14. Let us first ask them this question: In what sense do they say that the Son is “after the Father;” later in time, or in order, or in dignity? But in time no one is so devoid of sense as to assert that the Maker of the ages  4  ποιητὴς τῶν αἰ& 240·νων. holds a second place, when no interval intervenes in the natural conjunction of the Father with the Son.  5  Yet the great watchword of the Arians was ἦν ποτε ὅτε οὐκ ἦν. And indeed so far as our conception of human relations goes,  6  τῆ ἐννοί& 139· τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων is here the reading of five MSS. The Benedictines prefer τῶν ἀνθρώπων, with the sense of “in human thought.” it is impossible to think of the Son as being later than the Father, not only from the fact that Father and Son are mutually conceived of in accordance with the relationship subsisting between them, but because posteriority in time is predicated of subjects separated by a less interval from the present, and priority of subjects farther off. For instance, what happened in Noah’s time is prior to what happened to the men of Sodom, inasmuch as Noah is more remote from our own day; and, again, the events of the history of the men of Sodom are posterior, because they seem in a sense to approach nearer to our own day. But, in addition to its being a breach of true religion, is it not really the extremest folly to measure the existence of the life which transcends all time and all the ages by its distance from the present? Is it not as though God the Father could be compared with, and be made superior to, God the Son, who exists before the ages, precisely in the same way in which things liable to beginning and corruption are described as prior to one another?

The superior remoteness of the Father is really inconceivable, in that thought and intelligence are wholly impotent to go beyond the generation of the Lord; and St. John has admirably confined the conception within circumscribed boundaries by two words, “In the  beginning was the Word.” For thought cannot travel outside “was,” nor imagination  7  Φαντασία is the philosophic term for imagination or presentation, the mental faculty by which the object made apparent, φάντασμα, becomes apparent, φαίνεται. Aristotle, de An. III. iii. 20 defines it as “a movement of the mind generated by sensation.” Fancy, which is derived from φαντασία (φαίνω, ÖBHA=shine) has acquired a slightly different meaning in some usages of modern speech. beyond “  beginning .” Let your thought travel ever so far backward you cannot get beyond the “  was ,” and however you may strain and strive to see what is beyond the Son, you will find it impossible to get further than the “  beginning .” True religion, therefore, thus teaches us to think of the Son together with the Father.

[14] Ἡμεῖς δὲ ἐκεῖνο πρῶτον αὐτοὺς ἐρωτήσωμεν, τὸ μετὰ τὸν Πατέρα πῶς τὸν Υἱὸν λέγουσιν; ὡς χρόνῳ νεώτερον, ἢ ὡς τάξει, ἢ ὡς ἀξίᾳ; Ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ μέν, οὐδεὶς οὕτως ἀνόητος ὡς δευτερεύειν λέγειν τὸν ποιητὴν τῶν αἰώνων, οὐδενὸς διαστήματος μεσιτεύοντος τῇ φυσικῇ πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα τοῦ Υἱοῦ συναφείᾳ. Ἀλλὰ μὴν οὔτε τῇ ἐννοίᾳ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων συμβαίνει νεώτερον λέγειν τοῦ Πατρὸς τὸν Υἱόν, οὐ μόνον τῷ σὺν ἀλλήλοις νοεῖσθαι κατὰ τὴν σχέσιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἐκεῖνα λέγεται τῷ χρόνῳ δεύτερα, ὅσα τὴν πρὸς τὸ νῦν ἀπόστασιν ἐλάττονα ἔχει: καὶ πάλιν ἐκεῖνα πρότερα, ὅσα περισσότερον ἀπέχει τοῦ νῦν. Οἷον πρότερα τῶν Σοδομιτῶν, τὰ κατὰ Νῶε, ὅτι τοῦ νῦν ἐπὶ πλέον ἀπῴκισται: καὶ ὕστερα ταῦτα ἐκείνων, ὅτι μᾶλλόν πως δοκεῖ προσεγγίζειν τῷ νῦν. Τῆς δὲ πάντα χρόνον καὶ πάντας αἰῶνας ὑπερεχούσης ζωῆς τῇ πρὸς τὸ νῦν ἀποστάσει τὸ εἶναι καταμετρεῖν, πῶς οὐχὶ πρὸς τῇ ἀσεβείᾳ ἔτι καὶ πᾶσαν ὑπερβολὴν ἀνοίας ἔχει: εἴπερ καθ' ὃν τρόπον τὰ ἐν γενέσει καὶ φθορᾷ πρότερα εἶναι ἀλλήλων λέγεται, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ Θεῷ τῷ ὑπάρχοντι πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων παραμετρούμενος ὑπερέχοι; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἄνω ὑπεροχὴ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἀθεώρητος, τῷ ἁπαξαπλῶς μήτε ἐνθύμησιν μήτε τινὰ ἔννοιαν τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου γέννησιν ὑπεραίρειν, καλῶς τοῦ Ἰωάννου διὰ δύο φωνῶν εἴσω περιγράπτων ὅρων τὴν διάνοιαν ἀποκλείσαντος, ἐν τῷ εἰπεῖν: «Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος.» Ἀνέκβατον μὲν γὰρ διανοίαις τὸ ἦν: ἀνυπέρβατον δὲ φαντασίαις ἀρχή. Ὅσον γὰρ ἂν ἀναδράμῃς τῇ διανοίᾳ ἐπὶ τὸ ἄνω, οὐκ ἐκβαίνεις τὸ ἦν. Καὶ ὅσον ἂν διαταθῇς ἰδεῖν τοῦ Υἱοῦ τὰ ἐπέκεινα, ὑπεράνω γενέσθαι τῆς οὐ δυνήσῃ. Εὐσεβὲς οὖν κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον ἅμα νοεῖν τὸν Υἱὸν τῷ Πατρί.