To Autolycus 2.10
Summary: God made all things from nothing through his Word, whom he had within himself and “uttered” with his Wisdom before creation; this Word spoke through the prophets, and Genesis begins with “In the beginning.”
Greek text · Otto 8:78–82
Καὶ πρῶτον μὲν συμφώνως ἐδίδαξαν ἡμᾶς, ὅτι ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τὰ πάντα ἐποίησεν. Οὐ γάρ τι τῷ θεῷ συνήκμασεν· ἀλλʼ αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ τόπος ὢν καὶ ἀνενδεὴς ὢν καὶ ὑπάρχων πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων ἠθέλησεν ἄνθρωπον ποιῆσαι ᾧ γνωσθῇ· τούτῳ οὖν προητοίμασεν τὸν κόσμον. Ὁ γὰρ γενητὸς καὶ προσδεής ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ ἀγένητος οὐδενὸς προσδεῖται. Ἔχων οὖν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον ἐνδιάθετον ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις σπλάγχνοις ἐγέννησεν αὐτὸν μετὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ σοφίας ἐξερευξάμενος πρὸ τῶν ὅλων. Τοῦτον τὸν λόγον ἔσχεν ὑπουργὸν τῶν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ γεγενημένων, καὶ διʼ αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα πεποίηκεν. Οὗτος λέγεται ἀρχή, ὅτι ἄρχει καὶ κυριεύει πάντων τῶν διʼ αὐτοῦ δεδημιουργημένων. Οὗτος οὖν, ὢν πνεῦμα θεοῦ καὶ ἀρχὴ καὶ σοφία καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου, κατήρχετο εἰς τοὺς προφήτας καὶ διʼ αὐτῶν ἐλάλει τὰ περὶ τῆς ποιήσεως τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἁπάντων. Οὐ γὰρ ἦσαν οἱ προφῆται ὅτε ὁ κόσμος ἐγίνετο, ἀλλὰ ἡ σοφία ἡ ἐν αὐτῷ οὖσα ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὁ λόγος ὁ ἅγιος αὐτοῦ ὁ ἀεὶ συμπαρὼν αὐτῷ. Διὸ δὴ καὶ διὰ Σολομῶνος προφήτου οὕτως λέγει· Ἡνίκα δʼ ἡτοίμασεν τὸν οὐρανόν, συμπαρήμην αὐτῷ, καὶ ὡς ἰσχυρὰ ἐποίει τὰ θεμέλια τῆς γῆς, ἤμην παρʼ αὐτῷ ἁρμόζουσα. Μωσῆς δὲ ὁ καὶ Σολομῶνος πρὸ πολλῶν ἐτῶν γενόμενος, μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς διʼ ὀργάνου διʼ αὐτοῦ φησιν· Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Πρῶτον ἀρχὴν καὶ ποίησιν ὠνόμασεν, εἶθʼ οὕτως τὸν θεὸν συνέστησεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀργῶς χρὴ καὶ ἐπὶ κενῷ θεὸν ὀνομάζειν. Προῄδει γὰρ ἡ θεία σοφία μέλλειν φλυαρεῖν τινας καὶ πληθὺν θεῶν ὀνομάζειν τῶν οὐκ ὄντων. Ὅπως οὖν ὁ τῷ ὄντι θεὸς διὰ ἔργων νοηθῇ, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ ὁ θεὸς πεποίηκεν τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς, ἔφη· Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν. Εἶτα εἰπὼν τὴν ποίησιν αὐτῶν δηλοῖ ἡμῖν· Ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσσου, καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος. Ταῦτα ἐν πρώτοις διδάσκει ἡ θεία γραφή, τρόπῳ τινὶ ὕλην γενητήν, ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγονυῖαν, ἀφʼ ἧς πεποίηκεν καὶ δεδημιούργηκεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον.
English · Claude translation
First, then, they taught us with one voice that God made all things out of nothing. For nothing was coeval with God; but he, being his own place, lacking nothing, and existing before the ages, willed to make the human being, by whom he might be known; for him, then, he prepared the world beforehand. For what is created is also in need, but what is uncreated needs nothing. God, then, having his own Word within him, in his own heart, begot him, uttering him together with his own Wisdom before all things. This Word he had as his helper in the things made by him, and through him he made all things. He is called “Beginning” because he rules and is lord of all things made through him. He, then, being the Spirit of God, and Beginning, and Wisdom, and Power of the Most High, came down upon the prophets and through them spoke about the making of the world and about everything else. For the prophets did not exist when the world was made; but the Wisdom of God that was in him existed, and his holy Word, who is always present with him. That is why he speaks thus through Solomon the prophet: “When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him, and when he made the foundations of the earth strong, I was beside him, setting things in order.” And Moses, who lived many years before Solomon, or rather the Word of God speaking through him as through an instrument, says: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.” First he named “beginning” and “making,” and only then did he bring in God; for one must not name God idly and to no purpose. For the divine Wisdom foreknew that some would talk nonsense and name a multitude of gods that do not exist. So, that the true God might be known through his works, and that God made the heaven and the earth and all that is in them by his Word, he said: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.” Then, having spoken of their making, he explains to us: “And the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water.” This is what the divine Scripture teaches first: in a sense, a created matter, made by God, from which God made and fashioned the world.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Having his own Word within him” renders λόγον ἐνδιάθετον (the Word “immanent” or “residing within”); Theophilus contrasts this with the Word “uttered” (προφορικός) for creation (2.22). “Uttering” renders ἐξερευξάμενος, echoing Ps 45:1 in the Septuagint (44:2, “my heart has uttered a good word”).
- “Being his own place” follows the reading τόπος (cf. 2.3, “he himself is the place of all things”); the printed text has τόκος (“his own offspring”).
- Theophilus sometimes calls the Word “Spirit of God” and “Wisdom”; elsewhere he distinguishes Wisdom from the Word (1.7; 2.15, where God, his Word, and his Wisdom form a “triad”).
- Prov 8:27–30 and Gen 1:1–2 are quoted from the Septuagint.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (reading τόπος (“place”), as in 2.3 and in several editions, for the printed τόκος (“offspring”); a one-letter difference): αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ τόκος ὢν → αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ τόπος ὢν.
Cite this passage
Theophilus, Autol. 2.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/2/10/).
Plain text
Theophilus, Autol. 2.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/2/10/).
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