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Eunomius might say, with the same thought, that it signifies the infinity of the divine life, with David having hymned the kingdom before the ages, and Moses having shown God's kingdom extending beyond the ages; so that from both we might be taught that every concept of interval is contained within the divine nature, being bounded on all sides by the infinity 2.1.461 of the one who contains all things. For Moses, looking to what comes after, says that he reigns for ever and for ever and yet more; but the great David, bringing his thought to what is before, said, But God is our king from before the ages, and again, God will hear, 2.1.462 who exists before the ages. But the wise Eunomius, bidding farewell to such great teachers, says that we speak of one unbegun life, and another that is unending, and again of certain othernesses and differences of ages, which by their own otherness also split apart the conception of God. 2.1.463 But lest our fight against what has been said become too lengthy, we will set forth the very industry of Eunomius in these matters, untested and unexamined, being sufficient, through its zeal for falsehood, to make the truth clearer to the discerning. For as he proceeds in his argument, he asks us, 20what we think the ages are20; and yet it would have been more just for such questions to be put by us to him; for who is it who claims to have known the essence of God, who defines as comprehensible by his own intelligence things that are unattainable for us? Therefore, let him who boasts of having comprehended things beyond, discourse to us on the nature of the essence of the ages, and let him not brandish this precipitous and two-horned dilemma of a response too fearsomely at us laymen, as if, should we think the ages to be this, this absurdity would meet us, 2.1.464 and if the other, that other absurdity. 20For if,20 he says, 20you say they are eternal, you will be Greeks and Valentinians and barbarians; but if generated,20 he says, 20you will no longer confess the ungenerated in God.20 O this invincible and unanswerable argument! If anything is confessed to be generated, O Eunomius, the confession of the ungenerated will be set aside. And where have your technical arguments about the generated in relation to the ungenerated flowed away, by which the unlikeness of the Son’s essence to the one who generated him was constructed? 2.1.465 For it seems from what we are now taught that the Father is not unlike in essence when considered in relation to the generated, but is utterly dissolved into non-being by the confession of the ungenerated, if indeed, should we say the ages are generated, we are led to no longer confess the ungenerated. But let us see the necessity by which he compels us to the acceptance of this absurdity. 2.1.466 20For of those things,20 he says, 20by whose juxtaposition the unbegun accrues to God, if they do not exist, what is added will not exist.20 O this strong and inescapable grip! As if having athletically gripped us about the middle with unbreakable knots, he holds us. He says that the ungenerated accrues to God by the juxtaposition of the ages. Accrues from whom? Who says this, that to the one who exists without beginning, the ungenerated accrues by acquisition through the juxtaposition of certain things? Neither the text nor the thought of this absurdity 2.1.467 is found in our words. For the text is its own advocate, having nothing of the sort that has been brought against us; and as for the meaning of what has been said, who could be considered a more trustworthy interpreter than the very fathers of the statement? Therefore, we are more just in saying what we mean, when we define the life of God as being beyond the ages; and we say 2.1.468 these things which have been said in the preceding passages. But he says that if the juxtaposition of the ages does not exist, it is impossible for that which is added to God from it to exist, and he says that ungeneratedness has been added. Let him also say from whom such a thing has been added to God. If, then, it is from himself, he would be ridiculous for invoking his own folly upon our words; but if from us, let him read the text aloud, and we will accept the accusation. 2.1.469 But I think it is necessary to pass over these things and whatever of these things is according to

