Six Homilies on the Creation 4.9–5.4

Yesterday it was shown how the lifting up of hands must be done with confidence in godliness. Let the one who gives to the poor say, “The lifting up of my hands.” Let the one who raises the fallen say, “The lifting up of my hands.” Let us examine the opening of the psalm, since we must surely know what we sing. Why do we say, “Let my prayer be directed as incense before you”? For all incense goes straight up; and God does not take delight in the fragrance of perfumes. What, then, is “Let my prayer be directed”? The article is missing, so that what is said means: “Let my prayer be directed as the incense before you.” What incense? There were two altars in the tabernacle: one in the court outside, in the open air, and the other in the holy place, under a roof. The inner altar was for incense only, not for the pouring of blood; the outer altar was for the sacrificed animals, the offering of loaves, and certain other things. And the outer altar God commands Moses to make of […]; the inner one, in the tabernacle, of turned gold. What the grace of God hints at through these things we must inquire. […] two peoples serving the glory of God, the one uneducated, the other educated. The one who makes solecisms or barbarisms in his speech has his words like unhewn stones; yet they are brought forward to the altar. Again, the precious one is called turned gold; and neither is this one exalted nor is that one cast out. For there is God's altar there, and God's altar here. The incense was made of four […], frankincense. Since, then, perfume is compounded of different ingredients, and virtue too is made of different things, he says, “Let my prayer be directed as the incense before you”: like that incense compounded of many things and brought to one fragrance. Since a person comes in to pray having fasting, almsgiving, and faith, “let the fourfold virtue,” he says, “be likened to that incense that is directed before you.” So too blessed David elsewhere: “Behold, what is so good or so pleasant as brothers dwelling together? Like perfume on the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron.” He likens love to the priestly perfume, prayer to incense. […] Do you have self-control? You are a brother of the priest. I do not have the priesthood, let us say; I have self-control. My self-control is sister to your priesthood. How so? For the one who performs the sacred rites must be pure, and I who worship must be pure. If I have self-control, I receive a priesthood. How so? David, fleeing Saul, came to Abiathar the high priest and says to him: “Give me loaves, since I was sent suddenly by the king and have no provisions.” The high priest, skilled in the laws, says: “They are not for another to eat, but for the priest.” Since he saw the need, but feared to betray the loaves of presentation, he seeks purity from those who were not priests, and says: “If the young men with you are clean from women, take them.” For he considered self-control a sister of the priesthood. And so that no one may take the giving of the loaves to those who were not priests as a reproach against the priest, hear how the Savior mentions it as well done. The Jews once accused the apostles because they were plucking ears of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating; the Savior says to them: “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and ate the loaves of presentation, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but only for the priests?” Do you see self-control as the sister of the priesthood? Do you see how God does not look at persons but tests the truth? Let us prepare ourselves, then, for doing good and for righteousness, so that the fast may take wings. For just as a bird that does not have the help of its wings cannot fly, so fasting too has two wings, prayer and almsgiving, without which it cannot run upward. See Cornelius, who had these wings along with fasting; that is why a voice came to him and he heard from heaven: “Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have gone up to God.” Suppose fasting is a living creature, beloved, and its wings are almsgiving and prayer, without which it cannot run upward. Such a person, even if he does not speak, cries out for justice with a great tongue. For virtue is a great advocate of righteousness. That is why he says: “[Hear,] Lord, [the cause] of my righteousness.” The first and greatest good, then, is prayer and almsgiving and right dealing; but what is secure and unshaken and the root of all is the knowledge of God, the worship of the Only-begotten, the confession of the Holy Spirit: one faith, undivided, secure, unsplit, unparted. What I am about to say has been said before, but I say it again. God, being wise, allowed the heresies to take the names of their doctrines from their own leaders, so that it might be clear that what they hold is not God's doctrine but a human invention: for example, Macedonians from Macedonius, Arians from Arius, Eunomians from Eunomius; and the other heresies likewise. But wishing to keep the faith of the apostles unwounded, he did not allow them to be named after a man. For even if they call us homoousiasts, they do not name a man; they proclaim the faith. That being called after men belongs not to believers but to heretics, Paul says, blaming the Corinthians: “I hear that there are divisions among you; for one says, I am of Paul, another, I of Apollos, another, I of Cephas.” Do you see that being called after men belongs to schisms? Was not Peter more trustworthy than Eunomius? He shuns the names of the apostles, yielding to the glory of Christ; and do you cut up the faith, the undivided kingdom, the unparted glory? But enough of this, for we have the lamp and the light: “For your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths.” Why a lamp […]. I urge your love to keep your fast undefiled, unstained by injustice, clean of greed. See the vanity of those who busy themselves with abstaining from foods and do not care about abstaining from sins. “I do not drink wine,” he says, “I do not eat oil, I do not eat meat.” Good, truly, for God's sake; these things too are good; but let us examine the matter. Bread, water, wine, meat, oil: all these are God's creations; but greed and injustice and impiety are the works of the devil. You withdraw from God's works because of fasting; do you not withdraw from the devil's works because of fasting? Bread and wine and oil and all the rest are God's works, all good, and very good. Paul says: “Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” If, then, it is blessed, if it is sanctified, why do we abstain? But injustices and acts of greed and such things are the works of the devil. You withdraw from God's works because of fasting, and from the devil's works are you not separated for the sake of godliness? And indeed, brothers, no judgment has been fixed against the one who does not fast, but against the one who does injustice he has threatened punishment. Do we flee what carries no liability, and not flee what is liable to judgment? Almsgiving is a good thing: in appearance it scatters, but in truth it gathers. For just as a farmer lends to the earth, from which he receives back his seeds, so almsgiving seems to be given to others, but in truth it is stored up for the giver. “He scattered,” says David, “he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” So let us fast, so let us worship, so let us […], glorifying the Father, hymning the Son, worshiping the Holy Spirit; for to him be glory to the ages. Amen.

