74

they will say that he has neither wisdom nor power nor truth nor life nor all the other things, which the only-begotten Son both is and is called according to different conceptions. 1.1.585 But may these things be turned upon the heads of those responsible, but we must return again to where we digressed. 20if because of having begotten20, he says, 20God is Father, but the Father signifies the unbegotten, before begetting he was not unbegotten20. For if one were to say these things according to the custom among men, for whom it is impossible for someone to acquire at the same time the possession of several skills, without undertaking each of the things 1.1.586 studied according to some order and sequence of time—if it were necessary to reason thus also in the case of the God of all, that at one time he has unbegottenness, and after this acquires power, then incorruptibility, then wisdom, and progressing becomes Father and again just and subsequently eternal and all things that are contemplated concerning him, acquiring them through some sequence, it would perhaps not have been very absurd to think that one of the names concerning God precedes another and to say that he was first unbegotten, and after this became Father. 1.1.587 But as it is now, who is so base in mind and uninitiated into the genius of the divine doctrines, as, having taken into mind the cause of beings, not to grasp the idea of all things piously conceived concerning God as simultaneous and cohesive, but to think that one thing came later, another at the beginning, and something else was added in between according to some sequence of order 1.1.588? For it is not possible for one who has traversed with reasoning any of the things piously said concerning God to encounter another matter or thought which will be able to be raised above the antiquity of what has been said, but every divine name and every magnificent thought and every tongue and conception fitting for the notions of God is connected to the other and is united, and all the conceptions about God are apprehended together in succession and cohesively with one another: paternity, unbegottenness, power, 1.1.589 incorruptibility, goodness, authority, all the other things. For each of these is not conceived separately, cut off from the rest, by itself for some interval of time, as preceding another or following it, but whatever magnificent and pious name might be found, is co-signified with the eternity of God. 1.1.590 Therefore, just as it is not possible to say that God was ever not good or powerful or incorruptible or immortal, in the same way it is impious not always to attest his paternity, but to say it was added 1.1.591 later. For he who is truly Father is always Father; but if the "always" were not added to the confession, but some notion, preconceived in vanity, were to cut off and mutilate from above the notion of the Father, his being truly Father will no longer be properly confessed, since that notion which is preconceived before the Son rejects the eternal and perpetual nature of the paternity. For how is it possible for that which came to be at some later time 1.1.592 to be understood as what he is now called? If therefore, being first unbegotten, he after this became and was named Father, he certainly was not always what he is now named; but God, what he is now, he always is, becoming neither worse nor better by addition, nor changing from one thing to another and being altered, but he is always the same with himself. If <therefore> he was not Father from the beginning, neither did he become so after this 1.1.593. But if it is confessed that he is Father, I will repeat the same argument again, that what he is now, he always was, and if he always was, he also will be for ever. Therefore the Father is always Father; and with the Father the Son is certainly also co-conceived (for it is not possible for the title of the Father to be confirmed, unless the appellation of Son verifies it), and all things seen 1.1.594 <in> the Father are also seen in the Son. For all things that the Father has are the Son's, and all things of the Son the Father has. The Father, I said, [has] the things of the Son, so that it may not be possible for the slanderer to include contentiously among all things also that the Son is not begotten, when we say the Son has all the Father's things, or again that the [Father] also is begotten and the

