By Water & Blood

On creation

On creation.

We must show before all else that the creator of creation is not the one shaped, according to Valentinus’s fable, from the passion of Achamoth, and born after thirty-five emissions of Aeons from conversion and passion; nor certain angels, according to Basilides and Cerinthus and the others, of whom they say Ialdabaoth rules; nor do we say, according to the abominable Marcion, that there is some other maker besides the good one; but we both have been taught and teach that the God of all, together with the only-begotten Word and the all-holy Spirit, created all things.

“For by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their powers.” And elsewhere, having mentioned the visible and invisible creation and having urged that the maker be hymned, he added: “For he spoke and they came to be; he commanded and they were created.” And again: “He who stretches out the heaven like a curtain, who roofs his upper chambers in the waters.” And a little later: “He who founds the earth upon its security.” “To him who made the heavens in understanding, who made firm the earth upon the waters.”

And before this the great Moses teaches us more securely that he himself made heaven and earth together with the other elements; that he himself created the nature of light and adorned it—heaven with the luminaries, and the earth with groves and meadows and crops—and himself brought forth the kinds of living creatures, and gave to the winged ones the air as their dwelling, and assigned to those that swim the watery substance, and to cattle and wild beasts the earth; and how, above all, he fashioned the nature of human beings.

And all the prophets teach us in harmony; and Isaiah proclaims: “He who made the heaven and fixed it, who made firm the earth and the things in it, who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who tread it.” And again: “He who set the heaven like a vault, and stretched it out like a tent.” And God himself says through him: “I alone stretched out the heaven.” And the blessed Jeremiah spoke thus: “This is the God who showed forth the earth; he filled it with cattle and four-footed creatures. He who sends the light and it goes, called it and it obeyed him with trembling.”

But I have no need of prophetic voices. For before the law and the prophets, nature itself taught these things to human beings. And that ancient Melchizedek spoke thus when blessing Abraham: “Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, who created heaven and earth.” And the patriarch himself said the same things to those from Sodom: “I will stretch out my hand to God Most High, who created heaven and earth.” And again, when sending his servant for the betrothal of the bride, Abraham said: “Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth.” And the noble Job too, who excelled in virtue before the giving of the law, knows the true God as Creator. For “He who alone stretched out the heaven,” he says, “who walks upon the sea as upon ground.” And the judge of the contest himself teaches the victorious athlete many things about creation.

But lest we give those who do not accept the Old Scripture a pretext to contradict what has been said, let us cross over to the New and show that it speaks in harmony; for thus it will appear that both these streams and those have one source.

Let us hear, then, the divine John saying that all things came to be through the Word, and that of the things contemplated or conceived in creation nothing came to be apart from him. For “Without him,” he says, “not even one thing came to be.” And let us hear also the divine Paul proclaiming that “In him all things were created, whether visible or invisible.” And again: that “Through him the Father made the ages.” And when speaking publicly on the Areopagus he spoke thus: “The God who made the world and all things in it, this one, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though needing anything, himself giving to all life and breath in every way. And he made from one blood every nation of human beings to dwell upon the whole face of the earth.” And in Lystra he said these things to those who wished to sacrifice: “We also are human beings of like passions with you, proclaiming good news to you, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them.” And what follows also holds the same sense.

But it is superfluous to prolong the matter on this point and to bring forward many testimonies from divine Scripture, and from those among the Greeks who excelled in philosophy and said that God is Creator. For Socrates son of Sophroniscus, and Plato son of Ariston, and their successors, and indeed very many others, have held this opinion—yet they also said that God took the starting points of creation from preexisting matter.

Come, then, let us show in this chapter too the nobility of the ecclesiastical doctrines.