Fragments (complete)
Greek text: Routh.English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 1
1Routh 3:412
Τὸν θεὸν βουλόμενον τόδε τὸ πᾶν κατασκευάσαι, πρῶτον τὸν υἱὸν οἷόν τινα κανόνα τῆς δημιουργίας προϋποστήσασθαι.
Ton theon boulomenon tode to pan kataskeuasai, prōton ton huion hoion tina kanona tēs dēmiourgias proÿpostēsasthai.
God, wishing to construct this universe, first caused the Son to subsist beforehand as a kind of rule for the work of creation.
John 1:3 (echo, low confidence) · Col 1:16 (echo, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Theognostus says that God, before making the world, first gave the Son his existence as the rule or pattern for creating it.
- Quoted by Gregory of Nyssa (Against Eunomius 3) from Theognostus's Hypotyposes; Gregory cites it to show how the line could be read in an Arian sense. Only the quoted sentence is Theognostus's.
- προϋποστήσασθαι, 'caused to subsist beforehand': the Son is given existence before the creation, not made as one of its parts; the word does not by itself say whether the Son had a beginning, which is why later writers disputed the passage.
- κανών, 'rule': a measuring rule or standard; the Son as the pattern by which the world is made (compare John 1:3; Col 1:16).
Topics: Christology
Cite (SBL): Theognostus, Frag. 1 (Routh 3:412; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theognostus-fragmenta/1/#p-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek in Routh, Reliquiae sacrae 3 (1846); no public-domain English of this fragment: re-read against the Greek.