Many and great are the gifts given to men by God, who loves mankind; but the first and greatest of all his gifts is the teaching of the Scriptures. For sun and moon and the whole chorus of stars, and rivers and springs and lakes, came into being for the care of our bodies; but the holy Scriptures were given for the correction of our souls. And as far as the soul is above bodies, so far is the gift of the divine Scriptures above the other gifts. That is why the Savior says: “Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life.” Let us search, then, the treasures of the Scriptures, keep to our promise, and attempt to describe, as best we can, the creation of man. But again, let no one find fault with what is inquired into with exactness; for it is the mark of those who set out to talk nonsense to find fault with God's arrangements and to accuse what is said with exactness. I heard some people complaining: “What need was there to speak about fire and water, and say that fire crackles when water is thrown on it? We,” he says, “do not want to learn natural philosophy, but theology.” We must recognize that these words belong to the idle and the lazy. For after theology, natural philosophy provides a foundation for […]; let them find fault with the prophets, let them find fault with the apostles. The Apostle does natural philosophy: “Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of cattle, another of fish, another of birds; and there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies.” Why does Paul do natural philosophy, and draw an argument from musical instruments, saying, “There are, it may be, so many kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without sound”? “For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? Whether pipe or lyre, if it does not give a distinction in the notes, how will it be known […]?” What did Paul's tongue have in common with pipe and lyre? But he does natural philosophy from the things that appear, in order to present the things that are understood. What need was there in the book of Job to say, “The ant-lion perished for lack of food,” and, “The young of vultures fly to the heights”? Why did another prophet say, “As when a lion roars and seizes, and cries out over its prey, and the mountains are filled with its voice”? And the Savior himself does natural philosophy: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which is smaller than the other seeds, but when it has grown becomes greater than all the herbs”; and again: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who casts his seed, and it sprouts and grows, he does not know how; for the earth bears of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then fills the grain in the ear.” The Savior does natural philosophy about the heaven too: “If the heaven,” he says, “is red in the evening, […]; and in the morning, Today there will be a storm, for the heaven is red and gloomy.” What need, then, was there for these things? I say this because of those who set out to accuse ignorantly. The word concerns God, and do you flee from an exact hearing of the doctrines? Since, then, by God's grace it lies before us to speak about the creation of man, not as the matter deserves but as far as we are able, we must come to the subject …

The heaven had been adorned; the earth had been crowned with fruits; the waters of the sea had been divided off; shoots had sprouted; the irrational animals had come forth; the world had been filled; the house had been adorned; the master of the house of all that had been made was lacking. God said, “Let us make man according to our image and likeness.” It was shown the day before what the force of “Let us make” is, whose word it is and to whom it is spoken, who the counselor is, and whose the common deliberation. But since we presented the Son from the Scriptures as the counselor of the ancient counsel, and kept silent about the glory of the Holy Spirit (so that the sick might not take occasions from us who are healthy), we must know that there is one glory, one mind, one working word of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here the Son is called counselor; elsewhere it is said that no one knows the knowledge of God except the Holy Spirit. Paul says: “No one among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him; so also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” If the spirit in you is foreign to your substance, then the Spirit in God is foreign to God's substance too. Does the Father will something? The same will belongs to the Son and the Holy Spirit. Does the Son will something? The same will belongs to the Father and the Spirit. Does the Spirit will something? The same will belongs to the Father and the Son. Does the Father raise the dead? The Son too raises them. The Savior says: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills.” See the will joined together. Where, then, is the will of the Spirit? Hear: “All these the one and same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as he wills.” There is one kingdom of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And God finds fault with those who try to do anything without the mind of God. He says through the prophet: “Woe, rebellious children, says the Lord. You made counsel, not through me, and covenants, not through my Spirit.” Zechariah the prophet presents the holy Trinity clearly when he says: “Let the hands of Josedek the priest be strong, and the hands of the people, for I am with you, says the Lord, and my good Word, and my Spirit is in your midst.” Besides, brothers, our regeneration bears witness to the creation. If the Spirit had not shared with the Father and the Son in the creation, it would not have shared in the regeneration. How are we baptized? