the Father, and so being God from God. Light from Light, true God from true God.
1 72 The Literal Meaning ofGenesis comes into being from him while still imperfect, while his being the Word implies his conferring perfection on creation by calling it back to himself, so that it may be given form by adhering to the creator, and by imitating in its own measure the form which adheres eternally and unchangingly to the Father, and which instantly gets from him to be the same thing as he is.5
What spiritualformlessness might be, and how it isformed
5, 10. The Son, after all, the Word, does not have an unformed life, seeing that for him not only is it the same thing to be as to live, but to live is for him the same as to live wisely and blessedly. A creature, on the other hand, even a spiritual and intelligent or rational one, which seems to be closer to that Word than others, can have an unformed life, because while for it also to be is the same as to live, to live is not the same as to live wisely and blessedly; if it turns away from the unchangeable Wisdom, after all, it lives foolishly and miserably. It is formed, however, by turning to the unchangeable light ofWisdom, the Word of God; it is to the one, you see, from whom it received existence, just to be and to live anyhow, that it turns in order to live wisely and blessedly. Eternal Wisdom, of course, is the origin or beginning of the intelligent creation; this beginning, while abiding unchangeably in itself, would certainly never cease to speak to the creature for which it is the beginning and summon it by some hidden inspiration it turn to that from which it derived its being, because in no other way could it possibly be formed and perfected. That is why, when he was asked who he was, he replied, The beginning, because l am also speaking to you (Jn 8:25).
1 1 . Now what the Son speaks the Father speaks, because when the Father speaks, a Word is uttered which is the Son, with God uttering in an eternal manner, if "manner" it can be called, a co-eternal Word. For in God there is a supreme and holy and just courtesy and a kind of love in his activity which comes not from any need on his part but from generosity. That is why, before scripture came to the text, God said, Let light be made (Gn 1 :3), it preceded it by saying, And the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1 :2). Now it may have wanted to call by the name of "water" the whole basic material of the bodily creation, to suggest in this way what all things which we can distinguish according to their kind were made and formed from, calling it water because we observe all things on earth to be formed and to grow in their various species from humid matter; or it may have wished to indicate a kind of spiritual life in a fluid, shifting state, as it were, before the form given it by its conversion. In either case, to be sure, the Spirit of God was being borne over it, because whichever it was that he had initiated, ready to be formed and perfected, it was subject to the good
5. The Word being eternally uttered by the Father is the same as the Son being eternally born of the Father, and so being God from God. Light from Light, true God from true God.
Book I 173 will of the creator. This means that when God said in his Word, Let light be made, and so on, what was made would abide in his good will, that is, would meet with his approval according to the measure of its kind. And thus it is right, because it met with God's approval, with scripture saying. And light was made; and God saw the light that it was good (Gn 1 :3-4).
How the mystery of the Trinity is hinted at in these verses
6. 12. Just as at the very start of his beginning creation, which was mentioned under the name of "heaven and earth" on account of what was to be completed from it, the "threeness" of the creator is suggested, so too in creation's. Thus when scripture says: ln the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gn 1 : 1 ), we understand the Father in the word "God" and the Son in the word "beginning"; the beginning, not for the Father but for the creation created at the start through himself, and chiefly for the spiritual, and consequently for the totality of creation; while with scripture saying: And the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1:2), we recognize the complete indication of the Trinity being converted and perfected in order to be distributed into its various species, the same "threeness" should be suggested, of the Word of God, that is to say, and the Word's begetter, when it says God said; and of the holy goodness, by which God is pleased with whatever pleases him on its being perfected in its own small, natural way, when it says, God saw that it was good.
7. 13. But why did it first mention creation as incomplete and imperfect, and only mention the Spirit of God after that, with scripture saying: Now the earth was invisible and shapeless, and there was darkness over the abyss, and then continuing: and the Spirit of God was being borne over the water (Gn 1 :2)? Was it because a love that is needy and in want loves in such a way that it is subjected to the things it loves; and so for that reason, when the Spirit of God was to be mentioned, in which his holy benevolence and love is understood, it is said to be borne over what he loves, in case it should be thought that it was out of the compulsion of his needs that God loved the things which were to be made, rather than out of the abundance of his generosity? With this very thing in mind, the apostle is going to say about charity that he will point out an overwhelming way
( 1 Cor 12:31), and in another place he says, the charity ofChrist thatoverwhelms knowledge (Eph 3:19).
8. 14. Thus it was that when things also had been perfected and formed from that primal origin, God saw that it was good; it was out of the same genial cour tesy, after all, that he took pleasure in what had been made, as that it had pleased him that it should be made. There are two things, in fact, on account of which God loves his creation: in order that it should be, and in order that it should abide. So in order that there should be something to abide, the Spirit of God was being