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are equivalent and that there is no difference among them20, and one of the names spoken of is 'father' (for just as he is called incorruptible and eternal, so he is also called father), he will either confirm, even for this word, the opinion concerning the other names and destroy the first supposition, if indeed the notion of fatherhood 2.1.495 happens to be included in all the appellations (for it is clear that if the meaning of 'incorruptible' and 'father' were the same, just as he is ever incorruptible, so he will be acknowledged as ever father, since, as he says, there is one meaning for all the names) or if he should be afraid to attribute fatherhood to God from eternity, he will of necessity destroy the argument, by confessing that a particular meaning inheres in each of the names, and thus his great nonsense about the names, like a bubble 2.1.496, bursts and is extinguished. But if he should defend himself concerning the opposition, saying that only the appellations of 'father' and 'creator' were added to God subsequently, 20because it is from an operation20, as he himself says, 20that both terms are applied to God20, he will circumscribe our great labor on the subject at hand, by confessing those things which would have had to be refuted by us with great pains. For if the meaning of the term 'creator' and 'father' is one (for each is 20from an operation20), then what is signified by the terms is in every way equivalent to each other; for of those things whose meaning is the same, the subject is 2.1.497 not at all different. 20If, therefore, from an operation20 he is called both father and creator, it is certainly possible to exchange the names and use them interchangeably and to say that God is both creator of the Son and father of the stone, if indeed the name of 'father' is devoid of its natural relational meaning. The absurdity constructed by this 2.1.498 is no longer doubtful, at least to those who have sense. For just as it is absurd to consider a stone to be God or anything else that has come into being through creation, so it will be confessed that one ought not to attribute divinity to the only-begotten God either, since one and the same meaning according to operation attributes both titles to God according to the argument of Eunomius, by which he is called both father and creator. 2.1.499 But let us keep to the matters before us. For, slandering our argument, which says that the knowledge of God is gathered for us through different conceptions, he says 20that he is no longer constructed by us as simple, as partaking of the concepts signified by each appellation and by their participation completing for himself the perfection of his being20. I write these things in my own words, abridging his long prating. 2.1.500 But against this vain and feeble verbosity I think that none of the right-minded would make a rebuttal outside of an accusation of folly. For if there were anything of this sort in what was said by us, we should certainly have either to retract what was badly said or to bring the ambiguity of the thought to an unobjectionable interpretation. But since nothing of the sort has been said by us, nor does the consequence of what has been said drive the thought to such a necessity, why is it necessary, by dwelling on what is agreed, to weary 2.1.501 those who encounter the prolongation of the argument? For who is so out of his mind, as, upon hearing that pious conceptions about God are gathered for us through many concepts, to suppose that the divine is composite from different things or gathers its perfection for itself from partaking in certain things? Suppose someone invented geometry, and let this same man be supposed to be also the inventor of astronomy and again of medicine and grammar and geometry and certain other such disciplines; is it then, because many and different are the names of the disciplines contemplated with respect to the one soul, 2.1.502 that the soul will on this account be considered composite? And yet the meaning according to medicine differs very greatly from the science of astronomy, and grammar from geometry

