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As, therefore, it is agreed by all right-thinking people that these things should be read with such a meaning rather than with the one that appears on the surface of the words, so it is likely, as a consequence, that the saying written immediately after these should not be accepted by right-thinking people simply and without examination. 3.1.33 If I declare to you, he says, the things that happen daily, I will remember to recount the things from eternity: the Lord created me. What will the slave of the letter, who like a Jew cleaves to the sound of the syllables, say to me in response to this saying? Does not the construction seem to produce a strangeness in the hearing of the more attentive: If I declare to you the things that happen daily, the Lord created me? As if, should he not declare the things that happen daily, he would consequently also altogether den 3.1.34 y being created. For he who said, If I declare, I was created, has given us to understand by what is left unsaid that I was not created, if I do not declare. The Lord created me, he says, the beginning of his ways for his works, before the age he founded me in the beginning, before he made the earth, before he made the depths, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, and before all hills he begets me. What is this strange order of this creature's construction? First it is created, and after this it is founded, and then it is begotten. The Lord made, he says, lands both uninhabited and the inhab 3.1.35 ited ends of the world under heaven. What lord does he call the maker of the uninhabited land and the inhabited world? Doubtless the one who also made wisdom; for both this and that saying come from the same person, both the one saying 'the Lord created me' and the one adding 'the Lord made lands both uninhabited'. Therefore, the Lord will be equally the creator of the two, both of the 3.1.36 wisdom itself and of the inhabited and uninhabited land. Where then is 'All things were made through the Son, and without him was not anything made that was made'? For if the same Lord both creates Wisdom, whom they advise us to understand as the Son, and all the individual things which creation contains, how does the sublime John speak truth, saying that all things were made through him? For this scripture speaks against the voice of the Gospel, by ascribing the making of the uninhabited and inhabited land to the one who created Wisdom. 3.1.37 So also are all the things that follow: it describes a certain throne of God being established upon the winds, and says that the clouds above become strong, and the springs under heaven secure, and the context contains many such things, requiring much meaning to be found in the preceding words through a subtle and discerning mind. What is the throne established upon the winds? What is the security of the springs under heaven? 3.1.38 How do the clouds above become strong? For if one should judge the saying by appearances, he will find a great conflict between the realities and what is said. For who does not know that the ends of the world under heaven are uninhabitable, either from being too close to the heat of the sun or from being exceedingly distant, because of the lack of measure in either case; the one becoming dry and excessively burnt, the other abounding in moisture and frozen by congelation, and only those parts are inhabited which are equ 3.1.39 ally removed from each of the opposite extremes? But if the middle of the earth is occupied by men, how does the proverb say that the ends of the world under heaven are inhabited? For what strength could be observed in the clouds, so that the saying might be true according to its surface meaning, which says that the clouds above have become strong? For the nature of the cloud is a kind of rarer vapor diffused through the air, which is borne up by the aerial wind, becoming light through its great fineness, but flowing together with itself from condensation it falls through the supporting wi 3.1.40 nd, becoming a heavy drop. What then is the strength in these things, in which there is no resistance to those who touch them? For the rarity and easy diffusion of the air can also be seen in the case of the cloud. And how, again, is the divine throne established upon the unstable nature of the winds? But to be created first and at the end to say to be begotten and between these th-

