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humble and inglorious, not accepting the divine and pre-eternal generation; in the same way these men also, denying the confession of the magnificent and lofty and ineffable generation from the Father, establish that he has his being through creation, whence also the generation is of human 1.1.266 nature and of all things that have come into being. It was a charge against the Jews that the Lord was considered the son of the God over all. These men also are indignant against those who in truth make this confession concerning him. They thought they were honoring the God of all by excluding the Son from equal honor with him. These men also grant these things to the one over all, granting honor to the Father in the tearing down of the Lord's glory. 1.1.267 But how could one recount worthily the other things, by how many and what kinds of ways they demonstrate their insolence against the only-begotten? Pre-fabricating a certain energy of Christ's hypostasis, they say that he is a work and result of that, which the Jews have not yet dared to this day; then they circumscribe the Lord's nature, shutting him up within certain limits of the power that made him, and as it were marking him off by some measure with the quantity of the energy that gave him substance, as if hemmed in on all sides by the energy devised by them like some tunic. We are not able to accuse the 1.1.268 Jews of these things. Then they perceive in the substance a certain smallness by way of diminution, I know not by what method having measured in their own estimation the one without quantity and magnitude and having been able to find, how much is lacking in the magnitude of the only-begotten God for perfection, which not being present, he is considered in the smaller and imperfect. And many other things they confess openly on the one hand, and on the other they construct secretly, they have made the confession 1.1.269 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit a practice of their wickedness. How then are they not more pitiful than the Jewish condemnation, if things never dared by them are so openly constructed by these men? For he who diminishes the substance of the only-begotten and of the Holy Spirit, to speak or hear of it simply, perhaps seems to be impious in a small way; but if one were to examine the argument closely, he will be convicted of blaspheming against the very Head. But let us examine it thus; and may I be pardoned for the sake of teaching and of clarity concerning the falsehood constructed by our opponents, as I advance the argument to the exposition of our own conceptions. 1.1.270 The highest division of all beings has its cut into the intelligible and the sensible. And the sensible nature in general has been named visible by the Apostle; for since every body is in color, and sight has perception of this, having left aside the remaining qualities, as many as are essentially joined, from what is ready to hand according to perception 1.1.271 he called it visible. But of all intelligible nature the common name is, as the Apostle says, the invisible; for by the removal of sensible apprehension he leads the mind by the hand to the incorporeal and intelligible. But the argument cuts the concept of this also into two. For the one is uncreated and the other created, is apprehended by logical sequence, uncreated being that which is productive of creation, and created that which has through the uncreated nature the cause and the power 1.1.272 of being. In the sensible things, then, are all things which we apprehend through the body's senses, in which the differences of qualities admit the principle of the greater and the lesser, the difference in these being observed according to quantity and quality and the other properties. 1.1.273 But in the case of intelligible nature, I mean that which is in creation, such a principle of difference, of the kind apprehended in sensible things, has no place, but some other manner is found for discovering the difference of the greater to the lesser. 1.1.274 For since the fount and beginning and supply of every good is contemplated in the uncreated nature, and all creation has inclined toward that, through communion with the first good both touching and partaking of the high nature, from

