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I shall set forth to you, my brothers, in some way the manner of understanding. But pay attention, I ask; for the discourse is about awesome things.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Having said these things, then, he revealed the undivided Trinity, speaking of God the Father, the Word the Son, (303) the life the Holy Spirit, which three are also one light shining in the darkness. In what darkness, then? In the visible creation, he says, by all means; for God is present to all and everywhere, being light and shining; and the darkness did not comprehend Him, meaning: the stain of sin did not approach Him at all, nor did creation hinder Him from shining, nor did it know, nor find, nor was it united, nor has it seen Him. Therefore, repeating the same thought, that he might make it clear, he added and says: “There was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” From the beginning God was everywhere, he says, the one who gives life to every man coming into the world, and before He made the world, He was in the world. How? Because all things pre-existed with Him and in Him; for those not yet born are with God, not as not existing, but as already having come into being. Then, having made the world, He was not separated from the world by place, he says, but was in it, and the world did not know Him.

How then, before making the world, was He everywhere, and, having made the world, was He in the world shining, and the world did not comprehend Him? Pay close attention. He was not separated by place, “the one who is everywhere present and fills all things,” he says, when God brought forth this sensible world, but by the nature and glory of His divinity, with nothing from created things, that is, having approached or at all comprehended Him; for indeed being inseparable from all things, He is most clearly in all things. “And no one knows Him, he says, except the Son and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” This one, therefore, who was in the world and was not known by the world, came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. And He called the world and those in the world His own (304) both because He is their creator and master and because of His kinship through the flesh. Do not, then, run past what has been said, but know that the Word who was in the beginning with God, and who is God and has life in Himself and made all things and is the light that enlightens every man, He Himself who before the world was in the world and made the world and exists in it and is not known by the world and not comprehended by it, having become enfleshed, came into the world, so that to those who through faith receive Him as God and keep His commandments and take up the cross, He might be revealed as God and be known as He is, now moderately, according as each has capacity, but in the resurrection more clearly. “For as many as received Him, He says, to them He gave the power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Behold, these words are the mirror of which I told you before. And observe for me the precision of the evangelical sayings, how clearly it teaches us the distinguishing marks of the faithful, so that each of us may know both ourselves and our neighbors. But as many as received Him, he says, that is, having confessed Him as God and not merely as a man through faith, to them He gave the power through baptism to become children of God, having freed them from the tyranny of the devil, so that they might not only be believers, but if they should wish to walk in His commandments, and the holiness to the of

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τῆς κατανοήσεως τρόπον ποσῶς ὑμῖν, τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου, ἐκθήσομαι. Ἀλλά προσέχετε, ἀξιῶ· περί φρικτῶν γάρ ὁ λόγος ἐστίν.

«Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος καί ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρός τόν Θεόν καί Θεός ἦν ὁ Λόγος· οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρός τόν Θεόν. Πάντα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο. Ἐν αὐτῷ ζωή ἦν καί ἡ ζωή ἦν τό φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων· καί τό φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει καί ἡ σκοτία αὐτό οὐ κατέλαβεν». Ταῦτα τοίνυν εἰπών, τήν ἀδιαίρετον Τριάδα ἐδήλωσε, Θεόν τόν Πατέρα λέγων, Λόγον τόν Υἱόν, (303) ζωήν τό Πνεῦμα τό Ἅγιον, ὅπερ καί ἕν φῶς τά τρία ἐστίν ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαῖνον. Ἐν ποίᾳ ἄρα σκοτία; Ἐν τῇ τῶν ὁρωμένων κτίσει, πάντως φησίν· ὁ γάρ Θεός παντί καί πανταχοῦ πάρεστι, φῶς ὤν καί φαίνων· καί ἡ σκοτία αὐτόν οὐ κατέλαβεν, ἀντί τοῦ· μολυσμός αὐτῷ ἁμαρτίας ὅλως οὐ προσήγγισεν, οὐδέ ἡ κτίσις αὐτόν φαίνειν παρενεπόδισεν, οὐδέ ἔγνω, οὐδέ εὗρεν, οὐδ᾿ ἡνώθη, οὐδέ αὐτόν ἑώρακεν. ∆ιό τό αὐτό νόημα δευτερῶν, ἵνα σαφές αὐτό ἀπεργάσηται, ἐπήγαγε καί φησιν· «Ἦν τό φῶς τό ἀληθινόν ὅ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τόν κόσμον· ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν καί ὁ κόσμος δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο καί ὁ κόσμος αὐτόν οὐκ ἔγνω». Ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς ἦν ὁ Θεός πανταχοῦ, φησίν, ὁ ζωογονῶν πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τόν κόσμον, καί πρό τοῦ ποιῆσαι τόν κόσμον ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν. Πῶς; Ὅτι προϋφέστηκε παρ᾿ αὐτῷ καί ἐν αὐτῷ τά πάντα· οἱ γάρ μήπω γεννηθέντες, οὐχ ὡς μή ὄντες, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἤδη γεγονότες, παρά τῷ Θεῷ εἰσιν. Εἶτα ποιήσας τόν κόσμον, οὐ τόπῳ, φησί, διέστη τοῦ κόσμου, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν αὐτῷ ἦν καί ὁ κόσμος αὐτόν οὐκ ἔγνω.

