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is so far from thinking that the divine nature is within the compass of human thought, that he even calls the judgments of God unsearchable and his ways untraceable, and insists that the things promised to those who love him for their achievements in this present life are beyond comprehension, so that it is possible neither for eye to perceive, nor for ear to receive, nor 3.1.107 for the heart to contain them. Therefore, having learned these things from Paul, we boldly declare that not only are the judgments of God higher than the power of those who attempt to search them, but also the ways of knowledge remain until now unworn and untrodden. For we think the apostle wished to signify this by calling the ways that lead to the incomprehensible “untraceable,” showing through this word that that knowledge is inaccessible to human reasonings, and no one has yet set his mind on such a path of reason, nor marked any trace or sign of a comprehensive approach to the incomprehensible. 3.1.108 Therefore, having learned these things from the apostolic magniloquence, we reason from what has been said that if the judgments cannot be searched out, and the ways are not traced, and the promise of good things surpasses all conjecture from speculation, by how much greater a measure, according to its ineffable and unapproachable nature, is the divine itself superior and higher than the things conceived concerning it, of which Paul, taught by God, declares there is no knowledge. And for this reason we confirm in ourselves the doctrine that is mocked, confessing that we are inferior in knowledge to the things that transcend knowledge, and we say that we truly worship 3.1.109 what we know. For we know the height of the glory of the one who is worshipped, reasoning upon the incomparability of his greatness by the very fact of not being able to grasp it with our reasonings. And what was said by the Lord to the Samaritan woman, but is brought forward against us by our enemies, would more properly be said to them. For “You worship what you do not know,” the Lord says to the Samaritan woman, who was preoccupied with corporeal notions in her opinions about God, whom the word rightly rebukes, because the Samaritans, thinking they worship God, and then supposing the divine to be physically established in a place, are pious only as far as the word, worshipping 3.1.110 something else and not God. For nothing conceived in circumscription is divine; but it is proper to the Godhead to be everywhere and to pass through all things and to be confined by nothing, so that the saying brought against us is turned back upon the Christ-fighters as an accusation against them. For just as the Samaritans, thinking the divine to be contained by some local circumscription, were rebuked through what they heard, that “You worship what you do not know,” and “your worship directed toward God becomes unprofitable for you, for a god thought to be established in a certain place is not God,”—so it would be proper also to say to the new Samaritans that, by supposing the divine essence to be comprehended by the name of “unbegottenness” as if by some place, “You worship what you do not know,” since you worship God, yet are ignorant that the indefiniteness of God surpasses every meaning and comprehension derived from names. 3.1.111 But the argument has been carried further than the matters at hand, following what is always discovered in consequence. Therefore let us take up the sequence again, since I think his proposed statement has been sufficiently shown through what has been said to be contrary not only to the truth, 3.1.112 but also to itself. For if, according to them, the natural relation to the Father is established by the appellation of Son, and that of the offspring to the one who begot, their wisdom recasting the words signifying the divine nature into the form of names according to some grammatical nonsense, no one would any longer doubt that the relation between the names, established by nature, is a proof of their affinity in essence, or rather, 3.1.113 of their identity. But let my argument take up the contrary statement, so that it may not seem due to weakness

