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15Β_176 But if some, preferring opinion to the truth, say that number is divisive, or divisible, or introduces division; and fearing this non-existent fear, they refuse to say that the two natures that came together in Christ are preserved after the union, so that no cut or partition might be introduced into the mystery of the incarnation, I do not see what reason there is for their intelligence in this matter. For either they declare themselves wiser in this than the holy Fathers who used such an expression and suspected no division; as if, being deceived, they were able to penetrate the divine things more spiritually than they, or, while examining the principles of things in themselves, being puffed up by the conceit of opinion, they did not recognize the truth that escaped them. For who of those even moderately trained in the divine teachings of the Fathers is ignorant that every number, according to the great and God-bearing Gregory, is indicative of the quantity of the subjects, but not of the division of the things, as it seems to these men? For how, I would gladly ask them, could something that does not subsist in essence be able to divide? For it belongs to a subsisting essence to be able by nature to do something to another thing. And how can something be divided, which according to its own principle is unable to be acted upon? For the experts in these matters have declared that this is a property of an accident, that is, a quality, of those things that are said to be in a subject. But if number, according to its own principle, can neither divide nor be divided. For it is not by nature able to act, for that belongs to essence; nor to be acted upon, for that belongs to an accident; neither will it be able 0476 of necessity to introduce with itself a division of things, since their state of nature and position 15Β_178 and relation to one another remain fixed, and after being numbered, they suffer absolutely nothing novel because of the number. For when we say ten men, for example, or anything else of those things that subsist in themselves, and signify a discrete quantity; we do not understand that they have then received their being in themselves and their distinction from one another in their hypostases through the number; but that they are this and so many through themselves and not through the number, we have indicated not by division, but by quantity through the number. And again, when we speak of a two-colored or a five-colored stone, and whatever belongs to a continuous quantity, we do not divide the one stone into two or five stones; nor do we cut the colors in it from one another, but we signify that so many things exist unconfusedly about it and in it as in a subject; no cut or division having happened, or being able to happen, to the stone from the numbered continuous quantity of colors about it; just as there is no confusion or mingling for the colors from the one subject of the stone. For the stone is shown to have the monadic in its subject, and to possess indivisibly the quantity of colors about it. And likewise the colors of the stone itself, differing from one another in quality, possessing quantity which contributes again to the one subject by the composition of the stone, have the monadic unconfusedly, and it is one and the same stone, neither divided by the quantity of its colors, nor confused by the monadic nature of its subject. But having its existence possessing different principles, according to one it admits of number, but according to another, it does not accept it. Therefore, every number is not indicative of the relation of the things themselves—I mean of division and continuity—but of the quantity of what they happen to be, introducing the principle of the quantity being a quantity, but not of how it exists. For how could it introduce with itself the relations of things, which exist both before it and can be known without it, and having no 15Β_180 indication of affinity with them, being separated by their quantity? For when we see a multitude of men, or horses, or oxen, and such things; that they exist in themselves, and that each is individually divided in its hypostasis, even apart from number,

