1 (6) It is truly worthy and right before all things to sing a hymn to you,
the one who is truly God;
2 the one who is before things that have been made;
from whom every family in heaven and upon earth is named;
3 the only one without origin, and without a beginning;
and not ruled by a king, and without a master;
4 the one not in want;
the supplier of every good (thing);
5 the one far exceeding every cause and origin;
the one always the same, and holding just so;
6 from whom are all things,
just as from some starting-point, it came in order to be.
7 (7) For you are the knowledge without beginning;
the eternal vision;
the hearing without origin;
the wisdom without teaching;
8 the first by nature,
and only one in being,
and far exceeding every number;
9 the one who brought everything into being out of non-being, through your only Son,
and gave him birth before all the ages,
by purpose, and power, and unmediated goodness—
10 an only Son, a divine Word, a living Wisdom,
a firstborn of all creation,
a messengerb of your great purpose,
your high priest;
11 both king and lord of all intelligible and perceptible nature,
the one before all things, through whom are all things!
12 (8) For you, O eternal God, have made all things through him,
and through him by suitable foreknowledge you design everything.
13 For through him you freely gave being,
(and) through him also you gave well-being.
14 (You are) the God and Father of your only Son,
who through him before all things made the cherubim and the seraphim,
both ages and (heavenly) hosts,
both powers and authorities,
both rulers and thrones,
both archangels and angels;
15 and after all these, having made through him this world that is seen, and everything in it.
16 (9) For you are the one who placed the heaven like a vaulted arch,
and like a screen stretched it out;
17 and founded the earth upon nothing, by judgment alone;
18 the one who fixed a firmament, and prepared night and day;
19 the one who brought light out of the treasuries, and at the contraction of this (light),
the one who brought the darkness for rest for the living creatures moving about in the world;
20 the one who appointed the sun for rule (over) the day in heaven,
and the moon for rule (over) the night,
21 (10) and engraved the choir of the stars in heaven, for praise of your great splendor;
the one who made water for drinking and cleansing,
lively air for breathing in and breathing out,
and for utterance of a voice,
the air having been struck by a tongue,
and (the sense of) hearing, working together under it, so as to hear.
taking in the speech falling upon it;
22 (11) the one who made fire for encouragement (in) darkness,
for fulfillment of want,
and for us to be warmed and enlightened by it;
23 (12) the one who separated the great sea from the land,
who indeed declared the one for navigation,
and made the Other passable for feet;
24 who filled the one with living creatures, small and great,
and filled up the Other with tame animals and untamed;
25 having encircled (it) with manifold plants,
and having crowned (it) with herbs,
and having beautified (it) with flowers,
and having enriched (it) with seeds;
26 (13) the one who framed an abyss,
and surrounded it with a great hollow,
seas of salt waters having been heaped up;
27 the one who by winds sometimes raises it to a crest, to become the height of mountains,
and sometimes spreads it out into a plain,
and sometimes indeed driving it mad with storm,
and sometimes soothing it with a calm,
so as to be easy for crossing by seafaring sailors;
28 (14) the one who encircled with rivers the world
which came into being by you through Christ.
and flooded it with mountain torrents,
and drenched it with never-failing springs,
and bound it tightly all around with mountains,
for an unshakable foundation of a most steadfast earth
29 (15) For you filled your world, and divided and arranged it,
with sweet-smelling and healing herbs;
30 with many and varied living creatures,
with strong ones and with weak ones,
with edible ones and with productive ones,
with tame ones and with untamed ones;
31 with hissings of serpents,
with scrams of many-colored birds;
32 with cycles of years,
with numbers of months and days;
with arrangements of customs;
33 with courses of rain-producing clouds, for the generation of fruits, and the care of living creatures;
34 (and with) a balance of winds,
blowing when they are ordered by you;
(and) the multitude of plants and herbs.
35 (16) And you not only made the world,
but you also made the world citizen in it,
declaring him (to be) a (micro-)cosm of the cosmos.
36 For you said by your Wisdom,
Let us make man according to our image,
and according to (our) likeness;
and let them rule thefish of the sea,
and the winged birds of the heaven.
37 (17) Therefore also you have made him out of immortal soul,
and out of a body that may be scattered;
38 the one indeed out of that which is not,
but the Other out of the four elements.
39 And you have indeed given to him, with reference to the soul.
rational discrimination,
distinguishing of piety and impiety,
observation of right and wrong.
40 While with reference to the body,
you have given (him) five senses,
and the movement involving Change of place.
