Глава 1. Творение и падение

1) In the previous word, taking not much from many, but sufficiently, we discussed the error of the pagans regarding idols, their superstition, and how it was invented in the beginning, namely, that people, out of their depravity, invented for themselves the worship of idols; and also, by the grace of God, they offered something about the Divinity of the Father’s Word, about His providence and power in the universe, namely, that through Him the good Father arranges everything, at His beck everything is set in motion, and through Him it is brought to life. Now, blessed and truly Christ-loving, let us, in accordance with pious faith, talk about the incarnation of the Word, and His divine coming to us (which the Jews slander, what the Greeks mock, and what we worship) we will try to explain in such a way that the visible humiliation of the Word will all the more arouse in you a greater and stronger reverence for Him. For the more it is ridiculed by the infidels, the more convincing it presents evidence of its Divinity. What people do not comprehend, finding it impossible, It proves that it is possible; What people scoff at as indecent, then, by His goodness, It makes splendid; what people cunningly ridicule as human, in His power He allows Him to see the Divine, in His imaginary humiliation, overthrowing the idolatrous dream with the cross, and invisibly convincing those who mock and unbeliever to recognize His Divinity and power. When we present all this, you need to keep in mind what was said before, so that, just as you are able to understand the reason for the appearance in the flesh of such a great Father’s Word, you do not think that the Savior took upon Himself a body according to the natural order, but be confirmed in the thought that He is by nature incorporeal and is the Word, however, by the love of mankind and the goodness of His Father, He appeared to us in a human body for our salvation. And for us, in discussing this, it would be fitting to speak in advance about the creation of the universe and about its Creator God, so that in this way everyone could see how fitting the renewal of creation was to be accomplished by the Word who created it in the beginning. For there will be no contradiction in this if the Father, by the same Word by which he created the creation, also wrought its salvation. 2) Many explained the creation of the world and the creation of the universe in different ways, and everyone came up with the concept they wanted. Some say that everything happened by itself and by accident. Such are the Epicureans who say against themselves that there is no Providence in the universe, asserting this directly contrary to what is obvious and visible. For if, as they claim, everything happened by itself without Providence; then everything had to happen in the same way, and be similar, and not different; in the universe, as in one body, everything had to be the sun or the moon, and among people the whole body had to be either a hand, or an eye, or a foot. Now this is not the case; but we see that one is the sun, another is the moon, and another is the earth, and in human bodies too, one is the leg, another is the hand, and another is the head. And such a pattern makes it clear that this did not happen by itself; it even shows that there was a reason that preceded this, from which one can understand that God put the universe in order and created it. Others, including the great Plato among the Hellenes, reasoned that God created the universe from ready and uncreated matter; because it would not be possible for God to create anything if there were no ready-made substance, just as a woodworker must have a ready-made tree so that he can work something. But those who claim this do not know that they attribute powerlessness to God. If He Himself is not the originator of matter, but, in general, every being creates from ready-made matter; it is clear that He is powerless, because He is not able to produce anything real without substance, just as in the tree-maker, without a doubt, His powerlessness is the reason that, not having a tree, He cannot do any necessary thing. And in this assumption - that if there were no substance, then God would not have produced anything - can one already be called a creator and creator who received the opportunity to create from another, namely, from matter? If we accept this assumption, then, according to them, God will only be an artist, and not the creator of existence, if He processes the finished substance, and is not himself the culprit of the substance. In general, He cannot be called a creator if He does not also create the substance from which what was created came into being. But heretics invent for themselves another Creator of the universe other than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in their blindness they talk a lot about this. The Lord says to the Jews: “Do you not believe that I created male and female from time immemorial? And he said: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Matthew 19:4-5); then, pointing to the Creator, he also says: “If God unites, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). How do they introduce a creature alien to the Father? If, in the words of John, who embraces everything in his word, “all things came into being,” “and without Him nothing came into existence” (John 1:3); then how is another Creator possible other than the Father of Christ? 