A Creature, but Not as One of the Creatures

Next, let us consider the passage in the Proverbs, “The Lord created me a beginning of his ways for his works.” Yet in showing that the Word is no work, we have also shown that he is no creature. For to say ‘work’ is the same as to say ‘creature,’ so that the proof that he is no work is also a proof that he is no creature. One may well marvel at these men, who keep devising excuses for impiety and are not at all daunted by the refutations that meet them at every point. For first they set about deceiving the simple with their questions: ‘Did he who is make from what was not one who was not, or one who was?’ and, ‘Did you have a son before you begot him?’ When this had been proved worthless, they next invented the question, ‘Is the Unoriginate one or two?’ Then, when they had been refuted in this, they at once formed another: ‘Does he have free will and a nature that can change?’ Forced to give this up, they next set about saying, ‘Having been made so much better than the angels.’ And when the truth exposed this pretense, now again, gathering them all together, they think to recommend their heresy by ‘work’ and ‘creature.’ For they mean those very same things over again, and stay true to their own perverseness, putting the same errors into various shapes and turning them this way and that, in the hope of deceiving some by that variety. Abundant proof has already been given above against this reckless device of theirs. Yet since they make every place ring with this passage from the Proverbs, and since to many who do not know the faith of Christians they seem to be saying something, it is necessary to examine ‘He created’ separately, as well as ‘Who was faithful to him who made him,’ so that in this text too, as in all the others, they may be shown to have got no further than a fantasy. [a]

First let us look at the answers they gave to Alexander of blessed memory at the outset, while their heresy was still taking shape. They wrote this: ‘He is a creature, but not as one of the creatures; a work, but not as one of the works; an offspring, but not as one of the offsprings.’ Let everyone consider the shamelessness and craft of this heresy. Knowing the bitterness of its own malice, it tries to dress itself up in fair words. It says what it really means, that he is a creature, yet thinks it can screen itself by adding, ‘but not as one of the creatures.’ But in writing this they rather convict themselves of impiety. For if, in your opinion, he is simply a creature, why add the pretense, ‘but not as one of the creatures’? And if he is simply a work, how is he ‘not as one of the works’? In this we may see the poison of the heresy. For by saying ‘an offspring, but not as one of the offsprings,’ they count many sons, and pronounce the Lord to be one of these. So according to them he is no longer the only Son, but one out of many brothers, and is called offspring and son. What use, then, is this pretense of saying that he is a creature and not a creature? For though you say, ‘Not as one of the creatures,’ I will prove this clever trick of yours to be foolish. For you still pronounce him to be one of the creatures; and whatever one might say of the other creatures, you hold the same of the Son, you who are truly “fools and blind.” For is any one of the creatures just what another is, that you should claim this for the Son as some special privilege? All the visible creation was made in six days. On the first he made the light, which he called day; on the second, the firmament; on the third, gathering the waters together, he laid bare the dry land and brought out the various fruits that are in it; on the fourth, he made the sun and the moon and all the host of the stars; on the fifth, he created the race of living things in the sea and of birds in the air; and on the sixth, he made the four-footed animals on the earth, and at last man. And “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Yet the light is not like the night, nor the sun like the moon, nor the animals without reason like man, who has reason, nor the angels like the Thrones, nor the Thrones like the Authorities. Still, they are all creatures; and each of the things made exists according to its kind and remains in its own substance, as it was made. [d]

Let the Word, then, be set apart from the works, and as Creator be given back to the Father, and be confessed to be Son by nature. Or, if he is simply a creature, let him be assigned the same condition as the rest have with one another, and let every one of them, as well as he, be said to be ‘a creature but not as one of the creatures, an offspring or a work, but not as one of the works or offsprings.’ For you say that an offspring is the same as a work, when you write ‘begotten or made.’ For though the Son surpasses the rest when compared with them, still he is a creature none the less, as they are; since among things that are creatures by nature one may find some surpassing others. Star, for instance, differs from star in glory, and all the rest have their differences from one another when compared. Yet it does not follow from all this that some are lords and others servants to the higher ones, nor that some are causes that make things while others come into being through them. All have a nature that comes into being and is created, and in their own selves they confess their Maker. As David says in the Psalms, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork”; and as Zerubbabel the wise says, “All the earth calls upon the Truth, and the heaven blesses it; all works shake and tremble at it.” But if the whole earth praises its Maker and the Truth, and blesses it and fears it, and its Maker is the Word, who says himself, “I am the Truth,” it follows that the Word is not a creature, but alone belongs to the Father as his own. In him all things are set in order, and he is celebrated by all as Maker; for “I was beside him, setting things in order,” and “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” And the words ‘until now’ show his eternal existence in the Father as the Word; for it belongs to the Word to work the Father’s works and not to be outside him. [h]

