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of constitution, having put forth His own will and power, so that it is no longer reasonable to say that any of the things that exist must be from non-existent things; for neither could there be anything from non-being. For how could that which is not become the cause of being for another? But whatever exists at all has received its being from the one who alone is and pre-exists, who indeed also said “I am who I am,” 4.1.8 because indeed 4.1.8 being alone and always being, he himself has become the cause of being for all things that have acquired their being from him, by his will and power, having graciously bestowed from himself richly and ungrudgingly both the substance to all things and the powers and the forms. 4.2.1 And indeed, first of all existing things he establishes his own offspring, the firstborn wisdom, wholly through and through intellectual and rational and all-wise, or rather, Mind-itself and Reason-itself and Wisdom-itself, and if it is right to conceive of anything as Beauty-itself and Goodness-itself among created things, this he himself first puts forth from himself as a foundation for the things that would come to be after this, the perfect creation of a perfect creator, and the wise masterwork of a wise one, the good offspring of a good father, and what else indeed than the protector and guardian of the things that came after, which received their being through him, and savior and physician, and the pilot of the whole creation, grasping the rudders? 4.2.2 Whence reasonably the oracles, speaking of God, declare him a begotten God, as bearing in himself alone the image of the inexpressible and incomprehensible divinity, on account of which he both is and is called God, for the sake of his likeness to the first, and for this reason they say he has been appointed by the Father as a good servant, so that, as through one all-wise and living instrument, both an artisan's and a scientific rule, all things might be directed by him, bodies and incorporeal things alike, animate and inanimate, rational with irrational, mortal with immortal, and whatever else has been co-established and interwoven with these, and so that by one power of all things and by one living and animate law and reason, being in all things and passing through all things, all things might be fitted together under one all-wise bond, being gathered and bound together by the very Word and Law of God. 4.3.1 Since the Father is one, it is necessary that the Son also be one and not many, and one perfect only-begotten God from God, and not more. For among many there will be otherness and difference and the introduction of the worse. For this very reason one God is Father of one perfect and only-begotten Son, but not of many gods nor sons, 4.3.2 since also, the substance of light being one, it is entirely necessary to posit one perfect radiance begotten from it. 4.3.3 For what other offspring of light is it possible to conceive? Other than only the ray from it that fills and illumines all things? For everything alien to this would be “darkness” “and not light.” For this reason indeed, since the Father of all is the highest, ineffable light, no suitable or fitting example for him could be found, except this alone, which it is possible to say also concerning the Son: “For he is the radiance of eternal light, and a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.” 4.3.4 Wherefore it is said: “who being the radiance of his glory and the express image of his person.” But the radiance is inseparable from perceptible light, but the Son subsists in himself, in a manner proper to himself, beside the Father, and while the radiance of light holds the place of an activity, the Son happens to be something other than according to activity, having been given substance in himself. 4.3.5 And again, the radiance co-exists with the light, being in a way complementary to it (for without radiance, light could not subsist), and it co-subsists with it and in itself at the same time; but the Father pre-exists the Son and pre-subsisted his generation, inasmuch as he alone was unbegotten. 4.3.6 And the one is perfect in himself and first as Father, and the cause of the Son's constitution, receiving nothing from the Son for the completion of his own divinity; but the other, as a Son having come from a cause, has become second to him of whom he is the Son, having received from the Father both his being and his being of such a kind. 4.3.7 And again, the radiance does not shine forth according to the choice of the light, according to

