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How shall we say you are seated, or on what throne, you who hold heaven in your hand, and the earth too, and all things under the earth, holding them by your strength? What throne could contain, or what kind of house, or how or where is it established, or on what foundations, or by what pillars is it raised, who could possibly conceive? Unreachable for men indeed and for all created nature, which dares to investigate such things concerning God, before it is illumined, before it is enlightened, before it perceives the divine things and becomes a beholder of the mysteries of Christ, which not even Paul, having perceived them, was able to express at all, nor Elijah before him, nor the great Moses, but he himself was deemed worthy only to learn the commands of God and His will and to express them to others. But concerning God Himself, he was not deemed worthy to hear, to learn, or to be taught anything more, except that He who is is God of all and creator, maker and sustainer of all things that have been brought forth. But we, the all-wretched, who are confined in darkness and are altogether darkness by the enjoyment of pleasures and ignorant of ourselves, where and how we are held, we who are buried in passions, we who are blind and dead, (261) investigating Him who truly is, the beginningless, uncreated, only God, who is immortal, invisible to all, we speak as if knowing precisely about God, we who are separated from God. For if indeed they were united to Him, they would never dare to speak about Him, seeing that all His things are ineffable, incomprehensible; and not only His things, but also most of His works are unknown to all. For who could explain how He forms me from the beginning, with what hands the incorporeal One took the dust, having no mouth like us, how He breathed into me and how it became for me an immortal soul? And from clay, tell me, how bones, how sinews, how flesh, how veins for me, how skin, how hairs, how eyes, how ears, how lips, how a tongue, how vocal organs, and the hardness of teeth, clearly produce articulate speech by the breath? And from dry and wet, hot and cold matter has He made me a living being by a mixture of opposites?

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πῶς δέ καθῆσθαι φήσωμεν ἤ ἐν ποίῳ σε θρόνῳ, τόν τῇ χειρί κατέχοντα οὐρανόν καί τήν γῆν δέ, τά ὑπό γῆν τε ἅπαντα ἰσχύϋ σῇ κρατοῦντα; Ποῖος θρόνος χωρήσειεν ἤ ποταπή οἰκία, ἤ πῶς ἤ ποῦ ἐνίδρυται ἤ ποίοις θεμελίοις, ποίοις δέ στύλοις αἴρεται, τίς ὅλως ἐννοήσει; Ἀβάλε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γε καί πάςῃ κτιστῇ φύσει, τῇ τά τοιαῦτα ἐρευνᾶν περί Θεοῦ τολμώσῃ, πρίν ἐλλαμφθῇ, πρίν φωτισθῇ, πρίν κατίδῃ τά θεῖα καί θεωρός γενήσεται τῶν Χριστοῦ μυστηρίων, ἅ οὔτε Παῦλος κατιδών ἴσχυσεν ὅλως φράσαι, οὔτε Ἠλίας πρότερον, οὔτε Μωσῆς ὁ μέγας, ἀλλά τάς ἐντολάς Θεοῦ καί θελήματα μόνα κατηξιώθη καί αὐτός μαθεῖν καί ἄλλοις φράσαι. Περί αὐτοῦ δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλέον οὐδέν ἀκοῦσαι κατηξιώθη, μαθεῖν ἤ ὅλως διδαχθῆναι, εἰ μή ὅτι ὁ ὤν ἐστι Θεός πάντων καί κτίστης, δημιουργός καί συνοχεύς πάντων τῶν παραχθέντων. Ἡμεῖς δέ οἱ πανάθλιοι, οἱ σκότει καθειργμένοι καί σκότος ὅλως πέλοντες ἡδονῶν ἀπολαύσει καί ἀγνοοῦντες ἑαυτούς, ὅπου καί πῶς κρατοῦνται, οἱ τεθαμμένοι πάθεσιν, οἱ τυφλοί καί νεκροί τε (261) τόν ὄντα ὄντως ἄναρχον, ἄκτιστον, Θεόν μόνον, ἀθάνατον ὑπάρχοντα, ἀόρατον τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐξερευνῶντες λέγομεν ὡς ἀκριβῶς εἰδότες περί Θεοῦ, οἱ τοῦ Θεοῦ ὄντες κεχωρισμένοι. Εἰ γάρ δή καί ἥνωντο αὐτῷ, οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐτόλμων περί αὐτοῦ λαλῆσαι βλέποντες, ὅτι πάντα ἄφραστα, ἀκατάληπτα πέλουσι τά ἐκείνου˙ οὐ μόνον τά ἐκείνου δέ, ἀλλά καί τῶν ἐκείνου ἔργων τά πλείω ἄγνωστα ὑπάρχουσι τοῖς πᾶσι. Τίς γάρ καί ἑρμηνεύσειε, πῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς με πλάττει, ποίαις χερσί τόν χοῦν λαβών ὁ ἀσώματος πάντῃ στόμα μή ἔχων ὡς ἡμεῖς πῶς ἐνεφύσησέ μοι καί εἰς ψυχήν ἀθάνατον πῶς ἄρα γέγονέ μοι; Ἀπό πηλοῦ δέ, λέγε μοι, πῶς ὀστᾶ, πῶς δέ νεῦρα, πῶς κρέας, πῶς δέ φλέβες μοι, πῶς δερματίς, πῶς τρίχες, πῶς ὀφθαλμοί, πῶς ὦτα δέ, πῶς χείλεα, πῶς γλῶσσα, πῶς ὄργανα φωνητικά, ὀδόντως τε στερρότης, ἔναρθρον λόγον πνεύματι τρανῶς ἀποτελοῦσιν; Ἀπό ξηρᾶς δέ καί ὑγρᾶς, θερμῆς καί ψυχρᾶς ὕλης ζῴόν με ἀπετέλεσε μίξει ἐναντίων;