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making, worked another destruction of all sorts of living creatures for it." 4.45 In these things he agrees with us, in what he said about the change of the universe, and that when God lets go of the rudders, as many of the invisible powers as were commanded to administer certain parts of creation stand aloof, while the visible things undergo alteration; but the rest he has maintained from the error that possessed him at that time, that the innate desire of matter was overturning the cosmos, 4.46 according to the fate allotted from the beginning. For these are the things for which we find fault with the philosopher in his discourses on creation; for he too said that matter co-existed with God, just as Pythagoras and Aristotle and those named from the Stoa did. And at times he calls matter evil. For we hear him saying about the cosmos: "From its composer it has acquired all good things; but from its former state, whatever harsh and unjust things happen in heaven, these from that state it both 4.47 has and works out in the living creatures." And he has added these things too: "Of these things themselves the corporeal is the cause, that which is congenital with its former nature, because it partook of much disorder, before arriving at the present cosmos." I think every person, at least one of sound mind, would be indignant at these things. For he openly slanders the nature of matter; and he says its evil is so exceedingly strong and invincible, that not even the Maker was able to change it for the better. For it remained in its bad condition; and having received its form from God, it did not cast out its former evil. For which reason not only on earth, but also in heaven the harsh 4.48 and unjust things it does and works out in the living creatures. These things are unworthy of what was said before and foreign to that lofty speech and theology, and the offspring of groveling and earthly reasonings. For to say that disorder remained even in heaven, so that certain harsh and unjust things are dared even in it, leads one to conjecture that matter is most strong, but the Maker is weak. And yet he says that heaven itself was created toward the intelligible 4.49 paradigm. And he speaks thus in the Timaeus: "Have we then rightly spoken of one heaven, or would it have been more right to speak of many and infinite? One, if indeed it is to be created according to its paradigm." And I think by paradigm he means either God as one, or the idea, which he says is the concept of God, or the intelligible heaven, which the divine scripture says is higher than this one. But whether he calls this or that the paradigm, the practice of harsh and unjust things is least of all fitting for heaven. 