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so-called. For that is being-itself or life-itself and mind-itself, but everything besides this is rather non-being than being, since there was a time when the being in its cohesion was not, and It remains being and lives and thinks. For it partook of so much life as That One provided, and it thinks as much as That One imparted, but life and mind are not established in the Being as in something. Thus, therefore, and for these reasons, that which is primarily being, being alive and thinking, remains also without faction. For how could substance be in faction against its own life which it brought forth? Or how could this be against that, or mind against its own substance and life, or this against these?

12 Hence, being one, most simple and united, it is three, and for this reason also without faction, having a wonderful union and a yet more wonderful division, or this one ineffable and that one more ineffable. But that we may also demonstrate what is said from more divine scriptures, that He Who Is, the Father, from whom are life and mind, is, the witness is he who said to Moses when he asked, what his name might be, having said, “I am He Who Is.” And the Son is life, proceeding substantially from the Being and returning to it. And he testifies in the gospels, saying: “I am the life.” And the Spirit is mind, itself also proceeding from the Being as from a fountal substance and being essentially manifested through the life and remaining in it and through this returning to that from which it is, so that these might be both one and three. This the Greeks, receiving some dim knowledge from it, named mind of the universe. For this is that which orders all things and is extended to all things with the demiurgic power, which makes substance and makes life, being a certain subtle part of the whole nature, which one of those who have theologized on things both divine and ours also called an odor of divinity.

13 Now indeed it has been demonstrated by probable reasons that the first being must be three, being one and without faction because none of the aforesaid such things is in faction in any way, being preservative of each other and causes of permanence and co-causes of the demiurgic cause, while matter does not have this quality of being without faction, although it too is most simple according to the reasons we have stated. But it is in faction because it does not partake of life and mind, being matter-itself and standing far from the things which give form.

14 Thus for us the problem of the theological father has been solved, both how the one is naturally in faction and how it has remained without faction. But hence something like a corollary has been found for us from what has been said, that when man was condemned to death for the transgression of the commandment no other of the three could have naturally taken him up to save him and restore him to his first rank, except the first life, or life-itself. For since he was condemned not to the disappearance of his substance nor indeed to the complete destruction of his mind, but suffered the loss of immortality, it was necessary for the first life to bear the one who had died, if somehow it might transform him toward the immortal. 15 And perhaps from this the demonic tribe also appears, as not being of a nature to accept the return to the first rank. For how, if this were according to nature, has it not been accomplished by the good creator, who provides to the utmost for his own creations, and is moved with compassion concerning the good of each and its perfection? But indeed in their case neither has their substance been destroyed so as to depart into non-being, nor indeed their life. For they exist and they live, even if not a happy life, but their mind has been overturned and destroyed and has, as it were, advanced to some different form; for it has not suffered an alteration but a certain different formation of a species; for the healing had to come to them from the mind. And this belonged to the first mind, but for mind to assume and correct mind was impossible; especially since how could the impartible run together with the impartible into union? For these reasons, I think, the nature of demons has remained unassumable by the first mind and for this reason also uncorrectable. Let this also be for you as another corollary,

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ὀνομαζόμενα. ἐκεῖνο γάρ ἐστι τὸ αὐτοὸν ἢ αὐτοζωὴ καὶ αὐτονοῦς, τὸ δὲ παρὰ τοῦτο ἅπαν μᾶλλον μὴ ὂν ἢ ὄν, ἐπεὶ ἦν, ὅτε οὖκ ἦν τὸ ὂν τῇδε συνοχῇ τούτου, καὶ μένει ὂν καὶ ζῇ καὶ νοεῖ. τόσον γὰρ μετέσχε ζωῆς ὅσον ἐκεῖνο παρέσχε, καὶ τοσοῦτον νοεῖ ὅσον ἐκεῖνο μετέδωκε, ζωὴ δὲ καὶ νοῦς ἐν τῷ ὄντι οὐχ ὡς ἔν τινι καθεστήκασιν. οὕτω μὲν οὖν καὶ διὰ ταῦτα τὸ πρώτως ὂν ζῶν καὶ νοοῦν τυγχάνον μένει καὶ ἀστασίαστον. πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἡ οὐσία πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ζωὴν στασιάσειεν ἣν προήγαγεν; ἢ πῶς αὕτη πρὸς ἐκείνην ἢ ὁ νοῦς πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν οὐσίαν τε καὶ ζωὴν ἢ αὕτη πρὸς ταῦτα;

