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The Father is seen in the Son without difference, except that the one begets, and the other is always begotten. What is without the Father, which also is? What is it? Say, tell all men: God without beginning and creator of all things, if anything has come into being and is about to come into being. God equal to the Father both in substance and in nature and in authority (155) and in form truly and in idea and in time never separate from the Father. How does he proceed? As the word from the mind. How is he separated? As the voice from the word. How is he made incarnate? As a written word. From the heights I was brought down to the depths and becoming grieved with myself I wept for the race of men, because they seek strange examples of both invention and things, and they introduce words from human affairs, thinking to represent the divine nature; a nature, which no one of angels or of men was ever able either to perceive or to name. For what might one call the creator of all things? For names and things and words, all have come into being by the command of God; for he gave names to his works and to each thing its own appellation, but not to all things himself, but he also gave to the works to give names in turn to the works, and one calls and is called by one thing and another by another, but his own name has not yet been made known to us, except the "I Am," the ineffable God, as he said. If therefore he is ineffable, if he has no name, if he is invisible, if he is hidden, if he is unapproachable, if he alone is beyond reason, beyond thought not only of mortals, but also of the immaterial minds themselves—for he set darkness as his hiding place and all other things are from the darkness, (156) but he alone as light is outside the darkness—how do you introduce a conception about him, as if you had perceived him separated in reality? From where and how have you passed through the darkness and alone of all creatures been separated? But if these things are not yours, but another's, I wonder whose, and I ask you to learn: of an angel or one of the immaterial beings? And did you not know that they have both their faces and their feet covered

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ὁρᾶται Πατήρ Υἱῷ ἀπαραλλάκτως, πλήν ὁ μέν γεννᾷ, ὁ δέ ἀεί γεννᾶται. Τί χωρίς Πατρός ἐστιν, ὅπερ καί ἔστι; Τί ἐστιν; εἰπέ, φράσον πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις Θεός ἄναρχος καί ποιητής τῶν πάντων, εἴ τι γέγονε καί γενήσεσθαι μέλλει. Θεός τῷ Πατρί ἴσος καί κατ᾿ οὐσίαν καί κατά φύσιν καί κατά ἐξουσίαν (155) καί κατά μορφήν ὄντως καί κατ᾿ ἰδέαν καί κατά χρόνον Πατρός οὐδέπω δίχα. Πῶς προέρχεται; Ὡς ἐκ νοός ὁ λόγος. Πῶς χωρίζεται; Ὡς φωνή ἐκ τοῦ λόγου. Πῶς σωματοῦται; Ὡς γραφόμενος λόγος. Ἐκ τῶν ὑψηλῶν εἰς ταπεινά κατήχθην καί πρός ἐμαυτόν λυπηθείς ἐγενόμην καί τό γένος ἔκλαυσα τό τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὅτι ζητοῦσι παραδείγματα ξένα ἐπινοίας τε καί πράγματα, καί λέξεις παρεισάγουσιν ἀπό τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἐξεικονίζειν δοκοῦντες τήν θείαν φύσιν˙ φύσιν, ἥν οὐδείς ἀγγέλων ἤ ἀνθρώπων ἤ κατιδεῖν ἴσχυσεν ἤ ὀνομάσαι. Τί γάρ καί καλέσειε τόν κτίστην πάντων; Ὀνόματα γάρ καί πράγματα καί λέξεις, πάντα τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγόνασι προστάξει˙ ἔθηκε γάρ ὀνόματα τοῖς ἔργοις ἑκάστῳ τε πράγματι κλῆσιν ἰδίαν, οὐ πᾶσι δ᾿ αὐτός, ἀλλ᾿ ἔδωκε καί ἔργοις τοῖς ἔργοις πάλιν ὀνόματα τιθέναι, καί ἄλλος ἄλλο καί καλεῖ καί καλεῖται, ὄνομα δ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἡμῖν οὔπω ἐγνώσθη, εἰ μή ὁ ὤν ἄφραστος Θεός, ὡς εἶπεν. Εἰ οὖν ἄφραστος, εἰ ὄνομα οὐκ ἔχει, εἰ ἀόρατος, εἰ ἀποκεκρυμμένος, εἰ ἀπρόσιτος, εἰ μόνος ὑπέρ λόγον, ὑπέρ ἔννοιαν οὐ μόνον τήν βροτείαν, ἀλλά καί αὐτήν τήν τῶν ἀΰλων νόων ἔθετο καί γάρ ἀποκρυβήν τό σκότος καί πάντα τἆλλα ἔνθεν εἰσί τοῦ σκότους, (156) μόνος δ᾿ ἐκεῖνος ὡς φῶς ἔξω τοῦ σκότους , πῶς περί αὐτόν ἐπίνοιαν εἰσάγεις εἴτε πράγματι χωρισθέντα κατεῖδες; Πόθεν δέ καί πῶς πεπέρακας τό σκότος καί μόνος πάντων ἐχωρίσθης κτισμάτων; Εἰ δέ ταῦτα σά οὐκ εἰσίν, ἀλλ᾿ ἑτέρου, θαυμάζω τίνος καί μαθεῖν ἐρωτῶ σε˙ ἀγγέλου ἤ τινος τῶν ἀΰλων; Καί οὐκ ἄν ἔγνως, ὅτι καί τά πρόσωπα καί τούς πόδας ἔχουσι κεκαλυμμένους