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he commands us to hear him, obeying the royal law, let us hear the beloved Son. And what he wishes us to know about himself, he will show, saying, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should have eternal life.” Therefore we must believe in him, so that we may obtain 1.12.7 eternal life, for “he who believes,” he says, “in him has eternal life”; not the one who knows how he was begotten from the Father, for no one would have a share of eternal life, if indeed this has been said, that “no one knew the Father except the Son, nor did anyone know the Son except” only the “Father” who begot him. Therefore faith is sufficient for our salvation, which provides knowledge of God the Father almighty, and acknowledgment of his only begotten Son as Savior, who indeed among other things also delivered these things thus, saying, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” 1.12.8 And “God” is “spirit.” Therefore it follows to understand, that what is born of God would be God. And by as much as the God who is beyond all things is by nature alienated and removed from earthly flesh, by so much must one understand that the manner in which the Father begot the Son is alienated from the generation of flesh. For not by projecting anything, nor by being altered, nor indeed by being moved by passion, nor at all enduring any of the things known to us 1.12.9, did he give him substance. For he was not a body, so as to reckon in his case an emanation or a diminution or an extension or a change or a turning or a flow or a part or a passion. And apart from all these things, he effected the generation as unspeakable to us and inconceivable, but rather to every created nature unsearchable and untraceable. The sun, then, also begets the ray, and the Son is also called “the radiance of eternal light” and “the radiance of glory,” yet not according to the sensible image of the light; for beyond every example, he gave him substance by unspeakable and incomprehensible principles, and this one as one and only-begotten. 1.12.10 But let every mouth of impious and godless men, who are sick with the polytheistic error, be stopped, who, having cast down the excellent and unique generation of the only-begotten Son into a multitude, have proclaimed a father “of both men and gods,” at once mixing men with gods, and at the same time introducing for them a father of the same nature and the same as them. But these men, by demonic energy, have uttered this impious and godless saying, positing for the mortal, passible, and sinful race of men gods of the same nature and same passions, and a common father for them, who is in every way made like his children; but the ecclesiastical herald proclaims to all the one only-begotten Son of the one God, whom he brought into being for the salvation and providence of all created things. 1.13.1 For since the nature of created things, possessing difference in bodies and incorporeals, animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, mortal and immortal, was not able to approach the God who is above all and over all, nor to partake of the splendors of his divinity, on account of the exceeding deficiency from the superior one, and would have slipped far and very far away through the weakness of its nature, if it had not obtained God the Savior as a helper, reasonably the fatherly love for humanity set his only-begotten Son over all things, both passing through all things and superintending all things and watering them with the provisions from himself 1.13.2. For of all things at once, both in heaven and on earth, the Father who begot him appointed him alone as shepherd and savior and guardian and protector and physician and pilot, entrusting the rudders of the constitution and administration of all things to him alone, which he himself teaches, saying, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father,” and again, “For the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” 1.13.3 And he, like a wise pilot, having received the inheritance from the Father, having mounted the whole world and looking up to his Father, leads and carries all things, steering them, not overlooking the smallest of those needing provision from him, nor disdaining the most insignificant; wherefore to the

