Oration II Against the Arians 72–82

If the Word were a work, he too would certainly have come into being “in wisdom,” and Scripture would neither have distinguished him from the works, nor named them “works” while proclaiming him as “Word and God's own Wisdom.” But as it is, by distinguishing him from the works, Scripture shows that Wisdom is the creator of the works and not a work. Paul too uses this distinction, writing to the Hebrews: “For the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart; and no creature is hidden before him, but all are naked and laid bare to his eyes, to whom we must give account.” See, he named originated things “creature,” but knows the Son to be the Word of God, as being other than the creatures. And again, in saying, “but all are naked and laid bare to his eyes, to whom we must give account,” he signifies that he is other than all. For this is why he judges, while each of all originated things is answerable to give account to him. So too, when “the whole creation groans together with us to be set free from the bondage of corruption,” the Son is shown to be other than the creatures. For if he were a creature, he too would be one of those who groan, and would need one to make him a son and set him free along with all. But if the whole creation groans together for the sake of freedom from the bondage of corruption, while the Son is not one of those who groan, nor of those who need freedom, but is himself the one who makes all things sons and sets them free, saying to the Jews of that time, “The slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” then it is shown from these words too, more brightly than light, that the Word of God is not a creature but the true Son of the Father, genuine by nature. About “The Lord created me a beginning of ways,” then, though in few words, these things are sufficient, as I think, to give the more learned occasion to construct more arguments for the overthrow of the Arian heresy. But since the heretics, reading the next verse too and thinking wrongly about it, suppose, because it is written, “Before the age he founded me,” that these words too are said of the Godhead of the Word and not of his presence in the flesh, it is necessary to explain this verse as well and show their error.

It is written, “God by Wisdom founded the earth.” If, then, the earth has been founded by Wisdom, how is the one who founds it himself founded? But this too is said in proverbial fashion, and we must seek its sense too, so that we may know that by Wisdom the Father creates and founds the earth, so that it may be firm and endure, while Wisdom herself was founded for us, so that she might become the beginning and foundation of our new creation and renewal. At any rate, not even here did he say, “Before the age he made me Word or Son,” lest he should seem to have a beginning of being made. For this above all must be asked, whether he is Son, and the Scriptures must be searched first of all about this. For this is what Peter answered when the apostles were asked, saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”; and this is what the father of the Arian heresy asked among the first things: “If you are the Son of God”; for he knew that this is the truth and the sovereign point of our faith; and that, if he is the Son, the devil's tyranny will have an end; but if he is a creature, he too is one of those descended from Adam, whom the devil had deceived, and he need have no concern about him. That is why the Jews of that time too were indignant, because the Lord said that he was Son of God and that God was “his own Father.” For if he had said that he was one of the creatures, or “I am a work,” they would not have been startled on hearing it, nor would they have thought such words blasphemy, knowing that angels too had come to the fathers; but since he called himself Son, they perceived that such a mark belongs not to a creature but to Godhead and the Father's nature.

The Arians, then, even while imitating their father the devil, ought to have examined the matter: if he had said, “He founded me as Word or Son,” they might think as they do; but if he did not say so, they should not invent for themselves things that are not. For he did not say, “Before the age he founded me as Word or Son,” but simply, “He founded me,” so as to show again, as I said, that he says this too in proverbial fashion, not for his own sake but for the sake of those who are built upon him. Knowing this, the apostle too writes, “For no one can lay another foundation than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But let each one take care how he builds upon it.” And the foundation must be of the same kind as what is built upon it, so that it can be fitted together with it. As Word, then, insofar as he is Word, he has none like himself to be fitted together with him; for he is only-begotten; but having become man, he has those who are like him, whose like flesh he also put on. So it is according to his humanity that he “is founded,” so that we too may be built upon him as “precious stones,” and become “a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” And as he is the foundation, and we the stones built upon him, so again he is the “vine,” and we are joined to him as branches, not according to the substance of the Godhead (for that is impossible), but again according to his humanity; for the branches must be like the vine, since we too are like him according to the flesh. Besides, since the heretics think in human terms, it is fitting to refute them with human examples, in their own terms. He did not say, then, “He made me a foundation,” lest, as though he were a thing made with a beginning of coming to be, they should find even in this a shameless pretext for impiety; but “He founded me.” What is founded is founded for the sake of the stones laid upon it; and it does not become so simply, but when a stone is moved from a mountain and set down in the depth of the earth. As long as the stone is in the mountain, it has not yet been founded; but when need requires, and it is moved and the depth of the earth surrounds it, then, if the stone could speak, it would say, “Now he has founded me, he who moved me here from the mountain.” So the Lord too did not begin to be when he was founded (for he was Word even before this); but when he put on our body, which he took, cut from Mary, then he says, “He founded me,” which is equal to saying, “He clothed me, who am Word, with an earthly body.” For so he is founded for our sake, taking on what is ours, so that we, being fitted together as one body and bound together in him through the likeness of the flesh, may attain “to a perfect man” and abide immortal and incorruptible.

And let no one be troubled by “before the age,” and “before he made the earth,” and “before the mountains were settled”; for this too he joined very well to “he founded” and “he created,” since this again concerns the economy in the flesh. For the “grace” that has come to us from the Saviour has only now “appeared,” as the apostle said, and came about when he came to dwell among us; but it had been prepared even before we came into being, or rather even before the foundation of the world; and the reason is kind and wonderful. It was not fitting for God to deliberate about us afterwards, lest he should appear ignorant of what concerns us. The God of all, then, creating us through his own Word, and knowing our affairs better than we do, and foreknowing that, having been made “good,” we would afterwards become transgressors of the commandment and be cast out of paradise for disobedience, being loving toward humankind and good, prepares beforehand in his own Word, through whom he also created us, the economy for our salvation, so that, even if we fell, deceived by the serpent, we should not remain utterly dead, but, having in the Word the redemption and salvation prepared for us beforehand, might rise again and abide immortal, when he for our sake should be “created a beginning of the ways,” and the “firstborn of creation” should become “firstborn of brothers,” and himself rise as “firstfruits of the dead.” Paul the blessed apostle teaches this in his writing; for, interpreting “before the age” and “before the earth came to be” in the Proverbs, he says to Timothy: “Share in suffering for the gospel, according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before eternal times, but has now been manifested through the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life to light.” And to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.”

How, then, did he choose us before we came into being, unless, as he himself has said, we were prefigured in him? And how at all, before human beings were created, did he “predestine us for adoption,” unless the Son himself had been founded before the age, having undertaken the economy on our behalf? Or how, as the apostle goes on to say, “were we given an inheritance, having been predestined,” unless the Lord himself had been founded before the age, so that he had the purpose, on our behalf, to take upon himself through the flesh the whole sentence of judgment that lay against us, and thereafter we might be made sons in him? And how did we receive grace “before eternal times,” when we had not yet come into being but came into being in time, unless the grace that reaches us had been laid up in Christ? That is why at the judgment too, when each receives “according to his deeds,” he says, “Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” How then, or in whom, was it prepared before we came into being, unless in the Lord, who was founded for this before the age, so that we, as built upon him, might partake, as well-fitted stones, of the life and grace that come from him? And this has happened, as one may piously understand in some measure, so that, as I said before, rising from our brief death, we might be able to live eternally; which we could not have done, being men from the earth, had not the hope of life and salvation been prepared for us in Christ before the age. So, fittingly, the Word, entering our flesh and in it “created a beginning of ways for his works,” is founded in this way, as the Father's will was in him, as has been said, “before the age,” and “before the earth came to be,” and “before the mountains were settled,” and “before the springs came forth”; so that even if “the earth,” and the mountains, and the forms of visible things “pass away” at the consummation of the present age, we should not “grow old” with them, but might be able to live even after them, having the life and spiritual blessing prepared for us before them in the Word himself, according to election. For so we shall be able to have not a temporary life, but to abide living afterwards in Christ, since even before these things our life had been founded and prepared in Christ Jesus.