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Ὡς τοίνυν ταῦτα παρὰ πάντων ὁμολογεῖται τῶν εὖ φρονούντων μετὰ τοιαύτης διανοίας ἀναγινώσκεσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ μετὰ τῆς τοῖς ῥητοῖς ἐπιφαινομένης κατὰ τὸ πρόχειρον, οὕτως εἰκός ἐστι ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου προσεχῶς τούτοις τὴν φωνὴν ἐκείνην συγγεγραμμένην μὴ ἁπλῶς τε καὶ ἀνεξετάστως παρὰ τῶν εὖ φρονούντων παραδεχθῆναι. 3.1.33 Ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν, φησί, τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, μνη μονεύσω τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀπαριθμήσασθαι· κύριος ἔκτισέ με. τί μοι πρὸς ταύτην ἐρεῖ τὴν φωνὴν ὁ τῆς λέξεως δοῦλος, ὁ τῷ ἤχῳ τῶν συλλαβῶν Ἰουδαϊκῶς προσκαθήμενος; ἆρ' οὐ δοκεῖ ξενισμὸν ἐμποιεῖν τῇ ἀκοῇ τῶν ἐπιστατικωτέρων ἡ σύνταξις· Ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, κύριος ἔκτισέ με; ὡς ἐὰν μὴ ἀναγγείλῃ τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον καὶ τὸ ἐκτίσθαι πάντως ἀρ 3.1.34 νήσεται. ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν ὅτι ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω, ἐκτίσθην, δέδωκε νοεῖν κατὰ τὸ σιωπώμενον ὅτι οὐκ ἐκτίσθην, ἐὰν μὴ ἀναγ γείλω. Κύριος ἔκτισέ με, φησίν, ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ, πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐθεμελίωσέ με ἐν ἀρχῇ, πρὸ τοῦ τὴν γῆν ποιῆσαι, πρὸ τοῦ τὰς ἀβύσσους ποιῆσαι, πρὸ τοῦ προελθεῖν τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων, πρὸ τοῦ ὄρη ἑδρα σθῆναι, πρὸ δὲ πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾷ με. τίς ἡ καινὴ τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ κτίσματος τούτου τάξις; πρῶτον κτί ζεται, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο θεμελιοῦται, καὶ τότε γεννᾶται. Κύριος ἐποίησε, φησί, χώρας καὶ ἀοικήτους καὶ ἄκρα οἰκού 3.1.35 μενα τῆς ὑπ' οὐρανόν. ποῖον κύριον λέγει ποιητὴν χώρας ἀοικήτου καὶ οἰκουμένης; πάντως ὅτι τὸν καὶ τὴν σοφίαν ποιήσαντα· ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ αὐτοῦ προσώπου καὶ οὗτος κἀκεῖνος ὁ λόγος, ὅ τε τὸ ἔκτισέ με κύριος λέγων καὶ ὁ προστιθεὶς τὸ ἐποίησε κύριος χώρας καὶ ἀοικήτους. οὐκοῦν ἐπίσης τῶν δύο δημιουργὸς ἔσται ὁ κύριος, αὐτῆς τε τῆς 3.1.36 σοφίας καὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης τε καὶ ἀοικήτου χώρας. ποῦ τοίνυν τὸ Πάντα διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐγένετο καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν; εἰ γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς κύριος καὶ τὴν σοφίαν κτίζει, ἣν ἀντὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ νοεῖν συμβουλεύουσι, καὶ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ὅσα ἡ κτίσις ἔχει, πῶς ἀληθεύει ὁ ὑψηλὸς Ἰωάννης πάντα λέγων δι' αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι; ἀντιφθέγγεται γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη πρὸς τὴν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου φωνὴν, τῷ τὴν σοφίαν κτίσαντι τῆς ἀοικήτου τε καὶ οἰκουμένης χώρας ἀνατιθεῖσα τὴν ποίησιν. 3.1.37 Οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐφεξῆς πάντα· θρόνον θεοῦ τινα δι εξέρχεται ἐπ' ἀνέμων ἀφοριζόμενον καὶ ἰσχυρὰ γίνεσθαι τὰ ἄνω νέφη λέγει καὶ ἀσφαλεῖς τὰς ὑπουρανίους πηγὰς καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα περιέχει ἡ σύμφρασις, πολλὴν ἐπιζητοῦντα τὴν διὰ λεπτῆς τινος καὶ διορατικῆς φρενὸς εὑρισκομένην ἐν τοῖς προκειμένοις διάνοιαν. τίς ὁ ἐπ' ἀνέμων ἀφοριζό μενος θρόνος; τίς ἡ ἀσφάλεια τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν πηγῶν; 3.1.38 πῶς ἰσχυρὰ γίνεται τὰ ἄνω νέφη; εἰ γάρ τις πρὸς τὰ φαινόμενα κρίνοι τὸν λόγον, πολλὴν εὑρήσει μάχην τῶν πραγμάτων πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα. τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδεν ὅτι τὰ ἄκρα τῆς ὑπ' οὐρανὸν ἢ τῷ λίαν καθομιλεῖν τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου θερμότητι ἢ τῷ καθ' ὑπερβολὴν ἀφεστάναι διὰ τὴν καθ' ἑκάτερον ἀμετρίαν ἐστὶν ἀοίκητα, τὰ μὲν ξηρά τε καὶ διακαῆ πέρα τοῦ μετρίου γινόμενα, τὰ δὲ τῷ ὑγρῷ πλεο νάζοντα καὶ κατεψυγμένα διὰ τῆς πήξεως, οἰκεῖται δὲ μόνα ὅσα τῆς καθ' ἑκάτερον τῶν ἐναντίων ἀκρότητος ἐπί 3.1.39 σης ἀπῴκισται; εἰ δὲ τὸ μέσον τῆς γῆς ὑπὸ τῶν ἀν θρώπων διείληπται, πῶς τὰ ἄκρα τῆς ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν οἰκεῖσθαι ἡ παροιμία λέγει; τίς γὰρ ἰσχὺς ἐνθεωρηθείη τοῖς νέφεσιν, ὡς ἀληθεύειν τὸν λόγον κατὰ τὴν πρόχειρον ἔννοιαν, ὅς φησιν ἰσχυρὰ γεγενῆσθαι τὰ ἄνω νέφη; μανό τερος γάρ τίς ἐστιν ἀτμὸς ἡ τοῦ νέφους φύσις κατὰ τὸν ἀέρα διαχεόμενος, ὃς ἐποχεῖται μὲν τῷ ἐναερίῳ πνεύματι διὰ πολλὴν λεπτότητα κοῦφος γινόμενος, συρρυεὶς δὲ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐκ τῆς συμπιλήσεως διεκπίπτει τοῦ ἀνέχοντος πνεύ 3.1.40 ματος, σταγὼν βαρεῖα γινόμενος. τίς οὖν ἐστιν ἐν τούτοις ἡ ἰσχύς, ἐν οἷς οὐδεμία τοῖς ἁπτομένοις ἀντίληψις γίνεται; τὸ γὰρ μανὸν τοῦ ἀέρος καὶ εὐδιάχυτον καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ νέ φους ἔστιν ἰδεῖν. πῶς δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀστάτῳ τῶν ἀνέμων φύσει ὁ θεῖος ἀφορίζεται θρόνος; τὸ δὲ πρῶτον κτίζεσθαι καὶ ἐπὶ τέλει λέγειν γεννᾶσθαι καὶ διὰ μέσου τούτων θε