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τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει τοῦ τὴν θείαν φύσιν ἐντὸς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης περινοίας οἴεσθαι, ὡς καὶ τὰ κρίματα τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνεξερεύνητα λέγειν καὶ τὰς ὁδοὺς ἀνεξιχνιάστους καὶ τὰ τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τῷδε κατορ θωθέντων ἐπηγγελμένα ὑπὲρ κατάληψιν εἶναι διϊσχυρίζεσθαι, ὡς μήτε ὀφθαλμῷ λαβεῖν μήτε ἀκοῇ δέξασθαι μήτε 3.1.107 καρδίᾳ χωρῆσαι δυνατὸν εἶναι. ταῦτα τοίνυν μαθόντες ἀπὸ τοῦ Παύλου θαρροῦντες ἀποφαινόμεθα, ὅτι οὐ μόνον τὰ κρίματα τοῦ θεοῦ τῆς τῶν ἐρευνᾶν ἐπιχειρούντων δυνάμεώς ἐστιν ὑψηλότερα, ἀλλὰ καὶ αἱ τῆς γνώσεως ὁδοὶ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν ἀτριβεῖς τε καὶ ἀνεπίβατοι μένουσι. τοῦτο γὰρ ἡγού μεθα τὸν ἀπόστολον σημᾶναι βουλόμενον ἀνεξιχνιάστους εἰπεῖν τὰς ὁδοὺς αἳ πρὸς τὸ ἀκατάληπτον φέρουσι, δει κνύντα διὰ τῆς λέξεως ὅτι ἀνεπίβατός ἐστι λογισμοῖς ἀν θρωπίνοις ἡ γνῶσις ἐκείνη, καὶ οὔπω τις ἐπέστησεν ἑαυτοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν τῇ τοιαύτῃ τοῦ λόγου πορείᾳ, οὔτε τι ἴχνος οὔτε σημεῖον καταληπτικῆς ἐφόδου τοῖς ἀλήπτοις ἐνεση μάνατο. 3.1.108 Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκ τῆς ἀποστολικῆς μεγαλοφωνίας μα θόντες ἀναλογιζόμεθα διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ὅτι, εἰ τὰ κρίματα ἐξερευνηθῆναι οὐ δύναται καὶ αἱ ὁδοὶ οὐκ ἐξιχνιάζονται καὶ ἡ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπαγγελία πάσης ὑπέρκειται τῆς ἀπὸ στοχασμῶν εἰκασίας, πόσῳ μᾶλλον τῷ μέτρῳ κατὰ τὸ ἄφραστόν τε καὶ ἀπροσπέλαστον ἀνώτερόν ἐστι καὶ ὑψηλό τερον αὐτὸ τὸ θεῖον τῶν περὶ αὐτὸ νοουμένων, ὧν οὐδεμίαν εἶναι γνῶσιν ὁ θεοδίδακτος ἀποφαίνεται Παῦλος· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο βεβαιοῦμεν ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς τὸ καταχλευαζόμενον δόγμα, ὁμολογοῦντες ἐλάττους εἶναι κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν τῶν ὑπερβαινόντων τὴν γνῶσιν, καὶ προσκυνεῖν φαμεν ἀληθῶς 3.1.109 ὅπερ οἴδαμεν. οἴδαμεν δὲ τὸ ὕψος τῆς δόξης τοῦ προσ κυνουμένου, αὐτῷ τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι τοῖς λογισμοῖς κατα λαβεῖν ἀναλογιζόμενοι τὸ τοῦ μεγέθους ἀνείκαστον· καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὴν Σαμαρεῖτιν παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου ῥηθέν, καθ' ἡμῶν δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν προφερόμενον, πρὸς ἐκείνους ἂν μᾶλ λον κυρίως λέγοιτο. τὸ γὰρ Ὑμεῖς προσκυνεῖτε ὃ οὐκ οἴδατε φησὶ πρὸς τὴν Σαμαρεῖτιν ὁ κύριος, σωματικαῖς ἐννοίαις ἐν ταῖς περὶ θεοῦ δόξαις προειλημμένην, ἧς καλῶς ὁ λόγος καθάπτεται, ὅτι θεὸν προσκυνεῖν οἱ Σαμαρεῖται νομίζοντες εἶτα σωματικῶς ἐγκαθιδρῦσθαι τόπῳ τὸ θεῖον οἰόμενοι μέχρι τῆς φωνῆς εὐσεβοῦσιν, ἄλλο τι προσκυ 3.1.110 νοῦντες καὶ οὐ θεόν. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐν περιγραφῇ νοούμενον θεῖόν ἐστιν· ἀλλ' ἴδιον τῆς θεότητος τὸ πανταχοῦ εἶναι καὶ διὰ πάντων ἥκειν καὶ μηδενὶ περιείργεσθαι, ὥστε περι στρέφεται τοῖς χριστομάχοις εἰς κατηγορίαν αὐτῶν ὁ καθ' ἡμῶν προφερόμενος λόγος. ὡς γὰρ τοπικῇ τινι περιγραφῇ τὸ θεῖον περιέχεσθαι Σαμαρεῖται νομίζοντες ἐπετιμήθησαν δι' ὧν ἤκουσαν ὅτι Προσκυνεῖτε ὃ οὐκ οἴδατε, καὶ ἀνόνητος γίνεται ὑμῖν ἡ λατρεία ἡ πρὸς θεὸν βλέπουσα, θεὸς γὰρ τόπῳ τινὶ καθιδρῦσθαι νομιζόμενος θεὸς οὐκ ἔστιν, - οὕτως ἂν εἴη κυρίως καὶ πρὸς τοὺς νέους Σαμαρείτας εἰπεῖν ὅτι τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς ἀγεννησίας οἷόν τινι τόπῳ περι ειλῆφθαι τὴν θείαν οὐσίαν ὑπονοοῦντες Προσκυνεῖτε ὃ οὐκ οἴδατε, ὡς θεῷ μὲν λατρεύοντες, ἀγνοοῦντες δέ, ὅτι πάσης τῆς ἐξ ὀνομάτων σημασίας καὶ περιλήψεως ὑπερπίπτει τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ ἀόριστον. 3.1.111 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἐπὶ πλέον παρηνέχθη τῶν προκειμένων ὁ λόγος, τοῖς ἀεὶ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἐφευρισκομένοις ἑπό μενος. οὐκοῦν πάλιν τὴν ἀκολουθίαν ἐπαναλάβωμεν, ἐπειδὴ τὴν προτεθεῖσαν αὐτοῦ ῥῆσιν ἀποχρώντως οἶμαι διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων πεφανερῶσθαι οὐ πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν μόνον, 3.1.112 ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἔχουσαν ἐναντίως. εἰ γὰρ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἡ φυσικὴ σχέσις τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ προσηγορίᾳ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα συνίσταται καὶ πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα ἡ τοῦ γεννή ματος, κατά τινα γραμματικὴν φλυαρίαν τὰς σημαντικὰς τῆς θείας φύσεως λέξεις τῆς σοφίας τούτων εἰς ὀνομάτων σχῆμα παρατυπούσης, οὐκέτ' ἄν τις ἀμφιβάλλοι τὴν ἐκ φύσεως συνισταμένην τῶν ὀνομάτων πρὸς ἄλληλα σχέσιν ἀπόδειξιν τῆς κατ' οὐσίαν αὐτῶν οἰκειότητος, μᾶλλον δὲ 3.1.113 ταὐτότητος γίνεσθαι. ἀλλά μοι μεταλαβέτω τὴν ἐναντίαν φωνὴν ὁ ἡμέτερος λόγος, ὡς ἂν μὴ δοκοίη τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