For it was not fitting that our life should be founded in any other than the Lord, who is before the ages, “through whom” the ages too came into being, so that, since it is in him, we too might be able to inherit eternal life. For God is good; and being always good, he willed this, knowing that our weak nature needs help and salvation from him. And as a wise architect, intending to build a house, plans at the same time that if it should ever be ruined after it is built he may renew it, and planning this makes preparation beforehand, and gives the builder the provision for renewal, so that the preparation for renewal comes about before the house; in the same way, before us, the renewal of our salvation is founded in Christ, so that in him we might also be re-created. The counsel and the purpose were prepared before the age; but the work came about when need required it and the Saviour came. For the Lord himself will be all things to us in the heavens, receiving us into eternal life. These things, then, would suffice to prove that the Word of God is not a creature, and that the sense of the saying is correct. But since the saying, when searched, has a correct sense from every side, it follows that this sense too should be stated; perhaps the senseless may be put to shame by many arguments. And there is need again of what was said before; for the matter at hand concerns the same proverb and the same Wisdom. The Word did not say that he is by nature a creature, but said in proverbs, “The Lord created me”; and it is clear that he signifies a certain sense, not plainly but hidden, which we too can find if we “remove the veil” of the proverb. For who, hearing the creating Wisdom say, “The Lord created me a beginning of his ways,” does not at once seek the meaning, reasoning how the one who creates can be created? Who, hearing the only-begotten Son of God say that he is created “a beginning of ways,” does not search out the sense, wondering how the only-begotten Son can become the beginning of many others? It is a riddle; but “the man of understanding,” it says, “will understand a parable and a dark word, the sayings of the wise and their riddles.”

The only-begotten, very Wisdom of God is the creator and craftsman of all things; for “You made all things in wisdom,” it says, and “the earth was filled with your creation.” But so that the things that came into being might not only exist but exist well, God was pleased that his own Wisdom should come down to the creatures, so as to set a certain impress and semblance of its image in all in common and in each, so that the things made might be shown to be wise and works worthy of God. For as our word is an image of the Son of God, who is Word, so again the wisdom that has come to be in us is an image of him, who is Wisdom; having in it the power to know and understand, we become capable of receiving the creating Wisdom, and through it we can know its Father. For “he who has the Son,” it says, “has the Father too”; and “he who receives me receives him who sent me.” Since, then, such an impress of Wisdom has been created in us and is in all the works, fittingly the true and creating Wisdom, taking to itself what belongs to its own impress, says, “The Lord created me for his works.” For what the wisdom in us says, the Lord himself says as his own; and he is not himself created, being creator, but because of his image created in the works he says these things as of himself. And as the Lord himself said, “He who receives you receives me,” because his impress is in us, so, though he is not among the things created, yet because his image and impress is created in the works, he says, as though it were himself, “The Lord created me a beginning of his ways for his works.” And the impress of Wisdom has come to be in the works for this reason: that, as I said before, the world might in it know its own creating Word, and through him the Father. And this is what Paul said: “For what can be known of God is plain to them, for God has shown it to them; for his invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” So the Word is not a creature in substance; the saying in the Proverbs concerns the wisdom that is in us and is so called.

And if they disbelieve even these things, let them tell us themselves whether there is any wisdom in the creatures or not. If there is not, how does the apostle complain, saying, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God”? Or how, if there is no wisdom, is “a multitude of wise men” found in Scripture? And, “A wise man fears and turns away from evil,” and “By wisdom a house is built.” And Ecclesiastes says, “A man's wisdom will light up his face,” and rebukes the rash, saying, “Do not say, What has happened, that the former days were better than these? For you have not inquired wisely about this.” But if there is, as the son of Sirach too says—“He poured her out upon all his works, with all flesh according to his gift, and supplied her to those who love him”—and such a pouring out is a mark not of the substance of the very, only-begotten Wisdom, but of the wisdom imaged in the world, what is incredible if the creating and true Wisdom itself, of which the wisdom and knowledge poured out in the world is an impress, speaks, as I said before, as though about itself, saying, “The Lord created me for his works”? For the wisdom in the world is not the one that creates, but the one that is created in the works, according to which “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.” And human beings, if they bear this wisdom in themselves, will recognize the true Wisdom of God, and will know that they have truly been made in the image of God. It is as if a king's son, when his father wished to build a city, had his own name inscribed on each of the works as they were made, both for the security of the works, so that they might endure because of the representation of his name on each, and so that from the name people might be able to remember him and his father; and having finished, if he were asked about the city, how it had been made, he would say, “It has been made secure; for according to my father's will I was imaged in each work; for my name was created in the works.” And in saying this he signifies not that his own substance was created, but his impress, through his name. In the same way, by the likeness of the example, the true Wisdom answers those who marvel at the wisdom in the creatures: “The Lord created me for works; for the impress in them is mine; and so I came down to the work of creation.”