3) So they talk fabulously; the divine teaching and faith of Christ rejects their idle talk as godlessness. It recognizes that the universe did not arise by itself, because there is Providence about it, and was not created from a ready-made substance, because God is not powerless; but out of nothing, a universe that did not exist before was brought into existence by God with the Word, as Moses said: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). And in the very useful book The Shepherd says: “First of all, believe that there is one God, who created, arranged and brought the universe into being out of nothing.” Giving this to be understood, Paul says: “By faith we understand that the word of God has been perfected forever, in which things were not made visible” (Heb. 11:3). God is good, or better yet, He is the source of goodness. In good things there can be no envy towards anyone. Therefore, not envying anyone in existence, He created everything out of nothing with His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. Above all that on earth, having compassion on the human race, and seeing that, according to the law of its own existence, it does not have sufficient strength to remain always, God gave people something greater: He did not create them simply, like all dumb animals on earth, but created them in His image, imparting to them the power of His own Word, so that, having in themselves, as it were, certain shades of the Word and, having become verbal, they could remain in bliss, living the true life, and in the true sense - the life of the saints in paradise. But knowing also that human will can bend to one side or the other, he first protected the grace given to people by law and place; for, having introduced them into His paradise, He gave them a law, so that if they retain grace and remain good, then, in addition to the promise of immortality in heaven, their life in paradise would be carefree, painless and carefree; and if they fall into crime, and having changed they become bad, they knew in advance that in death they would undergo natural corruption, and would no longer live in paradise, but, dying outside it, they would remain in death and corruption. The Divine Scripture also points to this, speaking on behalf of God: “Take food from every tree that is in heaven; but from the tree that you understand good and evil, you will not take from it; and if you take away a day from it, you will die” (Gen. 2:16-17). “You will die by death,” what else does it mean than not only the need to die, but also to remain in the corruption of death? 4) You may wonder why, having assumed to talk about the incarnation of the Word, we are now talking about the beginning of people. But this is not alien to the purpose of our reasoning. Speaking about the coming of the Savior to us, it is necessary for us to talk about the beginning of people. From this you will learn that our guilt was the reason for His coming, and our crime caused the love of the Word, so that the Lord would come to us and appear among people. We became the impetus for His incarnation; For our salvation, He showed so much love for mankind that He took upon Himself a human body and appeared in it. Thus God created man and willed him to remain incorruptible. But people, having become negligent and deviating from the aspiration of their minds to God, having stopped in thought on evil and conceiving it for themselves (as is said about this in the first word), were subjected to that mortal condemnation with which God had previously threatened them, and no longer remained as they were created, but as they thought, they were corrupted, and death, having reigned, took possession of them; because the transgression of the commandment returned them to a natural state, so that, just as they were created from nothing, so in being itself, over time, in all justice, they would suffer corruption. For if, having once been nothing by nature, they are called into being by the manifestation and love of mankind of the Word; then it followed that in people, after the concept of God is exhausted in them and by deviation towards the non-existent (for evil is not existing, and good is existing, as having come from the existing God), existence, which continues forever, would be exhausted. And this means allowing oneself to remain in death and decay. For man, as created from nothing, is mortal by nature; but, due to the similarity to the Existing One, if he had preserved it by striving towards Him with his mind, he could slow down natural corruption in himself, and would remain incorruptible, as Wisdom says: “keeping the laws is the affirmation of non-corruption” (Wisdom 6:19). Being incorruptible, he would have lived as God, as the Divine Scripture makes clear, saying in one place: “Az said: you are gods by nature and sons of the Most High; But you, like men, are dying, and like one you are falling from princes” (Ps. 81:6-7). 5) God not only created us from nothing, but, by the grace of the Word, gave us life according to God. But people, having turned away from the eternal, and, on the advice of the devil, turned to the corruptible, for themselves they became the culprits of corruption in death; because, as stated above, by nature they were corruptible, but they would have escaped what was inherent in their nature by grace, as partakers of the Word, if they had remained good; because of the Word inherent in them, natural corruption would not have approached them, as Wisdom says: “God created man into incorruption,” and in the image of His own eternity: “But through envy the devil brought death into the world” (Wisdom 2:23-24). When this happened, people began to die and corruption had a strong effect on them, prevailing over the entire human race, to a greater extent than it was natural, since, as a result of the transgression of the commandment, it took advantage of God’s threat against them, and the people themselves in their sins did not stop at certain limits, but, gradually extending further, finally transgressed every measure. Having been at the beginning the inventors of evil, and having called upon themselves death and corruption, and subsequently having turned into unrighteousness, daring into all iniquity and not stopping at one bad deed, but constantly inventing new bad deeds, people became insatiable in sin. There were adulteries and thefts everywhere; the whole earth was filled with murders and thefts. The law had no concern for corruption and untruth. Every evil deed was committed by everyone separately and by everyone together. Cities were at war with cities; nations rebelled against nations; the whole universe was torn apart by rebellions and strife, because everyone competed in lawlessness. This was not far from being unnatural, but as the witness of Christ, the Apostle, said: “For their wives have changed their natural likeness into a supernatural one: and likewise men, having abandoned the natural likeness of the female sex, being inflamed with their lust against one another, men inflict punishment on their husbands, and receive retribution in themselves in accordance with their deception” (Rom. 1, 26–27 ).