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ἀκούειν αὐτοῦ ἐγκελεύεται, βασιλικῷ νόμῳ πειθαρχοῦντες ἀκούσωμεν τοῦ ἀγαπητοῦ υἱοῦ. τί δὲ οὗτος περὶ ἑαυτοῦ βούλεται ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι, παραστήσει λέγων «οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον». πιστευτέον δῆτα αὐτῷ, ὡς ἂν τῆς αἰωνίου τύχοιμεν 1.12.7 ζωῆς, «ὁ» γὰρ «πιστεύων» φησὶν «εἰς αὐτὸν ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον»· οὐχ ὁ γινώσκων ὅπως ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεγέννηται, οὐ γὰρ ἄν τινι μετῆν ζωῆς αἰωνίου, εἰ δὴ τοῦτ' εἴρηται ὅτι «μηδεὶς ἔγνω τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱός, μηδὲ τὸν υἱόν τις ἔγνω εἰ μὴ» μόνος ὁ γεννήσας αὐτὸν «πατήρ». ἀπαρκεῖ τοιγαροῦν ἡμῖν ἡ πίστις πρὸς σωτηρίαν, ἡ θεὸν πατέρα παντοκράτορα παρέχουσα γινώσκειν, καὶ τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ υἱὸν ἐπιγράφεσθαι σωτῆρα, ὃς δὴ πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ ταῦθ' ὧδε παρεδίδου λέγων «τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστιν, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν». 1.12.8 «πνεῦμα» δὲ «ὁ θεός». διὸ ἕπεται νοεῖν, ὡς καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ θεὸς ἂν εἴη. ὅσῳ δὲ τῆς γεώδους σαρκὸς ὁ ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων θεὸς ἀπηλλοτρίωται καὶ ἀπεσχοίνισται τῇ φύσει, τοσούτῳ χρὴ νοεῖν καὶ τῆς τῶν σαρκῶν γενέσεως ἀπηλλοτριῶσθαι τὸν τρόπον, καθ' ὃν ὁ πατὴρ ἐγέννα τὸν υἱόν. οὐ γάρ τι προϊεμένος οὐδ' ἀλλοιούμενος οὐδέ γε παθητικῶς κινούμενος οὐδ' ὅλως τι τῶν ἡμῖν 1.12.9 συνεγνωσμένων ὑπομένων, ὑφίστη αὐτόν. οὐδὲ γὰρ σῶμα ἦν, ὡς ἀπόρροιαν ἢ μείωσιν ἢ ἔκτασιν ἢ μεταβολὴν ἢ τροπὴν ἢ ῥοὴν ἢ μέρος ἢ πάθος ἐπ' αὐτῷ λογίσασθαι. τούτων δ' ἐκτὸς ἁπάντων, ἄρρητον ἡμῖν καὶ ἀνεπιλόγιστον, μᾶλλον δὲ πάσῃ γενητῇ φύσει ἀνεξερεύνητον καὶ ἀνεξιχνίαστον τὴν γενεσιουργίαν ὑφίστη. γεννᾷ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἥλιος τὴν αὐγήν, λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς «ἀπαύγασμα φωτὸς ἀιδίου» καὶ «ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης», οὐ μὴν κατὰ τὴν αἰσθητὴν τοῦ φωτὸς εἰκόνα· ἐπέκεινα γὰρ παντὸς παραδείγματος ἀρρήτοις αὐτὸν καὶ ἀκαταλήπτοις λόγοις ὑφίστη, καὶ τοῦτον ἕνα καὶ μονογενῆ. 1.12.10 δυσσεβῶν δὲ καὶ ἀθέων ἀνδρῶν τῶν τὴν πολύθεον πλάνην νενοσηκότων ἀποπεφράχθω πᾶν στόμα, οἳ τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τὴν ἐξαίρετον καὶ ἰδιάζουσαν γέννησιν εἰς πλῆθος καταβαλόντες πατέρα «ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε» ἀνειρήκασιν, ὁμοῦ μὲν ἄνδρας μίξαντες θεοῖς, ὁμοῦ δὲ τούτοις ὁμοφυᾶ καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν εἰσηγούμενοι πατέρα. ἀλλ' οἵδε μὲν ἐνεργείᾳ δαιμονικῇ τὸ δυσσεβὲς τουτὶ καὶ ἄθεον προήκαντο ῥῆμα, τῷ θνητῷ καὶ παθητικῷ καὶ ἁμαρτητικῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὁμοφυεῖς καὶ ὁμοπαθεῖς θεοὺς καὶ τὸν τούτων κοινὸν ὑποθέμενοι πατέρα πάντως που τοῖς παισὶν παρωμοιωμένον· ὁ δ' ἐκκλησιαστικὸς κῆρυξ ἑνὸς θεοῦ ἕνα μονογενῆ υἱὸν τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀνακηρύττει, ὃν ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν γενητῶν ἁπάντων σωτηρίας τε καὶ προνοίας ὑφίστη. 1.13.1 ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἡ τῶν γεγονότων φύσις, ἐν σώμασιν καὶ ἀσωμάτοις ἐμψύχοις τε καὶ ἀψύχοις λογικοῖς τε καὶ ἀλόγοις θνητοῖς τε καὶ ἀθανάτοις τὸ διάφορον κεκτημένη, τῷ ὑπὲρ πάντων καὶ ἐπὶ πάντων θεῷ πελάζειν καὶ τῶν τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος μαρμαρυγῶν οὐχ οἵα τε ἦν μετέχειν δι' ὑπερβολὴν τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ κρείττονος ἐλλείψεως, μακρὰν δὲ καὶ πορρωτάτω φύσεως ἀσθενείᾳ διώλισθεν ἄν, εἰ μὴ θεοῦ σωτῆρος ἔτυχεν βοηθοῦ, εἰκότως ἡ πατρικὴ φιλανθρωπία τὸν αὐτοῦ μονογενῆ παῖδα ἐπὶ πᾶσιν καθίστη, καὶ διὰ πάντων χωροῦντα καὶ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐπιστατοῦντα καὶ τὰς ἐξ αὐτοῦ χορηγίας 1.13.2 ἐπάρδοντα. πάντων γὰρ ἀθρόως τῶν τε κατ' οὐρανὸν καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ποιμένα καὶ σωτῆρα κηδεμόνα τε καὶ φύλακα καὶ ἰατρὸν καὶ κυβερνήτην μόνον αὐτὸν ὁ γεννήσας ἀνέδειξεν πατήρ, τῆς τῶν ὅλων συστάσεώς τε καὶ διοικήσεως μόνῳ τοὺς οἴακας ἐγχειρίσας, ὃ διδάσκει λέγων αὐτὸς «πάντα μοι παρεδόθη ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός μου» καὶ αὖθις «ὁ γὰρ πατὴρ φιλεῖ τὸν υἱόν, καὶ πάντα δέδωκεν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ». 1.13.3 ὁ δ' οἷα σοφὸς κυβερνήτης τὸν κλῆρον παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑποδεδεγμένος, ἐπιβὰς τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου ἄνω τε πρὸς τὸν αὐτοῦ πατέρα βλέπων, ἄγει καὶ φέρει πηδαλιουχῶν τὸ πᾶν, οὐδὲ τὸ σμικρότατον τῶν δεομένων τῆς ἐξ αὐτοῦ χορηγίας παρορῶν οὐδ' ὑπερφρονῶν τῶν βραχυτάτων· διὸ δὴ τοῖς