41 (18) For you, O God Almighty, throuph Christ,
planted a paradise in Eden, eastward,
with all manner of edible foods, in (proper) order;
42 and into it, as if into a very expensive home, you brought him.
43 And indeed, you have given to him an implanted law to do,
so that from himself, and by himself,
he might have the seeds of divine knowledge._
44 (19) So, having brought (him) into the paradise of luxury,
you allowed him the right to partake of all things.
45 But of only one thing did you refuse him the taste;
in hope of greater things,
in order that, if he should keep the commandment,
he might receive immortality as a reward for this.
46 (20) But, having cared nothing for the commandment,
and having tasted of the forbidden fruit,
by the trickery of a serpent,
and by the counsel of a woman,
you indeed rightly thrust him out from paradise.
47 Yet in goodness, you did not overlook him who was perishing forever,
for he was your work of art.
48 But, having subjected to him the creation,
You have given to him, through sweat and hard labors, to provide by himself
the nourishment for his own family,
while you are causing all things to grow, and to ripen.
49 And in time, having caused him to fall asleep for a while,
you called (him) by an oath to new birth;
50 having dissolved the boundaries of death,
you promised life by resurrection!
51 (21) And not only this; but also those who poured forth from him,
to become an innumerable multitude—
52 those who continued with you, you glorified,
while those who separated from you, you punished.
53 And while indeed from Abel, as from a devout man,
you favorably received a sacrifice;
54 from the brother-murderer Cain,
you turned aside the offering as from an accursed person.
55 And in addition to these, you took hold of Seth and Enos, and you translated Enoch.
56 (22) For you are the maker of man,
and the supplier of life,
and the fulfiller of need,
57 and the dispenser of laws,
and the rewarder of those keeping them,
and the avenger of those transgressing them;
58 the one who brought the great flood on the world,
because of the multitude of those who lived godlessly;
59 and who delivered the righteous Noah from the flood in an ark,
together with eight souls;
60 an end indeed of those who have passed on,
but a beginning of those about to be born
61 (You are) the one who kindled the fearful fire against the five cities of Sodom,
and turned a fruitful land into salt because of those living in it,
and snatched away pious Lot from the burning.
You are the one who delivered Abraham from ancestral godlessness,
62 (23) and appointed him heir of the world,
and showed to him your Christ;
63 the one who appointed Melchizedek a high priest in your service;
who declared your much-enduring servant Job conqueror of the archevil serpent;
who made Isaac a son of promise;
(and) Jacob, father of twelve sons; and you fonned his descendants into a multitude;
and who led (them) into Egypt, with seventy-five souls,
63 (24) You, O Lord, did not neglect Joseph,
but gave to him to rule over Egypt—
a reward of the self-control that you enable.
66 You, O Lord, did not disregard the Hebrews,
being worn out by hard labor under the Egyptians.
67 But, on account of the promises (made) to the fathers,
you delivered (them), having punished the Egyptians.
68 (25) And when men had corrupted the natural law,
and at one time, indeed, having esteemed the creation as happening without cause,
and at another time, having honored it more than is right,
comparing it to you, to the God of the universe;
69 you did not permit them to go astray,
but showed forth your holy servant Moses,
having given through him the written Law, as an aid to the natural (law).
70 And you showed the creation to be your work,
and you banished the polytheistic error.
71 You glorified Aaron, and those who came after him, with priestly honor;
72 you punished the Hebrews when they sinned;
you received those who returned (to you).
73 (26) You exacted vengeance on the Egyptians with ten plagues;
you carried the Israelites across a sea, dividing it;
you destroyed the pursuing Egyptians under water;
74 you sweetened bitter water with wood;
you poured forth water out of jagged rock;
75 you rained the manna out of heaven,
a mother-of-quail nourishment out of the air;
76 you comforted them with a pillar of fire by night, for light,
and a pillar of Cloud by day, for shade;
77 you showed forth Joshua, the soldier;
you destroyed seven Canaanite nations through him;
78 you tore in two the Jordan;
you dried up the rivers of Etham;
79 you broke down walls without machines (of war),
and without human hand.
80 (27) Glory is yours, because of all these things,
O Master Almighty!
81 Innumerable armies of angels worship you—archangels, thrones, dominions,
rulers, authorities, powers, eternal armies;
82 the cherubim and the six-winged seraphim, with two covering up their feet,
and with two their heads, and with two flying;
83 and saying together with thousands on thousands of archangels,
and ten thousand times ten thousand angels,
incessantly and loudly crying out
84 —and all the people together, let them say—
“Holy, holy, holy is Lord Sabaoth, the heaven and the earth are full of his glory!
85 (He is) blessed forever!” Amen.