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ταπεινόν τε καὶ ἄδοξον, τὴν θείαν καὶ προαιώνιον οὐ προσιέμενοι γέννησιν· κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ οὗτοι τῆς μεγαλοπρεποῦς τε καὶ ὑψηλῆς καὶ ἀρρήτου ἐκ πατρὸς γεννήσεως τὴν ὁμολογίαν ἀρνούμενοι διὰ κτίσεως αὐτὸν ἔχειν τὸ εἶναι κατασκευάζουσιν, ὅθεν καὶ τῇ ἀνθρω 1.1.266 πίνῃ φύσει καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς γεγονόσιν ἐστὶν ἡ γέννησις. ἔγ κλημα τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἦν τὸ υἱὸν τοῦ ἐπὶ πάντων θεοῦ θεωρηθῆναι τὸν κύριον. ἀγανακτοῦσι καὶ οὗτοι κατὰ τῶν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ τὴν ὁμολογίαν ταύτην ἐπ' αὐτοῦ ποιουμένων. ἐκεῖνοι τιμᾶν ᾤοντο τὸν θεὸν τῶν ὅλων τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁμοτιμίας τὸν υἱὸν ἀποκλείοντες. ταῦτα καὶ οὗτοι τῷ ἐπὶ πάντων χαρίζονται, ἐν τῇ καθαιρέσει τῆς τοῦ κυρίου δόξης τῷ πατρὶ τὴν τιμὴν χαριζόμενοι. 1.1.267 Τὰ δὲ ἄλλα πῶς ἄν τις πρὸς ἀξίαν διεξέλθοι, δι' ὅσων καὶ οἵων τὴν κατὰ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὕβριν ἐνδείκνυνται; ἐνέργειάν τινα προαναπλάσσοντες τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑποστά σεως ἐκείνης ἔργον αὐτὸν καὶ ἀποτέλεσμα λέγουσιν, ὅπερ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις οὔπω μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο τετόλμηται· εἶτα περιγράφουσι τοῦ κυρίου τὴν φύσιν, ἐντὸς ὅρων τινῶν τῆς ποιησαμένης δυνάμεως αὐτὸν ἀποκλείοντες καὶ οἱονεὶ μέτρῳ τινὶ τῇ ποσότητι τῆς ὑποστησαμένης αὐτὸν ἐνεργείας περι σχοινίζοντες, ὥσπερ χιτῶνί τινι τῇ ἐπινοηθείσῃ παρ' αὐτῶν ἐνεργείᾳ πανταχόθεν περιειργόμενον. ταῦτα κατηγορεῖν τῶν 1.1.268 Ἰουδαίων οὐκ ἔχομεν. εἶτα βραχύτητά τινα τῇ οὐσίᾳ κατ' ἐλάττωσιν ἐνθεωροῦσιν, οὐκ οἶδα τίνι μεθόδῳ τὸν ἄποσόν τε καὶ ἀμεγέθη τῇ ἑαυτῶν ὑπολήψει παραμετρήσαντες καὶ εὑρεῖν δυνηθέντες, πόσον ἐνδεῖ τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ πρὸς τὴν τελείωσιν, οὗ μὴ προσόντος ἐν τῷ μικρο τέρῳ τε καὶ ἀτελεῖ θεωρεῖται. καὶ πολλὰ ἕτερα τὰ μὲν ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς ὁμολογοῦντες τὰ δὲ κατὰ τὸ λανθάνον κατα σκευάζοντες, ἐμμελέτημα τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν τὴν ὁμολο 1.1.269 γίαν τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐποιήσαντο. πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἐλεεινότεροι τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς κατακρίσεως, εἴπερ τὰ μηδέποτε παρ' ἐκείνων τετολμημένα προδήλως οὕτω παρὰ τούτων κατασκευάζεται; ὁ γὰρ ἐλαττῶν τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ μονογενοῦς καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, ὡς μὲν ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν ἢ ἀκοῦσαι, μικρὸν ἀσεβεῖν ἴσως δοκεῖ· εἰ δέ τις ἀκριβῶς τὸν λόγον κατεξετάσειεν, εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ κεφάλαιον βλασφημῶν ἐλεγχθήσεται. οὑτωσὶ δὲ σκοπήσωμεν· καί μοι συγκεχω ρήσθω διδασκαλίας χάριν καὶ σαφηνείας τοῦ παρὰ τῶν ἐναντίων κατασκευαζομένου ψεύδους ἐπὶ τὴν ἔκθεσιν τῶν ἡμετέρων ὑπολήψεων τὸν λόγον προάγοντι. 1.1.270 Πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἡ ἀνωτάτω διαίρεσις εἴς τε τὸ νοητὸν καὶ τὸ αἰσθητὸν τὴν τομὴν ἔχει. καὶ ἡ μὲν αἰσθητὴ φύσις γενικῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου ὁρατὴ κατωνόμασται· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πᾶν σῶμα ἐν χρώματι, τούτου δὲ ἡ ὅρασις τὴν ἀντίληψιν ἔχει, καταλιπὼν τὰς ὑπολοίπους ποιότητας, ὅσαι οὐσιωδῶς συμπεφύκασιν, ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν 1.1.271 ὁρατὴν προσηγόρευσε. τῆς δὲ νοητῆς φύσεως πάσης ὄνομα μὲν κοινόν ἐστι, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, τὸ ἀόρατον· τῇ γὰρ ὑπεξαιρέσει τῆς αἰσθητικῆς καταλήψεως ἐπὶ τὸ ἀσώματόν τε καὶ νοητὸν χειραγωγεῖ τὴν διάνοιαν. ὁ δὲ λόγος εἰς δύο τέμνει καὶ ταύτης τὴν ἔννοιαν. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἄκτιστος ἡ δὲ κτιστὴ ὑπὸ τῆς ἀκολουθίας καταλαμβά νεται, ἄκτιστος μὲν ἡ ποιητικὴ τῆς κτίσεως, κτιστὴ δὲ ἡ διὰ τῆς ἀκτίστου φύσεως τὴν αἰτίαν καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ 1.1.272 εἶναι ἔχουσα. ἐν μὲν οὖν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐστι πάντα, ὅσα διὰ τῶν τοῦ σώματος αἰσθητηρίων καταλαμβάνομεν, ἐφ' ὧν αἱ τῶν ποιοτήτων διαφοραὶ τὸν τοῦ μείζονός τε καὶ ἐλάττονος ἐπιδέχονται λόγον, κατὰ τὸ ποσὸν καὶ τὸ ποιὸν καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς ἰδιότητας τῆς διαφορᾶς ἐν τούτοις θεωρου μένης. 1.1.273 Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς νοητῆς φύσεως, τῆς ἐν τῇ κτίσει λέγω, ὁ μὲν τοιοῦτος τῆς διαφορᾶς λόγος, οἷος ἐπὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν κατελήφθη, χώραν οὐκ ἔχει, ἕτερος δέ τις εὑρίσκεται τρόπος τὴν τοῦ μείζονος πρὸς τὸ ἔλαττον διαφορὰν ἐξευρίσκων. 1.1.274 ἐπειδὴ γὰρ παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ πηγὴ καὶ ἀρχὴ καὶ χορηγία ἐν τῇ ἀκτίστῳ θεωρεῖται φύσει, πᾶσα δὲ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο νέ νευκεν ἡ κτίσις, διὰ τῆς κοινωνίας τοῦ πρώτου ἀγαθοῦ τῆς ὑψηλῆς φύσεως ἐφαπτομένη τε καὶ μετέχουσα, ἐξ