Πῶς οὖν πρό τοῦ ποιῆσαι τόν κόσμον πανταχοῦ ἦν καί, τόν κόσμον ποιήσας, ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν φαίνων καί ὁ κόσμος αὐτόν οὐ κατέλαβεν; Προσέχετε μετά ἀκριβείας. Οὐ τόπῳ διέστη «ὁ πανταχοῦ παρών καί τά πάντα πληρῶν», φησίν, ὅτε τόν αἰσθητόν τοῦτον κόσμον παρήγαγεν ὁ Θεός, ἀλλά φύσει καί δόξῃ θεότητος, μηδέν ἐκ τῶν γεγονότων δηλονότι προσεγγίσαν ἤ ὅλως καταλαβόν αὐτόν· καί γάρ ἀχώριστον ὤν τῶν πάντων, ἐν τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀριδήλως ἐστί. «Καί οὐδείς αὐτόν ἐπιγινώσκει, φησίν, εἰ μή ὁΥἱός καί ᾧ ἐάν βούληται ὁ Υἱός ἀποκαλύψαι». Οὗτος οὖν ὁ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ὤν καί παρά τοῦ κόσμου ἀγνοούμενος, εἰς τά ἴδια ἦλθεν καί οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτόν οὐκ ἐδέξαντο. Ἴδια δέ αὐτοῦ τόν κόσμον ἐκάλεσε καί τούς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ (304) καί διά τόν κτίστην αὐτόν καί δεσπότην τούτων εἶναι καί διά τήν ἐκ τῆς σαρκός συγγένειαν. Μή οὖν παραδράμῃς τά εἰρημένα, ἀλλά γνῶθι ὅτι ὁ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὤν πρός τόν Θεόν Λόγος, καί Θεός ὤν καί τήν ζωήν ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί πάντα ποιήσας καί φῶς ὤν ὅ πάντα ἄνθρωπον φωτίζει, αὐτός ὁ πρό τοῦ κόσμου ἐν κόσμῳ ὤν καί τόν κόσμον ποιήσας καί ἐν αὐτῷ ὑπάρχων καί ὑπό τοῦ κόσμου ἀγνοούμενος καί παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ μή καταλαμβανόμενος, ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ σωματωθείς παρεγένετο, ἵνα τοῖς μέν ἐκ πίστεως εἰς Θεόν αὐτόν δεχομένοις καί τάς ἐντολάς αὐτοῦ φυλάσσουσι καί τόν σταυρόν αἴρουσιν, ὡς Θεός ἀποκαλυφθῇ καί οἷός ἐστι γνωσθῇ, νῦν μέν μετρίως, καθ᾿ ὅσον ἕκαστος χωρεῖ, ἐν δέ τῇ ἀναστάσει τρανότερον. «Ὅσοι γάρ, φησίν, ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τό ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, οἵ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδέ ἐκ θελήματος σαρκός οὐδέ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρός, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν. Καί ὁ Λόγος σάρξ ἐγένετο καί ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καί ἐθεασάμεθα τήν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρά πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καί ἀληθείας».

Ἰδού τό κάτοπτρον ὅ προεῖπον ὑμῖν οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι εἰσίν. Καί σκόπει μοι τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν ῥημάτων τό ἀκριβές, πῶς τρανῶς διδάσκει ἡμᾶς τῶν πιστῶν τά γνωρίσματα, ἵνα καί ἑαυτούς ἡμᾶς ἕκαστος καί τούς πλησίον ἐπιγινώσκωμεν. Ὅσοι δέ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, φησί, διά τῆς πίστεως δηλονότι Θεόν αὐτόν καί οὐκ ἄνθρωπον μόνον ὁμολογήσαντες, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν διά τοῦ βαπτίσματος τέκνα Θεοῦ γενέσθαι, τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου τυραννίδος ἐλευθερώσας αὐτούς, ὥστε μή μόνον εἶναι πιστούς, ἀλλ᾿ εἰ βούλοιντο πορεύεσθαι ταῖς αὐτοῦ ἐντολαῖς, καί τήν ἁγιότητα τῇ τῶν