But if what the Father works the Son works also, and what the Son creates is the creation of the Father, and yet the Son is the Father’s work or creature, then one of two things follows. Either he will work himself and be his own creator (since what the Father works is the Son’s work also), which is absurd and impossible. Or else, since he creates and works the things of the Father, he himself is not a work or a creature. Otherwise, being himself a cause that makes things, he might cause in the things he causes the very thing that he himself has become; or rather, he might have no power to cause at all. For if, as you hold, he has come from nothing, how is he able to frame things that are nothing into being? Or if he, a creature, also frames a creature, the same will be conceivable of every creature, namely the power to frame others. And if this pleases you, what need is there of the Word, since lower things could be brought into being by higher ones? Or in any case, every thing brought into being could have heard God’s words in the beginning, ‘Become’ and ‘Be made,’ and so would have been framed. But this is not what is written, nor could it be. For none of the things brought into being is a cause that makes; all things were made through the Word, and he would not have made all things if he himself were counted among the creatures. For neither would the angels be able to frame anything, since they too are creatures, though Valentinus and Marcion and Basilides think so, and you are their copyists. Nor will the sun, being a creature, ever make what is not into what is; nor will man fashion man, nor stone devise stone, nor wood make wood grow. It is God who fashions man in the womb, and fixes the mountains, and makes wood grow. Man, being capable of knowledge, puts together and arranges that material, and works on things that already exist, as he has learned; and he is satisfied if they are just brought into being. And knowing what his nature is, if he needs anything, he knows to ask it of God. [l]

If, then, God also worked and put things together out of materials, this is indeed a pagan thought, by which God is a craftsman and not a Maker. Yet even in that case, let the Word work the materials, at God’s bidding and in his service. But if God calls into existence through his own Word things that did not exist, then the Word is not among the things that did not exist and were called; or else we have to look for another Word, through whom he too was called, for it is by the Word that the things that were not have come to be. And if God creates and makes through him, he is not himself among the things created and made. Rather, he is the Word of the Creator God, and is known from the Father’s works, which he himself works, to be ‘in the Father, and the Father in him,’ and ‘whoever has seen him has seen the Father,’ because the Son’s substance belongs to the Father as his own, and he is like him in every way. How, then, does God create through him, unless he is his Word and his Wisdom? And how can he be Word and Wisdom, unless he is the offspring that belongs to God’s own substance, and did not come to be out of nothing, as the others did? And if all things are from nothing and are creatures, and the Son, as they say, is also one of the creatures and of the things that once were not, how does he alone reveal the Father, and no one but he know the Father? For if he, a work, could know the Father, then the Father must also be known by all, according to the measure of each, for all of them are works as he is. But it is impossible for things originated either to see or to know him, for the sight and the knowledge of him are beyond all; God himself says, “No one shall see my face and live.” Yet the Son has declared, “No one knows the Father except the Son.” Therefore the Word is different from all things originated, in that he alone knows the Father and alone sees him, as he says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from the Father,” and “No one knows the Father except the Son,” though Arius thinks otherwise. How, then, did he alone know, unless he alone belonged to the Father as his own? And how his own, if he were a creature and not a true Son from him? (For one must not mind saying the same thing often, for religion’s sake.) Therefore it is impious to think that the Son is one among all things; and it is blasphemous and meaningless to call him ‘a creature, but not as one of the creatures, and a work, but not as one of the works, an offspring, but not as one of the offsprings.’ For how is he not one of these, if, as they say, he did not exist before he was begotten? For it is the mark of creatures and works not to exist before they come into being, and to come into existence out of nothing, even if they surpass other creatures in glory. For this difference of one from another, which appears among the visible creatures, will be found in all creatures. [m]

Moreover, if, as the heretics hold, the Son were a creature or a work, but not as one of the creatures because he surpasses them in glory, it would be natural for Scripture to describe and display him by comparing him favorably with the other works. It would say, for instance, that he is greater than archangels, and more honorable than the Thrones, and brighter than sun and moon, and greater than the heavens. But in fact he is not spoken of in this way. Rather, the Father shows him to be his own and only Son, saying, “You are my Son,” and, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Accordingly the angels ministered to him as one beyond themselves; and they worship him, not as one greater in glory, but as one beyond all the creatures and beyond themselves, and alone the Father’s own Son by substance. For if he were worshiped because he surpassed them in glory, each of the lower things ought to worship whatever surpasses itself. But this is not the case. For creature does not worship creature; servant worships Lord, and creature worships God. So Peter the apostle stops Cornelius when he would worship him, saying, “I myself also am a man.” And an angel, when John would worship him in the Apocalypse, stops him, saying, “See that you do not do it; for I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” Therefore worship belongs to God alone. The very angels know this: though they surpass other beings in glory, they are all creatures and are not to be worshiped, but they worship the Lord. So Manoah, the father of Samson, wishing to offer sacrifice to the angel, was stopped by him, who said, “Do not offer to me, but to God.” On the other hand, the Lord is worshiped even by the angels, for it is written, “Let all the angels of God worship him”; and by all the Gentiles, as Isaiah says, “The labor of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be your servants”; and then, “They shall fall down before you and make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is in you, and there is no other; there is no God.” And he accepts his disciples’ worship, and assures them who he is, saying, “Do you not call me Lord and Teacher? And you say well, for so I am.” And when Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God,” he lets his words stand, or rather accepts him instead of stopping him. For he is, as the other prophets declare, and as David says in the Psalm, ‘the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Sabaoth,’ which is translated ‘the Lord of armies,’ and God true and Almighty, though the Arians burst with rage at the news. [q]

But he would not have been worshiped in this way, nor spoken of in this way, if he were merely a creature. But now, since he is not a creature but the offspring belonging to the substance of that God who is worshiped, and his Son by nature, he is therefore worshiped and believed to be God, and is Lord of armies, and has authority, and is Almighty, as the Father is. For he has said himself, “All things that the Father has are mine.” For it belongs to the Son to have the things of the Father, and to be such that the Father is seen in him, and that through him all things were made, and that the salvation of all comes about and holds together in him. [w]