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the Father's things, or rather even the Father himself, in every way along with the Father and the Father's things has the entire paternal will in himself. 2.1.217 Therefore he does not need to learn the Father's will by a word, being himself the Father's Word according to the higher meaning of "word". What then is that word which is directed to the true Word? And how does the true Word again need another word for instruction? But someone will say that the voice was directed to the Holy Spirit of the Father. 2.1.218 Nor does the Spirit need instruction from words, who is in God, as the Apostle says, and searches all things, even the depths of God. If, therefore, God utters words, and every word is effective for hearing, let those who declare that God makes public speeches in elaborate discourses make known to us also the audience for the divine words. He had no need to speak to himself, the Son was not in need of instruction from words, the Holy Spirit, it says, searches all things, even the depths of God, creation was not yet; to whom was the word 2.1.219 spoken? But, it is said, the writing of Moses does not lie, through which it is declared that God has said something. For not even the great David is among liars, but he says clearly, word for word, thus: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands; day to day 2.1.220 pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. And having said that the heavens and the firmament declare, and that from day and night knowledge and words are proclaimed, he adds again to what was said that these are not speeches nor words, nor are their voices heard. How then are declarations and proclamations and words not speeches, nor 2.1.221 a voice coming through the sense of hearing? Does the prophet contradict himself? Does he recount something impossible, teaching of a voiceless word and a speechless declaration and a message without a voice? Or is the prophecy that teaches this through what was said entirely true, that the heavenly declaration and the word shouted by the day is not an articulate voice nor a speech through a mouth, but becomes an instruction of divine power for those who know how to comprehend a silent voice? 2.1.222 What then have we supposed about these things? For perhaps if we understand this, we shall also have understood what comes from Moses. Often Scripture, for the sake of a clear understanding of the thing signified, arranges the contemplation of intelligible things in a more corporeal way, just as this is the doctrine that it seems to me David declares, teaching this through what he said: none of the things that exist has its substance from some automatic chance, as some have thought that random and irrational entanglements of the primary elements produced for us the whole cosmos and the things in it, with no providence coming through the things that exist, but there is some cause of the constitution and governance of the universe, on which all intelligible nature depends, and from there it has its principles and causes and to that 2.1.223 it inclines and returns and in it it remains. And since, as the Apostle says, his eternal power and divinity are perceived, being understood from the creation of the world, for this reason all of creation and above all, as the saying goes, the order in the heavens, through the art apparent in the things that have come to be, displays the wisdom of the one who made them. And this seems to me what he wishes to present, the testimony from phenomena that existing things have been constructed wisely and skillfully and always remain in the power 2.1.224 of the one who steers the universe. He says the heavens themselves, by which they show the wisdom of the one who made them, all but letting out a voice, cry out and proclaim the wisdom of the creator without a voice. For it is possible to hear, as if they were teaching these things with a word, that: "Looking at us, O people, and the beauty and greatness in us and this ever-moving revolution and the well-ordered and harmonious motion which is always in the same respects and in the same way, understand the one who presides over our constitution and through the apparent beauty the

