In like manner before him Jacob, having taken hold of his brother’s heel, was called a supplanter68    Gen. xxv. 26., from the attitude in which he came to the birth. For those who are learned in such matters tell us that such is the interpretation of the word “Jacob,” as translated into Greek. So, too, Pharez was so named by his nurse from the incident at his birth69    Gen. xxxviii. 29., yet no one on that account, like Eunomius, displayed any jealousy of his assuming an authority above that of God. Moreover the mothers of the patriarchs gave them their names, as Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi70    Gen. xxix. 32–35, and all those who came after them. And no one started up, like our new author, as patron of Divine providence, to forbid women to usurp Divine authority by the imposition of names. And what shall we say of other particulars in the sacred record, such as the “waters of strife,” and the “place of mourning,” and the “hill of the foreskins,” and the “valley of the cluster,” and the “field of blood,” and such-like names, of human imposing, but oftentimes recorded to have been uttered by the Person of God, from which we may learn that men may notify the meaning of things by words without presumption, and that the Divine nature does not depend on words for its evidence to itself?

οὕτω πρὸ τούτου ὁ Ἰακὼβ τῆς τοῦ συγγόνου πτέρνης ἐπειλημμένος πτερνιστὴς ἐκ τοῦ σχήματος ᾧ συναπεκυήθη προσηγορεύθη: εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ φέρειν τοῦ Ἰακὼβ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν εἰς Ἑλλάδα φωνὴν μεταληφθεῖσαν οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα νενοηκότες διδάσκουσι. καὶ τὸν Φαρὲς ἡ μαῖα πάλιν ἐκ τοῦ περὶ τὸν τόκον συμβάντος ὠνόμασε, καὶ οὐδεὶς κατὰ Εὐνόμιον ὡς « ἀρχηγικωτέραν » αὐτὴν τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξουσίας ἐζηλοτύπησεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς πατριάρχαις αἱ μητέρες τὰ ὀνόματα τίθενται, Ῥουβὶμ καὶ Συμεὼν καὶ Λευῒ καὶ τοῖς καθεξῆς πᾶσιν ὁμοίως, καὶ οὐδεὶς κατὰ τὸν νῦν λογογράφον ἐν τοῖς τότε χρόνοις τῆς θείας προνοίας « κηδεμὼν » ἀνεφάνη, ὥστε κωλῦσαι διὰ τῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων θέσεως « ἀρχηγικώτερα » τοῦ θεοῦ γενέσθαι τὰ γύναια. τί δ' ἄν τις τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐκ τῆς ἱστορίας λέγοι, ὕδωρ ἀντιλογίας καὶ τόπον πένθους καὶ βουνὸν ἀκροβυστιῶν καὶ φάραγγα βότρυος καὶ ἀγρὸν αἵματος καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα πάντα τῶν ὀνομάτων τεθέντα μὲν παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, μνημονευόμενα δὲ πολλάκις καὶ ἐκ προσώπου θεοῦ, δι' ὧν ἔστι μαθεῖν ὡς οὔτε ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀξίαν ἐστὶν ἡ διὰ ῥημάτων γινομένη κατὰ τῶν πραγμάτων σημείωσις οὔτε ἡ τῆς θείας φύσεως δύναμις διὰ τούτων τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἔχει.