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a well-considered philosophy, in which he says 20that not only in the works is the magnificence of the creator revealed, but also in the names is the wisdom of God demonstrated, who fit the appellations 2.1.404 to each of the created things suitably and appropriately20? These things, perhaps having either encountered them himself in the Platonic dialogue Cratylus or having heard them from one of those who have, on account of the great, I think, poverty of his thoughts, he stitches the nonsense from there onto his own foolish talk, doing something similar 2.1.405 to those who gather food for themselves by begging. For just as those, receiving a little something from each of those who offer, collect food for themselves from various and manifold sources, so also the argument of Eunomius, on account of its poverty of the true bread, collects for his own work the crumbs of phrases and names from everywhere, and for this reason, being struck by the beautiful sound of the Platonic phrasing, he thinks it fitting to make that man's philosophy a dogma of the church. 2.1.406 For by how many voices, tell me, according to the differences of the nations, is the created firmament named? We call it ouranos, the Hebrew samaeim, the Roman caelum, and differently the Syrian, the Mede, the Cappadocian, the Mauretanian, the Thracian, the Egyptian; nor is it easy to count the differences in names, which happen to exist for the heaven and for other things among each nation. 2.1.407 Which of these, then, tell me, is the appropriate name, by which the magnificent wisdom of God is demonstrated? If you should prefer the Greek one over the rest, perhaps the Egyptian will oppose you, putting forward his own; and if you should assign the primacy to the Hebrew, the Syrian will bring his own word alongside in opposition; nor will the Roman yield the primacy to these, and the Mede will not accept that his own not come first, and from the other nations each will deem his own to have primacy before the others. 2.1.408 What then will the dogma not suffer, being torn apart by the disputants with so many differences of languages? 20But from these things20, he says, 20as from clearly established laws, it is shown that God makes the names 2.1.409 fitting and suitable to the natures20. Oh, the genius of the dogma! What sort of notions the theologian bestows on the divine teachings, which men do not even begrudge to bath-attendants. For we allow even them to coin names for the activities in which they happen to be engaged, and no one has glorified them with honors equal to God's, when they give names like foot-baths and hair-removers and hand-towels and many such things to the things made by them, 20appropriately20 signifying the subject by the meaning of the words. 2.1.410 But I will pass over these things too, and their Epicurean natural philosophy <the> that follows, which he who says that the void and the atom and the random generations of beings are akin to what is signified by 'conception' will claim is equivalent to 'conception'. Oh, how he has understood Epicurus! If we attribute the significant sounds for things to the rational power of our nature, is it for this reason that when we speak of indivisible bodies and the entanglements and collisions and repulsions of atoms and such things according to Epicurus, we are refuted? 2.1.411 Let his champion and ally in doctrines, Aristotle, also be silent, whose opinion he says in what follows agrees with the arguments of 'conception'. 20For it is his20, he says, 20doctrine that providence does not extend through all beings nor pass through to terrestrial matters, which this man strongly maintains is in harmony with what has been examined according to 'conception'20. So carefully has he examined the doctrines to judge them. But proceeding, he says 20it is necessary either not to concede the generation of beings to God at all, or, having granted this, not to take away 2.1.412 the positing of names20. And indeed concerning irrational creatures, as we have already said, we are taught the contrary by Scripture, that Adam neither made the animals nor did God name them, but from God came their generation, and from man, of those that had been generated, the

