1. Since I have learned, my dear Marcian, your inclination to walk in worship of God, and this alone leads a man to eternal life, I share with you your joy, and I beseech you, with unshakable firmness in the faith, to be pleasing to God, your Creator. Oh, that we could be constantly together, and mutually benefit and facilitate the life of this world, by spending it in unceasing common conversation on useful subjects! But since at present we are bodily separated from each other, I would like not to miss the opportunity to speak to you in writing, and to set forth in brief words the preaching of the truth, in order to strengthen your faith. I send you this (work) as an important written reminder, so that you may receive much in little, and in small things you may know all the members of the body of truth, and in brief you may hear the proofs of the divine. For in this way your salvation will also be fruitful, and you will cause the eyes of all false believers to be downcast, and to anyone who wants to know, you will resolutely expound our sound and irreproachable word (cf. Titus. II, 8). For there is one way, accessible to all who see, which is illuminated by heavenly light; but the paths of those who do not see are numerous and obscure and opposite, and the former leads to the heavenly kingdom, uniting man with God, while these bring down to death, separating man from God. Therefore, both you and all those who are concerned about your own salvation must unswervingly and firmly and confidently carry out your walk in faith, so that, having become careless and unsettled, you will not be left to wallow in material lusts, or even lose your way if you go astray.

2. Since man —

For godliness, through the defilement and defilement of the body, becomes gloomy and sorrowful; it is distorted and defiled and no longer remains intact if falsehood penetrates the soul; on the contrary, it is preserved in beauty and in its measure, if truth in the spirit and purity in the heart remain steadfast. For what is the use of knowing the truth in words, and defiling the body and doing evil deeds? Or, on the other hand, what good can purity of the body be at all, if there is no truth in the soul? For these (i.e., the truth and the soul) both rejoice together with each other, and are united, and are partners in the struggle to set man before God. And therefore the Holy Spirit said through David: "Blessed is the man who does not go into the counsel of the ungodly" (Ps. I, 1); it is the mood of those tribes that do not know God. For these godless are those who do not worship the really existing God. And therefore the Word said to Moses, "I am that I am" (Exod. III, 14). Consequently, those who do not worship the Eternal God are godless. "And he does not stand in the way of sinners," and sinners are those who have knowledge of God, but do not keep His commandments, i.e., they are despising scorns. "And he does not sit in the seat of the scornful," and the corrupters are those who, by their deceitful and perverse teaching, corrupt not only themselves, but also others, for the seat is a symbol for the pulpit (of the teacher). Such are all heretics: they sit in the seat of the corrupters and corrupt those who accept the poison of their teaching.

3. Therefore, in order not to endure this, we must keep the rule of faith intact, and obey the commandments of God, believing in God and fearing Him, because He is Lord, and loving Him, because He is the Father. Work proceeds from faith, for "if ye do not believe," says Isaiah, "ye shall not understand" (VII, 9); but faith is brought by truth, for faith is built on that which truly exists, so that we may believe in what is (ta onta) as it is; And since faith is the constant guardian of our salvation, it is necessary and worthy to apply much care to it in order to attain a true understanding of what is. It is faith that produces this in us, as the presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, handed down to us. First of all, it teaches us to remember that we have been baptized for the remission of sins in the name of God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the incarnate and dead and risen Son of God, and in the Holy Spirit of God; and that this baptism is the seal of eternal life, and has been regenerated into God, that we may not be children of dead men, but of the eternal and unchanging God; that the eternal and immutable might be made God, and that He might stand high above every one of the beings that had come into being, and all things should be subject to Him, and that those who were subject to Him might all become His own, that God might rule and be Lord, not over anything else, but over His own, that all things are God's, and that therefore God is the Almighty, and all things are from God.

4. For it is necessary that we who have come into existence should have the beginning of our being from some great cause; and God is the beginning of all things, for He Himself did not come from anything, but from Him all things came. And therefore it is necessary and worthy to confess first of all that He is the one God, the Father, Who created and formed all things, and brought into being that which does not exist, and while He embraces all things, He alone does not comprehend. Between all (what has happened) there is also this world of ours and man in the world; therefore, this world was also created by God.

5. Therefore the matter is as follows: God, the Father, who did not come into being, invisible, the Creator of all things, over whom there is no other God, and after whom there is no other God; and since God is a rational being, therefore He created things by the Word; and since God is a Spirit, He adorned all things with the Spirit, as the prophet says: "By the word of the Lord the heavens are established, and by His Spirit all their power" (Psalm 32:6). Since the word affirms, that is, is the product of the body and gives the essence of the emanation, and the spirit orders and forms the differences of powers, then in all justice the Word is called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. Paul, His Apostle, also says appropriately (on this occasion): "There is one God the Father, Who is over all, and with all, and in all of us" (Eph. IV, 6). For the Father is above all, and the Word is with all, since through Him all things came from the Father, and in all of us is the Spirit, Who cries: "Abba Father" (Gal. IV, 6), and prepares man for the likeness of God. The Spirit shows the Word, and therefore the prophets proclaimed the Son of God; but the Word gives an image to the Spirit, and therefore He Himself is the inspirer of the prophets and brings man to the Father.

