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possession of many things and righteousness. I walk in the way of righteousness, and I move about in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may apportion substance to those who love me, and fill their treasuries with good things. If I declare to you the things that happen daily, I will remember to recount the things from eternity. The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works, before the age he established me in the beginning, before he made the earth and before he made the deeps, before the springs of the waters came forth, and before the mountains were established, and before all the hills he begets me,” and the rest, that is, some who wish to contradict the saying use a counter-objection, those on the opposite side, by means of the name of wisdom and the sequence of the passage that says “the Lord created me,” along with the saying “I, wisdom, have dwelt with counsel”; because “Behold,” he says, “wisdom, having named herself from the beginning and proceeding in sequence, indicates herself, saying: The Lord created me. For behold, above it says: I, wisdom, and below it says: If I declare to you the things that happen daily, I will remember to recount the things from eternity. And what does it say? The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways?” 3.171 21. But we have said that there are many so-called wisdoms given by God from time to time in an improper sense, because God accomplishes all things in wisdom. But there is one true wisdom of the Father, the hypostatic God, the Word. For the word itself does not at all compel me to speak of the Son of God; for Scripture has not declared it, nor has any of the apostles mentioned it, nor has the gospel. But if indeed this were taken to be about the Son of God, the saying is not the same, nor is it set down for straightforward judgment. For the whole book is proverbs. And everything spoken as a proverb is not the same in its force, but is related in one saying, and allegorized in another meaning. If then it says this and some dare to apply this to the Son of God,—may it not be; this saying is not applied to his divinity. But if it can be fulfilled in his incarnate presence—for indeed "Wisdom has built her house"—and if indeed it might be piously said from the person of his incarnation, that his incarnate presence declares concerning his divinity that "The Lord created me," that is, he built me in the womb of Mary, "as the beginning of his ways for his works." For the beginning of the ways of Christ's descent into the world is the body taken from Mary in his work of righteousness and salvation, but he will surely jump forward, the one whose heart has been injured and who has been struck with this terrible blow, having enmity in his mind concerning the Son of God, “because,” he says, “it said: ‘'If I declare to you the things that happen daily, I will remember to recount the things from eternity'’, and you see that it speaks of things from eternity, but the incarnate presence of God came after sixty-two generations according to Matthew; how then can the things from the beginning of eternity be said of this one?” 22. And those who have been deceived from the whole way of truth do not know, that always the divine Scripture, all things that it wishes to teach, if it begins to narrate, does not immediately set upon the archaic and, so to speak, the main point, but begins from the nearest things, in order to signify the future and final thing. For this reason it also said, “If I declare to you the things that happen daily,” and from these “I will remember also the things from eternity”; just as God also signified to Moses first the burning fire, and the vision in the fire of the bush happened recently; and an angel spoke to him immediately, and afterwards the 3.172 Lord from the bush. But he for his part immediately does not ask about the things being seen, but asks about the things from the beginning; “For come,” he says, “I will send you to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, that the God of our fathers has sent me. The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob,” naming those around Abraham five or six generations before Moses, and when he said “God of the fathers,” he declared what was ancient; but Moses, graced with understanding from God, did not ask these things, but also the

