1. Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna, (and) lived not very lo

 2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, “I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods b

 3. In this way, then, they choose to set forth these things, and they make use only of one class of passages just in the same one-sided manner that T

 4. Let us, as I said, see how he is confuted, and then let us set forth the truth. Now he quotes the words, “Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise o

 5. But what is meant, says he, in the other passage: “This is God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him?” That said he righ

 6. Let us look next at the apostle’s word: “Whose are the fathers, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever.

 7. If, again, he allege His own word when He said, “I and the Father are one,” let him attend to the fact, and understand that He did not say, “I and

 8. Many other passages, or rather all of them, attest the truth. A man, therefore, even though he will it not, is compelled to acknowledge God the Fat

 9. There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source. For just as a man, if he wishes to b

 10. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and will

 11. And thus there appeared another beside Himself. But when I say another ,

 12. Acting then in these (prophets), the Word spoke of Himself. For already He became His own herald, and showed that the Word would be manifested amo

 13. Now Jeremiah says, “Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived His Word?”

 14. These things then, brethren, are declared by the Scriptures. And the blessed John, in the testimony of his Gospel, gives us an account of this eco

 15. But some one will say to me, You adduce a thing strange to me, when you call the Son the Word. For John indeed speaks of the Word, but it is by a

 16. And these indeed are testimonies bearing on the incarnation of the Word and there are also very many others. But let us also look at the subject

 17.  These testimonies are sufficient for the believing who study truth, and the unbelieving credit no testimony. For the Holy Spirit, indeed, in the

 18. Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man,

10. God, subsisting alone, and having nothing contemporaneous with Himself, determined to create the world. And conceiving the world in mind, and willing and uttering the word, He made it; and straightway it appeared, formed as it had pleased Him. For us, then, it is sufficient simply to know that there was nothing contemporaneous with God. Beside Him there was nothing; but50    See, on this passage, Bull’s Defens. Fid. Nic., sec. iii. cap. viii. § 2, p. 219. He, while existing alone, yet existed in plurality.51    πολὺς ἦν. For He was neither without reason, nor wisdom, nor power, nor counsel.52    ἄλογος, ἄσοφος, ἀδύνατος, ἀβούλευτος. And all things were in Him, and He was the All. When He willed, and as He willed,53    On these words see Bossuet’s explanation and defence, Avertiss., vi. § 68, sur les lettres de M. Jurieu. He manifested His word in the times determined by Him, and by Him He made all things. When He wills, He does; and when He thinks, He executes; and when He speaks, He manifests; when He fashions, He contrives in wisdom. For all things that are made He forms by reason and wisdom—creating them in reason, and arranging them in wisdom. He made them, then, as He pleased, for He was God. And as the Author, and fellow-Counsellor, and Framer54    ἀρχηγόν, καὶ σύμβουλον, καὶ ἐργάτην. of the things that are in formation, He begat55    The “begetting” of which Hippolytus speaks here is not the generation, properly so called, but that manifestation and bringing forth of the Word co-existing from eternity with the Father, which referred to the creation of the world. So at least Bull and Bossuet, as cited above; also Maranus, De Divinit. J. C., lib. iv. cap. xiii. § 3, p. 458. the Word; and as He bears this Word in Himself, and that, too, as (yet) invisible to the world which is created, He makes Him visible; (and) uttering the voice first, and begetting Him as Light of Light,56    φως ἐκ φωτός. This phrase, adopted by the Nicene Fathers, occurs before their time not only here, but also in Justin Martyr, Tatian, and Athenagoras, as is noticed by Grabe, ad Irenæum, lib. ii. c. xxiii. Methodius also, in his Homily on Simeon and Anna, p. 152, has the expression, σὺ εἶ φῶς ἀληθινὸν ἐκ φωτὸς ἀληθινοῦ Θεὸς ἀληθινὸς ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ.  Athanasius himself also uses the phrase λύχνον ἐκ λύχνου, vol. i. p. 881, ed. Lips. [Illustrating my remarks (p. v. of this volume), in the preface, as to the study of Nicene theology in Ante-Nicene authors.] He set Him forth to the world as its Lord, (and) His own mind;57    νοῦν. and whereas He was visible formerly to Himself alone, and invisible to the world which is made, He makes Him visible in order that the world might see Him in His manifestation, and be capable of being saved.

[10] Θεὸς μόνος ὑπάρχων καὶ μηδὲν ἔχων ἑαυτῷ σύνχρονον, ἐβουλήθη κόσμον κτίσαι. ὃν κόσμον ἐννοηθεὶς θελήσας τε καὶ φθεγξάμενος ἐποίησεν: ᾧ παραυτίκα πάρεστι τὸ γινόμενον ὡς ἠθέλησεν, ὃ ἐτέλεσεν καθὼς ἠθέλησεν. αὔταρκες οὖν ἡμῖν ἐστιν μόνον εἰδέναι ὅτι σύνχρονον Θεοῦ οὐδὲν πλὴν αὐτὸς ἦν. αὐτὸς δὲ μόνος ὢν πολὺς ἦν. οὔτε γὰρ ἄλογος οὔτε ἄσοφος οὔτε ἀδύνατος οὔτε ἀβούλευτος ἦν. πάντα δὲ ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ, αὐτὸς δὲ ἦν τὸ πᾶν. ὅτε ἠθέλησεν, καθὼς ἠθέλησεν, ἔδειξεν τὸν Λόγον αὐτοῦ καιροῖς ὡρισμένοις παρ' αὐτῷ: δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐποίησεν. ὅτε μὲν θέλει, ποιεῖ: ὅτε δὲ ἐνθυμεῖται, τελεῖ: ὅτε δὲ φθέγγεται, δεικνύει: ὅτε πλάσσει, σοφίζεται. πάντα γὰρ τὰ γενόμενα διὰ Λόγου καὶ σοφίας τεχνάζεται, ⌊Λόγῳ μὲν κτίζων⌋, σοφίᾳ δὲ κοσμῶν. ἐποίησεν ⌊οὖν⌋ ὡς ἠθέλησεν: Θεὸς γὰρ ἦν. τῶν δὲ γινομένων ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σύμβουλον καὶ ἐργάτην ἐγέννα Λόγον. ὃν Λόγον ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἀόρατόν τε ὄντα τῷ κτιζομένῳ κόσμῳ ὁρατὸν ποιεῖ. προτέραν φωνὴν φθεγγόμενος καὶ φῶς ἐκ φωτὸς γεννῶν, προῆκεν τῇ κτίσει κύριον τὸν ἴδιον νοῦν αὐτῷ μόνῳ πρότερον ὁρατὸν ὑπάρχοντα: τῷ δὲ γινομένῳ κόσμῳ ἀόρατον ὄντα ὁρατὸν ποιεῖ, ὅπως διὰ τοῦ φανῆναι ἰδὼν ὁ κόσμος σωθῆναι δυνηθῇ.