De creatione hominis sermo primus

Homily 1 on the Creation of the Human Being and on the Image and Likeness. I come to discharge an old debt, the payment of which I deferred not through willful ingratitude but through bodily weakness, a debt most necessary and owed to your hearing. For it would be unjust that we, who have been taught about beasts and swimming creatures and birds and cattle, about the heaven and the things in heaven, about the earth and the things on the earth, should not also be enlightened concerning our own generation from the divinely inspired scripture. For just as our eyes, seeing outward things, do not see themselves unless they touch some smooth and solid surface and the vision, reflected from there as from a backflow, makes them see their own backs, so too our mind does not otherwise see itself unless it peers into the scriptures. For the light here, being reflected, becomes the cause for each of us to be seen, since we are ignorant of ourselves and unobservant of our constitution, not knowing what we are and what we are. For we are most carelessly disposed toward ourselves, we who have no knowledge of the most obvious things and of the smallest things in us. Many treatises have expended all their effort on our body, the human body; if you examine medicine, you will find how much it tells us about the use of our parts, how many hidden passages it has discovered in anatomical dissections, perforated in the unseen, leading to a single sympathy from the body.

channels of breath, aqueducts of blood, the drawing of respiration, the dwelling of the hearth of heat in the heart, the perpetual motion of the pericardial breath. Countless things have been philosophized by those men, of which none of us is experienced, because we have devoted no leisure to this part of inquiry, nor has each one known himself, what he is. We are more ready to know the heaven than ourselves. So do not despise the wonder in you; for you are small, as you think, but the word, coming upon you, will find you great. For this reason the wise David, knowing how to examine himself accurately, says, "Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me." I have wonderfully discovered the knowledge concerning you. From where? From me. "Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me"; and having observed the craft in me, with how much wisdom my body was constructed, from this small construction I have conceived the great craftsman. "Let us make a human being according to our image and likeness." It was shown earlier in passing, and sufficiently shown, whose the word is and to whom the word is addressed. The church has the proofs concerning these things, or rather, it has faith more certain than proof.

Let us make man. From this beginning, learn to know yourself. Not yet concerning any other creation is this voice recorded. Light came to be, and it was a simple command: God said, "Let there be light." Heaven, and heaven without deliberation; luminaries, and he deliberated nothing concerning the luminaries; sea and boundless oceans, and they were brought into being by command. All kinds of fish came into being when commanded, wild beasts and cattle, swimming and flying creatures: He spoke, and it came to be. Here man is not yet, and there is deliberation concerning man. He did not say as concerning the others: "Let there be man." Learn the worth of yourself. He did not cast your generation to a command, but there was a council in God as to how the precious animal was to be brought into life. "Let us make": the wise one deliberates, the craftsman ponders. Does something lack in his art, that from concern he wishes to make his work of art perfect and complete and precise? Or is it to show you that you are perfect in the sight of God? You have learned that there are two persons: the one speaking and the one to whom the speech is addressed. Why did he not say "I will make," but "Let us make man"? So that you may understand the equality of lordship, so that, recognizing the Father, you may not disown the Son, so that you may know that the Father made through the Son and the Son created by the Father's will, and you may glorify the Father in the Son and the Son in the Holy Father. Thus you have become a common work, so that you may be a common worshiper of both, not dividing the worship but uniting the divinity. See a history in form, but theology in power. "And God made man." "Let us make," and he did not say "and they made," so that you may not take occasion for polytheism.

For if the plural person had been introduced, humans would have become reckless, heaping up many multitudes of gods for themselves. But now: "Let us make," so that you may recognize Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; "God made man," so that you may unite the divinity—you will unite not the hypostases but the power, so that you may have one glory, not being divided in worship, not being divided into polytheism. He did not say, "The gods made man," but, "God made man." There is a distinct hypostasis of the Father, a distinct one of the Son, and a distinct one of the Holy Spirit. Why then are there not three gods? Because there is one divinity: the divinity I see in the Father, I see this same one also in the Son, and the one I see in the Holy Spirit, I see this same one also in the Son; because the form in each is one, and the beginning from the Father in the Son is the same. For this reason, worship and doxology from us are also one. The preamble of our generation is true theology. "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." We have been made according to the image of God. How then are we according to the image of God? Let us cleanse the heart of vulgarity, of uneducated preconception, of ignorant notions about God. If we have been made according to the image of God, he says, is God of the same form as us? Eyes around God, and ears, a head, hands, a hip on which he sits (for it is said in Scripture that God sits), feet with which he walks? Is God then such? Remove from the heart inappropriate fantasies. Expel from yourself a thought that does not fit the greatness of God. God is formless, simple; do not imagine a form around him. Do not diminish the great one in a Jewish manner, do not enclose God in bodily concepts, do not circumscribe him with your mind.

