• τὸ βλεπόμενον — SBLGNT
• τὸ βλεπόμενον — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
• τά βλεπόμενα — Robinson-Pierpont

§286Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a response to the question of origins. the existence of God the Creator can be known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason,122 even if this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why faith comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding of this truth: "By fa…

1. Faith needs a generous and vigorous soul, and one rising above all things of sense, and passing beyond the weakness of human reasonings. For it is not possible to become a believer, otherwise than by raising one's self above the common customs [of the world]. Inasmuch then as the souls of the Hebrews were thoroughly weakened, and though they had begun from faith, yet from ci…

In the beginning God created. To expound the term "beginning" of Christ is altogether frivolous. For Moses simply intends to assert that the world was not perfected at its very commencement, in the manner in which it is now seen, but that it was created an empty chaos of heaven and earth. His authority as a prophet is so great that to overthrow it, we must first subvert the who…

Chapter 1 It is not, my reverend Ambrosius, because we seek after many words — a thing which is forbidden, and in the indulgence of which it is impossible to avoid sin — that we now begin the fifth book of our reply to the treatise of Celsus, but with the endeavour, so far as may be within our power, to leave none of his statements without examination, and especially those in w…

3. But others, including Plato, who is in such repute among the Greeks, argue that God has made the world out of matter previously existing and without beginning. For God could have made nothing had not the material existed already; just as the wood must exist ready at hand for the carpenter, to enable him to work at all.

18. Now Eusebius and his fellows were at the former period examined at great length, and convicted themselves, as I said before; on this they subscribed; and after this change of mind they kept in quiet and retirement ; but since the present party, in the fresh arrogance of irreligion, and in dizziness about the truth, are full set upon accusing the Council, let them tell us wh…

Q. What is true faith? A. True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted …

Before creating the material world, God first conceived the intelligible world as an archetype — a pattern existing in the divine mind, just as an architect conceives a city plan before laying stones. This intelligible cosmos is none other than the Logos of God in the act of creating. The visible world is a copy of the invisible, eternal model.

God spoke and the world came into being from nothing — "Let there be light, and there was light." If the word of God can create from nothing, it can certainly change bread into the body of Christ. Ambrose draws a direct line from the creative power of God's word in Genesis to the transforming power of Christ's word at the Last Supper. The same Logos that made all things now mak…