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κτῆσις πολλῶν καὶ δικαιοσύνη. ἐν ὁδῷ δικαιοσύνης περιπατῶ, καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον ὁδῶν δικαιώματος ἀναστρέφομαι, ἵνα μερίσω τοῖς ἀγαπῶσί με ὕπαρξιν, καὶ τοὺς θησαυροὺς αὐτῶν ἐμπλήσω ἀγαθῶν. ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, μνημονεύσω τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀριθμῆσαι. κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ, πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐθεμελίωσέ με ἐν ἀρχῇ, πρὸ τοῦ τὴν γῆν ποιῆσαι καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὰς ἀβύσσους ποιῆσαι, πρὸ τοῦ προελθεῖν πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ὄρη ἑδρασθῆναι, πρὸ δὲ πάντων βουνῶν γεννᾷ με,» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, δηλονότι βουλομένων τινῶν ἀντιλέγειν τῇ λέξει ἀνθυποφορᾷ χρῶνται οἱ δι' ἐναντίας διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τῆς σοφίας καὶ τῆς ἀκολουθίας τοῦ λόγου τοῦ λέγοντος «κύριος ἔκτισε με», σὺν τῷ εἰπεῖν «ἐγὼ ἡ σοφία κατεσκήνωσα βουλήν»· ὅτι «ἰδού, φησίν, ἡ σοφία ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἑαυτὴν ὀνομάσασα καὶ προβαίνουσα καθ' ἑξῆς ἑαυτὴν σημαίνει λέγουσα· κύριος ἔκτισέ με. ἰδοὺ γὰρ λέγει ἄνω· ἐγὼ ἡ σοφία, καὶ κάτω λέγει· ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, μνημονεύσω τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀριθμῆσαι. καὶ τί φησι· κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ;» 3.171 21. Ἔφημεν δὲ ὅτι πολλαί τινες αἱ καταχρηστικῶς λεγόμεναι κατὰ καιρὸν ἐκ θεοῦ δοθεῖσαι σοφίαι, ὅτι πάντα ὁ θεὸς ἐν σοφίᾳ ἐπιτελεῖ. μία δέ ἐστιν ἡ οὖσα σοφία τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ ἐνυπόστατος θεὸς λόγος. αὐτὸ γὰρ τὸ ῥῆμα οὐ πάντως ἀναγκάζει με περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ λέγειν· οὐ γὰρ γραφὴ ἐδήλωσεν οὐδέ τις τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐμνημόνευσεν, ἀλλ' οὔτε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον. εἰ δὲ ἄρα περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦτο ἐλαμβάνετο, οὐκ ἔστι ταὐτὸν τὸ ῥῆμα οὔτε πρὸς εὐθεῖαν κρίσιν κείμενον. ὅλη γὰρ ἡ βίβλος παροιμίαι εἰσί. πᾶν δὲ τὸ παροιμιαζόμενον οὐ ταὐτόν ἐστι τῇ δυνάμει, ἀλλὰ ἄλλῃ μὲν ῥήσει διηγεῖται, ἄλλῃ δὲ δυνάμει ἀλληγορεῖται. εἰ τοίνυν τοῦτο λέγει καὶ τολμῶσι τινὲς ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦτο φέρειν, -μὴ γένοιτο· ἐπὶ τῇ θεότητι αὐτοῦ τοῦτο οὐ φέρεται τὸ ῥῆμα. εἰ δὲ δύναται ἐν τῇ ἐνσάρκῳ αὐτοῦ πληροῦσθαι παρουσίᾳ ἐπειδὴ γὰρ αὐτὴ «ἡ σοφία ᾠκοδόμησεν ἑαυτῇ τὸν οἶκον» καὶ εἰ ἄρα ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς αὐτοῦ ἐνανθρωπήσεως εὐσεβῶς λεχθείη, ὡς ἡ ἔνσαρκος αὐτοῦ παρουσία περὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος φάσκει ὅτι «κύριος ἔκτισέ με» τουτέστιν ᾠκοδόμησέ με ἐν γαστρὶ Μαρίας «ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ» ἀρχὴ γὰρ ὁδῶν τῆς καθόδου Χριστοῦ εἰς τὸν κόσμον τὸ σῶμα τὸ ἐκ Μαρίας ληφθὲν ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ αὐτοῦ τῆς δικαιοσύνης καὶ σωτηρίας, ἀλλὰ πάντως προπηδήσειεν ὁ τὴν καρδίαν βεβλαμμένος καὶ τὴν δεινὴν ταύτην πληγὴν πεπληγμένος, περὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔχων τὴν ἔχθραν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ, «ὅτι, φησίν, εἶπεν· "3ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα, μνημονεύσω τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀριθμῆσαι"3, καὶ ὁρᾷς ὅτι ἐξ αἰῶνος λέγει, ἡ δὲ ἔνσαρκος θεοῦ παρουσία μετὰ ἑξήκοντα δύο γενεὰς κατὰ τὸν Ματθαῖον ἦλθε· πῶς οὖν δύναται τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς αἰῶνος τούτῳ λέγεσθαι;» 22. Καὶ οὐκ οἴδασιν οἱ τὴν πᾶσαν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀληθείας πεπλανημένοι, ὅτι ἀεὶ ἡ θεία γραφὴ πάντα ὅσα βούλεται διδάσκειν, εἰ ἄρχεται διηγεῖσθαι, οὐκ εὐθὺς εἰς τὸ ἀρχαΐζον καὶ ὡς εἰπεῖν εἰς τὸ κεφάλαιον ἐπιβάλλεται, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῶν ἐγγυτάτων ἄρχεται, ἵνα τὸ προὸν ἔσχατον σημάνῃ. διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ εἶπεν «ἐὰν ἀναγγείλω ὑμῖν τὰ καθ' ἡμέραν γινόμενα», ἀπὸ τούτων δὲ «μνημονεύσω καὶ τὰ ἐξ αἰῶνος»· ὡς καὶ τῷ Μωυσῇ ἐσήμανεν ὁ θεὸς πρῶτον τὸ πῦρ καιόμενον καὶ ἐν πυρὶ βάτου γέγονεν ἡ ὀπτασία τὸ ἔναγχος· ἄγγελος δὲ αὐτῷ λελάληκεν εὐθέως, μετέπειτα δὲ 3.172 κύριος ἀπὸ τῆς βάτου. ὁ δὲ πρὸς αὐτοῦ εὐθὺς οὐ τὰ ὁρώμενα ζητεῖ, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἐρωτᾷ· «δεῦρο γάρ, φησίν, ἀποστείλω σε πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἀπέσταλκέ με. ὁ θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰσαὰκ καὶ ὁ θεὸς Ἰακώβ», πρὸ γενεῶντοῦ Μωυσέως πέντε ἢ ἓξ ὀνομάσας τοὺς περὶ Ἀβραάμ, καὶ ἐπειδὴ εἶπεν «θεὸς τῶν πατέρων», τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἀπεφήνατο· ὁ δὲ Μωυσῆς συνέσει ἐκ θεοῦ κεχαριτωμένος ἠρώτα οὐ ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