NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

In the Beginning God made the Heaven and the Earth.“In the beginning God created,” it is to teach us that at the will of God the world arose inless than an instant, and it is to convey this meaning more clearly that other interpretershave said: “God made summarily” that is to say all at once and in a moment. 1390 But enoughconcerning the beginning, if only to put a few points out of many.7. Among arts, some have in view production, some practice, others theory. 1391 Theobject of the last is the exercise of thought, that of the second, the motion of the body.Should it cease, all stops; nothing more is to be seen. Thus dancing and music have nothingbehind; they have no object but themselves. In creative arts on the contrary the work lastsafter the operation. Such is architecture—such are the arts which work in wood and brassand weaving, all those indeed which, even when the artisan has disappeared, serve to showan industrious intelligence and to cause the architect, the worker in brass or the weaver, tobe admired on account of his work. Thus, then, to show that the world is a work of art displayedfor the beholding of all people; to make them know Him who created it, Moses doesnot use another word. “In the beginning,” he says “God created.” He does not say “Godworked,” “God formed,” but “God created.” Among those who have imagined that theworld co-existed with God from all eternity, many have denied that it was created by God,but say that it exists spontaneously, as the shadow of this power. God, they say, is the causeof it, but an involuntary cause, as the body is the cause of the shadow and the flame is thecause of the brightness. 1392 It is to correct this error that the prophet states, with so muchprecision, “In the beginning God created.” He did not make the thing itself the cause of itsexistence. 1393 Being good, He made it an useful work. Being wise, He made it everythingthat was most beautiful. Being powerful He made it very great. 1394 Moses almost showsus the finger of the supreme artisan taking possession of the substance of the universe,561390 Aquila’s version in the Hexapla of Origen for ἐν ἀρχᾐ has ἐν κεφαλαί& 251· ἔκτισεν.1391 ἡ ἅπασα διάνοια ἢ πρακτικὴ ἢ ποιητικὴ ἢ θεωρητική. Arist., Met. v. i.1392 The one and the perfect continually overflows, and from it Being, Reason, and Life are perpetually derived,without deducting anything from its substance, inasmuch as it is simple in its nature, and not, like matter,compound. (Enn. iv. ix. 9.) This derivation of all things from unity does not resemble creation, which has referenceto time, but takes place purely in conformity with the principles of causality and order, without volition,because to will is to change. (Enn. iv. 5, i. 6)” Tennemann on Plotinus, Hist. Phil. § 207.1393 The Ben. note is “neque idipsum in causa fuit cur esset, hoc est, non res cæca, non res coacta, non res inviteet præter voluntatem agens in causa fuit cur mundus exstiterit. Hoc igitur dicit Basilius Deum aliter agere atquecorpora opaca aut lucida. Nam corpus producit umbram vi atque necessitate, nec liberius agit corpus lucidum:Deus vero omnia nutu conficit et voluntate. Illud ἐποιησεν, etc., alio modo intellexit et interpretatus est Eustathius.Illius subjicimus verba: non causam præstitit ut esset solum, sed fecit ut bonus utilem.”1394 cf. Plat., Tim. § 10. ᾽Αγαθὸς ἦν, ἀγαθῷ δὲ ουδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδέποτε ἐγγίγνεται φθόνος, τούτου δ᾽ἐκτὸς ὢν πάντα ὅτι μάλιστα γενέσθαι ἐβουλήθη παραπλήσια ἑαυτῷ.259