4.50 But the doctrines of the so-called philosophers have so much conflict; it is time now to demonstrate the nobility of the divine scripture and the truth of its cosmogony. For it has cast away the myths about matter into Hesiod's Chaos; and it said that God created all things, not as house-builders and shipwrights and bronzesmiths and goldsmiths, and indeed weavers and leather-cutters and the other craftsmen, collecting their materials, give these form and shape, and receiving their tools from one another, but by at once willing and bringing into being things that in no way and nowhere existed. For the God of 4.51 all is without need; but human crafts have need of one another. For the pilot needs the shipwright, and the shipwright needs the woodcutter and the coppersmith and the pitch-maker and the tow-maker, and the woodcutter needs the planter, and again the planter needs earth and irrigation and plants and seeds and a coppersmith who makes a hoe and a mattock, and the coppersmith somewhere needs a builder who builds a small house and fits the anvil to the block of wood and inserts the handle into the hammer, and all likewise need the leather-cutter and the weaver and the farmer, that they may both nourish and cover the body, and they in turn are dependent on his craft, that for each the 4.52 proper tools might be provided. But the Maker of the universe has needed neither tools nor matter; but that which is to the other craftsmen both matter and tools, and indeed

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ποιῶν, ἄλλην αὐτῷ φθορὰν ζῴων παντοίων ἀπειργάσατο." 4.45 Ἐν δὲ τούτοις ξυμφέρεται μὲν ἡμῖν, ἐν οἷς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς μεταβολὴν ἔφησε, καὶ ὅτι τοῦ Θεοῦ καταλιπόντος τοὺς οἴακας, ἀφίστανται μὲν ὅσαι τῶν ἀοράτων δυνάμεων οἰκονομεῖν τινα μέρη τῆς κτίσεως ἐκελεύσθησαν, ὑπομένει δὲ τὴν ἀλλοίωσιν τὰ ὁρώ μενα· τὰ δέ γε ἄλλα ἐκ τοῦ τηνικάδε κατεσχηκότος ὑπομεμένηκε πλάνου, ὅτι τῆς ὕλης ἡ ξύμφυτος ἐπιθυμία τὸν κόσμον ἀνέστρεφε, 4.46 κατά γε τὴν ξυγκληρωθεῖσαν ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἱμαρμένην. Ταῦτα γάρ ἐστιν ἅπερ ἐν τοῖς περὶ τῆς κτίσεως λόγοις τῷ φιλοσόφῳ μεμφό μεθα· ξυνυπάρχειν γὰρ τῷ Θεῷ τὴν ὕλην καὶ οὗτος ἔφησε, καθὰ καὶ Πυθαγόρας καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης καὶ οἱ τῆς Ποικίλης ἐπώνυμοι. Καὶ τὴν ὕλην δὲ ἔστιν ὅτε πονηρὰν ὀνομάζει. Ἀκούομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ περὶ τοῦ κόσμου λέγοντος· "Παρὰ μὲν τοῦ ξυνθέντος πάντα καλὰ κέκτηται· παρὰ δὲ τῆς ἔμπροσθεν ἕξεως, ὅσα χαλεπὰ καὶ ἄδικα ἐν οὐρανῷ γίνεται, ταῦτα ἐξ ἐκείνης αὐτός τε 4.47 ἔχει καὶ τοῖς ζῴοις ἐναπεργάζεται." Προστέθεικε δὲ καὶ ταῦτα· "Τούτων δὲ αὐτῶν τὸ σωματοειδὲς αἴτιον, τὸ τῆς πάλαι φύσεως ξύντροφον, ὅτι πολλῆς ἦν μετέχον ἀταξίας, πρὶν εἰς τὸν νῦν κόσμον ἀφικέσθαι." Τούτοις νεμεσᾶν πάντα οἶμαι ἄνθρωπον, ὑγιᾶ γε τὸν νοῦν ἔχοντα. ∆ιαβάλλει γὰρ ἄντικρυς τῆς ὕλης τὴν φύσιν· καὶ οὕτως αὐτῆς ἰσχυρὰν ἄγαν καὶ ἀήττητον λέγει τὴν