He is ungraspable in magnitude. Consider the great, and to the great add more than what you have conceived, and to the more add yet more, and persuade your own reasoning that it will not reach the infinite. Do not conceive a shape; God is conceived from power. How great is the magnitude of a nature in simplicity? He is everywhere and exceeds the all, and he is intangible, indefinite, surpassing your comprehension; he is not limited by magnitude, nor encompassed by shape, nor measured by power, nor confined by times, nor bounded by limits. Nothing about God is as it is about us. How then did Scripture say that we have been made in the image of God? Let us be taught about God, let us understand about ourselves, that we do not have the "in the image" in the form of the body. For the form of a body perishes, but the incorruptible is not shaped in the corruptible, nor is the corruptible an image of the incorruptible. The body grows, diminishes, ages, changes; it is one thing in youth and another in old age, one thing when healthy and another when in afflictions, one thing when afraid and another when rejoicing, one thing in want and another in satiety, one thing in peace and another in war. The color is one thing when awake and another when sleeping; in the former, the more reddish bloom of heat spreads outward, while in the latter, the heat is chilled into the depths. Hence the bodies of sleepers are somewhat pale. How then can that which changes resemble the unchangeable? That which never stands still resemble that which always remains the same? It escapes us like flowing things, it slips away before being seen, the human body appears one thing after another. In our image? Is the flowing image of the unmoved nature?

of the formless is the formed? How then shall we seek the "according to the image"? In what the Lord himself said. If I say something of my own, do not accept it; if it is the Lord's, receive it. Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them rule over the fish. In body or in reason? In soul is the ruling principle, or in flesh? The flesh is weaker than that of many animals. What comparison is there between the flesh of a man and a camel, of a man and an ox, of a man and any beast you wish? The flesh of a man is easily overcome when attacked by the flesh of a beast. But in what does the ruling principle lie? In the abundance of reason. As much as the body's power falls short, so much does the constitution of reason exceed. Whence does man move great weights, by ingenuity or by bodily strength? Let us make man according to our image. He means the inner man when he says "Let us make man." But you will say: why does he not speak to us about reason? He said man is according to the image of God; but is reason man? Listen to the apostle saying: Even if the outer man in us is corrupted, yet the inner is renewed day by day. How? I recognize two men, one visible and one hidden, invisible in the visible, the inner man. So we have an inner man within us, and we are in some way double. And indeed what is said is true, that we are within; for I am according to the inner man; the outer things are not I but mine. For the hand is not I, but I am the rational part of the soul, and the hand is a part of the man. So the body is an instrument of the man, an instrument of the soul, and man is properly according to the soul itself.

Let us make man according to our image, that is, we shall give him an abundance of reason. And let them rule. Not: Let us make man according to our image, and let them be angry and desire and grieve; for the passions were not taken into the image of God, but reason, the master of the passions. And let them rule over the fish. Immediately you were created, and you were created a ruler. And let them rule. Having received authority for one year from a king, a man from a man, a mortal from a mortal, receiving from one who does not have it—what authority over the soul does a man receive? But you received from God, not written on wooden tablets nor on perishable folds consumed by moths, but nature itself has the divine voice inscribed. Let them rule: all these things belong to human rule. Let them rule over the fish, the beasts of the earth, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the reptiles that crawl upon the earth. He did not say: Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them eat every fruit-bearing tree that has fruit in itself. The things of the flesh are secondary, the things of the soul are primary, the things that come first. The power to rule was voted to us first. You are a ruling creature, O man, and why do you serve the passions? Why do you cast down your own dignity and become a slave of sin? Why do you make yourself a captive of the devil? You were elected ruler of creation, and you have cast off the dignity of your own nature? Were you called a slave? Why does the slavery of the body grieve you? Why do you not take pride in the dominion given to you by God, that you have reason as master of the passions?

