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24

imparting, we were called, or by us God was called. What then do I mean by these things? To be, to live, to be enlightened, to be made good, to reason, to perceive; some, on account of essence; others, on account of motion, that is, will and disposition. For we are called beings, and living, and lights, and good, and intelligent, and rational. And God likewise, we name being and living, and light, and good, and mind and reason; either as being these things 0429 and being called them from a cause; or as being energized, addressing the divine as these things from our own. What then is their argument, that the soul is and is named all these things along with many others; but no longer incorporeal, whatever the Divine is? As if it were necessary, either that we should not be called these things, because the Divine is, or that God should not be named these things, just as we are. But surely we are also these things; and we are named them; not as being identical with God on account of these things; but as effect to cause, or participant to that which is participated in, or existence to cause. Neither comparatively nor synonymously, as in the case of consubstantial things; but homonymously, and, so to speak, by participation; since the realities are by nature infinitely distant from one another; unless it is one's pleasure, in truth, to call the Divine also beyond nature and reality.

Where then again, according to them, if it were granted that the soul is a body, will the principle of our being in His image be preserved, if we do not say that the soul possesses, through all things, the likeness to the archetype? For just as we name the image known in these things to be intelligent from the intelligent, and immortal, incorruptible and invisible from the immortal; 15Β_108 so too from the incorporeal, calling it incorporeal, as escaping all bulk and likewise all dimensional measurement; we say it is something else again besides that, according to the property of its nature. Since it would no longer be an image, but an unvarying identity. And in those things in which That One is seen in its uncreated and unchangeable and unoriginate nature, in the same things we clearly believe the created rational nature is shown; not in the same way, but as a manifestation in the last echoes of a rational voice. And just as the most philosophic mind, through the things accomplished among beings according to the ordering of the universe, having transferred the powers of its thoughts to the pure and immaterial, distinguishes from the things moved the Mover, and apprehends it as one and only and simple, existing of itself, being in the same state and the creative cause in the proper permanence of its identity, knows it to be by nature inaccessible to others; unchangeable, because it is unmoved; for there is nothing towards which that which makes and fills existing things, and is above all existing things, will be moved; but comprehensive, as creator, and before generation, knowing all things by the infinity of its power. In the same manner of contemplation, and through the varied and artful motion of the members and parts of the microcosm, I mean of man, reasoning about the moving cause, it knows it is something else in essence besides the organic existence of the body; and not as body in body, which seems to the new wise men and the dogmatists of the unprovable, 0432 but it beholds it as simple and unified in things scattered, and in things contracted, indefinite; changeable, as being moved; moved, as having something towards which it will be moved; and it knows the cause of the change in motion not as nature, but as judgment, whenever this happens to be mistaken.

The change, therefore, does not concern the very essence of the soul, as I think, 15Β_110 since it would have changed infinitely, and would not have remained the same in essence; but concerns the motion which is in our power, being borne along with the self-determining will. Therefore for the opponents to say and declare that it has the power of change, and the soul's very perpetual motion around the Divine, does not seem to be the part of those speaking truth; but of those pompously seeking the elegant, and not reverently the precise in argument.

24

μεταδιδούς, προσηγορεύθημεν, ἤ παρ᾿ ἡμῶν προσηγορεύθη Θεός. Τίνα δή λέγω ταῦτα; Τό εἶναι, τό ζῇν, τό φωτίζεσθαι, τό ἀγαθύνεσθαι, τό λογίζεσθαι, τό νοεῖν· τά μέν, διά τήν οὐσίαν· τά δέ , διά τήν κίνησιν, ἤτοι γνώμην καί διάθεσιν. Ὄντες γάρ λεγόμεθα, καί ζῶντες, καί φῶτες, καί ἀγαθοί, καί νοεροί, καί λογικοί. Τόν τε Θεόν ὁμοίως, ὄντα καί ζῶντα, καί φῶς, καί ἀγαθόν, καί νοῦν καί λόγον ὀνομάζομεν· εἴτε ὡς ἐξ αἰτίου ὄντες ταῦτα 0429 καί καλούμενοι· εἴτε ὡς ἐνεργούμενοι, ἐκ τῶν ἡμετέρων ταῦτα τό θεῖον πρασαγορεύοντες. Τίς οὖν ὁ λόγος αὐτοῖς, ταῦτα μέν πάντα προς ἑτέροις πολλοῖς εἶναι τήν ψυχήν καί ὀνομάζεσθαι· ἀσώματον δέ, μηκέτι, ὅ τι περ τό Θεῖον; Ὡς δέον, ἤ μή λέγεσθαι ἡμᾶς ταῦτα, διότι τό Θεῖον, ἤ τόν Θεόν ταῦτα μή ὀνομάζεσθαι, ὅ τί περ καί ἡμεῖς. Ἀλλά μήν καί ἐσμέν ταῦτα· καί ὀνομαζόμεθα· οὐχ ὡς ταυτόν τῷ Θεῷ διά ταῦτα ὄντες· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς πρός αἴτιον αἰτιατόν, ἤ μέτοχον πρός μετεχόμενον, ἤ ὕπαρξιν πρός αἰτίαν. Οὐδέ συγκριτικῶς ἤ συνωνύμως, ὡς ἐπί τῶν ὁμοουσίων· ἀλλ᾿ ὁμονύμως, καί οἷον εἰπεῖν μεθεκτῶς· τῶν πραγμάτων κατά τό ἄπειρον ἀλλήλων τῇ φύσει διεστηκότων· εἰ μή τῷ φίλον, ὡς ἀληθῶς, τό Θεῖον εἰπεῖν, καί ὑπέρ φύσιν καί πρᾶγμα.

Ποῦ δέ λοιπόν κατ᾿ αὐτούς πάλιν, εἰ δοθείη τήν ψυχήν εἶναι σῶμα, ὁ τοῦ κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἡμῖν διασωθήσεται λόγος, εἰ μή διά πάντων ἔχειν φαμέν τήν ψυχήν, τήν πρός τό ἀρχέτυπον ὁμοιότητα; Ὥσπερ γάρ τοῦ νοεροῦ νοεράν, καί τοῦ ἀθανάτου, ἀφθάρτου τε καί ἀοράτου, τήν ἐν τούτοις γνωριζομένην εἰκόνα ὀνομάζομεν· 15Β_108 οὕτω δή καί τοῦ ἀσωμάτου, ἀσώματον λέγοντες, ὡς πάντα τε ὄγκον, καί πᾶσαν ὁμοίως διαφεύγουσαν διαστηματικήν καταμέτρησιν· ἄλλο τι πάλιν αὐτήν παρ᾿ ἐκεῖνο, κατά τήν τῆς φύσεως ἰδιότητα λέγομεν. Ἐπεί οὐκ ἔτι ἄν εἴη εἰκών, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπαράλλακτος ταυτότης. Ἐν οἷς δέ ἐν τῇ ἀκτίστῳ καί ἀτρέπτῳ καί ἀνάρχῳ φύσει ἐκεῖνο καθορᾶται, ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τήν κτιστήν λογικήν φύσιν· οὐ κατά τό αὐτό δέ, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἐν ἐσχάτοις ἀπηχήμασι φωνῆς λόγου δήλωσιν, δείκνυσθαι, ἐναργῶς νομίζομεν. Καί ὥσπερ διά τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι κατά τήν τοῦ παντός διακόσμησιν ἐπιτελουμένων ὁ φιλοσοφώτατος νοῦς, πρός τό καθαρόν τε καί ἄϋλον μετενεγκών τῶν νοημάτων αὐτοῦ τάς δυνάμεις, διακρίνει ἀπό τῶν κινουμένων τό κινοῦν, καί ἕν καί μόνον καί ἁπλοῦν αὐτό ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ ὑπάρχον, ὡσαύτως ἔχον καί ποιητικόν αἴτιον καταλαμβάνων ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ τῆς ταυτότητος μονιμότητι, ἀπρόσιτον κατά τήν φύσιν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπίσταται· ἄτρεπτον μέν, ὅτι ἀκίνητον· οὐ γάρ ἐστι πρός ὅ κινηθήσεται τό, τά ὄντα καί ποιοῦν καί πληροῦν, καί ὑπερ πάντα ὄν τά ὄντα· περιεκτικόν δέ, ὡς δημιουργόν, καί πρό γενέσεως, τῷ ἀπείρῳ τῆς δυνάμεως τά πάντα γινῶσκον. Κατά τόν αὐτόν τῆς θεωρίας τρόπον, καί διά τῆς τῶν μελῶν καί μερῶν ποικίλης καί ἐντεχνοῦς κινήσεως τοῦ μικροῦ κόσμου· λέγω δή τοῦ ἀνθρώπου· τό κινητικόν αἴτιον λογιζόμενος, ἄλλο τι οἶδε κατά τήν οὐσίαν παρά τήν ὀργανικήν τοῦ σώματος ὕπαρξιν· καί οὐχ ὡς σῶμα ἐν σώματι· ὅπερ δοκεῖ τοῖς νέοις σοφοῖς, καί τῶν ἀναποδείκτων δογματισταῖς· 0432 ἀλλ᾿ ἁπλοῦν καί ἑνιαῖον ἐν τοῖς ἐσκεδασμένοις θεωρεῖ, καί ἐν τοῖς συνεσταλμένοις, ἀόριστον· τρεπόμενον μέν, ὡς κινούμενον· κινούμενον δέ, ὡς ἔχον πρός ὅ κινηθήσεται· τῆς δέ κατά τήν κίνησιν τροπῆς αἴτιον, οὐ τήν φύσιν γινώσκει, ἀλλά τήν κρίσιν, ὅτ᾿ ἄν ἐσφαλμένη οὖσα τυγχάνῃ αὕτη.

Ἡ τροπή οὖν, οὐ περί αὐτήν τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπάρχει, ὡς οἶμαι, 15Β_110 τήν οὐσίαν· ἐπεί καί μετέβαλλεν ἀπειράκις, καί οὐχ ἡ αὐτή διέμενε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν· ἀλλά κατά τήν κίνησιν τήν ἀφ᾿ ἡμῖν, τῷ αὐτοκρατορικῷ θελήματι συμφερομένη. Τοιγάρτοι τροπῆς δύναμιν ἔχειν τούς ἀντιλέγοντας φάσκειν καί ἀποφαίνεσθαι , καί αὐτήν τήν περί τό Θεῖον τῆς ψυχῆς ἀεικινησίαν, οὐ μή δοκεῖ ἀληθευόντων εἶναι· ἀλλά πομπικῶς τό κομψόν, καί οὐκ εὐλαβῶς τό ἀκριβές τοῦ λόγου ἐπιζητούντων.