The eternal and the ever-living — the Father unbegotten, the cosmos made deathless
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Hermes — πρῶτος γὰρ πάντων ὄντως καὶ ἀίδιος καὶ ἀγέννητος ὁ δημιουργὸς τῶν ὅλων θεός. δεύτερος δὲ ὁ κατ' εικόνα αὐτοῦ ὁ κόσμος, ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ γενόμενος καὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ συνεχόμενος καὶ τρεφόμενος καὶ ἀθανατιζόμενος, ὡς ὑπὸ ἰδίου πατρός, ἀεὶ ζῶν ὡς ἀθάνατος. τὸ γὰρ ἀείζωον τοῦ ἀιδίου διαφέρει. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ ἑτέρου οὐκ ἐγένετο· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐγένετο, ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ οὔποτε ἐγένετο, ἀλλ᾽ ἀεὶ γίνεται. τὸ γὰρ ἀίδιον, ᾗ ἀἰδιόν ἐστι, τὸ πᾶν. ὁ δὲ πατὴρ αὐτὸς ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ ἀίδιος, ὁ δὲ κόσμος ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀίδιος καὶ ἀθάνατος γέγονε.
For first of all truly, both eternal and ungenerated, is the craftsman of all things, God. Second, the one after his image, the cosmos — made by him and held together by him and nourished and made immortal, as by its own father, ever living as immortal. For the ever-living differs from the eternal: the one was not made by another; and if it was even made, it was never made by itself, but is ever coming to be. For the eternal, in that it is eternal, is the All; but the Father himself is eternal from himself, while the cosmos has become eternal and immortal by the Father.
For first of all truly, both eternal and ungenerated, is God the craftsman of all things. Second, made after his image, is the cosmos — made by him, held together and nourished and made immortal by him, as by its own father, ever living as immortal. For the ever-living differs from the eternal: the eternal was not made by another, and even if it was made, it was never made by itself, but is ever coming to be. For the eternal, in that it is eternal, is the All; but the Father is eternal from himself, while the cosmos has become eternal and immortal from the Father.
Having denied death, the treatise must say what kind of deathlessness the world has — and it draws a distinction as fine as any in the corpus. There are two orders of endlessness. God is 'eternal and ungenerated (ἀίδιος καὶ ἀγέννητος),' 'the craftsman of all things (ὁ δημιουργὸς τῶν ὅλων).' The cosmos is 'second, made after his image (κατ' εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ)' — and here the verbs pile up in the passive, because everything the cosmos is, it receives: 'made by him, held together and nourished and made immortal by him (ὑπ' αὐτοῦ… συνεχόμενος καὶ τρεφόμενος καὶ ἀθανατιζόμενος), as by its own father.'
The key sentence names the difference: 'the ever-living differs from the eternal (τὸ… ἀείζωον τοῦ ἀιδίου διαφέρει).' The truly eternal (ἀίδιον) 'was not made by another,' is unbegotten, self-standing — 'the Father is eternal from himself (ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἀίδιος).' The cosmos is ἀείζωον, 'ever-living,' but its endlessness is a becoming: it 'is ever coming to be (ἀεὶ γίνεται)' and 'has become eternal and immortal by the Father (ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀίδιος… γέγονε).' So the world does not perish — but not because it is eternal in God's way; because it is perpetually sustained, immortalized by gift. It is the difference between a fire that is its own source and a fire kept eternally lit by another. The distinction quietly guards monotheism: the cosmos is a 'second god,' genuinely deathless, yet wholly dependent — never a rival to the One who is eternal 'from himself.'
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