12 Ἐντεῦθεν ἓν ὂν ἁπλούστατόν τε καὶ ἡνωμένον τρία ἐστί, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἀστασίαστον, θαυμασίαν ἔχον τὴν ἕνωσιν καὶ θαυμασιωτέραν δὲ τὴν διαίρεσιν, ἢ ἄρρητον ταύτην καὶ ἀρρητοτέραν ἐκείνην. ἵνα δὲ καὶ ἐκ θειοτέρων γραφῶν τὰ λεγόμενα παραστήσωμεν, ὅτι ἔστιν ὁ ὤν, ὁ πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ ἡ ζωὴ καὶ ὁ νοῦς, μάρτυς ὁ φάσκων πρὸς τὸν Μωυσὴν ἐρωτῶντα, τί ἂν εἴη τούτου τὸ ὄνομα, «ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὢν» εἰρηκώς. ὁ δὲ υἱὸς ζωή, ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος ἐνυπόστατος προϊὼν καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἐπιστρέφων. καὶ μαρτυρεῖ ἐν εὐαγγελίοις λέγων· «ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ζωή». τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα νοῦς, τὸ παρὰ τοῦ ὄντος καὶ αὐτὸ προϊὸν ὡς ἐκ πηγαίας οὐσίας καὶ διὰ τῆς ζωῆς οὐσιωδῶς ἐμφαινόμενον καὶ ἐπιμένον ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ διὰ ταύτης πρὸς τὸ ἐξ οὗ ἐπιστρέφον, ἵνα ταῦτα εἶεν καὶ ἓν καὶ τρία. τοῦτο νοῦν τοῦ παντὸς Ἕλληνες, ἀμυδράν τινα γνῶσιν ἐξ αὐτοῦ λαβόντες, ὠνόμασαν. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ τὰ πάντα διακοσμοῦν καὶ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐμπλατυνόμενον μετὰ τῆς δημιουργικῆς δυνάμεως, τῆς οὐσιοποιοῦ καὶ ζωοποιοῦ, λεπτομέρειά τις τυγχάνον τῆς ὅλης φύσεως, ὃ καὶ ὀσμὴν τῆς θεότητος ἔφη τις τῶν θεολογησάντων τὰ θεῖά τε καὶ ἡμέτερα.

13 Ἤδη μὲν εἰκόσι λόγοις ἀποδέδεικται ὡς τὸ πρῶτον ὂν ἀνάγκη τρία εἶναι ἓν ὄν καὶ ἀστασίαστον διὰ τὸ μηδὲν τῶν τοιούτων ἔν τινι στασιάζειν τῶν εἰρημένων, σωστικῶν ὄντων ἀλλήλων καὶ διαμονῆς αἰτίων καὶ τῆς δημιουργικῆς αἰτίας συμπαραιτίων, τῆς ὕλης μὴ ἐχούσης τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ἀστασίαστον, ἁπλουστάτης καὶ ταύτης τελούσης καθ' οὓς εἰρήκαμεν λόγους. στασιάζει δὲ αὕτη διὰ τὸ μὴ μετέχειν ζωῆς τε καὶ νοῦ, αὐτοΰλη οὖσα καὶ μακρὰν τῶν εἰδοποιούντων καθεστηκυῖα.

14 Οὕτω μὲν ἡμῖν τὸ τοῦ θεολόγου πατρὸς ἀπόρημα λέλυται, πῶς τε τὸ ἓν στασιάζειν πέφυκε καὶ πῶς μεμένηκεν ἀστασίαστον. ἀλλ' ἐντεῦθεν οἷόν τι καὶ πόρισμα ἡμῖν ἐκ τῶν λελεγμένων εὑρέθη, ὡς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῇ παραβάσει τῆς ἐντολῆς κατακριθέντος τὸν θάνατον μὴ ἂν ἄλλο ἐκ τῶν τριῶν πεφυκέναι τοῦτον λαβεῖν ἐπὶ τῷ σῶσαι καὶ εἰς τὸ πρῶτον ἐπαναγαγεῖν ἀξίωμα, εἰ μὴ τὴν πρώτην ζωὴν εἴτουν τὴν αὐτοζωήν. ἐπεὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἀφάντησιν τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ κατακέκριται οὔτε μὴν τὴν παντελῆ φθορὰν τοῦ νοός, τῆς ἀθανασίας δὲ ὑπέστη τὴν ἔκπτωσιν, ἔδει τὴν πρώτην ζωὴν τὸν τεθνηκότα φορέσαι, εἴ πως μεταστοιχειώσει πρὸς τὸ ἀθάνατον. 15 Μήποτε δὲ ἄρα καὶ τὸ δαιμόνιον φῦλον ἐντεῦθεν φαίνεται, μὴ πεφυκὸς ἀναδέξασθαι τὴν πρὸς τὴν πρώτην τάξιν ἐπάνοδον. πῶς γὰρ ἄν, εἰ ἦν πρὸς φύσεως τοῦτο, οὐ διαπέπρακται τῷ ἀγαθῷ δημιουργῷ, εἰς ἄκρον προνοουμένῳ τῶν οἰκείων δημιουργημάτων, καὶ τῷ εὐσπλάγχνως κινουμένῳ περὶ τὸ ἑκάστου ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὴν τούτου τελείωσιν; ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις οὔτε οὐσία διέφθαρται εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν προσχωρῆσαι οὔτε μὴν ἡ ζωή. εἰσὶ γὰρ καὶ ζῶσι κἂν οὐκ εὐδαίμονα τὴν ζωήν, ὁ νοῦς δὲ αὐτοῖς ἀνατέτραπται καὶ διέφθαρται καὶ οἷον εἰς ἕτερόν τι εἶδος προυχώρησεν· οὐ γὰρ ἀλλοίωσιν πέπονθεν ἀλλ' ἑτέραν τινὰ εἰδοποίησιν· ἔδει γὰρ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ νοῦ θεραπείαν σφίσι γενέσθαι. τοῦ πρώτου δὲ ἦν τοῦτο νοῦ, νοῦν δὲ νοῦν προσλαβεῖν τε καὶ διορθώσασθαι ἀμήχανον ἦν· ἄλλως τε καὶ ἀμερὲς ἀμερεῖ πῶς ἂν συνδεδραμήκει εἰς ἕνωσιν; διὰ ταῦτα ὡς οἶμαι ἡ τῶν δαιμόνων φύσις ἀπρόσληπτος μεμενήκει τῷ πρώτῳ νῷ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἀδιόρθωτος. ἔστω σοι καὶ τοῦτο ὡς ἕτερόν τι πόρισμα,