Letter 499

To Olybrius the Presbyter. Nowhere did Scripture say that the sun was created according to the image and likeness of God; how, then, do you openly teach this? For even though the sun exists in the heaven of the apostles with the most brilliant rays, nevertheless it was created to serve the human race by command and law, and not indeed by divine hands. But man alone, the marvelous living creature, has been fashioned by the hands of God, and was adorned by immaterial fingers, and has been breathed into with a rational soul.

Οὐδαμοῦ εἶπεν ἡ Γραφή, ὅτι κατ’ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ, καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ὁ ἥλιος κέκτισται· πῶς οὖν σὺ τοῦτο φανερῶς ἐκδιδάσκεις; Κἂν γὰρ ὑπάρχει κατ’ οὐρανὸν ἀποστόλων ὁ ἥλιος ταῖς λαμπροτάταις αὐγαῖς, ἀλλ’ οὖνγε πρὸς τὸ ἀνθρώπινος ὑπηρετεῖν ἐκτίσθη προστάγματι καὶ νόμῳ, οὐ μὴν καὶ θείαις χερσίν. Μόνος δὲ ἄνθρωπος τὸ θαυμάσιον ζῶον χερσὶ Θεοῦ πέπλασται, καὶ τοῖς ἀΰλοις κατεκοσμήθη δακτύλοις, καὶ ψυχὴν ἐμπνέυνεσται λογικήν.