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συμφέρεσθαι καὶ μηδεμίαν ἐν αὐταῖς εἶναι διαφοράν20, ἓν δὲ τῶν ἐπιλεγομένων ἐστὶν ὀνομάτων καὶ ὁ πατήρ (ὡς γὰρ ἄφθαρτός τε καὶ ἀΐδιος, οὕτω καὶ πατὴρ ὀνομάζεται), ἢ κυρώσει καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης τὴν περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ὀνομάτων δόξαν καὶ διαφθερεῖ τὴν πρώτην ὑπόληψιν, εἴπερ πάσαις ταῖς προσηγορίαις καὶ ἡ 2.1.495 τῆς πατρότητος ἔννοια συμπεριειλημμένη τύχοι (δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι εἰ ταὐτὸν εἴη τὸ σημαινόμενον ἀφθάρτου τε καὶ πατρός, ὡς ἀεὶ ἄφθαρτος, οὕτως ἀεὶ καὶ πατὴρ ὁμολογηθήσεται, μιᾶς, ὥς φησι, πᾶσι τοῖς ὀνόμασι τῆς σημασίας οὔσης) ἢ εἰ φοβοῖτο ἐξ ἀϊδίου προσμαρτυρεῖν τῷ θεῷ τὴν πατρότητα, λύσει κατ' ἀνάγκην τὸ ἐπιχείρημα, ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὀνομάτων ἰδιάζουσαν ἐνυπάρχειν ὁμολογῶν σημασίαν, καὶ οὕτως ὁ πολὺς αὐτῷ περὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων ὕθλος πομφόλυγος δίκην 2.1.496 ἀπορραγεὶς κατασβέννυται. εἰ δὲ ἀπολογοῖτο περὶ τῆς ἐν αντιότητος ὡς μόνης τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τῆς τοῦ δημιουργοῦ προσηγορίας ἐπιγεννηματικῶς τῷ θεῷ προσγενομένης, 20διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἐνεργείας20, ὡς αὐτὸς λέγει, 20ἑκατέρας ἐπι λέγεσθαι τῷ θεῷ τὰς φωνάς20, περιγράψει τὴν πολλὴν ἡμῶν περὶ τὸ προκείμενον ἀσχολίαν, ταῦτα ὁμολογῶν ἃ πολλοῖς ἔδει πόνοις παρ' ἡμῶν διελέγχεσθαι. εἰ γὰρ μία τῆς τε τοῦ δημιουργοῦ καὶ τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς φωνῆς ἡ ση μασία (20ἐξ ἐνεργείας20 γὰρ ἑκατέρα), ἰσοδυναμεῖ πάντως ἀλλήλοις καὶ τὰ διὰ τῶν φωνῶν σημαινόμενα· ὧν γὰρ τὸ σημαινόμενον τὸ αὐτό, τούτων οὐδὲ τὸ ὑποκείμενον πάντως 2.1.497 διάφορον. 20εἰ οὖν ἐξ ἐνεργείας20 καὶ πατὴρ καὶ δημιουργὸς ὀνομάζεται, ἔξεστι πάντως καὶ ὑπαλλάξαντι κατὰ τὸ ἀντι στρέφον τοῖς ὀνόμασι χρήσασθαι καὶ εἰπεῖν ὅτι καὶ δημιουρ γὸς τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ λίθου ἐστὶν ὁ θεός, εἴπερ ἄμοιρόν ἐστι τὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ὄνομα τῆς κατὰ φύσιν σχετικῆς σημασίας. τὸ δὲ διὰ τούτου κατασκευαζόμενον οὐκέτ' ἀμ 2.1.498 φίβολον ἔχει τὴν ἀτοπίαν τοῖς γε νοῦν ἔχουσιν. ὡς γὰρ ἄτοπόν ἐστι λίθον ἡγεῖσθαι θεὸν ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν διὰ κτίσεως ὑποστάντων, οὕτως ὁμολογηθήσεται μηδὲ τῷ μονογενεῖ θεῷ δεῖν προσμαρτυρεῖν τὴν θεότητα, μιᾶς καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν σημασίας ἀμφοτέρας τῷ θεῷ τὰς κλήσεις κατὰ τὸν Εὐνομίου λόγον προσμαρτυ ρούσης, καθ' ἣν καὶ πατὴρ καὶ δημιουργὸς ὀνομάζεται. 2.1.499 Ἀλλὰ τῶν προκειμένων ἐχώμεθα. διαβάλλων γὰρ τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον τὸν κατὰ διαφόρους ἐπιβολὰς λέγοντα τὴν περὶ θεοῦ γνῶσιν ἡμῖν συναγείρεσθαι φησὶ 20μηκέτ' αὐτὸν παρ' ἡμῶν ἁπλοῦν εἶναι κατασκευάζε σθαι ὡς μεταλαμβάνοντα τῶν νοημάτων τῶν δι' ἑκάστης προσηγορίας σημαινομένων καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐκείνων μετουσίας συμπληροῦντα ἑαυτῷ τὴν κατὰ τὸ εἶναι τελείωσιν20. ταῦτα διὰ τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ λέξεως γράφω συντέμνων αὐτοῦ τὴν μακρὰν ἀδολεσχίαν. 2.1.500 ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὴν ματαίαν ταύτην οἶμαι καὶ ἄτονον περιττο λογίαν οὐδὲ τὴν ἀντίρρησιν ἄν τινα τῶν εὖ φρονούντων ἔξω τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἄνοιαν κατηγορίας ποιήσασθαι. εἰ μὲν γάρ τι τοιοῦτον ἐν τοῖς παρ' ἡμῶν εἰρημένοις ἦν, ἔδει πάντως ἡμᾶς ἢ ἀνατίθεσθαι τὰ κακῶς εἰρημένα ἢ τὸ ἀμφίβολον τῆς διανοίας πρὸς τὸ ἀνεύθυνον τῆς ἑρμηνείας ἄγειν. ἐπεὶ δὲ οὔτε εἴρηται παρ' ἡμῶν τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν οὔτε ἡ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀκολουθία πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἀνάγκην ἐξωθεῖ τὴν διάνοιαν, τί δεῖ τοῖς ὁμολογουμένοις ἐνδιατρίβοντα ἀπο 2.1.501 κναίειν τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας τῇ παρατάσει τοῦ λόγου; τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἔξω διανοίας ἐστίν, ὡς ἀκούσας διὰ πολλῶν ἡμῖν νοημάτων τὰς εὐσεβεῖς περὶ θεοῦ ὑπολήψεις ἀθροί ζεσθαι σύνθετον ἐκ διαφόρων τὸ θεῖον οἴεσθαι ἢ ἐκ μετα λήψεώς τινων ἑαυτῷ συναγείρειν τὴν τελειότητα; εὕρατό τις καθ' ὑπόθεσιν γεωμετρίαν, ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς οὗτος ὑπει λήφθω καὶ ἀστρονομίας εὑρετὴς εἶναι ἰατρικῆς τε πάλιν καὶ γραμματικῆς καὶ γεωμετρίας καὶ ἄλλων τοιούτων ἐπι τηδευμάτων τινῶν· ἆρ' ἐπειδὴ πολλὰ καὶ διάφορα τὰ ὀνό ματα τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων περὶ τὴν μίαν θεωρεῖται ψυχήν, 2.1.502 σύνθετος διὰ τοῦτο ἡ ψυχὴ νομισθήσεται; καίτοιγε πλεῖ στον διαφέρει τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἰατρικὴν σημαινόμενον τῆς ἀστρο νομικῆς ἐπιστήμης καὶ ἡ γραμματικὴ πρὸς τὴν γεωμετρίαν