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συστάσεως τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βουλὴν καὶ δύναμιν προβεβλημένος, ὡς μηκέτι εὐλόγως φάναι δεῖν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων εἶναί τι τῶν ὄντων· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν εἴη τι τὸ ἐκ μὴ ὄντος. πῶς γὰρ τὸ μὴ ὂν ἑτέρῳ τοῦ εἶναι γένοιτ' ἂν αἴτιον; πᾶν δὲ ὅ τι ποτὲ καὶ ἔστιν ἐξ ἑνὸς τοῦ μόνου ὄντος καὶ προόντος, τοῦ δὴ καὶ φήσαντος «ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν», τὸ εἶναι λαβὸν ἔχει, 4.1.8 ὅτι δὴ 4.1.8 μόνος ὢν καὶ ἀεὶ ὢν αὐτὸς πᾶσι, τοῖς ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὸ εἶναι κτησαμένοις, αἴτιος τοῦ εἶναι κατέστη τῷ θέλειν καὶ τῷ δύνασθαι, καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν τοῖς πᾶσι καὶ τὰς δυνάμεις καὶ τὰ εἴδη πλουσίως καὶ ἀνεπιφθόνως ἐξ αὐτοῦ κεχαρισμένος. 4.2.1 Καὶ δὴ τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων πρῶτον ὑφίστησιν αὐτοῦ γέννημα τὴν πρωτότοκον σοφίαν, ὅλην δι' ὅλου νοερὰν καὶ λογικὴν καὶ πάνσοφον, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτόνουν καὶ αὐτόλογον καὶ αὐτοσοφίαν, καὶ εἴ τι δὲ αὐτόκαλον καὶ αὐτοάγαθον ἐπινοεῖν ἐν γενητοῖς θέμις, τοῦτο πρῶτον αὐτὸς ἐξ αὐτοῦ θεμέλιον τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα γενησομένων προβάλλεται, τὸ τέλειον τελείου δημιούργημα, καὶ σοφοῦ σοφὸν ἀρχιτεκτόνημα, ἀγαθοῦ πατρὸς ἀγαθὸν γέννημα, καὶ τί γὰρ ἄλλο ἢ τῶν μετέπειτα, τὸ εἶναι δι' αὐτοῦ λαβόντων, προστάτην καὶ κηδεμόνα, σωτῆρά τε καὶ ἰατρόν, καὶ κυβερνήτην τῆς τῶν ὅλων δημιουργίας τοὺς οἴακας περιδεδραγμένον; 4.2.2 ὅθεν εἰκότως οἱ χρησμοὶ θεολογοῦντες θεὸν γεννητὸν αὐτὸν ἀποφαίνουσιν, ὡς ἂν τῆς ἀνεκφράστου καὶ ἀπερινοήτου θεότητος μόνον ἐν αὐτῷ φέροντα τὴν εἰκόνα, δι' ἣν καὶ θεὸν εἶναί τε αὐτὸν καὶ λέγεσθαι τῆς πρὸς τὸ πρῶτον ἐξομοιώσεως χάριν, ταύτῃ τε αὐτὸν ἀγαθόν φασιν ὑπηρέτην πρὸς τοῦ πατρὸς ὑποβεβλῆσθαι, ἵνα ὥσπερ δι' ἑνὸς πανσόφου καὶ ζῶντος ὀργάνου τεχνικοῦ τε καὶ ἐπιστημονικοῦ κανόνος τὰ πάντα αὐτῷ ἀπευθύνοιτο, σώματα ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀσώματα, ἔμψυχά τε καὶ ἄψυχα, λογικὰ σὺν ἀλόγοις, θνητὰ σὺν ἀθανάτοις, καὶ εἴ τι τούτοις ἕτερον συνυφέστηκέν τε καὶ συνύφανται, καὶ ὡς μιᾷ τῶν ὅλων δυνάμει ἑνί τε ζῶντι καὶ ἐμψύχῳ νόμῳ τε καὶ λόγῳ ἐν πᾶσιν ὄντι καὶ διὰ πάντων ἥκοντι τὰ πάντα συναρμόζοιτο ὑφ' ἑνὶ πανσόφῳ δεσμῷ, αὐτῷ δὴ τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγῳ τε καὶ νόμῳ συναγόμενά τε καὶ συνδούμενα. 4.3.1 Ἑνὸς δὲ ὄντος τοῦ πατρὸς ἕνα χρὴ καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἀλλ' οὐ πολλοὺς εἶναι, καὶ ἕνα τέλειον μόνον γεννητὸν θεὸν ἐκ θεοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐ πλείους. ἐν γὰρ πλείοσιν ἑτερότης ἔσται καὶ διαφορὰ καὶ τοῦ χείρονος εἰσαγωγή. διὸ δὴ εἷς θεὸς ἑνὸς υἱοῦ τελείου καὶ μονογενοῦς, ἀλλ' οὐ πλειόνων θεῶν οὐδ' υἱῶν πατήρ, 4.3.2 ἐπεὶ καὶ μιᾶς οὔσης φωτὸς οὐσίας μίαν καὶ τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννωμένην τελείαν αὐγὴν πᾶσα ἀνάγκη τίθεσθαι. 4.3.3 τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ ἄλλο γέννημα φωτὸς ἐπινοεῖν δυνατόν; μὴ οὐχὶ μόνην τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα πληροῦσαν καὶ καταλάμπουσαν ἀκτῖνα; πᾶν γὰρ τὸ ταύτης ἀλλότριον «σκότος» ἂν εἴη «καὶ οὐ φῶς». ταύτῃ τοι καὶ τοῦ πάντων ἀνωτάτου πατρὸς ἀρρήτου φωτὸς ὄντος, οὐδὲν μὲν προσφερὲς αὐτῷ οὐδ' οἰκεῖον ἂν γένοιτο παράδειγμα, πλὴν ὅσον αὐτὸ τοῦτο μόνον, ὃ δὴ καὶ φάναι περὶ υἱοῦ οἷόν τε· «ἀπαύγασμα γάρ ἐστιν φωτὸς ἀϊδίου, καὶ ἔσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνεργείας, καὶ εἰκὼν τῆς ἀγαθότητος αὐτοῦ». 4.3.4 διὸ εἴρηται· «ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ». ἀλλὰ τοῦ μὲν αἰσθητοῦ φωτὸς ἀχώριστος ἡ αὐγή, ὁ δ' υἱὸς ἰδίως παρὰ τὸν πατέρα καθ' ἑαυτὸν ὑφέστηκεν, καὶ φωτὸς μὲν ἡ αὐγὴ χώραν ἐνεργείας ἐπέχει, ὁ δὲ υἱὸς ἕτερόν τι ἢ κατὰ ἐνέργειαν τυγχάνει, καθ' ἑαυτὸν οὐσιωμένος. 4.3.5 καὶ πάλιν ἡ μὲν αὐγὴ συνυπάρχει τῷ φωτί, συμπληρωτική τις οὖσα αὐτοῦ ἄνευ γὰρ αὐγῆς οὐκ ἂν ὑποσταίη φῶς, ὁμοῦ τε καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸ συνυφέστηκεν· ὁ δὲ πατὴρ προϋπάρχει τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τῆς γενέσεως αὐτοῦ προϋφέστηκεν, ᾗ μόνος ἀγέννητος ἦν. 4.3.6 καὶ ὁ μὲν καθ' ἑαυτὸν τέλειος καὶ πρῶτος ὡς πατήρ, καὶ τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ συστάσεως αἴτιος, οὐδὲν εἰς συμπλήρωσιν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ θεότητος παρὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ λαμβάνων· ὁ δέ, ὡς ἐξ αἰτίου γεγονὼς υἱός, δεύτερος οὗ ἐστιν υἱὸς καθέστηκεν, παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τὸ εἶναι καὶ τὸ τοιόσδε εἶναι εἰληφώς. 4.3.7 καὶ πάλιν ἡ μὲν αὐγὴ οὐ κατὰ προαίρεσιν τοῦ φωτὸς ἐκλάμπει, κατά