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true, not unbegotten, truly begotten before the ages. That he therefore transfers the emphasis of 'begetting' to the meaning of 'creating', is clear from what he expressly called him, 'created,' saying that he was 'made' and not 'uncreated.' But we, so that his unexamined and uneducated position in these doctrines might be most especially revealed, setting aside indignation at the manifest blasphemy, will take up the argument concerning this with a certain systematic division. 88 For it seems good to me to examine in our discourse the very meaning of 'generation' through a more careful investigation. That this name, then, signifies being from some cause, is clear to all, and I think there is no need to contend about this; but since the account of things subsisting from a cause is varied, I think it is fitting that this be clarified in our discourse through a certain systematic division. 89 Of things that have come to be from some cause, we have grasped these differences. For some things are from matter and art, such as the construction of buildings and of other works, which come into being through suitable matter, which some art directs, accomplishing the proposed goal for its own purpose; others are from matter and nature. For nature builds the generations of living beings from one another, effecting its own work through the material substance in bodies; and others are from a material emanation, in which cases that which precedes remains as it is, and that which flows from it is observed on its own, as in the case of the sun and its ray, or of the lamp and its light, or of spices and ointments and the quality emitted from them.

90 For these things, remaining undiminished in themselves, each immediately has accompanying it the natural property emitted from it, for instance, the sun has its ray, the lamp its light, and spices the fragrance born from them in the air. There is also another kind of generation besides these, of which the cause is immaterial and incorporeal, but the generation is perceptible and through a body; I mean the word that is begotten from the mind. For the mind, being incorporeal in itself, brings forth the word through the perceptible organs. We have perceived so many differences of generation, as it were, in a certain general survey.

91 Now that these modes of generation have been thus divided by us, it would be time to observe how the benevolent economy of the Holy Spirit, in handing down the divine mysteries through means comprehensible to us, makes its teaching of things beyond reason. For all the kinds of generation that the human mind knows, the divinely inspired teaching employs for the representation of the ineffable power, not admitting along with them the corporeal significations of the names. 92 For when it speaks of the constructive power, it calls such an activity 'generation,' because the discourse must condescend to the lowliness of our ability, yet it does not indicate all that is considered among us in constructive generation: not place, not time, not preparation of matter, not cooperation of instruments, not the labor over things being made; but leaving these things to us, it bears witness magnificently and loftily to God concerning the generation of beings in what it says: He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. Again, when it interprets the ineffable and supra-rational existence of the only-begotten from the Father, because of the human poverty being unable to contain teachings beyond reason and thought, there too it has used our terms and calls him 'Son,' which is the name our custom gives to those born from matter and nature. 93 But just as the Word, when speaking of the generation of creation in the case of God, did not add that it came to be through some matter, declaring that the substance of matter and place and time and all such things is the power of the divine will, so also here, in calling him 'Son', it has left aside all the other things, which human nature sees concerning generation below, I mean passions and

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ἀληθινόν, οὐκ ἀγέννητον, ἀλη θῶς γεννηθέντα πρὸ αἰώνων. ὅτι μὲν οὖν μετάγει τὴν τῆς γεννήσεως ἔμφασιν εἰς τὸ τῆς κτίσεως σημαινό μενον, δῆλόν ἐστιν ἐξ ὧν διαρρήδην κτιστὸν αὐτὸν προσ ηγόρευσε, γενόμενον αὐτὸν εἰπὼν καὶ οὐκ ἄκτιστον. ἡμεῖς δέ, ὡς ἂν μάλιστα τὸ ἀνεπίσκεπτον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπαί δευτον ἐν τοῖς δόγμασιν φανερωθείη, ἀφέντες τὸ σχετλιά ζειν ἐπὶ τῷ προδήλῳ τῆς βλασφημίας τεχνικῇ τινι διαιρέσει 88 τὸν περὶ τούτου λόγον διαληψόμεθα. δοκεῖ γάρ μοι καλῶς ἔχειν αὐτὸ τὸ τῆς γεννήσεως σημαινόμενον δι' ἐπιμελεστέρας ἐξετάσεως διασκοπῆσαι τῷ λόγῳ. ὅτι μὲν οὖν τὸ ἐξ αἰτίας εἶναί τινος τὸ ὄνομα τοῦτο παρίστησι, παντὶ δῆλόν ἐστι, καὶ οὐδὲν οἶμαι χρῆναι περὶ τούτου διαγωνίζεσθαι· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ διάφορος τῶν ἐξ αἰτίας ὑφεστώτων ὁ λόγος ἐστί, τοῦτ' οἶμαι προσήκειν διά τινος τεχνικῆς διαιρέσεως σαφη 89 νισθῆναι τῷ λόγῳ. τῶν τοίνυν ἔκ τινος αἰτίας γεγενη μένων ταύτας τὰς διαφορὰς κατειλήφαμεν. τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐξ ὕλης ἐστὶ καὶ τέχνης, ὡς αἱ τῶν οἰκοδομημάτων καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἔργων κατασκευαὶ αἱ διὰ τῆς καταλλήλου ὕλης γινόμεναι, ὧν καθηγεῖταί τις τέχνη πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον σκοπὸν τὸ προτεθὲν συμπεραίνουσα, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ὕλης καὶ φύσεως· τὰς γὰρ ἐξ ἀλλήλων γενέσεις τῶν ζῴων ἡ φύσις οἰκοδομεῖ, διὰ τῆς ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν ὑλικῆς ὑποστάσεως τὸ ἑαυτῆς ἐνεργοῦσα· τὰ δὲ ἐξ ὑλικῆς ἀπορροίας, ἐφ' ὧν καὶ τὸ προηγούμενον μένει οἷόν ἐστιν καὶ τὸ ἀπ' ἐκείνου ῥέον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ καθορᾶται, ὡς ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ τῆς ἀκτῖνος ἢ ἐπὶ τῆς λαμπάδος καὶ τῆς αὐγῆς ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀρωμάτων τε καὶ τῶν μύρων καὶ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν ἐκδιδομένης ποιότητος.