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Which birth is greater, that of creation or that of initiation? There, a beginning of life leading to death; here, a beginning of death leading to life. How, then, could the Holy Spirit be a sharer with the Father and the Son in the greater work, but be cut off from their common dignity in the bodily creation? We would not have been created if we had not been formed by the Holy Spirit. And since in the first creation the Spirit is a sharer with the Father and the Son, so likewise in baptism it is sharer and co-worker. Again, in the resurrection we cannot rise otherwise than with the Father willing, the Son working with him, and the Holy Spirit giving power. Hear the Lord saying (I said rightly “the Lord”; for even if the voice is Paul's, it is the Lord's voice, for one can hear him say, “Since you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me”); the one who speaks in Paul says, then: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Christ dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Without the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit there is neither the first creation, nor the second birth, nor the final resurrection. “Let us make man.”

Here, now, I have forestalled the fault-finders. The name “man” is interpreted in the Hebrew language as “fire.” Attend, I beg you. The one who listens sincerely, as a friend and companion of the truth, is saved; but the one whose ears are hostile does not seek how he may be helped, but what he may seize on; he does not seek what he may gain, but what he may blame. In the Hebrew language man is called fire. This name was not given to Adam idly. There are four elements in the world (again I am doing natural philosophy, even if they do not like it): earth, water, air, fire. Each of the other elements remains as it is. For example, if you take a clod of earth, you cannot add to it from what you hold; if you take a clod of earth, it remains what it is. Again, if you take water by some measure, the same water remains; it receives no increase. If you fill a wineskin with air, you cannot fill another wineskin from it. But fire does not remain as it is. A small lamp is lit, and from it you kindle ten thousand torches, a whole furnace, a great flame; it does not stay at its own size, but the more material it takes, the more the fire increases. Since, then, God foreknew that the ends of the world would be filled from one human body (one lamp kindles so many torches: west, east, north, and south), he gave a name worthy of the thing. That is why the very name of Adam was a pledge of the world. Since the four regions were to be filled from him, he gives him the name Adam: alpha for east (anatolē), delta for west (dysis), alpha for north (arktos), mu for south (mesēmbria). Both the name and its letters bear witness to man, who was going to fill the world. So in the Hebrew language he is called fire. And since he bears the name fire, Scripture does not hesitate to call the angels men too. For when the women with Mary came to the tomb, it says: “Behold, two men stood by them.” But they were angels. And angels are called fire: “Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire.” It calls them men, since they share the meaning of the word for man. And why are you amazed? God himself is called fire and is called man. The Savior says about his own Father: “There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard. And he sent his slaves, and the slaves were killed.” And, to be brief: “And that man said: I still have a son; I will send him; perhaps they will respect him.” What does “man” mean as applied to the divine name? For he did not say it was a parable; he did not say, “It is like,” but, “There was a man.” That is why Moses says, “Our God is a consuming fire”; and the Savior, when he came, says, “I came to cast fire on the earth.” So he receives a name worthy of the thing. Since fire, as I said before, becomes great from small, and man from a few filled the ends of the world, man was called fire. That is why “Let us make man”: for in Hebrew it is “Let us make fire.” “Let us make man according to our image.” Many of the simple, and of those uneducated in soul, have thought that man is according to God's image as though God had a nose, or eyes of such a kind, or such ears, or such a mouth; but this thought is mistaken and absurd. And to this day there is a heresy that says the divine has human shape. For since they heard, “The eyes of the Lord,” and “The ears of the Lord,” and “The Lord smelled,” and “The mouth of the Lord has spoken,” and “The hand of the Lord has made,” and “The feet of God stood,” they drew limbs on the bodiless, not recognizing how absurd the thought is. God speaks so that you may learn that man has no resemblance to God as far as bodily appearance is concerned. For I do not do away with the voice that says, “Let us make man according to image,” but it is shown in what sense God says “according to image.” “I fill the heaven and the earth, says the Lord.” Again the same one says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet.” Shall we follow the letter? Shall we be slaves to the word? But the consequence refutes me. How shall I understand the heaven as a throne? A throne encloses the one seated on it; but God is not circumscribed. There is nothing around God; God encircles and walls in all things. If, then, he has heaven as his throne, how will he measure the heaven with a span? And how does he sit on the heaven? “Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet.” Where does he sit? On the visible heaven? The stars are under the firmament, the water above it. If he sits above, it is not above the heavens but on the higher heaven. And if he sits at all, his feet hang down to the earth. Do you put such a shape on the one who has no shape? Is it not impious to understand it so? Then again, if his feet tread the earth, how […] by his feet? And how did he measure the heaven with a span? How did he have great fingers in proportion to the Godhead? And how with those fingers did he write small tablets, with such fingers, and not many of them? We write with three fingers, the others helping; God wrote the tablets with one finger. Have you seen anyone writing with one finger? These are meanings rather than words.

