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the Lord, being consistent with the subject-matter, has names that are suitable to his energies. And since it is acknowledged that wheat has its names according to the conception of the things observed about it, it was also co-established that these names, in the case of the Lord, are not indicative of nature, but are established by the principle of 2.1.357 conception in the things understood concerning him. But the objector, with great attention, does not direct his battle against what was proposed, but says that He is named these things by Himself, just as if someone, seeking the interpretation of the name of Isaac—whether it is interpreted 'laughter,' as some say, or if the name signifies something else—one of Eunomius's followers were to answer magisterially that the name was given to the child by his mother. But that, one might say, was not the question at issue—from whom the name was provided—but what the meaning of the name signifies when translated into our 2.1.358 language. And so here, when the question is whether the various things said of the Lord are said by conception and do not have the indication of nature, the one who adduces such a proof that the appellations are not considered in conception—namely, that they are said by the Lord Himself—how will he be numbered among the sound-minded, who both wars against the truth and uses such allies for the war, by which he makes his opponent appear stronger? 2.1.359 Then, proceeding as if his argument had concluded according to his purpose, he brings forward other accusations against us, harsher, as he says, than those already mentioned, and after much complaining and prejudicing the argument and vehemently inciting the listener against what is about to be said, in which he alleges that certain more impious things are being fabricated by us, as if we were not only attaching the appellations allotted by God to our own conceptions—without saying what the allotment of the appellations is, and when and how it came to be—<but> also as if we were confusing all things and bringing into identity both the substance and the energy of the only-begotten, without having discussed this very point at all nor having demonstrated how the energy is fabricated by us to be the same as the substance, he finally brings on the very climax of his accusations, speaking in these 2.1.360 words. 20And now20, he says, 20moving on from these things, he also envelops the God over all with the utmost blasphemies, using broken-off words and utterly apostate examples20. But I, even before what has been examined, thought it right to learn from what our 20words20 have 20broken off20 and from what our 20examples20 20apostatize20, not because I absolutely needed to learn these things, but rather to show the trashy and uncritical speech of the writer, with which he deafens the old women among the men and, preening himself with the bombast of his little phrases in the ears of those who admire such things, he does not realize that he is setting up this argument as a monument against himself for the educated. 2.1.361 But this has nothing to do with our purpose. For would that the accusations against him were only up to this point and that, sinning in nothing concerning the faith, he were thought to err only in the utterance of his speech, since it would be as nothing for him, for either praise or slander, whether his phrasing were this way or another. 2.1.362 The sequence, therefore, of what was said by him against us adds this as well. 20Concerning the wheat20, he says, 20and the Lord, having exercised the conceptions in different ways, he says similarly that the most holy substance of God also receives the conceptions in different ways20. This is the harshest of the accusations, and on account of this he dramatized those grave things against us, invoking impiety and absurdity and all such things upon what was said. What then is the 2.1.363 proof of the impiety? Eunomius said certain things about wheat, clarifying these common matters that are readily known to all, how it comes to be and how, when perfected, it nourishes through its fruit, growing and increasing and being managed by certain natural powers; and having said these things, 20it is not at all unlikely,20 he says, 20that the only-begotten God also receives different