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15Β_176 Εἰ δέ τινες τοῦ ἀληθοῦς τό δόξαν προτιμῶντες, φασί τόν ἀριθμόν διαιρετικόν εἶναι ἤ διαιρετόν, ἤ διαιρέσεως εἰσαγωγικόν· καί τοῦτο τόν οὐκ ὄντα φοβούμενοι φόβον, δύο φύσεις ἐπί Χριστοῦ τάς συνελθούσας σώζεσθαι λέγειν παραιτοῦνται μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ἵνα μή τομή καί μερισμός τῷ μυστηρίῳ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως παρεισκρίνηται, οὐ συνορῶ τίς ὁ λόγος αὐτοῖς τῆς περί τοῦτο συνέσεως. Ἤ γάρ σοφωτέρους ἐν τούτῳ τῶν χρησαμένων τῇ τοιαύτῃ φωνῇ ἁγίων Πατέρων, καί διαίρεσιν οὐδεμίαν ὑποπτευσάντων ἑαυτούς ἀποφαίνουσιν· ὡς δή τι πνευματικώτερον αὐτῶν τοῖς θείοις ἐμβατεύειν δύνασθαι ἀπατώμενοι, ἤ τούς τῶν ὄντων καθ᾿ ἑαυτούς διασκεπτόμενοι λόγους, τῇ περί τό δόξαν οἰήσει φυσώμενοι, τό ἀληθές αὐτούς διαλαθόν οὐκ ἐπέγνωσαν. Ἐπεί τίς ἀγνοεῖ τῶν ὁποσοῦν τά θεῖα τῶν Πατέρων ἠσκημένων διδάγματα, ὅτι πᾶς ἀριθμός κατά τόν μέγαν καί θεοφόρον Γρηγόριον, τοῦ ποσοῦ τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἐστί δηλωτικός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τῆς διαιρέσεως τῶν πραγμάτων, καθά τούτοις δοκεῖ; Πῶς γάρ ἄν καί διαιρεῖν δυνήσηται, ἡδέως ἄν αὐτούς ἠρόμην, τό κατ᾿ οὐσίαν μή ὑφεστώς; οὐσίας γάρ ὑφεστώσης, τό, τί δρᾷν πεφυκέναι περί τι ἕτερον δύνασθαι. Πῶς δέ καί διαιρεθήσεται, τό πάσχειν μή δυνάμενον κατά τόν ἴδιον λόγον; Συμβεβηκότος γάρ, ἤτοι ποιότητος τοῦτο ὑπάρχειν ἴδιον, οἱ περί ταῦτα δεινοί ἀπεφήναντο, τῶν ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ εἶναι λεγομένων. Εἰ δέ οὔτε διαιρεῖν, οὔτε διαιρεῖσθαι κατά τόν ἴδιον λόγον ὁ ἀριθμός δύναται. Οὔτε γάρ ποιεῖν πέφυκεν, οὐσίας γάρ· οὔτε πάσχειν, συμβεβηκότος γάρ· οὔτε διαίρεσιν ἑαυτῷ συνεισάγειν ἐξ ἀνάγκης 0476 δυνήσεται τῶν πραγμάτων, ὡς ἔχουσι πρό τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ φύσεώς τε καί θέσεως, 15Β_178 καί τῆς πρός ἄλληλα σχέσεως, μενόντων ἀραρότων, καί μετά τό ἀριθμηθῆναι, οὐδέν διά τόν ἀριθμόν τό σύνολον παθόντων καινοπρεπές. ∆έκα γάρ ἀνθρώπους φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἤ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῶν καθ᾿ αὐτά ὑφεστώτων λέγοντες, καί ποσόν διῃρημένον σημαίνοντες· οὐ τό καθ᾿ αὐτούς εἶναι , καί ἀλλήλων διωρίσθαι ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι διά τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τότε εἰληφέναι γινώσκομεν· ἀλλ᾿ αὐτούς δι᾿ ἑαυτούς καί οὐ διά τόν ἀριθμόν τοῦτο ὄντας, καί τοσούτους, οὐ τῇ διαιρέσει· τῷ δέ ποσῷ διά τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ ἐδηλώσαμεν. Καί πάλιν λίθον λέγοντες δίχροον ἤ πετάχροον, καί ὅσα συνεχοῦς ὑπάρχει ποσοῦ, οὐ διαιροῦμεν εἰς λίθους δύο ἤ πέντε τόν ἕνα λίθον· οὔτε ἀλλήλων τά ἐν αὐτῷ χρώματα τέμνομεν, ἀλλά περί αὐτόν καί ἐν αὐτῷ ὡς ὑποκειμένῳ ἀσυγχύτως τοσαῦτα ὄντα σημαίνομεν· μηδεμιᾶς γενομένης, ἤ συμβῆναι δυναμένης τῷ λίθῳ τομῆς ἤ διαιρέσεως, ἐκ τοῦ περί αὐτόν ἀριθμηθέντος συνεχοῦς τῶν χρωμάτων ποσοῦ· ὥσπερ οὐδέ τοῖς χρώμασι συγχύσεως ἤ φύρσεως ἐκ τοῦ περί τόν λίθον ὑποκειμένου ἑνός. Καί γάρ τό μοναδικόν τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ ἔχων ὁ λίθος, καί τό περί αὐτόν τῶν χρωμάτων ἀδιαιρέτως κεκτημένος δείκνυται ποσόν. Ὁμοίως δέ καί τά αὐτοῦ τοῦ λίθου χρώματα, ὡς τῷ ποιῷ ἀλλήλων διαφέροντα, τό ποσόν κεκτημένα τό πρός ἕν πάλιν συντελεῖν κατά σύνθεσιν τοῦ λίθου ὑποκείμενον, τό μοναδικόν ἀσυγχύτως ἔχουσι, καί ἔστιν εἷς καί ὁ αὐτός λίθος, μήτε τῷ ποσῷ τῶν χρωμάτων διῃρημένος, μήτε τῷ μοναδικῷ τοῦ ὑποκειμένου συγκεχυμένος. ∆ιαφόρους δέ λόγους κεκτημένην ἔχων τήν ὕπαρξιν, κατ' ἄλλον μέν, ἀριθμόν ἐπιδέχεται· κατ' ἄλλον δέ, τοῦτον οὐ προσίεται. Πᾶς οὖν ἀριθμός οὐ τῆς σχέσεως αὐτῆς τῶν πραγμάτων· διαιρέσεώς φημι καί συνεχείας· ἀλλά τῆς ποσότητος ὧν τυγχάνει δηλωτικός, τόν τοῦ ποσόν εἶναι τό ποσόν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοῦ πῶς ὑπάρχειν λόγον εἰσάγων. Πῶς γάρ ἄν καί συνεισάγειν ἑαυτῷ δυνήσηται τάς σχέσεις τῶν πραγμάτων, καί πρό αὐτοῦ οὔσας, καί ἄνευ αὐτοῦ γνωσθῆναι δυναμένας, καί μηδεμίαν πρός αὐτάς 15Β_180 ἔχων οἰκειότητος ἔμφασιν, μέσῳ τῷ ποσῷ αὐτῶν διειργόμενος; Πλῆθος γάρ ἀνθρώπων ὁρῶντες, ἤ ἵππων, ἤ βοῶν, καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα· τό μέν καθ᾿ αὑτούς ὑπάρχειν, καί ταῖς ὑποστάσεσιν ἰδικῶς διῃρῆσθαι ἕκαστον, καί τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ χωρίς,