Ἔστι γὰρ ἓν μὲν αὐτοῖς ἐκεῖνο καὶ λίαν πρόχειρον τό· Κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ. πρὸς ὃ πῶς ἀπαντησόμεθα; οὐ Σολομῶντος κατηγορήσομεν; οὐ τὰ πρὶν ἀθετήσομεν διὰ τὴν τελευταίαν παράπτωσιν; οὐχὶ τῆς σοφίας αὐτῆς ἐροῦμεν εἶναι τὸν λόγον, τῆς οἷον ἐπιστήμης καὶ τοῦ τεχνίτου λόγου, καθ’ ὃν τὰ πάντα συνέστη; πολλὰ γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ προσωποποιεῖν οἶδε καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων, ὡς τό· Ἡ θάλασσα εἶπε τάδε καὶ τάδε· καί, Ἡ ἄβυσσος εἶπεν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἐμοί· καί, Οἱ οὐρανοὶ 3 Βραχει] βράχεσι edg ’duo Reg.’ || 4 ημεις] + ’δε ’in nonnul.’ || ταυτας] ταύτα aceg 2. 6 ἐν] ἐν cdeg || 11 τεχνίτου] τεχνικοῦ eg 1. π. κατὰ τῆς ἁμ] a compact expression; ‘suffering against sin,’ i.e. overcoming sin by means of suffering. 2. No. 1. — The Lord created Me ...with a view to His works. We will not shirk the difficulty by making the words a mere personification. It is our Lord who speaks. But the cause which He alleges to have been in vircv at His creation shews that He is speaking of the creation of His manhood, which was created ivith a view to the works of verity and judgment in our salvation. When afterwards He speaks of His Godhead, He uses very different language; He begetteth Me — there is no cause there. 6. λαὶ λίαν πρόκ.] ‘exceedingly handy.’ The μὲν is answered πρὸς δ πῶς ἀπ’. 7. K. ἔκτισέ με] Prov. viii 11. The Heb. word is kanah, not bara which is the word used in Gen. i 1. It signifies comparare; and prob. κτᾶσθαι (which is the rendering of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion) is nearer to it than the LXX. κτίζειν. Cp. Bas. adv. Eun. ii 20. Into that question, however, Gr. does not enter. 9. τὴν τελ. παράπτωσιν] sc. Solomon's. 10. τῆς σοφίας αὐτῆς] ’of Wisdom itself,’ as distinct from that Person in whom all wisdom is gathered up and displayed. Delitzsch, commenting on the passage in Prov., says, "Wisdom is not God, but ’s; she has personal existence in the Logos of the N.T., but is not herself the Logos." Gr. further explains this Wisdom, to be ’the science, so to speak, and the artistic principle ὅκ’ which the universe is composed.’ Gr. intends to carefully the τεχν. λόγος from the person of ’the Word.’ 13. ἢ θάλασσα. . . ἢ ἄβυσσος] Job xxviii 14; cp. Is. xxiii 4. 14. οἱ οὐρανοί] ’s. xviii 2 (xix Ι). διηγούμενοι δόξαν θεοῦ· καὶ πάλιν ῥομφαία τι διακε- λεύεται, καὶ ὄρη καὶ βουνοὶ λόγους ἐρωτῶνται σκιρτήσεως. τούτων οὐδέν φαμεν, εἰ καί τισι τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν ὡς ἰσχυρὰ τέθειται. ἀλλ’ ἔστω τοῦ σωτῆρος αὐτοῦ, τῆς ἀληθινῆς σοφίας, ὁ λόγος. μικρὸν δὲ συνδιασκεψώμεθα. τί τῶν ὄντων ἀναίτιον; θεότης. οὐδεὶς γὰρ αἰτίαν εἰπεῖν ἔχει θεοῦ· ἢ τοῦτο ἂν εἴη θεοῦ πρεσβύτερον. τίς δὲ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, ἢν