When you see your master being a slave to pleasure, and yourself temperate, know that you are a slave only in name, while he has the title of mastery but in fact has confirmed slavery. Do you see him being dragged along with the prostitute, and yourself despising the prostitute? How are you not the master of the passion, and he not a slave of the pleasures that are trampled under your feet? Therefore, "Let us make man, and let them rule." Where the power to rule is, there is the image of God. "Let them rule over the fish." First, rule over those that are separated from us was given to us. It did not say, "Let them rule over the animals that share our life," but "over the fish," for their way of life is in the water. So rule over the fish was given to us first. And how do we rule over the fish? If you have ever known yourself appearing in a lake, how your shadow terrified everything. Who is so much a master of a household that, when the house is in uproar, by suddenly appearing he brings silence and changes everything into good order by the presence of the one in authority? How does every aquatic

by the appearance of one man, creation changes its form. It no longer has its free way of life; it does not dare to swim on the backs of the sea or the lake. The dolphin, when it sees a man nearby, although the dolphin is the most kingly of the sea monsters, feels shame. Thus was given to man the rule over swimming creatures. When you see your own reason penetrating all things and ruling all things, how do you not rule the sea monsters? I have seen human ingenuity, that they make a construction of certain hooks and, casting these with baits proportionate to the size of the swallowing sea monsters, then, at the other end of those ropes from which the hooks are suspended, having inflated skins with air and tied them to those ends, they let them float suspended over the sea. So the wild sea monsters, carried to the baits and receiving the hooks upon themselves, drag the skins into the deep, but the nature of the skins, being upward-bearing, pulls back again to the surface. And pierced by their own food, raging up and down and roaming, they search the depths. They measure seas of seas and, having much labor fruitless, finally become capturable by that hook, tamed by labor, consumed by hunger, and, dragged dead with the skins, become prey for the hunter: the small over the great, the weak over the immense. Why? Because by the abundance of reason, having received the power to rule, he brings the most disobedient to order like bad runaways; those who cannot be led by gentleness, he enslaves through necessity.

Thus everywhere the power of rule, implanted in humanity by the Creator, belongs to man. Hence swordfish, hammerheads, whales, sawfish, oxen, and all those fearsome names of sea monsters have become subject to man. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the beasts of the earth. Do you not see the heavy, roaring lion, whose very glance is unbearable and whose roar makes the earth tremble? To whom is it so tolerable as to endure its charge? To none of the animals. It trusts in such an abundance of power that it disdains all beasts. But yet you see it confined in a small cage. Who confined it, who devised the small prison for the great beast? Who, by the thinness of those wooden bars, provided breathing for the beast, so as not to suffocate it with its own breath, but both gave it free respiration and arranged for its security? Who? Is it not man? They make playthings of the most savage beasts. Does he not mock the leopards, when he stretches a sheet shaped like a man, and the leopard tears the sheet, while the man lying beneath laughs at the beast's folly? Does not man prevail over all by his abundance? How shall I tell you about flying creatures? That man does not ascend into the air, but flies alongside the birds by the power of his reason. For nothing restrains reason. It explores the depths, hunts what is above the earth, anticipates what is in the air. Have you ever seen a bird sitting on the tip of a branch, mocking men? For it trusts in the lightness of its wing.

