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let us proceed, 1.1.620 saying what we know about this. Among us, O Eunomius, names signify one thing, and when applied to the transcendent power they provide another meaning. For indeed in all other respects the divine nature is separated from human nature by a great interval, and experience here shows nothing of the sort which is conjectured there by certain reasonings and notions. In the same way also in things signified by names, even if there is some homonymy of human things with the eternal, yet according to the measure of the distance of the natures, the things signified by the names 1.1.621 are also separated. For instance, the Lord, through the parable, names God a human householder; but this name is also common in life. Is therefore the account of our man the same as that of that man, and is our house of the same sort as that great house, as the apostle says, in which are the vessels of gold and silver and as many as are numbered of the remaining material? Or are those things different, which one would not even easily recognize, being contemplated in incorruption and blessedness, while ours are different, being from earth and 1.1.622 collapsing into earth? Similarly also, in almost all other respects, there is a certain homonymy of our affairs with divine things, which shows, in the identity of the names, the great difference of the things signified. For this reason also the names of the members and of the sense organs can be found similarly applied both to us and to the divine life, which all men confess to be beyond sense perception. Fingers and arm and hand, eye and eyelids and hearing and heart and feet and sandals and horses and horse-riding and chariots and countless such things from human life have been transferred by Scripture through enigma for the declaration of divine things. 1.1.623 Therefore, just as each of these names is spoken in a human way but is not signified in a human way, so also the name of Father, even if it is spoken in the same way of our nature and of the divine nature, yet according to the measure of the difference of the subjects under the names, the things signified by the sounds also have their variation. 1.1.624 For we understand generation in one way in the case of men, and we speculate about the divine generation in another way. Man is begotten in time, and some place certainly receives his 1.1.625 life, without which things his nature cannot exist. For this reason, then, the divisions of time are necessarily found concerning the life of man, I mean that which is before him and that which is during him and that which is after this. For it is true to say of one who has been born that once not being he now is, and indeed also that he will sometime again cease to be; but in the case of the pre-eternal generation, these temporal concepts, as having nothing kindred to that nature, do not enter in for those who reason soberly. For 'once' and 'later' and 'before', and as many things as denote this temporal extension, he who reasons about the divine life, having passed beyond, will contemplate the high things loftily, and he will not think that the sovereign nature is also a slave to those things which he sees concerning human generation. 1.1.626 Here a passion precedes human constitution, and certain bodily starting-points are laid down for the construction of the living being, and according to the divine will, the nature that works such wonders underlies it, gathering from all sides what is its own and fitting for the perfection of that which is coming into being, both as much of the elements of the world as is sufficient from each, and the moderate measure of the cooperation of time, and of the nourishment from those who fashion the one being born, as much as becomes proper to the one being fashioned, and, to speak concisely, nature proceeding through all things, by which human life has its construction, thus leads that which is not into generation, and for this reason we say that which is not comes to be, because that which at some time is not, at another 1.1.627 time begins to be. But in the case of the divine generation, the concept does not admit the service of nature and the completion by time for the contribution of that which comes to be, and all that reason has contemplated about the generation below, and to none of the lowly concepts

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προαγάγωμεν, 1.1.620 εἰπόντες ἃ περὶ τούτου γινώσκομεν. ἄλλα σημαίνει παρ' ἡμῖν, ὦ Εὐνόμιε, τὰ ὀνόματα, καὶ ἑτέραν ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπερκει μένης δυνάμεως τὴν σημασίαν παρέχεται. καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσι πολλῷ τῷ μέσῳ ἡ θεία φύσις ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης διατετείχισται, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐνταῦθα τοιοῦτον ἡ πεῖρα δείκνυσιν, ὅσον ἐν ἐκείνῃ στοχασμοῖς τισι καὶ ὑπο νοίαις εἰκάζεται. τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ ἐν τοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν ὀνομάτων σημαινομένοις, κἂν ὁμωνυμία τις ᾖ τῶν ἀνθρω πίνων πρὸς τὸ ἀΐδιον, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς τῶν φύ σεων ἀποστάσεως καὶ τὰ σημαινόμενα διὰ τῶν ὀνομάτων 1.1.621 κεχώρισται. οἷον οἰκοδεσπότην ἄνθρωπον διὰ τῆς παρα βολῆς τὸν θεὸν ὀνομάζει ὁ κύριος· ἀλλὰ πολὺ τοῦτο καὶ ἐν τῷ βίῳ τὸ ὄνομα. ἆρ' οὖν ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀνθρώπου καὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου, καὶ τοιοῦτος ὁ ἡμέτερος οἶκος οἵα ἡ μεγάλη οἰκία ἐκείνη, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἐν ᾗ τὰ σκεύη τὰ χρυσᾶ καὶ τὰ ἀργυρᾶ καὶ ὅσα τῆς λοιπῆς ὕλης ἠρίθμηται; ἢ ἄλλα μὲν ἐκεῖνα ἃ οὐδ' ἂν ἐπιγνοίη τις εὐκόλως, ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ καὶ μακαριό τητι θεωρούμενα, ἄλλα δὲ τὰ παρ' ἡμῖν ἐκ γῆς ὄντα καὶ 1.1.622 εἰς γῆν καταρρέοντα; ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσι σχεδὸν ὁμωνυμία τίς ἐστι πρὸς τὰ θεῖα τῶν ἡμετέρων πραγμάτων, ἐν τῇ ταὐτότητι τῶν ὀνομάτων πολὺ τὸ διά φορον τῶν σημαινομένων ἐνδεικνυμένη. διὸ καὶ τὰ τῶν μελῶν καὶ τὰ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ὀνόματα παραπλησίως ἔστιν εὑρεῖν ὥσπερ ἐφ' ἡμῶν οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς θείας τεταγμένα ζωῆς, ἣν ὑπὲρ αἴσθησιν εἶναι πάντες ὁμολογοῦσιν ἄνθρωποι. δάκτυλοι καὶ βραχίων καὶ χεὶρ ὀφθαλμός τε καὶ βλέφαρα καὶ ἀκοὴ καὶ καρδία καὶ πόδες καὶ ὑποδήματα καὶ ἵπποι καὶ ἱππασίαι καὶ ἅρματα καὶ μυρία τοιαῦτα ἐκ τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου βίου πρὸς τὴν τῶν θείων δήλωσιν δι' αἰνίγματος 1.1.623 ὑπὸ τῆς γραφῆς μετενήνεκται. ὥσπερ τοίνυν ἕκαστον τού των τῶν ὀνομάτων καὶ ἀνθρωπίνως λέγεται καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρω πίνως σημαίνεται, οὕτω καὶ τὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ὄνομα κἂν ὡσαύτως ἐπί τε τῆς ἡμετέρας καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς θείας λέγηται φύσεως, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς διαφορᾶς τῶν ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασιν ὑποκειμένων καὶ τὰ διὰ τῶν φωνῶν σημαινόμενα τὴν παραλλαγὴν ἔχει. 1.1.624 Ἄλλως γὰρ νοοῦμεν ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων τὴν γέννησιν καὶ ἄλλως περὶ τῆς θείας γεννήσεως στοχαζόμεθα. ὁ ἄν θρωπος ἐν χρόνῳ τίκτεται καὶ τόπος τις αὐτῷ πάντως τὴν 1.1.625 ζωὴν ὑποδέχεται, ὧν ἄνευ συστῆναι φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει. διὰ τοῦτο τοίνυν τὰ χρονικὰ τμήματα περὶ τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζωὴν ἀναγκαίως εὑρίσκεται, τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ λέγω καὶ τὸ κατ' αὐτὸν καὶ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο. ἀληθὲς γάρ ἐστιν εἰπεῖν περί τινος τῶν γεγενημένων ὅτι ποτὲ μὴ ὢν νῦν ἔστι, καὶ μέντοι καί ποτε πάλιν τοῦ εἶναι παύσεται· ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς προαιωνίου γεννήσεως τὰ χρονικὰ ταῦτα νοήματα ἅτε μηδὲν ἔχοντα συγγενὲς πρὸς ἐκείνην τὴν φύσιν τοῖς νηφόντως λογιζομένοις οὐ συνεισέρχεται. τὸ γὰρ ποτὲ καὶ τὸ ὕστερον καὶ τὸ πρό τερον, καὶ ὅσα τὴν χρονικὴν ταύτην παράτασιν ἀποσημαίνει, διαβὰς ὁ τὴν θείαν ζωὴν λογιζόμενος ὑψηλῶς τὰ ὑψηλὰ κατασκέψεται, καὶ οὐχ ὅσα περὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην γέννησιν βλέπει, τούτοις νομίσει δουλεύειν καὶ τὴν ἀδέσποτον φύσιν. 1.1.626 ἐνταῦθα πάθος προηγεῖται τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης συστάσεως, καὶ σωματικαί τινες ἀφορμαὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ζῴου κατασκευὴν καταβάλλονται, καὶ ὑπόκειται κατὰ τὸ θεῖον βούλημα ἡ τὰ τοιαῦτα θαυματοποιοῦσα φύσις πανταχόθεν τὸ οἰκεῖόν τε καὶ κατάλληλον εἰς τὴν τοῦ γινομένου τελείωσιν ἐρανίζουσα, τῶν τε τοῦ κόσμου στοιχείων ὅσον ἱκανὸν ἀφ' ἑκάστου καὶ τῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου συνεργίας τὸ μέτριον καὶ τῆς ἐκ τῶν διαπλασσόντων τὸ τικτόμενον τροφῆς, ὅσον οἰκεοῖν τῷ πλασ σομένῳ γίνεται, καὶ συνελόντι φάναι διὰ πάντων χωροῦσα ἡ φύσις, δι' ὧν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ζωὴ τὴν κατασκευὴν ἔχει, οὕτως εἰς γέννησιν τὸ μὴ ὂν ἄγει, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μὴ ὂν γίνεσθαι λέγομεν, ὅτι τὸ ἔν τινι χρόνῳ μὴ ὂν ἐν ἄλλῳ 1.1.627 χρόνῳ τοῦ εἶναι ἄρχεται. ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς θείας γεννήσεως ἡ ἔννοια τήν τε τῆς φύσεως ὑπηρεσίαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ χρόνου τελείωσιν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ γινομένου συνεισφοράν, καὶ πάντα ὅσα περὶ τὴν κάτω γέννησιν ὁ λόγος ἐθεώρησεν, οὐ προσ ίεται καὶ οὐδενὶ τῶν ταπεινῶν νοημάτων