Letter 244

To Demetrius the Heretic. You asked me where the garments of skin were found for Adam and those with him [Genesis 3:21]. And I in turn ask you: where did the heaven come from, stretched out from things that were not, spread open on high? Where was the sun created, of unapproachable [light]? Where the moon, and the troop of stars? From what natures were the mountains cut out? Where did the means come, for the great Moses, to provide the gnat and the mosquito in Egypt [the plagues]? How was the wooden staff changed into a serpent that was given life and crept along? How came it that the lawgiver's hand was whitened like snow [Exodus 4:6]? So then, in the same way at that time also, the Lord, willing it, made garments of skin for those with Adam without animals and without any human craft and elaborate labor, willing it and at the same time making it, just as in the beginning he willed it, and at once both the heaven and all things came to be.

Ἠρώτησάς με, πόθεν τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἀδὰμ ηὑρέθησαν δερμάτινοι χιτῶνες; Ἀντερωτῶ σε κἀγώ, πόθεν οὐρανὸς ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων τέταται ἐν μετεώρῳ ἀναπετασμένος· πόθεν ἐκτίσθη ἥλιος ἀπροσίτων· πόθεν σελήνη, καὶ ἀστέρων χαρείᾳ· ἀπὸ ποίων φύσεων ἐτμήθη ὄρη· πόθεν τῆς κνιπός, καὶ τοῦ κώνωπος ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ὁ πορισμὸς τῷ μεγάλῳ Μωϋσῇ· πῶς ἡ ξυλίνη ῥάβδος μετεβλήθη εἰς ὄφιν ἐμψυχούμενον, καὶ ἕρποντα· πόθεν τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ νομοθέτου τὸ ὥσπερ χιόνα λευκανθῆναι; Οὕτως οὖν καὶ τότε θελήσας ὁ Κύριος δερματίνους χιτῶνας, χωρὶς ζῴων, καὶ τέχνης τινὸς ἀνθρωπίνης, καὶ πολυτρόπου ἐργασίας ἅμα θέλων ἐποίησε τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἀδάμ, ὡς ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ἅμα ἠθέλησε, καὶ οὐρανός, καὶ πάντα γέγονται.