The Son And Creation

Πρὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐθεμελίωσέν με ἐν ἀρχῇ Ἀντὶ τοῦ, kατέβαλεν αἰτίαν τε καὶ κρηπῖδα τῶν κτισμάτων· κατὰ τὸ, Πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκε, καὶ αὐτός ἐστι πρὸ πάντων. Καὶ αὐτὸς δέ φησιν ὁ Κύριος· Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ὡς γὰρ θεμέλιος βουλόμενος εἶναι τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, ἄνθρωπος ὑπέμεινε γενέσθαι, ἵν' ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἱδρυνθῇ μὴ σαλευομένη· οὕτω καὶ τῇ κτίσει παρασχεῖν τὸ εἶναι βουλόμενος, κατ' αὐτὴν γέγονεν, τὴν προειρημένην σχέσιν εἰσάγων, γινόμενος τοῖς ἐσομένοις ἀρχὴ καὶ αἰτία· ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα, φησὶν, ἐκτίσθην, ἀλλὰ πρὸ πάντων γεννᾷ με Θεὸς, ὅπερ ἐστὶν Υἱόν. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εἰς Παροιμιας Source: Migne PG 39.1631c

Before everything He laid me down as a firm foundation in the beginning. 1 With this saying that He was brought forth as the cause and foundation of created things. 'In Him He established everything and He is before everything.' 2 And the Lord Himself says: 'I am the beginning of the creation of God.' 3 For just as He wished to be the foundation of the Church, and suffered to become man, that she should be fixed fast in Him, thus even He wished to give existence to created things, to that accommodating Himself and bringing forth the forespoken state, being for them the beginning and cause. 'But though I was created according to these things,' He says, 'God begot me before everything,' He who indeed is the Son. Didymus the Blind, On Proverbs, fragment 1 Prov 3.16 2 Colos 1.16-17 3 Apoc 3.14, cf Jn 8.25