90 ταῦτα γὰρ ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν ἀμείωτα μένοντα εὐθὺς ἔχει συμ παρομαρτοῦσαν ἕκαστον τὴν ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἐκδιδομένην φυσικὴν ἰδιότητα, οἷον ὁ μὲν ἥλιος τὴν ἀκτῖνα, ἡ δὲ λαμπὰς τὴν αὐγήν, τὰ δὲ ἀρώματα τὴν τῷ ἀέρι ἐντικτομένην ἐξ αὐτῶν εὐωδίαν. ἔστι καὶ ἕτερον εἶδος παρὰ ταῦτα γεννή σεως, οὗ ἡ μὲν αἰτία ἄϋλός ἐστι καὶ ἀσώματος, ἡ δὲ γέν νησις αἰσθητή τε καὶ διὰ σώματος, λέγω δὲ τὸν ἐκ τοῦ νοῦ γεννώμενον λόγον· ἀσώματος γὰρ ὢν καθ' ἑαυτὸν ὁ νοῦς διὰ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὀργάνων τίκτει τὸν λόγον. τοσαύτας γεννήσεων διαφορὰς οἷον ἐν γενικῇ τινι θεωρίᾳ κατενοή σαμεν.

91 Τούτων τοίνυν τῶν τῆς γεννήσεως τρόπων οὕτως ἡμῖν διῃρημένων, καιρὸς ἂν εἴη κατιδεῖν, πῶς ἡ φιλάνθρωπος τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος οἰκονομία παραδιδοῦσα τὰ θεῖα μυ στήρια διὰ τῶν ἡμῖν χωρητῶν τὴν διδασκαλίαν ποιεῖται τῶν ὑπὲρ λόγον. πάντα γὰρ τὰ τῆς γεννήσεως εἴδη, ὅσα ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη γινώσκει διάνοια, ἡ θεόπνευστος διδασκαλία πρὸς τὴν παράστασιν τῆς ἀρρήτου δυνάμεως παραλαμβάνει, οὐ συμπαραδεχομένη τὰς σωματικὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐμφά 92 σεις. ὅταν μὲν γὰρ περὶ τῆς κατασκευαστικῆς λέγῃ δυνά μεως, γέννησιν μὲν ὀνομάζει τὴν τοιαύτην ἐνέργειαν διὰ τὸ δεῖν πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν τῆς ἡμετέρας δυνάμεως καταβῆναι τὸν λόγον, οὐ μὴν συνενδείκνυται τὰ ὅσα παρ' ἡμῖν τῇ κατασκευαστικῇ γενέσει συνθεωρεῖται, οὐ τόπον, οὐ χρόνον, οὐχ ὕλης παρασκευήν, οὐκ ὀργάνων συνεργίαν, οὐ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις κόπον, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα ἡμῖν καταλιποῦσα μεγα λοφυῶς τε καὶ ὑψηλῶς τῷ θεῷ προσμαρτυρεῖ τῶν ὄντων τὴν γένεσιν ἐν οἷς φησιν ὅτι Αὐτὸς εἶπε καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν. πάλιν ὅταν τὴν ἀπόρ ρητόν τε καὶ ὑπὲρ λόγον τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ὕπαρξιν ἑρμηνεύῃ, διὰ τὸ ἀχώρητον εἶναι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην πτωχείαν τῶν ὑπὲρ λόγον τε καὶ ἔννοιαν διδαγμάτων κἀκεῖ τοῖς ἡμετέροις συγκέχρηται καὶ υἱὸν ὀνομάζει, ὅπερ ἡ παρ' ἡμῖν συνήθεια τοῖς ἀπὸ ὕλης καὶ φύσεως ἀποτικτομένοις 93 ὄνομα τίθεται. ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τὴν [διὰ] τῆς κτίσεως γένεσιν εἰπὼν ὁ λόγος ἐπὶ θεοῦ τὸ διά τινος ὕλης γενέσθαι αὐτὴν οὐ προσέθηκεν, οὐσίαν ὕλης καὶ τόπον καὶ χρόνον καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τὴν τοῦ θείου θελήματος εἶναι δύναμιν ἀποφηνάμενος, οὕτως καὶ ἐνταῦθα υἱὸν εἰπὼν ἀφῆκε πάντα τά τε ἄλλα, ὅσα περὶ τὴν κάτω γέννησιν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις ὁρᾷ, πάθη τε λέγω καὶ