So then we must believe God in all things, for in all things God is true. Now that there was a Son of God, and that He existed not only before He appeared in the world, but also before the world was made, Moses, who was the first that prophesied [164] says in Hebrew: Baresith bara Elowin basan benuam samenthares. Before the morning-star I begat thee: and before the sun> (is) thy name; [167] and that is, before the creation of the world; for together with the world the stars were made. And again the same says: Blessed is he who was, before he became man. [168] Because, for God, the Son was (as) the beginning before the creation of the world; [169] but for us (He was) then, when He appeared; and before that He was not for us, who knew Him not. [170] Wherefore also His disciple John, in teaching us who is the Son of God, who was with the Father before the world was made, and that all the things that were made were made by Him, says thus: In beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made: showing with certainty that the Word, who was in the beginning with the Father, and by whom all things were made, this is His Son. |