74

μήτε σοφίαν ἔχειν αὐτὸν ἐροῦσι μήτε δύναμιν μήτε ἀλήθειαν μήτε ζωὴν μήτε τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, ὅσα κατὰ διαφόρους ἐπινοίας ὁ μονο γενὴς υἱός ἐστί τε καὶ ὀνομάζεται. 1.1.585 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν εἰς κεφαλὴν τῶν αἰτίων τραπείη, ἡμῖν δὲ πάλιν ἐπανιτέον ὅθεν ἐξέβημεν. 20εἰ διὰ τὸ γεγεννηκέναι20, φησίν, 20πατήρ ἐστιν ὁ θεός, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ τὸ ἀγέννητον σημαίνει, πρὶν γεννῆσαι οὐκ ἦν ἀγέννητος20. ταῦτα γὰρ εἰ μὲν κατὰ τὴν ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων λέγοι συνήθειαν, ἐφ' ὧν ἀμήχανόν ἐστι πλειόνων ἐπιτηδευμάτων ἕξιν κατὰ ταὐτόν τινα κτήσασθαι, μὴ κατά τινα χρόνου τάξιν καὶ ἀκολουθίαν ἕκαστον τῶν 1.1.586 σπουδαζομένων ἀναλαμβάνοντα-εἰ οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ὅλων ἔδει λογίζεσθαι, ὡς νῦν μὲν τὴν ἀγεννη σίαν ἔχειν, μετὰ ταῦτα δὲ προσλαμβάνειν τὴν δύναμιν, εἶτα τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν, εἶτα τὴν φρόνησιν, καὶ προϊόντα πατέρα γίνεσθαι καὶ πάλιν δίκαιον καὶ ἐφεξῆς ἀΐδιον καὶ πάντα, ὅσα περὶ αὐτὸν θεωρεῖται, διά τινος ἀκολουθίας προσκτᾶ σθαι, οὐ σφόδρα ἦν ἄτοπον ἴσως ἕτερον τοῦ ἑτέρου προτε ρεύειν τῶν περὶ τὸν θεὸν ὀνομάτων οἴεσθαι καὶ πρότερον μὲν ἀγέννητον, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα πατέρα γεγενῆσθαι λέγειν. 1.1.587 νυνὶ δὲ τίς οὕτω ταπεινὸς τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τῆς τῶν θείων δογμάτων μεγαλοφυΐας ἀμύητος, ὥστε τὴν αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων εἰς νοῦν λαβὼν μὴ πάντων κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἀθρόαν καὶ συγ κεκροτημένην τῶν περὶ τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβῶς νοουμένων ἀνα λαβεῖν τὴν διάνοιαν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν ὕστερον, τὸ δὲ κατ' ἀρ χάς, ἕτερον δέ τι διὰ μέσου κατά τινα τάξεως ἀκολουθίαν 1.1.588 προσγεγενῆσθαι νομίζειν; οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἕν τι τῷ λογισμῷ διαβάντα τῶν περὶ τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβῶς λεγομένων ἐντυχεῖν ἑτέρῳ πράγματι ἢ νοήματι, ὃ τῆς τοῦ ῥηθέντος ἀρχαιό τητος ὑπεραρθῆναι δυνήσεται, ἀλλὰ πᾶν ὄνομα θεῖον καὶ πᾶν μεγαλοπρεπὲς νόημα καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα καὶ ὑπόληψις ταῖς περὶ θεοῦ ἐννοίαις ἁρμόζουσα συνήρτηται πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν καὶ ἥνωται, καὶ πᾶσαι κατὰ τὸ συνεχὲς ἀθρόαι καὶ συγκεκροτημέναι μετ' ἀλλήλων αἱ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπολήψεις καταλαμβάνονται, ἡ πατρότης ἡ ἀγεννησία ἡ δύναμις ἡ 1.1.589 ἀφθαρσία ἡ ἀγαθότης ἡ ἐξουσία τὰ ἄλλα πάντα. οὐ γὰρ διῃρημένως τούτων ἕκαστον τῶν λοιπῶν ἀποτετμημένον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ κατά τι χρονικὸν διάστημα νοεῖται, ὡς προτερεῦον ἑτέρου ἢ ἐφεπόμενον, ἀλλ' ὅπερ ἂν εὑρεθῇ μεγαλοπρεπές τε καὶ εὐσεβὲς ὄνομα, τῇ ἀϊδιότητι τοῦ θεοῦ συνεμφαίνεται. 1.1.590 ὡς οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ποτὲ μὴ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν ἀγαθὸν ἢ δυνατὸν ἢ ἄφθαρτον ἢ ἀθάνατον, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἀσεβές ἐστι μὴ ἀεὶ αὐτῷ προσμαρτυρεῖν τὴν πατρότητα, ἀλλ' ὕστερον προσγε 1.1.591 γενῆσθαι λέγειν. ὁ γὰρ ἀληθῶς πατὴρ ἀεὶ πατήρ· εἰ δὲ μὴ προσείη τὸ ἀεὶ τῇ ὁμολογίᾳ, ἀλλά τις ἔννοια κατὰ τὸ μάταιον προεπινοουμένη ἀποτέμοι καὶ κολοβώσειεν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄνω τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἔννοιαν, οὐκέτι τὸ ἀληθῶς πατὴρ εἶναι κυρίως ὁμο λογηθήσεται, τῆς ἐννοίας ἐκείνης τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ προεπινοου μένης παραγραφομένης τὸ ἀΐδιον καὶ διηνεκὲς τῆς πατρό τητος. πῶς γὰρ δυνατὸν τὸ μετὰ ταῦτά ποτε γενόμενον 1.1.592 νοεῖσθαι ὃ νῦν λέγεται; εἰ οὖν πρῶτον ἀγέννητος ὢν μετὰ ταῦτα ἐγένετο καὶ ὠνομάσθη πατήρ, οὐκ ἀεὶ ἦν πάντως ὃ νῦν ὀνομάζεται· ὁ δὲ θεὸς ὃ νῦν ἐστι, καὶ ἀεί ἐστιν, οὔτε χείρων οὔτε βελτίων ἐκ προσθήκης γινόμενος οὔτε τι ἄλλο ἐξ ἄλλου μεταλαμβάνων καὶ ἀλλοιούμενος, ἀλλ' ὁ αὐτός ἐστιν ἑαυτῷ ἀεί. εἰ μὲν <οὖν> οὐκ ἦν ἐξ ἀρχῆς πατήρ, οὐδὲ μετὰ ταῦ 1.1.593 τα ἐγένετο. εἰ δὲ ὁμολογεῖται εἶναι πατήρ, πάλιν τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον ἐπαναλήψομαι, ὅτι ὃ νῦν ἐστι, καὶ ἀεὶ ἦν, καὶ εἰ ἀεὶ ἦν, καὶ εἰς ἀεὶ ἔσται. οὐκοῦν ἀεὶ πατὴρ ὁ πατήρ· τῷ δὲ πατρὶ συνεπινοουμένου πάντως καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ (οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστι δυνατὸν βεβαιωθῆναι τοῦ πατρὸς τὴν κλῆσιν, μὴ υἱοῦ τὴν προσηγορίαν ἐπαληθεύοντος), καὶ τὰ <ἐν> τῷ πατρὶ θεω 1.1.594 ρούμενα πάντα καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καθορᾶται. πάντα γὰρ ὅσα ἔχει ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐστι, καὶ τὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ πάντα ὁ πατὴρ ἔχει. ὁ πατήρ, εἶπον, τὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἐξείη τῷ συκοφάντῃ συμπεριλαμβάνειν ἐπηρεαστικῶς πως πᾶσι καὶ τὸ μὴ γεγεννῆσθαι τὸν υἱὸν ἐν τῷ λέγειν πάντα τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς τὸν υἱὸν ἔχειν, ἢ πάλιν τὸ γεννητὸν εἶναι καὶ τὸν