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has its being attached to a beginning. And grasping with our intellect that what is conceived of from another cannot be first, we devised a name indicative of such a supposition and say that the one who exists without a superior cause is without beginning, that is, unbegotten. And him who so exists we have named unbegotten and without beginning, indicating by the name not what he is, but what he is not. 2.1.193 And that the thought might become most clear, I will try to present it by means of a more vivid example. Let the inquiry be supposed to be about a certain tree, whether it is planted or has grown spontaneously. If, then, it were from planting, we would by all means call the tree 'planted', but if spontaneously, 'unplanted'. Indeed such a name does not deviate from the truth; for the tree will in any case be one way or the other, and it does not indicate the particular nature of the plant. For we learned that it grows naturally by the word 'unplanted', but whether what is indicated is a plane-tree or a vine or some other such plant, 2.1.194 we have not been taught by such a name. If, then, the example has been understood, it would be time to transfer the argument to the matter for which it is an example. We have grasped that the first cause has its being from no superior cause. Therefore, bringing this concept into the form of a name for God who exists unbegottenly, we have named him 'unbegotten'. That he is not, then, through generation, we have declared from the significance of the name, but as to what the substance that exists unbegottenly is in its own nature, we have been led to perceive 2.1.195 nothing from this appellation. For it was not likely that the conception of our reasonings should have power to such an extent, that we should rise above the measures of our nature and set foot upon the incomprehensible and, those things to which there is no access for understanding, embrace these in our knowledge. But he shakes our teacher and drags about the argument which he makes concerning conception, and dances upon what has been said, again as is his custom with the rattling of his little words satirizing in his phrases, and says: 20Of those things whose interpretation he appropriates, he is ashamed of the testimony.20 2.1.196 For having reported a certain part of the things considered by conception to the teacher, in which he said that the use of conception was active not only in vain things, but also had some power in relation to greater things, 20through the theorem concerning grain and seed and food he adds the aforesaid things, accusing him of following pagan philosophy, and says he curtails the providence of God by not confessing that the names were assigned to things by Him, and that he allies himself with the atheists and arms himself against providence, and that he admires their opinion before the laws and assigns more wisdom to them, not having considered the first of the accounts, that before men had been brought into being, the name of fruit and of seed was named by Scripture.20 2.1.197 These are the accusations against us from him, the thoughts not so written in his words, but the phrasing has been changed by us only so much as to correct the harsh and unpleasant syntax of what was said. What then do we, what do we answer to the guardian of divine providence? He says we do wrong because, while we do not deny that man was made rational by God, we trace the inventions of words back to the rational power implanted by God in the nature of men. And this is the most grievous of the accusations, through which the teacher of piety is accused of deserting to the opinion of the atheists and is called 20heir and advocate of custom derived from law20 and all the most terrible things. 2.1.198 Let the corrector of our errors say, then, did God assign the names to things? For this is what the new interpreter of the mystical doctrines says, that God, before the creation of man, named the shoot and the herb and the grass and the seed and the wood and such things, in bringing into creation the things that came to be through his command. 2.1.199