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κατὰ τὸ ὑποκείμενον ὁ κύριος ὢν πρόσφορα ταῖς ἐνερ γείαις ἔχει καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα. τοῦ δὲ σίτου κατὰ τὴν τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν θεωρουμένων ἐπίνοιαν τὰς ὀνομασίας ἔχειν ὁμο λογουμένου συγκατεσκευάζετο καὶ τὸ μὴ φύσεως εἶναι ταύτας ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου σημαντικὰς τὰς φωνάς, ἀλλὰ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς 2.1.357 ἐπινοίας ἐν τοῖς περὶ αὐτὸν νοουμένοις συνίστασθαι. ὁ δὲ ἀντιλέγων ὑπὸ πολλῆς προσοχῆς οὐ πρὸς τὰ τεθέντα ποι εῖται τὴν μάχην, ἀλλά φησιν αὐτὸν ὑφ' ἑαυτοῦ ταῦτα κατονομάζεσθαι, ὅμοιον ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις τοῦ κατὰ τὸν Ἰσαὰκ ὀνόματος τὴν ἑρμηνείαν ζητῶν, πότερον γέλως ὥς φασί τινες ἑρμηνεύεται ἢ ἄλλο τι σημαίνει τὸ ὄνομα, ὁ δέ τις τῶν κατὰ Εὐνόμιον ἐπιστατικῶς ἀποκρίνοιτο παρὰ τῆς μητρὸς τεθεῖσθαι τῷ παιδὶ τὴν κλῆσιν· ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦτο, φαίη τις ἄν, τὸ ζητούμενον ἦν, παρὰ τίνος ἡ ἐπωνυμία πεπό ρισται, ἀλλὰ τί σημαίνει μεταληφθεῖσα πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν 2.1.358 γλῶσσαν ἡ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἔννοια. καὶ ἐνταῦθα τοίνυν τῆς ζητήσεως οὔσης, εἰ τὰ ποικίλως ἐπιλεγόμενα τῷ κυρίῳ κατ' ἐπίνοιαν λέγεται καὶ οὐχὶ τῆς φύσεως τὴν ἔνδειξιν ἔχει, ὁ τοιαύτην ἐπαγαγὼν τὴν ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ μὴ ἐν ἐπινοίᾳ θεωρεῖσθαι τὰς προσηγορίας, τὸ παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ κυρίου λέγεσθαι ταύτας, πῶς μετὰ τῶν σωφρονούντων ἀριθμηθή σεται ὁ καὶ πολεμῶν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ τοιαύταις πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον συμμαχίαις χρώμενος, δι' ὧν ἰσχυρότερον ἀπο φαίνει τὸν πολεμούμενον; 2.1.359 Εἶτα προϊὼν ὡς δὴ κατὰ σκοπὸν αὐτῷ συμπερανθέντος τοῦ λόγου ἕτερα προχειρίζεται καθ' ἡμῶν χαλεπώτερα τῶν εἰρημένων ὥς φησι τὰ ἐγκλήματα καὶ πολλὰ προσχετλιάσας καὶ προδιαβαλὼν τὸν λόγον καὶ σφοδρῶς τὸν ἀκροατὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς μέλλουσι ῥηθήσεσθαι παροξύνας, ἐν οἷς δυσσεβέστερά τινα παρ' ἡμῶν αἰτιᾶται κατασκευάζεσθαι, ὡς μὴ μόνον τὰς ἀποκληρωθείσας παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ προσηγορίας ταῖς ἐπι νοίαις ἡμῶν προσαπτόντων, οὐκ εἰπὼν τίς ἡ τῶν προση γοριῶν ἀποκλήρωσις καὶ πότε καὶ πῶς γεγενημένη, <ἀλλὰ> καὶ ὡς πάντα φυρόντων τὰ πράγματα καὶ εἰς ταὐτὸν ἀγόντων τοῦ μονογενοῦς τήν τε οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, οὐδὲν περὶ αὐτοῦ τούτου διαλεχθεὶς οὐδὲ ἀποδείξας, πῶς ταὐτὸν εἶναι τῇ οὐσίᾳ κατασκευάζεται παρ' ἡμῶν ἡ ἐνέργεια, τέλος ἐπάγει καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν κολοφῶνα τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, οὑτωσὶ 2.1.360 λέγων τοῖς ῥήμασιν. 20ἤδη δέ20, φησί, 20μεταβαίνων ἀπὸ τούτων καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν ταῖς ἐσχάταις περιβάλλει βλασφημίαις καὶ λόγοις ἀπερρω γόσι καὶ παραδείγμασι παντελῶς ἀποστατοῦσι χρώμενος20. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸ τῶν ἐξητασμένων ἠξίουν μαθεῖν, τίνων 20ἀπερρώγασιν20 οἱ ἡμέτεροι 20λόγοι20 καὶ τίνος 20ἀποστατεῖ20 τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν 20παραδείγ ματα20, οὐ πάντως τοῦ μαθεῖν ταῦτα δεόμενος ἀλλ' ἢ δεῖξαι τὸ συρφετῶδες τῶν ῥημάτων τοῦ λογογράφου καὶ ἀκριτόμυθον, οἷς περικτυπῶν τὰ ἐν ἀνδράσι γραΐδια καὶ τῷ στόμφῳ τῶν λεξειδίων ἐν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τῶν ταῦτα θαυμα ζόντων καλλωπιζόμενος στήλην καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν λόγον 2.1.361 τοῦτον τοῖς πεπαιδευμένοις προτιθεὶς οὐ συνίησιν. ἀλλ' οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν σκοπὸν τὸν ἡμέτερον. εἴθε γὰρ μέχρι τού των ἦν κατ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ἐγκλήματα καὶ μηδὲν περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐξαμαρτάνων περὶ μόνην τὴν τοῦ λόγου προφορὰν πλημμε λεῖν ἐνομίζετο, ὡς ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ἂν ἦν αὐτῷ πρὸς ἔπαινον 2.1.362 ἢ διαβολὴν τὸ οὕτως ἢ ὡς ἑτέρως τὴν λέξιν ἔχειν. ἡ δ' οὖν ἀκολουθία τῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ καθ' ἡμῶν εἰρημένων καὶ τοῦτο προστίθησιν. 20ἐπὶ τοῦ σίτου20, φησί, 20καὶ τοῦ κυρίου διαφόρως γυμνάσας τὰς ἐπινοίας παραπλησίως καὶ τὴν ἁγιωτάτην οὐσίαν τοῦ θεοῦ διαφόρως δέχεσθαι τὰς ἐπινοίας φησί20. τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ χαλε πώτατον τῶν ἐγκλημάτων καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ τὰ βαρέα καθ' ἡμῶν ἐκεῖνα προετραγῴδησε, δυσσέβειαν καὶ ἀτοπίαν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπικαλῶν. τίς οὖν ἡ 2.1.363 τῆς ἀσεβείας ἀπόδειξις; εἶπεν ὁ Εὐνόμιός τινα περὶ τοῦ σίτου, τὰ κοινὰ ταῦτα καὶ πᾶσιν ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου γνώριμα διευκρινούμενος, ὅπως τε γίνεται καὶ ὅπως τελειωθεὶς διὰ τοῦ καρποῦ τρέφει, φυσικαῖς τισι δυνάμεσι φυόμενός τε καὶ αὔξων καὶ διοικούμενος· καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν 20καὶ τὸν μονο γενῆ θεὸν οὐδὲν ἀπεικὸς εἶναί20 φησι 20διαφόρους δέχεσθαι τὰς