Again, one must not be startled that the Son speaks of the impress that is in us as though of himself, since (for one must not shrink from saying the same thing) when Saul was persecuting the church, in which was his impress and image, he spoke as if he himself were persecuted: “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” So, as has been said, if the impress of Wisdom that is in the works had itself said, “The Lord created me for works,” no one would have been startled; so too, if the true and creating Wisdom itself, the only-begotten Word of God, speaks what belongs to his image as though of himself, “The Lord created me for works,” let no one pass over the wisdom created in the world and in the works and think that “he created” is said of the substance of very Wisdom, lest, “mixing the wine with water,” he be seen to steal the truth. For she is the one who creates and crafts; but her impress is created in the works, as the “according to the image” is created from the image. And he says “beginning of ways” because such wisdom becomes a sort of beginning and, as it were, a first lesson in the knowledge of God. For one who has first set foot, as it were, on this way, and keeps it in the fear of God (as Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”), then ascending in thought and perceiving the creating Wisdom in creation, will perceive in her also her Father, as the Lord himself said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” and as John writes, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also.” And he says, “Before the age he founded me,” because in her impress the works remain firm and endure for ever. Then, lest anyone, hearing of the wisdom thus created in the works, should think the true Wisdom, the Son of God, to be by nature a creature, he necessarily added, “before the mountains,” and “before the earth,” and “before the waters,” and “before all the hills he begets me,” so that by saying “before all creation” (for in these he indicated the whole of creation) he might show that he was not created in substance together with the works. For if he was created “for the works,” but is before the works, it is clear that he exists even before he was created. So he is not a creature in nature and substance, but, as he himself added, he is offspring. And how a creature differs from an offspring, and how they are distinct in nature, has been shown earlier.

And since she goes on to say, “When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him,” one must know that she says this not as though the Father prepared the heaven or the clouds above without her (for there is no doubt that all things were created in Wisdom, and “without her not one thing came into being”); but this is what she says: “All things came into being in me and through me; but since there was need for wisdom to be created in the works, in substance I was with the Father, but by my condescension to originated things I was harmonizing my impress to the works, so that the whole world, as one body, might not be at strife but in concord with itself.” All who, with right understanding, according to the wisdom given them, become contemplators of the creatures can themselves say, “By your ordinance all things continue”; but those who have neglected this will hear, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools; for what can be known of God is plain to them, for God has shown it to them; for his invisible things from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse; because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God, but served the creature rather than him who created all things, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” And they will be put to shame on hearing, “For since, in the wisdom of God,” in the manner described above, “the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.” For no longer, as in earlier times, did God will to be known through an image and shadow of Wisdom, the one that is in the creatures; but he made the true Wisdom itself take flesh and become man and endure the death of the cross, so that through faith in him all who believe might thereafter be saved. It is, however, the same Wisdom of God who earlier, through her image in the creatures (because of which she is also said to be “created”), made herself manifest, and through herself her Father; and afterwards, being Word, she herself “became flesh,” as John said, and after “destroying death” and saving our race, revealed still more both himself and, through himself, his own Father, saying, “Grant them to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

The whole earth, at any rate, has been filled with the knowledge of him; for the knowledge of the Father through the Son and of the Son from the Father is one, and the Father rejoices in this; and in this joy the Son delights in the Father, saying, “I was the one in whom he delighted, and daily I rejoiced before his face.” And this again shows that the Son is not foreign but proper to the Father's substance. For see, he did not come into being for our sake, as the impious say, nor is he at all “from things that are not” (for God did not procure for himself from outside something to give him joy); rather, what is said is the mark of one who is proper and like. When, then, was there a time when the Father did not rejoice? And if he always rejoiced, there always was the one in whom he rejoiced. And in whom does the Father rejoice, if not in seeing himself in his own image, which is his Word? And if he also “rejoiced in the sons of men, having completed the world,” as is written in the Proverbs themselves, this too has the same sense. For he rejoiced in this way too not because joy was added to him, but again because he saw the works made after his own image; so that even this rejoicing of God has his image as its reason. And how does the Son delight, except in seeing himself in the Father? For this too is equal to saying, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” and “I am in the Father and the Father in me.” So your boast has been shown on every side to be empty, you Christ-fighters, and in vain have you paraded and trumpeted everywhere “The Lord created me a beginning of his ways,” misinterpreting its sense and proclaiming your own notion rather than the mind of Solomon. For see, your thinking has been shown to be mere fancy; but the saying in the Proverbs, and all that has been said before, show that the Son is not in nature and substance a creature, but the proper offspring of the Father, true Wisdom and Word, “through whom all things came into being, and without him not one thing came into being.”