δι’ ἡμᾶς ὑπέστη θεός, αἰτία; τὸ σωθῆναι πάντως ἡμᾶς. τί γὰρ ἕτερον; ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἐνταῦθα καὶ τὸ ἔκτισε καὶ τὸ Γεννᾷ με σαφῶς εὑρίσκομεν, ἁπλοῦς ὁ λόγος. ὃ μὲν ἂν μετὰ τῆς αἰτίας εὑρίσκωμεν, προσθῶμεν τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι· δ δὲ ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀναίτιον, τῇ θεότητι λογισώμεθα. ἆρ’ οὖν οὐ τὸ μὲν ἔκτισεν εἴρηται μετὰ τῆς αἰτίας; Ἔκτισε γάρ μέ, φησιν, ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ. ἔργα δὲ χειρῶν αὐτοῦ ἀλήθεια καὶ κρίσις, ὧν 1 διηγοῦνται b || 5 ’δε] καὶ e ΙΙ 6 ἔχει] ἔχοι df II 9 παντως] πάντας g || 11 εὑρίσκωμεν] ομεν a 1 ῥομφαία] Zech. xiii 7; cp Jer, xlvii 6 μάχαιρα). 2.ὄρη κ. βουνοὶ] Ps. cxiii (cxiv) 6. 3. εἰ καί τισι τῶν πρὸ ἡμ.] He prob. refers to Basil, who, in the Hom. in Princ. Proverb. ἑ 3, where he has no controversial animus, expounds very strikingly the ’personification’ of that wisdom which speaks to us out of nature. Very likely other Catholic authors adopted the same view. Bas. himself, however, when in controversy with the Eunomians, gives the same account as Gr. does here (adv. Enn. iv p. 293 Ληπτέον οὖν . . . ἐπὶ τοῦ τὴν μορφὴν δούλου λαβόντος). That account, it may be added, is derived from Athanasius, who says (de Deer. Nic. Syn. p. 220 B), To δὲ πρόσωπον τοῦ μὲν σωτῆρός ἐστι, τότε δὲ λέγεται ὅτε λοιπὸν λαβὼν τὸ σῶμα λέγει κτλ. Cp. the fuller passage in Ath. Or. ii c. Ar. ἑ 44 f.; also Eus. adv. Marcell. ii 3. Among other expositors whom Gr. knew, Origen (de Princ. i 2) identifies Wisdom with the eternal Son, and, though he does not admit any imaginable period before the generation of Wisdom, thinks that Wisdom speaks of herself as having been created, inasmuch as she comtains in herself from the outset the beginnings and outlines of the creation that was to be. Denys of Rome on the other hand (in Ath. de Deer. Nic. Syn. Ρ. 232) dwells upon the various significations of the word κτίζειν in the Bible, and understands it here to mean ’appointing,’ ‘setting over the works which were made through ’ For another explanation, with which, however, Gr. was hardly likely to be acquinted, see nil. de Trin. xii 35 foil. 7. ἢ τοῦτο] ‘otherwise this;’ which is the ’cause’ of God, ’would be prior to God.’ 10. τὸ γεννᾷ με] Prov. viii 25. 11. μετὰ τῆς αἰτίας] ‘coupled with a mention of cause.’ 15. ἀλήθεια κ. κρίσις] Ps. ex (cxi) 7. These, which are the works of our salvation τοῦ σωθῆναι π. ἡμᾶς), are identified as ’the works’ with view to which Wisdom was ‘created.’ ἕνεκεν ἐχρίσθη θεότητι. χρίσις γὰρ αὕτη τῆς ἀνθρωπό- τητος. τὸ δὲ Γεννᾷ με χωρὶς αἰτίας· ἢ δεῖξόν τι τούτῳ προσκείμενον. τίς οὖν ἀντερεῖ λόγος, κτίσμα μὲν λέγεσθαι τὴν σοφίαν κατὰ τὴν κάτω γέννησιν, γέννημα δὲ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην καὶ πλέον ἄληπτον;