But still one may see a chattering child place reeds under reeds and attach birdlime to the tip of the reeds, then stealthily through the branches and leaves conceal the presence of the birdlime. And the eye of the bird, lifted aloft, was caught by a slight touch, and the creature borne through the air, the winged thing carried through the ether, was brought captive by the birdlime. Man lies below, and his hand is below, but his mind ascends, and through art all things become attainable to man. Nets are set for winged creatures, archers take aim at flying things, the more gluttonous are hunted by bait. Have you never seen an eagle fall greedily upon prey, then be pierced by the snares below? Thus the lofty is brought low, drawn by human lures. He brought all under the hand of man, and filled creation, and did not make man bereft of dominion. Do not say: How do the things borne in the air concern me? Through reason even those become subject to you. And of the reptiles that crawl upon the earth. Do you see where you have the being made in the image of God? And God made man. What then is man? Let us define it from what we have read and from what we have heard. For we no longer need to borrow definitions from others, nor to introduce into the reasoning of truth things from vanity. Man is a rational creation of God, made in the image of the one who created him. If anything is lacking in this account, let those who have spent much on the acquisition of perishable wisdom examine it. Man was made in the image of God. And God blessed man and said:

Increase and multiply and fill the earth. This is also the blessing of fish: And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls. And it was so. Then, And God said, Increase and multiply and fill the waters. What then is superfluous? These things are necessary. And he granted you the common things, and the particular things await you. For you increase as do the other animals, from a small beginning coming to perfection through gradual additions. So also horses and dogs, so also eagles and swans and all that you might mention, through a small first gestation, receiving the perfection of growth through gradual addition, then again through diminution return to the smaller. What therefore were common to nature, these he also gave to us. Increase, that is, be nourished, being born small become large, and let there be a limit to growth. For since in the first seven-year period we are nourished and a change of age takes us to the second week of years, we ought not likewise in every part of our life to undergo a change of age by weeks. The first week has the age of childhood. The boundaries of childhood are manifest: the change of teeth; some fell out, others grew in. A second beginning of growth took place. At the end of the fourteenth, the second, that of boys, remains. For first is infant, then child, then youth, then man. From the fourteenth year, here are the boundaries of growth.

Increase then. It is not that if one becomes a hundred years old, from the first to the hundredth year one admits increase, but this word "Increase," wisely spoken, has been providentially arranged: Increase up to a certain point. But not the measures of increase. According to the first constitution laid down in the womb, the principles of increase were also laid down. For the gift of stature is not something later supervening, but the maternal deposits have the capacities for increase deposited together with them. Then it emerged from the womb, it grew as much as in the arms of the mother. The teeth fell out, we knew that it had grown that much. The father measured the three-year-old child; he knows that it will receive double this size at maturity. For as much as it is at three years, twice that it will be at the completion of its growth. This is the measure of human nature up to the final limit from the first hebdomad to the second. There then the heat is greater, the formation of the body is more rarefied. The moisture fails, the limbs become strong. At the beginning the limbs are more flaccid than those of adults; men do not yet have perfection. For their flesh is still newly formed and unfit for enduring labors. The animal has then received lightness and agility. In the third hebdomad it then receives the perfection of growth. The extension of the body in length still continues.

After the third hebdomad, when nature has recovered from the labors of upward growth, it then begins to extend into breadth and, as it were, to lay foundations for what has been raised, and to put thickness and strength around them, making the limbs of the body robust. Nature does these things according to its own sequence. But from the beginning it was done by a master's command, and what was then spoken proceeds through all creation until the end: "Increase and multiply." Increase, so that creation may not be confined to one; multiply, so that it may be not into one but into many. "And fill the earth." Fill, not by habitation—for we would be cramped living if the earth were only as much as measures us—but fill by authority. He gave us dominion over the earth. "Fill the earth." Surely not the scorched and uncultivated, nor the frozen and impassable; surely not these do men necessarily fill, but He made us fill in a sovereign sense, and we fill that earth by reason. When we see how great a measure of the scorched and uninhabitable earth there is, when we see how great the northern clime is, which because of excessive cold is uncultivated and useless, have we not filled the earth? Have we not, choosing the useful, set aside as much as is useless for human livelihood? So "Fill the earth" made us masters. It is not because we do not have the use of all that we do not have dominion over all.