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πατρῷα, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν πατέρα, πάντως μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τῶν τοῦ πατρὸς ὅλον τὸ θέλημα ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἔχει τὸ πατρῷον. 2.1.217 οὐ χρῄζει τοίνυν λόγῳ μαθεῖν τοῦ πατρὸς τὸ θέλημα, αὐτὸς ὢν τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ λόγος κατὰ τὴν ὑψηλοτέραν ση μασίαν τοῦ λόγου. τίς οὖν ἐκεῖνος ὁ λόγος ὁ πρὸς τὸν ὄντως λόγον γινόμενος; καὶ πῶς ὁ ὄντως λόγος λόγου πάλιν ἑτέρου πρὸς διδασκαλίαν προσδέεται; ἀλλ' ἐρεῖ τις πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τοῦ πατρὸς γίνεσθαι τὴν φωνήν. 2.1.218 οὐδὲ τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἐκ ῥημάτων διδασκαλίας προσδέεται, ὃ ἐν τῷ θεῷ ἐστι, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, καὶ πάντα ἐρευνᾷ, καὶ τὰ βάθη τοῦ θεοῦ. εἰ οὖν ῥήματα φθέγγεται ὁ θεός, πᾶς δὲ λόγος ἐπὶ ἀκοῆς ἐνεργεῖται, οἱ δημηγορεῖν τὸν θεὸν ἐν διεξοδικοῖς λόγοις ἀποφαινόμενοι γνωρισάτωσαν ἡμῖν καὶ τὸ τῶν θείων λόγων ἀκροατήριον. πρὸς ἑαυτὸν λαλεῖν οὐκ ἐδέετο, ὁ υἱὸς ἀπροσδεὴς ἦν τῆς ἐκ ῥημάτων διδασκαλίας, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον πάντα, φησίν, ἐρευνᾷ, καὶ τὰ βάθη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡ κτίσις οὔπω ἦν· πρὸς τίνα ὁ λόγος 2.1.219 ἐγίνετο; ἀλλ' οὐ ψεύδεται, φησίν, ἡ τοῦ Μωϋσέως γραφή, δι' ἧς τὸ εἰρηκέναι τι τὸν θεὸν ἀποφαίνεται. οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ μέγας ∆αβὶδ τῶν ψευδομένων ἐστί, λέγει δὲ σαφῶς οὕτως κατὰ λέξιν ὅτι Οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν θεοῦ καὶ ποίησιν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ ἀναγγέλλει τὸ στερέωμα· ἡμέρα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ 2.1.220 ἐρεύγεται ῥῆμα καὶ νὺξ ἀναγγέλλει γνῶσιν νυκτί. καὶ εἰπὼν διηγεῖσθαι τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὸ στερέωμα καὶ παρὰ τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς ἀπαγγέλλεσθαι γνῶσιν καὶ ῥήματα, πάλιν ἐπάγει τοῖς εἰρημένοις ὅτι ταῦτα λαλιαὶ οὐκ εἰσὶν οὐδὲ λόγοι οὐδὲ φωναὶ τούτων ἀκούονται. πῶς οὖν διηγή ματα καὶ ἀναγγελίαι καὶ ῥήματα λαλιαὶ οὐκ εἰσὶν οὐδὲ 2.1.221 φωνὴ διὰ τῆς ἀκουστικῆς αἰσθήσεως ἐγγινομένη; ἆρα μά χεται πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ὁ προφήτης; ἆρά τι τῶν οὐκ ἐνδεχο μένων διέξεισιν, ἄφθογγον ῥῆμα καὶ διήγησιν ἄλαλον καὶ ἀγγελίαν δίχα φωνῆς διδάσκων; ἢ παντὸς μᾶλλον ἀληθὴς ἡ προφητεία ἡ τοῦτο διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων διδάσκουσα, ὅτι τὸ διήγημα τὸ οὐράνιον καὶ τὸ ῥῆμα τὸ παρὰ τῆς ἡμέρας βοώμενον φωνὴ μὲν ἔναρθρος οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε λαλιὰ διὰ στόματος, διδασκαλία δὲ τῆς θείας δυνάμεως γίνεται τοῖς ἐπαΐειν ἐπισταμένοις σιωπώσης φωνῆς; 2.1.222 Τί οὖν περὶ τούτων ὑπειλήφαμεν; τάχα γὰρ ἐὰν τοῦτο νοήσωμεν, καὶ τὸ παρὰ Μωϋσέως νενοηκότες ἐσόμεθα. πολ λάκις ἡ γραφὴ πρὸς ἐναργῆ κατανόησιν τοῦ δηλουμένου πράγματος σωματικώτερον διασκευάζει τὴν τῶν νοητῶν θεωρίαν, οἷον δὴ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα ἐστὶν ὅπερ δοκεῖ μοι ὁ ∆αβὶδ ἀποφαίνεσθαι, τοῦτο δι' ὧν εἶπε διδάσκων· οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων ἔκ τινος αὐτομάτου συντυχίας τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει, καθάπερ ᾠήθησάν τινες τυχαίας τε καὶ ἀλόγους τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων ἀντεμπλοκὰς τὸν κόσμον ἡμῖν ὅλον καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ κατεργάσασθαι, οὐδεμιᾶς προνοίας διὰ τῶν ὄντων ἡκούσης, ἀλλ' ἔστι τι τῆς τοῦ παντὸς συστάσεως καὶ διοικήσεως αἴτιον, οὗ πᾶσα ἡ τῶν νοητῶν ἐξῆπται φύσις, κἀκεῖθεν τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς αἰτίας ἔχει καὶ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο 2.1.223 νένευκέ τε καὶ ἐπιστρέφεται καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ διαμένει. καὶ ἐπειδή, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἡ ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου κτίσεως νοουμένη καθο ρᾶται, διὰ τοῦτο πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις καὶ πρό γε πάντων, καθώς φησιν ὁ λόγος, ἡ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς διακόσμησις διὰ τῆς ἐμφαινομένης τοῖς γεγονόσι τέχνης τὴν τοῦ πεποιηκότος σοφίαν ἐνδείκνυται. καὶ τοῦτό μοι δοκεῖ παραστῆσαι θέλων τὴν ἐκ τῶν φαινομένων μαρτυρίαν τοῦ σοφῶς καὶ ἐντέχνως τὰ ὄντα κατεσκευάσθαι καὶ εἰσαεὶ διαμένειν ἐν τῇ δυνάμει 2.1.224 τοῦ τὸ πᾶν οἰακίζοντος. αὐτούς φησι τοὺς οὐρανούς, δι' ὧν τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ πεποιηκότος δεικνύουσιν, μονονουχὶ φωνὴν ἀφιέντας βοᾶν καὶ διακηρύσσειν τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὴν σοφίαν δίχα φωνῆς. ἔξεστι γὰρ οἱονεὶ λόγῳ ταῦτα διδασκόντων ἀκούειν ὅτι πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁρῶντες, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν κάλλος καὶ μέγεθος καὶ τὴν ἀεικίνητον ταύτην περιφορὰν καὶ τὴν εὔτακτόν τε καὶ ἐναρμόνιον καὶ ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν κίνησιν ἐννοήσατε τὸν ἐπιστατοῦντα τῆς ἡμετέρας συστάσεως καὶ διὰ τοῦ φαινομένου κάλλους τὸ