And yet it is plain to every one who has given any attention to the uses of words, that the word incorruption denotes by the privative particle that neither corruption nor birth appertains to God: just as many other words of like formation denote the absence of what is not inherent rather than the presence of what is; e.g. harmless, painless, guileless, undisturbed, passionless, sleepless, undiseased30    Oehler notices that the Paris editt. have not these words, ἄϋπνον, ἄνοσον: but that John the Franciscan is a witness that they were in his codex (the Pithœan): for he says, “after this follows ἄϋπνος ἄνθρωπος, which have crept in from the oversight of a not ἄϋπνος copyist, and therefore ought to be expurged:” not being aware that very ancient copies write ἄνθρωπος ανος, so that ἄνοσον is the true reading, having been changed, but not introduced, by the error of a copyist., impossible, unblamable, and the like. For all these terms are truly applicable to God, and furnish a sort of catalogue and muster of evil qualities from which God is separate. Yet the terms employed give no positive account of that to which they are applied. We learn from them what it is not; but what it is, the force of the words does not indicate. For if some one, wishing to describe the nature of man, were to say that it is not lifeless, not insentient, not winged, not four-footed, not amphibious, he would not indicate what it is: he would simply declare what it is not, and he would be no more making untrue statements respecting man than he would be positively defining his subject. In the same way, from the many things which are predicated of the Divine nature, we learn under what conditions we may conceive God as existing, but what He is essentially, such statements do not inform us.

Καίτοι παντὶ πρόδηλον τῷ γε μετρίως ἐπεσκεμμένῳ τὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων χρήσεις, ὅτι ἡ ἀφθαρσία καὶ ἡ ἀγεννησία διὰ τοῦ ἀφαιρετικοῦ μορίου τὸ μηδὲν τούτων προσεῖναι τῷ θεῷ, μήτε φθορὰν μήτε γένεσιν, ἀποσημαίνει, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ τῶν ὀνομάτων ὁμοφώνως λεγόμενα τὴν ἀφαίρεσιν τοῦ μὴ προσόντος, οὐ τὴν θέσιν τοῦ ὄντος ἐνδείκνυται, τὸ ἄκακον καὶ ἄλυπον καὶ ἀπόνηρον καὶ ἀτάραχον καὶ ἀόργητον ἄϋπνον ἄνοσον ἀπαθὲς ἀνεπίληπτον καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα. λέγεται μὲν γὰρ ἀληθῶς ταῦτα καὶ οἷον κατάλογός τίς ἐστι καὶ ἀπαρίθμησις τῶν πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον νοουμένων, ὧν τὸ θεῖον κεχώρισται, οὐ μήν τι περὶ οὗ λέγεται διὰ τῶν ὀνομάτων ὁ λόγος παρίστησιν. τί μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι, δι' ὧν ἠκούσαμεν ἐδιδάχθημεν, τί δέ ἐστιν, ἡ τῶν εἰρημένων οὐκ ἐνεδείξατο δύναμις. ὥσπερ γὰρ εἴ τις περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσεως εἰπεῖν τι θέλων τὸ μήτε ἄψυχον λέγων μήτε ἀναίσθητον μήτε πτηνὸν μήτε τετράπουν μήτ' ἔνυδρον τὸ μὲν ὂν οὐκ ἐνεδείξατο, τὸ δὲ μὴ ὂν διεσάφησε, καὶ οὔτε ψεύδεται ταῦτα περὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διεξιὼν οὔτε σαφῶς τὸ ὑποκείμενον δείκνυσιν, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον πολλῶν τοιούτων περὶ τὴν θείαν φύσιν λεγομένων, ἐν οἷς χρὴ τὸν θεὸν ὑπονοεῖν εἶναι μανθάνομεν, αὐτὸ δὲ ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι κατ' οὐσίαν διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων οὐ διδασκόμεθα.