By Water & Blood

On the Principle and the Father

On the first principle and the Father.

Both the Old and the New Scripture teach that there is one first principle of all things: the God of all and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—unbegotten, imperishable, eternal, infinite, unbounded, unlimited, incomposite, incorporeal, invisible, simple, good, just, intellectual light, a power known by no measure, but measured only by the divine will. For whatever he wills, he is able to do; and the Prophet taught us this clearly: “For all that the Lord willed, he did.”

And of what has been said, divine Scripture is the teacher. For we hear God saying at the beginning of the legislation: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods besides me.” And again: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.” And in harmony with these he also teaches through Isaiah the prophet: “For I,” he says, “am God, the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there is no God. Before me there is no other God, and after me there shall be none, and besides me there is none.” And again: “I am God, and after me there shall be none.” And again: “I am God, and there is no other besides me; a just Savior there is none apart from me.”

And through these he clearly refutes the nonsense of Valentinus and Marcus and Basilides and Marcion. For he says that there is no other God either before him or after him, but that the same one is both first and last.

And the divine teaching of the sacred Gospels agrees with these. For our Savior and Lord, fulfilling all righteousness on our behalf (for he himself said to John: “Permit it now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”), accepted, inasmuch as he was a human being, even the need of prayer, and announced that he would teach the Father to the apostles; and in the form of a prayer he offered to the disciples the teaching of theology. “For this,” he says, “is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God.” And again: “I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.”

And the divine Apostle also speaks thus: “To the King of the ages, immortal, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” And again: “One God, one mediator of God and human beings, the human being Christ Jesus.” And again: “One God the Father, from whom are all things.”

And one can find a great many other passages of the Old and the New showing the harmony and proclaiming the one God.

That he is also invisible, both the Old and the New teach. For in the Old he says to Moses: “No one shall see my face and live”; and in the sacred Gospels the Lord said: “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.” This too the divine evangelist proclaims: “No one has ever seen God.” And he also shows whence he learned it; for he adds: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”

And the Apostle also proclaims: “To the immortal, only wise God be glory and honor forever and ever.” And again: “Whom no one among human beings has seen, nor is able to see.”

And his infinity and unboundedness we have likewise been taught from both the Old and the New. And in the Old God says: “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet; what house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?” And the most divine David proclaims that “in his hand are the ends of the earth.” And he has called “hand” the activity of his governing power; and he showed not that God himself is circumscribed in all things, but that all things depend on his providence.

And in another hymn he says to him: “Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; and if I go down into Hades, you are present. If I take my wings toward dawn and settle at the farthest parts of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, and your right hand will hold me.” And these things show the unboundedness both of his essence and of his power.

And the prophet Isaiah also proclaims: “He who holds the circle of the earth, and those who dwell in it as locusts.” And again, refuting the weakness of the idols, he offered us this teaching about the God of all: “Who,” he says, “measured the water with his hand, and heaven with a span? Who set the mountains in a balance, and the valleys in a scale? Who knew the mind of the Lord, and who became his counselor, to instruct him? Or who showed him judgment, or who showed him the way of understanding?” Then, as far as was possible for a human mind and a tongue of clay, he shows the infinity of the power. “For if,” he says, “all the nations are as a drop from a bucket, and as the turn of a scale, and were counted and will be counted as spittle, to whom will you liken the Lord, or with what likeness will you liken him?”

And if heaven and earth and the nature of the waters contain every created nature, and the measure of the divine hand is the measure of all these, let those who attempt to measure God with the tongue consider the infinity of that nature—understanding “hand” not as a part of a body, but as the activity that fashioned and governs all things.

These things, then, the Old Scripture teaches about the God of all; and one could find other things similar to what has been said, teaching the unboundedness of the divine essence and wisdom and power.

And in the sacred Gospels the Lord taught the Samaritan woman to think similar things. For when she supposed the Divine to be circumscribed by place, and for this reason said: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem one must worship,” the Lord trained her out of these opposing opinions and taught the unboundedness of the divine nature; for he said to her: “Truly I say to you, woman, that the hour is coming, and now is, when neither in Jerusalem nor in this place will they worship the Father.” And having thus taught that the divine worship is not circumscribed by certain places, he added: “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” And by the same means he showed both the incorporeality of the divine nature and that it is unlimited.

And that the God of all is also eternal, the blessed David teaches, saying now: “From age to age you are”; “God will hear, and he who exists before the ages will humble them.” And the prophet Isaiah also teaches, proclaiming: “The eternal God, who prepared the ends of the earth; he will not hunger, nor grow weary, nor is there a searching out of his understanding.” And the divine Apostle knows him also as maker of the ages. And the Lord says not only that the divine nature exists before creation, but also that the kingdom has been prepared for the saints before the foundation of the world.

These things we have been taught from both the Old and the New Scripture concerning the first principle of all things—not according to the fables of Valentinus and Basilides, with pairs and unions and emissions of male and female Aeons, nor according to the diverse and opposing first principles of Cerdo and Marcion and Manes, but one first principle, the same both good and just, as we shall show later.