorruptible and indestructible, the unchangeable and unalterable, which is pure of every stain, which indeed you also say is eternal—by what better or more divine soul is it administered? What is better in it than that one, or rather than the God who created it? What is great and exceptional, I cannot conceive. For I for my part think that the ineffable nature of God is full of the highest glory. If indeed it were said by us to be incorruptible and indestructible, beyond alteration and change, ungenerated, eternal, free from every stain, possessing absolute perfection and lacking nothing whatsoever, then what have you preserved for it, by adorning the nature of created things with such brilliant and transcendent dignities? 2.55 But the Hebrews, he says, in their opinions about heaven, say that it is a throne

ἂν ἕκαστον δεήσῃ, καὶ τὴν οὕτω πολλὴν καὶ ἀμέτρητον δημιουργίαν οὐκ ἀνεπιστάτητον ἀποφήναντα, δι' ὧν εὖ ἔχει καὶ θαυμάζεται; Φησὶ γάρ· Τὰ γὰρ ἀόρατα αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται, ἥ τε ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης. Ἐδόκει δὲ ταῦτα καὶ φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῦ γεγονόσι καθηγηταῖς· ἔφη τοίνυν Πλούταρχος περὶ αὐτῶν, ὡς ἤδη φθάσαντες εἴπομεν· Ἔλαβον δὲ ἐκ τούτων ἔννοιαν Θεοῦ· ἀεί τε γὰρ ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἄστρων τὴν ὑπόγειον ἐνεχθέντα ὅμοια μὲν ἀνατέλλει τοῖς χρώμασιν, ἴσα δὲ τοῖς μεγέθεσιν, καὶ κατὰ τόπους τοὺς αὐτούς. 2.53 Οὐκοῦν οἱ μὲν πάλαι καὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ δογμάτων εὑρεταὶ γεγονότες οὐκ εἰς ἔννοιαν ἦλθον οὐρανοῦ τὸν ἡλίου δρόμον θαυμάσαντες, τεθεαμένοι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἅπασαν κτίσιν εὔτακτόν τε καὶ ἐναρμόνιον καὶ οὐκ ἐκμελῆ λαχοῦσαν τὴν κίνησιν· κατετεκμήραντο δὲ μᾶλλον τῆς τοῦ κρατοῦντος ἰσχύος, καὶ τὴν εὐκλεᾶ καὶ ὑπερηρμένην αὐτοῦ συνῆκαν ἀρχήν· ὁ δέ, πρὸς πᾶν τοὐναντίον, καὶ τὴν ἐπ' αὐτῷ δὲ τούτῳ μεθίστησι δόξαν, οὐδὲν ὑπομείνας τῶν ἀτάκτων, λέγων, ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐμμελῆ ποιεῖται τὴν τάξιν. Εἶτα τίς ὁ τάξιν αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἐμμελῆ κίνησιν ὁρισάμενος; Τίς ὁ τοῖς τῆς σελήνης φωτισμοῖς τοὺς ἑκάστῳ πρέποντας ἀπονείμας καιρούς; Τίς ὁ μέτροις ὑποθεὶς τὸν ἡλίου δρόμον; Ἆρ' οὖν οὐχ εἷς ἁπάντων ὁ ταξίαρχος, ὡς ἔφην; Τί οὖν ἀποφέρεις τῶν ἀληθεστέρων ἐννοιῶν οὐκ εἰς θεοπτίαν κελεύων τοὺς ταῦτα θαυμάζοντας, ἀλλ' εἴς γε μόνον τὸ εἰδέναι τὸν οὐρανὸν ὅτι τε εἴη Θεός, ἀλλοιώσεώς τε καὶ τρόπων ἐκτὸς ἱστάμενος καὶ μεταβολῆς ἁπάσης, καθαρεύων δὲ καὶ φθορᾶς καὶ γενέσεως, ἀθάνατός τε ὑπάρχων φύσει καὶ ἀνώλεθρος. Πῶς, εἰπέ μοι, τροπῆς τε καὶ ἀλλοιώσεως καὶ μεταβολῆς ἀμοιρῆσαι φῂς τὸν γενητὸν οὐρανόν; Εἰ γὰρ γέγονεν ὅλως, καὶ κεκίνηται, τροπὴ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ μετάστασις, προανακειμένου καθάπερ ἐν τάξει στερήσεως τοῦ μὴ εἶναί ποτε. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος τὸ γεγονός, ἀλλοίωσις καὶ τροπὴ νοοῖτ' ἂν αὐτῷ τὸ κεκλῆσθαι πρὸς γένεσιν, τὸ δὲ ὅτι γέγονεν ὡμολογημένον, πῶς ἂν ἔξω γεγονὸς εἴη φθορᾶς; 2.54 Πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀθάνατον φύσει τὸ γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ τυραννούμενον; Πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀΐδιον τὸ ἐν χρόνῳ παρενεχθέν; Καίτοι φησὶν ἐναργῶς ὁ Πλάτων ὅτι χρόνος γέγονε μετ' οὐρανοῦ, ἵνα ἅμα γενηθέντες ἅμα καὶ λυθῶσιν, ἄνπερ ἄρα λύσις αὐτῶν γίνηται. Πῶς οὖν τὸ λυόμενον ἀθάνατον φύσει; Πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀνώλεθρον τὸ ἐν μόνῃ θελήσει τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ λαχὸν τὸ μὴ φθείρεσθαι; Οὐ γάρ τοι φύσις ἐν τούτοις τὸ ἀκράδαντον ἔχει, οὔτε μὴν τὸ ἐνηρεῖσθαι καλῶς ἐν οἷς ἕκαστον εἶναι πέφυκεν ἴδιον αὐτοῖς· ἐπικουρεῖται δὲ μᾶλλον πρὸς τοῦτο τοῖς τοῦ διακρατοῦντος νεύμασιν. Εἶτά φησιν ὅτι παρὰ ψυχῆς κρείττονος καὶ θειοτέρας ἐνοικούσης αὐτῷ φέρεται κύκλῳ περὶ τὸν μέγαν ∆ημιουργόν, ἢ πρὸς αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν κίνησιν ἔχει, ὥσπερ, οἶμαι, τὰ ἡμέτερα σώματα. Ἀλλ', ὦ πανάριστε φαίην ἄν ὁ ἀγένητος κατὰ σέ, καὶ ἄφθαρτος καὶ ἀνώλεθρος, ὁ ἄτρεπτός τε καὶ ἀναλλοίωτος οὐρανός, ὁ πάσης καθαρεύων κηλίδος, ὃν δὴ φῂς καὶ ἀΐδιον, παρὰ ποίας κρείττονος ἢ θειοτέρας διοικεῖται ψυχῆς; Τί τὸ ἄμεινον ἐν αὐτῇ παρ' ἐκεῖνον, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος Θεοῦ; Τί τὸ μέγα καὶ ἐξαίρετον, ἐννοεῖν οὐκ ἔχω. Οἶμαι γὰρ ἔγωγε τῆς ἀνωτάτω δόξης τὴν ἀπόρρητον τοῦ Θεοῦ μεμεστῶσθαι φύσιν. Εἰ δὴ λέγοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν ἄφθαρτός τε εἶναι καὶ ἀνώλεθρος, ἀλλοιώσεως ἐπέκεινα καὶ τροπῆς, ἀγένητος, ἀΐδιος, κηλίδος ἁπάσης ἀπηλλαγμένη, τὸ παντέλειον ἔχουσα καὶ παντὸς ὁτουοῦν ἀπροσδεής, εἶτα τί τετήρηκας αὐτῇ, τοῖς οὕτω λαμπροῖς καὶ ὑπερφερέσιν ἀξιώμασι τὴν τῶν ποιημάτων κατασεμνύνων φύσιν; 2.55 Ἀλλ' Ἑβραῖοι, φησί, τὰ περὶ οὐρανοῦ δοξάζοντες, θρόνον αὐτὸν εἶναί φασι