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ἀρχῆς ἐξημμένον ἔχει τὸ εἶναι. καταλαβόντες δὲ τῇ διανοίᾳ μὴ δύνασθαι πρῶτον εἶναι τὸ ἐξ ἑτέρου νοούμενον ἐπενοήσαμεν ὄνομα τῆς τοιαύ της ἐμφαντικὸν ὑπολήψεως καί φαμεν τὸν ἄνευ αἰτίας ὑπερ κειμένης ὄντα ἀνάρχως εἴτουν ἀγεννήτως εἶναι. τὸν δὲ οὕτως ὄντα ἀγέννητον καὶ ἄναρχον ὠνομάσαμεν, οὐ τί ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τί οὐκ ἔστι διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἐνδεικνύμενοι. 2.1.193 ὡς δ' ἂν μάλιστα καταφανὲς τὸ νόημα γένοιτο, δι' ὑπο δείγματος ἐναργεστέρου παραστῆσαι πειράσομαι. δεδόσθω περὶ δένδρου τινὸς εἶναι τὴν ζήτησιν εἴτε φυτευτόν ἐστιν ἢ αὐτομάτως γενόμενον. εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐκ φυτείας εἴη, φυτευτὸν πάντως προσεροῦμεν τὸ δένδρον, εἰ δὲ αὐτομάτως, ἀφύτευτον. τὸ δὴ τοιοῦτον ὄνομα καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας οὐ διασφάλλεται· πάντως γὰρ ἢ οὕτως ἢ ἑτέρως ἔσται τὸ δένδρον, καὶ τοῦ φυτοῦ τὴν ἰδιάζουσαν οὐκ ἐνδείκνυται φύσιν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοφυῶς εἶναι διὰ τοῦ ἀφυτεύτου ἐμάθομεν, εἰ δὲ πλάτανος ἢ ἄμπελος ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων φυτῶν ἐστι τὸ δηλούμενον, 2.1.194 διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης ὀνομασίας οὐκ ἐδιδάχθημεν. εἰ δὴ νενόηται τὸ ὑπόδειγμα, καιρὸς ἂν εἴη μεταβιβάσαι τὸν λόγον ἐπὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα οὗ τὸ ὑπόδειγμα. τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον ἐξ οὐδεμιᾶς ὑπερκειμένης αἰτίας ἔχειν τὸ εἶναι κατελαβόμεθα. τὸν οὖν ἀγεννήτως ὄντα θεὸν εἰς ὀνόματος τύπον τὴν ἔννοιαν ταύτην παράγοντες ἀγέννητον ὠνομάσαμεν. ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὐ διὰ γενέσεώς ἐστιν, ἐκ τῆς τοῦ ὀνόματος ἐμφάσεως ἐδηλώσαμεν, αὐτὴ δὲ ἡ οὐσία ἡ ἀγεννήτως οὖσα τίς κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν ἐστίν, οὐδὲν ἐκ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας ταύτης πρὸς τὸ κατι 2.1.195 δεῖν ὡδηγήθημεν. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν εἰκὸς μέχρι τοσούτου τὴν τῶν λογισμῶν ἐπίνοιαν ἰσχύειν, ὥστε ὑπεραίρειν ἡμᾶς τῶν μέτρων τῆς φύσεως καὶ τοῖς ἀλήπτοις ἐπιβιβάζειν καί, ὧν οὐκ ἔστιν ἔφοδος εἰς κατανόησιν, ταῦτα τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ γνώσει περιλαμβάνειν. Ἀλλὰ διασαλεύει τὸν διδάσκαλον ἡμῶν καὶ περισύρει τὸν λόγον, ὃν περὶ τῆς ἐπινοίας ἐκεῖνός φησι καὶ κατορχεῖται τῶν εἰρημένων, πάλιν συνήθως τῷ κρότῳ τῶν λεξειδίων ἐν σατυρίζων τοῖς ῥήμασι, καί φησιν· 20ὧν σφετερίζεται τὴν ἑρμηνείαν, τούτων ἐπαισχύνεται τὴν μαρ 2.1.196 τυρίαν20. ἀπαγγείλας γάρ τι μέρος τῶν κατ' ἐπίνοιαν θεωρηθέντων τῷ διδασκάλῳ, ἐν οἷς ἐκεῖνος οὐ μόνον ἐπὶ τῶν ματαίων ἐνεργὸν ἔφασκε τῆς ἐπινοίας εἶναι τὴν χρῆσιν, ἀλλ' ἔχειν τινὰ καὶ πρὸς τὰ μείζω δύναμιν, 20διὰ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν σῖτον καὶ τὸ σπέρμα καὶ τὴν τροφὴν θεωρήματος ἐπάγει τὰ εἰρημένα, τῇ ἔξωθεν αὐτὸν φιλοσοφίᾳ κατακολουθεῖν αἰτιώμενος, καὶ περικόπτειν τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ κηδεμονίαν φησί, μὴ ὁμολογοῦντα παρ' ἐκείνου τὰς ὀνο μασίας τεθεῖσθαι τοῖς πράγμασι, καὶ συμμα χεῖν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἀθέοις καὶ κατὰ τῆς προνοίας ὁπλίζεσθαι, καὶ τὴν ἐκείνων γνώμην πρὸ τῶν νόμων θαυμάζειν κἀκείνοις πλεῖον εἰς σοφίαν νέμειν, οὐκ ἐπεσκεμμένον τοὺς πρώτους τῶν λόγων, ὅτι μήπω παραχθέντων τῶν ἀνθρώ πων εἰς γένεσιν ἡ τοῦ καρποῦ καὶ τοῦ σπέρ ματος ἐπωνυμία παρὰ τῆς γραφῆς ὠνομάσθη20. 2.1.197 ταῦτα καθ' ἡμῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ἐγκλήματα, οὐχ οὕτως γεγραμμένα τοῖς ἐκείνου ῥήμασι τὰ νοήματα, ἀλλὰ τοσοῦ τον ὑπήλλακται παρ' ἡμῶν ἡ φράσις, ὅσον τὸ τραχύ τε καὶ δύσηχον τῆς συντάξεως τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπανορθώσασθαι. τί οὖν ἡμεῖς, τί πρὸς τὸν κηδεμόνα τῆς θείας προνοίας ἀποκρινόμεθα; ἀδικεῖν ἡμᾶς λέγει ὅτι τὸ μὲν λογικὸν γε γενῆσθαι παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἀρνούμεθα, τὰς δὲ τῶν ῥημάτων εὑρέσεις εἰς τὴν λογικὴν δύναμιν τὴν ἐντεθεῖσαν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀνά γομεν. καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ χαλεπώτατον τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, δι' οὗ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀθέων γνώμην αὐτομολεῖν ὁ διδά σκαλος τῆς εὐσεβείας κατηγορεῖται καὶ 20συνηθείας ἐκ θέσμου κληρονόμος καὶ συνήγορος20 καὶ πάντα ὀνομάζεται τὰ δεινότατα. 2.1.198 Εἰπάτω τοίνυν ὁ διορθωτὴς τῶν ἡμετέρων πταισμάτων, ὁ θεὸς ἔθετο τὰς προσηγορίας τοῖς οὖσιν; τοῦτο γάρ φησιν ὁ νέος ἐξηγητὴς τῶν μυστικῶν δογμάτων, ὅτι βλάστην καὶ βοτάνην καὶ χόρτον καὶ σπέρμα καὶ ξύλον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα κατωνόμασε πρὸ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῆς ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῷ παράγειν εἰς κτίσιν τὰ γεγονότα διὰ προστάγματος. 2.1.199