6. Such is the rule of our faith and the foundation of the building and the strength of walking: God, the Father, not having come into being, not embracing, invisible, one God, the Creator of all things; This is the very first point of our faith. The second proposition is the Word of God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who appeared to the prophets according to the image of their prophecy and according to the definition of the Father, through Whom all things came to pass, Who also at the end of time, in order to bring all things to perfection and unite, became man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show life and bring about the communion of union between God and man. And the third proposition is the Holy Spirit, by whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of divinity, and the righteous were led into the way of righteousness, and Who at the end of time was poured out in a new way upon mankind throughout the whole earth, renewing man to God.

7. And therefore the baptism of our regeneration is accomplished by means of these three propositions, when God the Father gives us grace for regeneration through his Son through the Holy Spirit. For those who bear the Spirit of God within them are brought to the Word, that is, to the Son, but the Son brings them to the Father, and the Father gives them to partake of incorruption. Consequently, without the Spirit it is impossible to see the Son, and without the Son it is impossible to approach the Father; for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of the Son through the Holy Spirit, and the Son communicates the Spirit, according to His ministry, according to the Father's good pleasure, to those to whom and how the Father wills.

8. 

And the Jews (God) as Lord and lawgiver, for in the middle of time, when mankind forgot God and departed from Him and apostatized, He brought them into ministry by the law, that they might know that they have (above them) the Lord, the creator and founder of the world, Who gives the breath of life, Whom we must worship day and night. To the Gentiles He is God, as creator and almighty, and at the same time as nourisher and bread-giver and king and judge; for no one can escape His judgment, neither Jew nor Gentile, nor believer who has sinned, nor angel. But those who now do not trust in His goodness will recognize His power at the judgment, as the blessed Apostle says: "You do not understand that the goodness of God draws you to repentance, you by your stubbornness and impenitence of heart store up for yourselves wrath for the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will reward each one according to his deeds" (Romans 11:4-6). This is He Who is called in the law the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of the living. And despite all this, the height and greatness of this particular God are indescribable.

9. But the world is surrounded by seven heavens, in which dwell the powers, angels and archangels, performing the service of worshiping God, the Almighty and Creator of all things, not because He supposedly needs it, but so that they may not be idle and useless and without grace. And therefore the Holy Spirit abounded in His indwelling, and the Prophet Isaiah numbered in the seven forms of ministry which rested upon the Son of God, that is, on the Word, when He came as a man. For "the Spirit of God," He says, "shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength (the spirit of knowledge) and godliness, the spirit of the fear of God shall fill Him" (Isa. XI:2-3). And so, the first heaven above, which embraces the rest, is wisdom, and the second after it is the heaven of understanding, and the third is counsel, and the fourth, counting from above, is the heaven of strength, and the fifth is the heaven of knowledge, and the sixth is the heaven of godliness, and the seventh is this firmament above us, which is filled with the fear of the Spirit who illumines this heaven of ours (cf. Wisdom 1:7). For Moses took from here the pattern of the seven-branched lampstand, which shone continually in the sanctuary; because he arranged this divine service in the heavenly image, as the Word says to him: "You must make it exactly after the pattern that you saw on the mountain" (Exodus XXV, 40).

10. This God is glorified by His Word, who is the eternal Son of God, and by the Holy Spirit, who is the Wisdom of the Father of all; and the powers of these (the latter), the Word and the Wisdom, which are called cherubim and seraphim, glorify God with an unceasing song of praise; and every creature that is in heaven gives honor to God, the Father of all. He formed the whole world by the Word, and in this world there are also angels, and He gave laws to the whole world, so that each (being) should dwell in its own (domain) and not overstep the limits set by God, each doing the work entrusted to him.

11. But He created man with His own hands, taking from the earth the purest, finest, and most delicate, and to a certain extent He mingled His power with the earth; for He gave creation His own forms, so that the visible (in it) might also be God-like. For created man was placed on earth as the image of God. And in order for him to become alive, He breathed into his face the breath of life, so that both in breath and in creation man is like God. He was free and independent, since he was created by God in order to rule over everything that is on earth. And this entire universe, which contains everything in itself — prepared by God before the creation of man — was given to man as a place (of residence). And in this place there were, each with his own ministry, the servants of the God Who created all things; and the steward who was appointed over the Sorabs ruled over this place. The servants were angels, and the steward was the archangel.

12. God, having made man the ruler of the earth and all that is in it, has also made him the ruler of those who are servants on it (i.e., the angels). However, they possessed their proper perfection, and the lord, i.e. man, was small, for he was a child, and therefore it was necessary for him to grow to achieve perfection. And in order that his nourishment and growth might take place in full joy and pleasure, He prepared for him a better place than this world, which was excellent in air, beauty, light, food, plants, fruits, waters, and in all other means of life; And it's called paradise. And this paradise was so beautiful and beautiful that the Word of God was constantly moving in it, walking and conversing with man about the future that was to happen, sealing it beforehand; In this way it lived with them, and conversed with them, and was with men, teaching them righteousness. But man was a child, since he did not have perfect understanding, which is why he was easily deceived by the deceiver.