“Let us make man according to our image.” God wishes us to be his imitators in virtue. What is “according to image”? God is holy; if we become holy, we are according to God's image: “Be holy, for I am holy.” God is righteous; if we pursue righteousness, we are God's image: “For the Lord is righteous and has loved righteousness.” If we are kind and merciful, we are the image of God. For the Savior says: “Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate.” Do you see where the image is? Paul too shows the image, for he says: “Put off the old man, and put on the new, created according to God, for knowledge of the truth, according to the image of the one who created him.” Do you see that “according to our image” is inscribed on the virtues? In what else is the image? Again, in authority: “Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the wild animals and the creeping things and the cattle and all the earth.” O the sequence of God! O the exactness of the words! Why did he mention first, “Let them rule over the fish of the sea”? The order of mastery follows the order of creation. Since fish and birds came into being first, from the sea, and after them the four-footed beasts and the rest of the cattle from the earth, he names first the things made first. “Let them rule over the fish, and the birds, and the wild animals, and the creeping things, and the cattle.” Whence also the three youths, blessing in the furnace, keep the order: “Bless the Lord, seas and rivers. Bless the Lord, sea monsters and all that move in the waters. Bless the Lord, all birds of heaven. Bless, wild beasts and cattle. Bless, sons of men.” There were other things to consider as well, but let us return to our subject. “And God formed the man.” He did not say simply “made,” but “formed.” “Forming” is used of comeliness, as when someone who sees a handsome face says it is a fine piece of forming. God made nothing in the body unseemly, but everything both for comeliness and for use. For example, the eye has both, use and comeliness: it sees, and it brightens the face and adorns the appearance, and it beholds everything. The ear has its use and has its appearance, for its cymbal-shaped rim adorns the creature. Likewise the nose has the necessary sense of smell; but, unlike the other animals, it has a kind of partition wall, which completes its comeliness; this belongs to man, for the other animals do not have divided nostrils but one opening throughout. God formed this for this reason. That is why David too says: “He who planted the ear, does he not hear? Or he who formed the eye, does he not perceive?” So also he made the earth for comeliness and for use. And not to point out many comely things to you, I will mention one and pass on. God gave man (I mean the male), among other things, the symmetry of breasts. Why breasts for a man? For comeliness. For a woman, granted, because of a necessity of nature, for the supply of milk; but why breasts for a man? For comeliness, for good order. For just as in buildings some things are made for necessity and some for comeliness, so God both adorned man and fitted him for use. “He formed him, taking dust from the earth.” Blessed are the hopes of Christians, if we understand what we hear. Why did he not say, “He took a clod from the earth”? He formed so great a body; did he not need even a clod, but takes dust? God foresaw the future as present. Since he foresaw that this creature would die and be changed into dust, he showed beforehand, at the creation, the hope of the resurrection. He takes dust from the earth, so that when you see dust in a tomb, you may know that the one who formed that dust also raises this. “He formed the man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life.” See the difference between men and the irrational animals. In making all the others, God brought everything forth together, the soul with the body. Attend, I beg you. He made the swimming creatures, body and soul together. “Let the earth bring forth animals”: the soul came forth together with the bodies. Man he makes first in body, then in soul. For what hope? As the forming is, so is the dissolving. The animals have no resurrection for this reason: as they came into being, so they die; body and soul vanish together. Man's body he took from the earth, but the soul he gives himself, creating it, fashioning it, not casting it out from his own substance, so that when the body dies, or the man, we may not despair of the soul. For what if the body was buried in a tomb? Do not expect the soul to be there. For it was not taken from the earth, nor does it go back to the earth. So he established the hope. That is why in Ezekiel too he prophesies the resurrection, saying: “The dead bones received a body.” Then he says: “Let the spirit come from the four winds, and [breathe into them] …” So too David cries: “You will take away their spirit, and they will fail and return to their dust. You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth.” Do you see the Spirit as creator? Do you see him as God's co-worker?