For when you buy grain, you are not lord of the whole, since in the grain you have the edible part and the part to be discarded; or do you throw away the stones as useless, and anything else mixed in that is unsuitable for food, and after blowing away the chaff and separating out the darnel, do you select only that which is pure for the sustenance of life? So then, the earth: some of it was granted as suitable for habitation, the better part; some was necessary for farming; other parts were set aside for grazing of four-footed animals. Tell me: can I arrange things as I wish, since I have become lord by the gift of the master who created me? And fill it. And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the land. This then is the blessing, this is the legislation, this is the authority given to us by God. And God made man, he made him in the image of God. Did I not indicate that the demonstration was incomplete? Let us make man in our image and likeness; the deliberation had two parts: "in the image" and "in the likeness." The creation has one. Did he not intend one thing and then change his mind? Did some regret follow the creation? Did the creator lack strength, choosing one thing and doing another? Or is there idle talk in the words? For perhaps it says the same thing: "Let us make man in the image and likeness"; for having said "in the image," did it not say "in the likeness"? Whichever we choose, we will accuse the text. For if it says the same thing, it is superfluous to say the same thing twice. To say an idle word in Scripture is a terrible blasphemy. But indeed, it does not speak idly.

Therefore it is necessary that man come to be both according to the image and according to the likeness. Why is it not said: "And God made man according to the image of God and according to the likeness"? Did the maker lack power? The word is impious. Did the one commanding change his mind? The thought is more impious. But did he speak and then reconsider? No. So neither does Scripture say the same thing, nor is the Creator powerless, nor was his purpose rendered vain. What is the reason for the silence? "Let us make man according to our image and according to the likeness." The one we have by creation, the other we achieve by choice. In the first formation, being made according to the image of God coexists with us; being according to the likeness of God is achieved by us through choice. This thing that is according to choice exists in us potentially, but we bring it upon ourselves in actuality. If the Lord, when making us, had not said beforehand, "Let us make also according to the likeness," if he had not granted us the potential to come to be according to the likeness, we would not have received the likeness to God by our own authority. Now, however, he made us potentially capable of being likened to God. And having given the potential to be likened to God, he left us to be workers of the likeness to God, so that the reward of the work might be equal to that of angels, so that we might not be like images made by a painter, lying idle in vain, so that the praise for our likeness might not bring honor to another. For when the

If you see an image precisely formed according to the prototype, you do not praise the image, but you admire the painter. Therefore, in order that the wonder become mine and not another's, He left to me the becoming according to the likeness of God. For according to the image I have the being rational, but according to the likeness I become by becoming good. "Become perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Do you see where the Lord gives us the "according to the likeness"? That He makes His sun rise upon the wicked and the good and rains upon the just and the unjust. If you become a hater of evil, forgetful of wrongs, not remembering yesterday's enmity, if you become brother-loving, compassionate, you have become like God. If you forgive your enemy from the heart, you have become like God. If you are as God is toward you the sinner, you become such toward the brother who has offended you, by compassion toward your neighbor you have become like God. So then, the "according to the image" you have from being rational, but the "according to the likeness" you become by taking up goodness. Take up the bowels of pity, goodness, that you may put on Christ. For by the means by which you take up sympathy, by these you put on Christ and by the affinity with Him you become akin to God. Thus the history is an instruction for human life. "Let us make man according to the image": let him have the "according to the image" in the creation. Let him also become "according to the likeness": He gave the power for this. If He had made him also "according to the likeness," where is your grace? Why are you crowned? For if the Creator had given the whole, how would the kingdom of heaven be opened to you?

Now one part has been given, the other left incomplete, so that by perfecting yourself you may become worthy of the reward from God. How then do we become according to the likeness? Through the Gospels. What is Christianity? Likeness to God as far as is possible for human nature. If you have undertaken to be a Christian, hasten to become like God, put on Christ. But how will one who has not been sealed put Him on, how will one who has not received baptism, who has not received the garment of incorruption, put Him on? Do you reject likeness to God? If I said to you, "Come, become like a king," would you not judge me a benefactor? Since I wish to make you like God, do you flee the word that deifies you, stopping your ears so that you may not even hear the saving word? And God made man according to the image. "Man," says the woman, "what is that to me? The male was made." For it did not say "the woman," she says, but by the addition of the article it indicated the masculine. But so that no one might ignorantly use the appellation "man" only of the male, it added: "Male and female He made them." And the woman has been made according to the image of God just as the man likewise. The natures are of equal honor, the virtues are equal, the rewards are equal, the condemnation is alike. Let her not say, "I am weak." Weakness is of the flesh; the power is in the soul. Since, then, the image according to God is of equal honor, let virtue and the display of good works be of equal honor. There is no excuse for one who wishes to plead the weakness of the body. For this very reason it is simply soft, but through sympathy it is strong in endurance, and vigorous in vigils.

