5. О веществе

So, the Hellenic philosophers, as I said, assert that everything is created from a ready-made substance. But calling it co-eternal with God, they call God its culprit; they do not proclaim substances to be evil, according to the evil teaching of Marcion and Manes; because they consider it a very great blasphemy to assert that the creator of evil is God. And these philosophers deserve, perhaps, some apology because they did not hear the prophetic verbs, did not have the divine Apostles as their leaders, and left the knowledge of things to reason alone. But what punishment worthy of their wickedness will the heretics suffer, who had the Divine Gospel in their hands and fled from its light, but loved the darkness, like bats? They, who blocked their ears and did not want to listen to the words of God's Spirit, should have at least supported the opinion of these philosophers and, although they admitted the substance, did not call it evil. But the opinion of philosophers also serves as a sign of the weakness of the human mind. Since among people every art has a need for a ready-made substance, and the potter needs clay, the builder needs stones and bricks, the carpenter and shipbuilder needs wood, the weaver needs wool, the tanner needs leather, painting and molding needs paint, in a word, every art requires substances suitable for it, then these foolish ones assumed that God cannot create without substance, and did not realize how much difference there is between man and God, and that it is impossible the image has everything that the Prototype has, and that man, as an image, creates from existing, and God from existing and non-existent. And the Divine Scripture has clearly taught us this. For the Apostle says: “By faith we understand that the word of God has been perfected forever, in which it came to be from things that are not seen” (Heb. 11:3); and again: “he who calls something that is not as if it is” (Rom. 4:17). He who described the creation of the world clearly showed that the Creator created from non-existent and what from existing, and he teaches that God created heaven, earth and other elements from non-existent. For he says: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1). And he also created light out of nothing. It is said: “God said: let there be light, and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). And he made the firmament from what had already been brought into existence, for “God said: let the firmament be in the midst of water, and let it separate in the midst of water and water” (Gen. 1, 6) And he commanded seeds and plants to grow from the earth: “speech...: let the earth sprout the former herbs, sowing seed according to their kind and likeness, and a fruitful tree producing fruit for the same his seed is in him according to his kind” and according to his likeness “on the earth” (Gen. 1:11). Thus he produced generations of dumb animals, and precisely from the waters - animals flying through the air, and living in the waters, and the so-called aquatic animals; “said...: Let the waters of the creeping things carry away the souls of the living, and the birds that fly... through the firmament of the sky” (Gen. 1:20); and from the earth he brought forth four-legged creatures and reptiles, for it is said: “Let the earth bring forth the living soul..., four-legged creatures, creeping things and beasts” (Gen. 1:24). He created man from what exists and from what does not exist, because he formed the body, “the dust of the earth” (Gen. 2:7), but he created the soul from what does not exist. For the soul is not subsistent with God who created, as the wicked Marcion teaches, but was created from nothing. God creates without any difficulty what He pleases; and the powers of the Creator should not be measured by what has already been brought into being; It is not difficult for Him to produce many times more than this. And the godly-wise David made this clear, for he says: “Everything that the Lord wills, create” (Ps. 113:11); he did not say that he was able, but: “as much as he wills,” because His power is equal to His will; therefore He creates not only from what exists, but also from what does not exist. Therefore, the doctrine of matter has been expelled from the dogmas of truth. And those who slander the creation, who attempt to slander the all-constructed creation and therefore introduce the doctrine of matter, let them hear the words of God, crying: “God has seen all things created: and this is all good” (Gen. 1:31). the fabulous doctrine of the eons. You might be interested in: