What is it then which we understand concerning these matters? In saying that "God created man" the text indicates, by the indefinite character of the term, all mankind; for was not Adam here named together with the creation, as the history tells us in what follows ? yet the name given to the man created is not the particular, but the general name: thus we are led by the employment of the general name of our nature to some such view as this-that in the Divine foreknowledge and power all humanity is included in the first creation; for it is fitting for God not to regard any of the things made by Him as indeterminate, but that each existing thing should have some limit and measure prescribed by the wisdom of its Maker.

Now just as any particular man is limited by his bodily dimensions, and the peculiar size which is conjoined with the superficies of his body is the measure of his separate existence, so I think that the entire plenitude of humanity was included by the God of all, by His power of foreknowledge, as it were in one body, and that this is what the text teaches us which says, "God created man, in the image of God created He him." For the image is not in part of our nature, nor is the grace in any one of the things found in that nature, but this power extends equally to all the race: and a sign of this is that mind is implanted alike in all: for all have the power of understanding and deliberating, and of all else whereby the Divine nature finds its image in that which was made according to it: the man that was manifested at the first creation of the world, and he that shall be after the consummation of all, are alike: they equally bear in themselves the Divine image .

For this reason the whole race was spoken of as one man, namely, that to God's power nothing is either past or future, but even that which we expect is comprehended, equally with what is at present existing, by the all-sustaining energy. Our whole nature, then, extending from the first to the last, is, so to say, one image of Him Who is; but the distinction of kind in male and female was added to His work lash as I suppose, for the reason which follows.

Τί τοίνυν ἐστίν͵ ὃ περὶ τούτων διενοήθημεν; Εἰπὼν ὁ λόγος ὅτι ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον͵ τῷ ἀορίστῳ τῆς σημασίας ἅπαν ἐνδείκνυται τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Οὐ γὰρ συνωνομάσθη τῷ κτίσματι νῦν ὁ Ἀδάμ͵ καθὼς ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς ἡ ἱστορία φησίν, ἀλλ' ὄνομα τῷ κτισθέντι ἀνθρώπῳ οὐχ ὁ τὶς ἀλλ' ὁ καθόλου ἐστίν. Οὐκοῦν τῇ καθολικῇ τῆς φύσεως κλήσει τοιοῦτόν τι ὑπονοεῖν ἐναγόμεθα͵ ὅτι τῇ θείᾳ προγνώσει τε καὶ δυνάμει πᾶσα ἡ ἀνθρωπότης ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ κατασκευῇ περιείληπται. Χρὴ γὰρ Θεῷ μηδὲν ἀόριστον ἐν τοῖς γεγενημένοις παρ' αὐτοῦ νομίζειν, ἀλλ' ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων εἶναί τι πέρας καὶ μέτρον͵ τῇ τοῦ πεποιηκότος σοφίᾳ περιμετρούμενον.  

Ὥσπερ τοίνυν ὁ τὶς ἄνθρωπος τῷ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα ποσῷ περιείργεται καὶ μέτρον αὐτῷ τῆς ὑποστάσεως ἡ πηλικότης ἐστίν͵ ἡ συναπαρτιζομένη τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ τοῦ σώματος, οὕτως οἶμαι καθάπερ ἐν ἐνὶ σώματι ὅλον τὸ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος πλήρωμα τῇ προγνωστικῇ δυνάμει παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν ὄλων περισχεθῆναι, καὶ τοῦτο διδάσκειν τὸν λόγον τὸν εἰπόντα͵ ὅτι καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ κατ' εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐν μέρει τῆς φύσεως ἡ εἰκών͵ οὐδὲ ἔν τινι τῶν καθ' αὑτὸν θεωρουμένων ἡ χάρις, ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἅπαν τὸ γένος ἐπίσης ἡ τοιαύτη διήκει δύναμις. Σημεῖον δὲ ὅτι πᾶσιν ὡσαύτως ὁ νοῦς ἐγκαθίδρυται, πάντες τοῦ διανοεῖσθαι καὶ προβουλεύειν τὴν δύναμιν ἔχουσι καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα͵ δι' ὧν ἡ θεία φύσις ἐν τῷ κατ' αὐτὴν γεγονότι ἀπεικονίζεται. Ὁμοίως ἔχει ὅ τε τῇ πρώτῃ τοῦ κόσμου κατασκευῇ συναναδειχθεὶς ἄνθρωπος καὶ ὁ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς συντέλειαν γενησόμενος͵ ἐπίσης ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν φέρουσι τὴν θείαν εἰκόνα.  

Διὰ τοῦτο εἷς ἄνθρωπος κατωνομάσθη τὸ πᾶν͵ ὅτι τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ Θεοῦ οὔτε τι παρῴχηκεν͵ οὔτε μέλλει͵ ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ προσδοκώμενον ἐπίσης τῷ παρόντι τῇ περιεκτικῇ τοῦ παντὸς ἐνεργείᾳ περικρατεῖται. Πᾶσα τοίνυν ἡ φύσις ἡ ἀπὸ τῶν πρώτων μέχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων διήκουσα͵ μία τις τοῦ ὄντος ἐστὶν εἰκών, ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἄῤῥεν καὶ θῆλυ τοῦ γένους διαφορὰ προσκατεσκευάσθη τελευταῖον τῷ πλάσματι͵ διὰ τὴν αἰτίαν͵ ὡς οἶμαι͵ ταύτην.