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Εὐνόμιος λέγοι τῇ αὐτῇ διανοίᾳ τῆς θείας ζωῆς τὴν ἀπειρίαν διασημαίνουσαν, τοῦ μὲν ∆αβὶδ τὴν πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων βασιλείαν ὑμνήσαντος, τοῦ δὲ Μωϋσέως τὴν ὑπὲρ τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐκτεινομένην τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλείαν δείξαντος· ὡς ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἡμᾶς διδαχθῆναι ὅτι πᾶν διαστηματικὸν νόημα ἐντὸς τῆς θείας φύσεως περιείληπται, τῇ ἀπειρίᾳ 2.1.461 τοῦ τὸ πᾶν περιέχοντος ἁπανταχόθεν ἐμπερατούμενον. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Μωϋσῆς εἰς τὸ ἐφεξῆς βλέπων βασιλεύειν αὐτόν φησι τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ ἐπ' αἰῶνα καὶ ἔτι· ὁ δὲ μέγας ∆αβὶδ πρὸς τὸ κατόπιν ἀγαγὼν τὴν διάνοιαν εἶπεν Ὁ δὲ θεὸς βασιλεὺς ἡμῶν πρὸ αἰῶνος, καὶ πάλιν Εἰσακούσεται ὁ θεὸς 2.1.462 ὁ ὑπάρχων πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων. ἀλλ' ὁ σοφὸς Εὐνόμιος ἐρ ρῶσθαι φράσας τοῖς τηλικούτοις καθηγηταῖς ἄλλην φησὶν ἡμᾶς λέγειν ἄναρχον ζωήν, ἑτέραν δὲ τὴν ἀτελεύτητον πάλιν καὶ αἰώνων τινῶν ἑτερότητας καὶ διαφορὰς συν διασχιζούσας τῇ ἑτερότητι ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὴν περὶ θεοῦ φαντασίαν. 2.1.463 Ἀλλ' ὡς ἂν μὴ διὰ μακροῦ γένοιτο ἡμῖν ἡ πρὸς τὰ εἰρημένα μάχη, αὐτὴν προθήσομεν ἀβασάνιστόν τε καὶ ἀνεξέταστον τὴν ἐν τούτοις τοῦ Εὐνομίου φιλοπονίαν ἱκανὴν οὖσαν δι' ὧν σπουδάζει περὶ τὸ ψεῦδος ἐκδηλοτέραν ποιῆσαι τοῖς συνετοῖς τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ἐρωτᾷ γὰρ ἡμᾶς προϊὼν τῷ λόγῳ, 20τί ποτε τοὺς αἰῶνας οἰόμεθα20· καίτοι γε δικαιότερον ἦν παρ' ἡμῶν αὐτῷ τὰ τοιαῦτα προτείνεσθαι τῶν ἐρωτημάτων· τίς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐπεγνωκέναι λέγων ὁ τὰ ἡμῖν ἀνέφικτα καταληπτὰ τῇ ἰδίᾳ συνέσει διοριζόμενος; οὐκοῦν αὐτὸς ἡμῖν φυσιολογείτω τὴν τῶν αἰώνων οὐσίαν ὁ τὰ ὑπερέκεινα κατειληφέναι κομπάζων, καὶ τὸ ἀμφίκρημνον τοῦτο καὶ διλήμματον τῆς ἀποκρίσεως μὴ λίαν φοβερῶς ἐπισειέτω τοῖς ἰδιώταις ἡμῖν, ὡς εἰ τόδε τοὺς αἰῶνας εἶναι νομίσομεν, τῆσδε τῆς ἀτοπίας ὑπαπαν 2.1.464 τώσης, καὶ εἰ τὸ ἕτερον, τῆς ἑτέρας. 20εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἀϊδίους20, φησί, 20λέγοιτε, Ἕλληνες ἔσεσθε καὶ Οὐαλεντῖνοι καὶ βάρβαροι· εἰ δὲ γεννητούς, οὐκέτι20, φησίν, 20ὁμολογήσετε τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἀγέν νητον20. ὢ τῆς ἀμάχου ταύτης καὶ ἀνανταγωνίστου ἐπι χειρήσεως· ἐάν τι γεννητὸν ὁμολογηθῇ, ὦ Εὐνόμιε, ἡ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου ὁμολογία παραγραφήσεται. καὶ ποῦ σοι διερρυή κασιν αἱ τοῦ γεννητοῦ πρὸς τὸ ἀγέννητον τεχνολογίαι, δι' ὧν τὸ ἀνόμοιον τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα οὐσίας 2.1.465 κατεσκευάζετο; ἔοικεν γὰρ ἀφ' ὧν νῦν διδασκόμεθα μὴ ἀνομοίως ἔχειν ὁ πατὴρ κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ὡς πρὸς τὸ γεν νητὸν θεωρούμενος, ἀλλὰ καθόλου τῇ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου ὁμο λογίᾳ εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν ἀναλύεσθαι, εἴπερ ἐὰν γεννητοὺς εἴπωμεν τοὺς αἰῶνας, εἰς τὸ μηκέτι τὸν ἀγέννητον ὁμολο γεῖν ἐναγόμεθα. ἀλλ' ἴδωμεν τὴν ἀνάγκην δι' ἣν ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν συγκατάθεσιν τῆς ἀτοπίας ταύτης συναναγκάζει. 2.1.466 20ὧν γὰρ τῇ παραθέσει20, φησί, 20προσγίνεται τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἄναρχον, τούτων οὐκ ὄντων οὐκ ἔσται τὸ προστιθέμενον20. ὢ τῆς ἰσχυρᾶς ταύτης καὶ ἀφύκτου λαβῆς· ὡς ἐκ τῶν μέσων ἡμᾶς τοῖς ἀλύτοις ἅμμασιν ἀθλητικῶς διασφίγξας ἔχει. τῇ παραθέσει τῶν αἰώνων προσγίνεσθαι λέγει τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἀγέννητον. παρὰ τίνος προσγίνεσθαι; τίς τοῦτό φησιν, ὅτι τῷ ἀνάρχως ὄντι ἐξ ἐπικτήσεως διὰ παραθέσεώς τινων προσγίνεται τὸ ἀγέν νητον; οὔτε ἡ λέξις οὔτε ἡ διάνοια τῆς ἀτοπίας ταύτης 2.1.467 ἐν τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἐλέγχεται λόγοις. ἡ μὲν γὰρ λέξις ἑαυτῆς ἐστι συνήγορος οὐδὲν ἔχουσα τοιοῦτον οἷον καθ' ἡμῶν προ ενήνεκται· τῆς δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων ἐμφάσεως τίς ἂν ἐξηγητὴς ἀξιοπιστότερος νομισθείη αὐτῶν τῶν πατέρων τοῦ λόγου; οὐκοῦν ἡμεῖς δικαιότεροι λέγειν τί νοοῦμεν, ὅταν ἐπέκεινα τῶν αἰώνων τὴν ζωὴν τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι διοριζώμεθα· λέγομεν 2.1.468 δὲ ταῦτα ἅπερ ἐν τοῖς φθάσασιν εἴρηται. ἀλλά φησι τῆς παραθέσεως τῶν αἰώνων οὐκ οὔσης ἀδύνατον εἶναι τὸ ἐκ ταύτης τῷ θεῷ προστιθέμενον, προστεθεῖσθαι δὲ τὴν ἀγεν νησίαν λέγει. λεγέτω καὶ παρ' ὅτου τῷ θεῷ τὸ τοιοῦτον προστέθειται. εἰ μὲν οὖν παρ' ἑαυτοῦ, γελοῖος ἂν εἴη τὴν ἰδίαν ἄνοιαν ἐπικαλῶν τοῖς ἡμετέροις λόγοις· εἰ δὲ παρ' ἡμῶν, ὑπαναγνώτω τὴν λέξιν, καὶ τὴν κατηγορίαν δεξόμεθα. 2.1.469 Ἀλλὰ παραδραμεῖν οἶμαι χρῆναι καὶ ταῦτα καὶ ὅσα τούτων κατὰ