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πεφροντισμένην φιλοσοφίαν, ἐν οἷς φησι 20μὴ μόνον τοῖς ποιήμασιν ἐμφαίνεσθαι τὴν τοῦ δημιουργοῦ μεγαλοπρέπειαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι δια δείκνυσθαι τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ σοφίαν οἰκείως καὶ προσφυῶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν γενομένων τὰς προση 2.1.404 γορίας ἁρμόσαντος20; ταῦτα Κρατύλῳ τάχα τῷ Πλατω νικῷ διαλόγῳ ἢ αὐτὸς ἐντυχὼν ἤ τινος τῶν ἐντετυχηκότων ἀκούσας διὰ τὴν πολλήν, οἶμαι, πτωχείαν τῶν νοημάτων ἐρράπτει τοῖς ἰδίοις λήροις τὰς ἐκεῖ φλυαρίας, ὅμοιόν τι ποιῶν 2.1.405 τοῖς τὴν τροφὴν ἐκ προσαιτήσεως ἑαυτοῖς συναγείρουσιν. ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι βραχύ τι παρ' ἑκάστου τῶν ὀρεγόντων δεχόμενοι ἐκ ποικίλων τε καὶ πολυειδῶν τὴν τροφὴν ἑαυτοῖς ἐρανί ζουσιν, οὕτω καὶ ὁ τοῦ Εὐνομίου λόγος διὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀλη θινοῦ ἄρτου πενίαν τὰς πανταχόθεν ψίχας ῥημάτων τε καὶ ὀνομάτων τῷ ἰδίῳ συνερανίζει πόνῳ καὶ τούτου χάριν περι κτυπηθεὶς τῇ καλλιφωνίᾳ τῆς Πλατωνικῆς λέξεως πρέπειν οἴεται δόγμα τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὴν ἐκείνου φιλοσοφίαν ποι 2.1.406 ήσασθαι. πόσαις γάρ, εἰπέ μοι, φωναῖς κατὰ τὰς τῶν ἐθνῶν διαφορὰς ἡ τοῦ στερεώματος κατονομάζεται κτίσις; ἡμεῖς οὐρανὸν τοῦτο λέγομεν, σαμαεὶμ ὁ Ἑβραῖος, ὁ Ῥω- μαῖος καίλουμ καὶ ἄλλως ὁ Σύρος ὁ Μῆδος ὁ Καππαδόκης ὁ Μαυρούσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ ὁ Αἰγύπτιος, οὐδὲ ἀριθμῆσαι ῥᾴδιον τὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων διαφοράς, ὅσαι κατὰ ἔθνος περί τε τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν πραγμάτων οὖσαι τυγχάνουσιν. 2.1.407 ποῖον οὖν, εἰπέ, τούτων τὸ προσφυές ἐστιν ὄνομα, ᾧ ἡ μεγαλοπρεπὴς σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ διαδείκνυται; ἂν τὸ Ἑλλη νικὸν τῶν λοιπῶν προτιμήσῃς, ἀντιστήσεταί σοι τυχὸν ὁ Αἰγύπτιος τὸ ἑαυτοῦ προβαλλόμενος· κἂν τῷ Ἑβραϊκῷ τὰ πρωτεῖα νείμῃς, ἀντιπαρεξάγει ὁ Σύρος τὴν ἰδίαν φωνήν· οὐδὲ ὁ Ῥωμαῖος τούτοις τῶν πρωτείων ὑφήσεται καὶ ὁ Μῆδος οὐ δέξεται μὴ τὰ ἑαυτοῦ προτερεύειν καὶ ἐκ τῶν λοιπῶν ἐθνῶν ἕκαστος τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀξιώσει 2.1.408 πρωτεύειν. τί οὖν οὐ πείσεται τὸ δόγμα πρὸς τοσαύτας φωνῶν διαφορὰς ὑπὸ τῶν ἀμφισβητούντων διασχιζόμενον; 20ἀλλ' ἐκ τούτων20, φησί, 20καθάπερ νόμων ἐμφανῶς κειμέ νων δηλοῦται τὸ τὸν θεὸν ταῖς φύσεσι πρε πούσας καὶ καταλλήλους ποιεῖσθαι τὰς κλή 2.1.409 σεις20. ὢ τῆς μεγαλοφυΐας τοῦ δόγματος. οἵας ὑπολήψεις ταῖς θείαις διδασκαλίαις ὁ θεολόγος χαρίζεται, ὧν οὐδὲ τοῖς βαλανεῦσι φθονοῦσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι. καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνοις συγχωροῦμεν ὀνοματοποιεῖν τὰς ἐνεργείας περὶ ἃς πονοῦντες τυγχάνουσι, καὶ οὐδεὶς αὐτοὺς ταῖς ἰσοθέοις τιμαῖς ἀπε σέμνυνεν, ὅτε ποδάνιπτρα καὶ ψιλέθειρα καὶ χειρόμακτρα καὶ τοιαῦτα πολλὰ τοῖς γινομένοις παρ' αὐτῶν ὀνόματα τίθενται, 20προσφυῶς20 δηλοῦντα τῇ ἐμφάσει τῶν ῥημάτων τὸ ὑποκείμενον. 2.1.410 Ἀλλὰ παραδραμοῦμαι καὶ ταῦτα καὶ τὴν Ἐπικούρειον αὐτῶν φυσιολογίαν <τὴν> ἐφεξῆς κειμένην, ἣν ἰσοδυναμεῖν τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ φήσει ὁ τὸ κενὸν καὶ ἄτομον καὶ τὰς τυχαίας τῶν ὄντων γενέσεις συγγενῶς ἔχειν λέγων πρὸς τὸ διὰ τῆς ἐπινοίας δηλούμενον. ὢ πῶς ἐνόησε τὸν Ἐπίκουρον. εἰ τὰς σημαντικὰς τῶν πραγμάτων φωνὰς τῇ λογικῇ δυνάμει τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἀνατίθεμεν, διὰ τοῦτο τὰ ἀμερῆ σώματα καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀτόμων ἀντεμπλοκὰς καὶ συγκρούσεις καὶ ἀποπάλσεις καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα κατ' Ἐπίκουρον λέγοντες ἐλεγχό 2.1.411 μεθα. σιγάσθω καὶ ὁ προστάτης αὐτοῦ καὶ σύμμαχος τῶν δογμάτων Ἀριστοτέλης, οὗ τὴν δόξαν ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς φησι τοῖς τῆς ἐπινοίας λόγοις συμφέρεσθαι. 20ἐκείνου γάρ20 φησιν 20εἶναι τὸ δόγμα τὸ μὴ διὰ πάντων τῶν ὄντων διήκειν τὴν πρόνοιαν μηδὲ μέχρι τῶν περιγείων διαβαίνειν πραγμάτων, ὅπερ οὗτος σύμφωνον τοῖς κατὰ τὴν ἐπίνοιαν ἐξητασμέ νοις εἶναι20 διϊσχυρίζεται. οὕτως ἐστὶ κρίνειν ἐπεσκεμ μένος δι' ἀκριβείας τὰ δόγματα. ἀλλὰ προϊὼν 20χρῆναί20 φησιν 20ἢ μηδὲ τὴν γένεσιν τῶν ὄντων τῷ θεῷ συγχωρεῖν ἢ δόντας ταύτην μὴ παραιρεῖσθαι 2.1.412 τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων θέσιν20. καὶ μὴν καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀλόγων, καθὼς φθάσαντες εἰρήκαμεν, τὸ ἐναντίον παρὰ τῆς γραφῆς διδασκόμεθα, ὅτι οὔτε ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἀδὰμ τὰ ζῷα οὔτε ὠνόμασεν ὁ θεός, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ μὲν ἡ γένεσις, παρὰ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῶν γεγονότων ἡ