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to conceive of something better, which it is not even lawful to think concerning God. For how did the unbegotten, spoken of similarly in both but understood differently for each, come to be in them? 7.19.3 For if God is unbegotten of himself and his substance is, as one might say, his unbegottenness, then matter would not be unbegotten, for God and matter are not the same thing; but if each is what it is, matter and God, and 'unbegotten' is an attribute of both, it is clear that it is different from each and older than and superior to both. 7.19.4 And the difference of their contrary states is completely destructive of their co-existence, or rather, of one of them, matter, existing by itself. 7.19.5 For let them state the reason why, when both are unbegotten, God is impassible, immutable, immovable, active, while 7.19.6 matter is the opposite: passible, mutable, unstable, being transformed. And how did they fit together and concur? Did God, conforming himself to the nature of matter, fashion it? But this is absurd, for God to labor with his hands like men who are goldsmiths and stonemasons and in the other arts by which materials can be shaped and formed. 7.19.7 But if he made matter such as he himself willed according to his own wisdom, impressing upon it the multiform and variegated shape and type of his own creation, this account is both reverent and true, and furthermore it establishes that the substance of all things, God, 7.19.8 is unbegotten. For to being unbegotten he at the same time attached also the being in a certain way. Now, much could be said against these men, but that is not our present subject; but in comparison with the most godless polytheists, these men are more reverent.” These things, then, are also from the works of Dionysius. And hear also from Origen: 7.20.1 “But if anyone is offended because of human craftsmen and cannot accept that God creates beings without a pre-existing unbegotten matter—since a sculptor cannot make his own work without bronze, nor a carpenter without wood, nor a builder without stones—one must ask him about the power of God, whether, if God wishes to bring into existence whatever he wills, his will not being 7.20.2 at a loss nor lacking power, he is unable to bring into existence what he wills. For by the same principle by which, according to all who introduce providence, he, by his own word, brings into existence for the ordering of the universe qualities that did not exist, as he wills, by his ineffable power and wisdom, by this same principle his will is also sufficient to make as much substance as he needs come into being. 7.20.3 For we shall raise a difficulty for those who do not wish things to be so: does it not follow for them that God was fortunate in finding an unbegotten substance, which if the unbegotten had not supplied to him, he would have been able to do no work, but would have remained not a creator, not a father, not a benefactor, not 7.20.4 good, nor anything else of what is reasonably said concerning God. And whence also the measuring of the pre-existing substance to be of such a quantity as to suffice for the existence of so great a cosmos? For it will be as if some providence older than God necessarily supplied the matter to God, providing that the art existing within him should not be frustrated for lack of substance, with which he, being able to engage, adorned the great 7.20.5 beauty of the cosmos. And whence did it become receptive of every quality that God wills, if God himself did not make it for himself of such a quantity and such a kind 7.20.6 as he wished it to have? At any rate, accepting hypothetically that matter is unbegotten, we shall say these things to those who wish it so: that if, with no providence supplying the substance to God, it came to be such, if a providence did exist, 7.20.7 what more would it have done than chance? And if he himself, there being no matter, willed to create it, what more would his wisdom and divinity have done than that which came to exist from the unbegotten? For if the same thing is found to have been made by providence as also came to be without providence, why not also in the case of the 7.20.8 cosmos