κάκην, ὡς μηδὲ τὸν ποιητὴν δυνηθῆναι ταύτην ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβαλεῖν. ∆ιέμεινε γὰρ τῇ καχεξίᾳ χρωμένη· καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ δεξαμένη τὸ εἶδος, τὴν προτέραν οὐκ ἐξέβαλε πονηρίαν. Οὗ δὴ χάριν οὐ μόνον ἐν γῇ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ τὰ χαλεπὰ 4.48 καὶ ἄδικα δρᾷ καὶ τοῖς ζῴοις ἐναπεργάζεται. Ταῦτα τῶν ἤδη πρόσθεν εἰρημένων ἀνάξια καὶ τῆς ὑψηγορίας ἐκείνης καὶ θεολο γίας ἀλλότρια καὶ τῶν χαμαιπετῶν τε καὶ περιγείων ἔκγονα λογισμῶν. Τὸ γὰρ δὴ φάναι κἀν τῷ οὐρανῷ διαμεῖναι τὴν ἀτα ξίαν, ὡς χαλεπά τινα καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τολμᾶσθαι καὶ ἄδικα, τοπάζειν παρασκευάζει τὴν μὲν ὕλην ἰσχυροτάτην, ἀσθενῆ δὲ εἶναι τὸν ποιητήν. Καίτοι φησὶν αὐτὸν τὸν οὐρανὸν πρὸς τὸ νοητὸν δη 4.49 μιουργῆσαι παράδειγμα. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ· "Πό τερον οὖν ὀρθῶς ἕνα οὐρανὸν εἰρήκαμεν, ἢ πολλοὺς καὶ ἀπείρους ἦν λέγειν ὀρθότερον; ἕνα, εἴπερ κατὰ τὸ παράδειγμα δεδη μιουργημένος ἔσται." Παράδειγμα δὲ οἶμαι λέγειν αὐτὸν ἢ τὸν Θεὸν ὡς ἕνα, ἢ τὴν ἰδέαν, ἣν ἔννοιαν εἶναι τοῦ Θεοῦ λέγει, ἢ τὸν νοητὸν οὐρανόν, ὃν ὑπέρτερον εἶναι τούτου ἡ θεία λέγει γραφή. Εἴτε δὲ τοῦτο εἴτε ἐκεῖνο λέγει παράδειγμα, ἥκιστά γε ἁρμόττει τῷ οὐρανῷ τῶν χαλεπῶν καὶ ἀδίκων ἡ πρᾶξις. 4.50 Ἀλλὰ τῶν μὲν καλουμένων φιλοσόφων τοσαύτην ἔχει διαμάχην τὰ δόγματα· ὥρα δὲ λοιπὸν ἐπιδεῖξαι τῆς θείας γραφῆς τὴν εὐγένειαν καὶ τὴν τῆς κοσμογενείας ἀλήθειαν. Τοὺς μὲν γὰρ περὶ τῆς ὕλης μύθους εἰς τὸ Ἡσιόδου ἀπέρριψε Χάος· δη μιουργῆσαι δὲ τὰ ξύμπαντα ἔφησε τὸν Θεόν, οὐ καθάπερ οἰκο δόμοι καὶ ναυπηγοὶ καὶ χαλκοτύποι καὶ χρυσοχόοι, καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὑφάνται καὶ σκυτοτόμοι καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι τεχνῖται τὰς ὕλας ἐρανι ζόμενοι ταύτας εἰδοποιοῦσί τε καὶ διαγλύφουσι, καὶ τὰ ὄργανα παρ' ἀλλήλων ἀντιλαμβάνοντες, ἀλλ' ἅμα βουληθῆναί τε καὶ τὰ μηδαμῇ μηδαμῶς ὄντα παραγαγεῖν. Ἀπροσδεὴς γὰρ ὁ τῶν 4.51 ὅλων Θεός· αἱ δὲ ἀνθρώπιναι τέχναι ἀλλήλων προσδέονται. ∆εῖ ται μὲν γὰρ ὁ κυβερνήτης τοῦ ναυπηγοῦ, δεῖται δὲ ὁ ναυπηγὸς καὶ ὑλοτόμου καὶ χαλκέως καὶ πιττουργοῦ καὶ στυππειοποιοῦ, δεῖται δέ γε καὶ ὁ δρυτόμος τοῦ φυτουργοῦ, καὶ αὖ πάλιν ὁ φυτουργὸς καὶ γῆς καὶ ἀρδείας καὶ φυτῶν καὶ σπερμάτων καὶ χαλκέως ἐργαζομένου σμινύην καὶ δίκελλαν, δεῖται δέ που καὶ ὁ χαλκεὺς οἰκοδόμου καὶ οἰκίσκον οἰκοδομοῦντος καὶ ξυναρμόζοντος τῷ ξύλῳ τὸν ἄκμονα καὶ ἐνείροντος τῷ ῥαιστῆρι τὸν στελεόν, καὶ πάντες δὲ ὁμοίως καὶ σκυτοτόμου καὶ ὑφάντου καὶ γηπόνου προσδέονται, ἵνα τὸ σῶμα καὶ τρέφωσι καὶ καλύπτωσι, κἀκεῖνοι δ' αὖ πάλιν τῆς τούτου γε ἐξήρτηνται τέχνης, ἵν' ἑκάστῳ τὰ 4.52 ὄργανα παράσχῃ τὰ πρόσφορα. Ὁ δὲ τοῦ παντὸς ποιητὴς οὔτε ὀργάνων οὔτε ὕλης δεδέηται· ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἐστὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τεχνί ταις καὶ ὕλη καὶ ὄργανα, καὶ μέντοι