When can the nature of a man compete with the nature of a woman who endures her life with fortitude? When can a man imitate the vigor of women in fasts, their diligence in prayers, their abundance in tears, their readiness for beneficence? I have seen a woman secretly stealing good thefts and performing acts of kindness without her husband, doing them on behalf of her husband, for the increase of the household, for the preservation of her children, giving and concealing the knowledge from her husband, casting them out on his behalf and hiding them herself. For what she did, she did for the one who sees in secret, not publicizing her own beneficence. The good woman possesses the "according to the image." Do not attend to the external person; that is a covering. The soul sits within under a veil and a delicate body. Soul and soul are of equal honor; the difference is in the coverings. Therefore you became like God through goodness, through forbearance, through fellowship, through being brother-loving and loving one another, hating evil, mastering the passions of sin, so that to you

to have rule. And let them rule over fish. You were given rule over irrational fish, so that you became ruler of irrational passion. And let them rule over beasts. You rule over every beast. What then, you will say, do I have beasts within myself? Yes, you have countless beasts and a great multitude of beasts within yourself. And do not think this is an insult. Is anger a small beast when it barks in the heart? Is it not fiercer than any dog? And is deceit lurking in a treacherous soul not more untamable than any bear in its den? Is hypocrisy not a beast? And is the one sharp for insult not a scorpion? And is the one secretly rushing to vengeance not more dangerous than a viper? And is the greedy one not a rapacious wolf? What beast is not in us? Is the woman-mad man not a frenzied horse? For it says, "Horses became woman-mad, each neighed at his neighbor's wife." It did not say "spoke to the woman" but "neighed." It transferred him to the nature of irrational beings through the passion to which he was assimilated. So there are many beasts in us. You have therefore become ruler of beasts: if you rule over external ones, will you leave the internal ones ungoverned? What kind of person will you be, if with reason you master the lion and despise its roar, but you grind your teeth and emit inarticulate sound, while anger within, striving to burst forth all at once, does not allow it to remain within? What is more grievous than this, when a man is mastered by passion, when anger, having pushed aside reason, itself takes over the dominion of the soul? You were therefore created a ruler: ruler of passions, ruler of beasts, ruler of reptiles, ruler of birds.

neither have thoughts that wander in the heights, nor be light and unstable in your mind. You were judged to rule over birds. It is absurd that you bring down flying things with birdlime, while you yourself are light and high-flown. Do not be puffed up, do not be exalted, do not think more highly than the human nature, do not be inflated when praised, do not glorify yourself nor consider yourself to be something great. For you will thus be an unstable bird, carried about here and there by your unsteady nature. Rule over the thoughts within you, so that you may become ruler of all that exists. Thus the rule given through the animals regulates us toward ruling ourselves. For it is absurd to be ruled at home while ruling over nations, to be controlled by a courtesan within while being a public protector of a city. One must first arrange one’s own affairs well and order the good order within, and then take up the oversight of others, since the argument will be turned back by those under authority if one’s own affairs are disorderly and unarranged: “Physician, heal yourself.” Let us first heal ourselves. No one has been condemned for not having hunted a lion; but for not having mastered anger, one is altogether laughable. So the one who does not overcome his own passion is brought to condemnation, while the one who cannot overcome wild beasts will not yet appear to have done anything worthy of blame.

The Lord who arranged for these things to be written, who also permitted our small and weak tongue to speak to you thus far, who through our feeble understanding revealed to you great treasures in the few shadows of truth, may he grant to you through the small things the great, through the few seeds the perfection of knowledge, and to us the full reward of our intention, and to you the completed fruit of the enjoyment of the divine words, because to him belongs the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.