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ἐπινοῆσαι κρείττονα, ὃ μηδὲ θεμιτὸν ἐννοῆσαι περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ. τό τε γὰρ ἀγένητον, ὅμοιον ἐν ἀμφοτέροις λεγόμενον καὶ ἕτερον νοούμενον παρ' ἑκάτερον, πόθεν ἐν αὐτοῖς 7.19.3 ἐγένετο; εἰ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοαγένητόν ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς καὶ οὐσία ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, ἡ ἀγενησία, οὐκ ἂν ἀγένητον εἴη ἡ ὕλη οὐ γὰρ ταὐτόν ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς καὶ ἡ ὕλη· εἰ δὲ ἑκάτερον μέν ἐστιν ὅπερ ἐστίν, ἡ ὕλη καὶ ὁ θεός, πρόσεστι δὲ ἀμφοτέροις τὸ ἀγένητον, δῆλον ὡς ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἑκατέρου καὶ ἀμφοτέρων 7.19.4 πρεσβύτερόν τε καὶ ἀνωτέρω. ἀνατρεπτικὴ δὲ παντελῶς καὶ τοῦ ταῦτα συνυπάρχειν, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ τὸ ἕτερον αὐτῶν, τὴν ὕλην, ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς ὑπάρχειν, καὶ 7.19.5 ἡ τῆς ἐναντίας ἕξεως διαφορά. εἰπάτωσαν γὰρ τὴν αἰτίαν, δι' ἥν, ἀμφοτέρων ὄντων ἀγενήτων, ὁ μὲν θεὸς ἀπαθής, ἄτρεπτος, ἀκίνητος, ἐργαστικός, ἡ 7.19.6 δὲ τὰ ἐναντία παθητή, τρεπτή, ἄστατος, μεταποιουμένη. καὶ πῶς ἥρμοσαν καὶ συνέδραμον; πότερον κατὰ τὴν τῆς ὕλης φύσιν ἐξοικειώσας ἑαυτὸν ἐτεχνίτευσεν αὐτὴν ὁ θεός; ἀλλὰ τοῦτό γε ἄτοπον ὁμοίως ἀνθρώποις χρυσοχοεῖν καὶ λιθουργεῖν καὶ κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας τέχνας, ὅσαις ὕλαι μορφοῦσθαι καὶ 7.19.7 τυποῦσθαι δύνανται, χειροκμητεῖν τὸν θεόν. εἰ δὲ οἵαν αὐτὸς ἐβούλετο κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ σοφίαν ἐποίωσε τὴν ὕλην, τὸ πολύμορφον καὶ παμποίκιλον τῆς δημιουργίας ἑαυτοῦ σχῆμα καὶ τύπον ἐνσφραγιζόμενος αὐτῇ, καὶ εὔφημος καὶ ἀληθὴς οὗτος ὁ λόγος καὶ προσέτι καὶ τὴν ὑπόστασιν τῶν ὅλων, τὸν θεόν, 7.19.8 ἀγένητον εἶναι κρατύνει. τῷ γὰρ εἶναι ἀγένητον ἅμα καὶ τό πως εἶναι προσῆψε. πολὺς μὲν οὖν καὶ πρὸς τούτους ὁ λόγος, ἀλλ' οὐ νῦν ἡμῖν πρόκειται· συγκρίσει δὲ τῇ πρὸς τοὺς ἀθεωτάτους πολυθέους εὐφημότεροι οὗτοι.» Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ∆ιονυσίου. καὶ τῶν Ὠριγένους δὲ ἄκουε· 7.20.1 «Εἰ δέ τινι προσκόπτει διὰ τοὺς ἀνθρωπίνους τεχνίτας μὴ δύνασθαι παραδέξασθαι τὸν θεὸν χωρὶς ὕλης ἀγενήτου ὑποκειμένης κατασκευάζειν τὰ ὄντα, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ ἀνδριαντοποιὸς χωρὶς χαλκοῦ τὸ ἴδιον ἔργον ποιῆσαι δύναται μηδὲ τέκτων χωρὶς ξύλων μηδὲ οἰκοδόμος χωρὶς λίθων, ζητητέον πρὸς αὐτὸν περὶ δυνάμεως θεοῦ, εἰ θελήσας ὑποστῆσαι ὅ τι βούλεται ὁ θεός, τῆς θελήσεως αὐτοῦ οὐκ 7.20.2 ἀπορουμένης οὐδὲ ἀτονούσης, οὐ δύναται ὑποστῆσαι ὃ βούλεται. ᾧ γὰρ λόγῳ τὰς ποιότητας κατὰ πάντας τοὺς πρόνοιαν εἰσάγοντας τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ οὐκ οὔσας ὡς βούλεται εἰς διακόσμησιν τοῦ παντὸς ὑφίστησι τῇ ἀφάτῳ αὐτοῦ δυνάμει καὶ σοφίᾳ, τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν ὅσης χρῄζει ἱκανή ἐστιν αὐτοῦ 7.20.3 ἡ βούλησις ποιῆσαι γενέσθαι. ἀπορήσομεν γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς οὐ βουλομένους ταῦθ' οὕτως ἔχειν, εἰ μὴ ἀκολουθεῖ αὐτοῖς εὐτυχηκέναι τὸν θεόν, ἀγένητον εὑρόντα τὴν οὐσίαν, ἣν εἰ μὴ τὸ ἀγένητον αὐτῷ ὑποβεβληκὸς ἦν, οὐδὲν ἔργον δυνατὸς ἦν ποιῆσαι, ἀλλ' ἔμενεν οὐ δημιουργός, οὐ πατήρ, οὐκ εὐεργέτης, οὐκ 7.20.4 ἀγαθός, οὐκ ἄλλο τι τῶν εὐλόγως λεγομένων περὶ θεοῦ. πόθεν δὲ καὶ τὸ μετρεῖν τῆς ὑποκειμένης οὐσίας τὸ τοσόνδε, ὡς διαρκέσαι τῇ τηλικούτου κόσμου ὑποστάσει; οἱονεὶ γὰρ πρόνοιά τις πρεσβυτέρα θεοῦ ἀναγκαίως τὴν ὕλην ἔσται ὑποβεβληκυῖα τῷ θεῷ, προνοουμένη τοῦ τὴν τέχνην τὴν ἐνυπάρχουσαν αὐτῷ μὴ κενοπαθῆσαι οὐκ οὔσης οὐσίας, ᾗ ὁμιλῆσαι δυνάμενος κατεκόσμησε τὸ τηλι 7.20.5 κοῦτον κόσμου κάλλος. πόθεν δὲ καὶ δεκτικὴ γεγένηται πάσης ἧς βούλεται ὁ θεὸς ποιότητος, μὴ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ ἑαυτῷ τοσαύτην καὶ τοιαύτην ποιήσαν 7.20.6 τος ὁποίαν ἔχειν ἐβούλετο; καθ' ὑπόθεσιν γοῦν ἀποδεξάμενοι τὸ ἀγένητον εἶναι τὴν ὕλην ταῦτα ἐροῦμεν πρὸς τοὺς τοῦτο βουλομένους· ὅτι εἰ προνοίας οὐχ ὑποβαλλούσης τὴν οὐσίαν τῷ θεῷ τοιαύτη γεγένηται, εἰ πρόνοια ἦν ὑφε7.20.7 στῶσα, τί ἂν πλέον πεποιήκει τοῦ αὐτομάτου; καὶ εἰ αὐτός, μὴ οὔσης ὕλης, ἐβούλετο κατασκευάσαι αὐτήν, τί ἂν πλέον ἡ σοφία καὶ ἡ θειότης αὐτοῦ πεποιήκει τοῦ ἐξ ἀγενήτου ὑποστάντος; εἰ γὰρ εὑρίσκεται ταὐτὸν γενόμενον ἂν ὑπὸ τῆς προνοίας, ὅπερ καὶ χωρὶς προνοίας ὑπέστη, διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ 7.20.8 κόσμου