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3.2.2 that nature is yoked to such passions.20 See how appropriately he who examines the nature of beings with precision distinguishes in his theory the pre-eternal generation of the Word of God who was in the beginning, bodies around the earth and material cause and the passion of those who beget and those who are begotten, and all such things, at which any intelligent person would blush, even if it were said about us, as our passible nature is publicly disgraced by his argument. But such is the brilliant 3.2.3 natural philosophy of the speechwriter concerning the only-begotten God. But let us, leaving aside indignation (for what more could our groaning contribute to the destruction of our enemies’ wickedness?), make public the meaning of what has been said, as best we can, about what sort of generation the theory was proposed, that which is constituted according to the flesh or that according to the only-begotten God. 3.2.4 For since the theory is twofold, concerning both the divine and simple and immaterial life and concerning the material and passible subsistence, and since generation is spoken of in the same way for both, it would be necessary to make a clear and unconfused distinction of the things signified, lest the homonymy of "generation" should somehow lead the truth astray. Since, therefore, the coming into being through the flesh is a material process and is advanced through passion, while that which is incorporeal and intangible and formless and free from material admixture is alienated from every passible disposition, it is fitting to consider what kind of generation the inquiry was about, the pure and divine 3.2.5 or the passible and defiling. But no one would deny that the pre-eternal existence of the only-begotten God was the subject of the argument's theory. Why then does he dwell on this corporeal natural philosophy, in the abominable arrangement of his argument, defiling nature and making public the passions surrounding human generation, abandoning the proposed subject? For we did not need to learn about this animal-like generation which 3.2.6 is constituted through the flesh. For who is so foolish as, seeing himself and understanding the human element in himself, to seek another interpreter of his own nature and need to learn the necessary passions that are considered with the generation of the body, that the one who begets is in passion in one way, and the one who is begotten is in passion in another, so that from this teaching a man might learn that he himself both begets through passion and 3.2.7 passion began his generation? For whether these things are kept silent or spoken makes no difference; and whether someone goes through making public the secret things, or conceals the unmentionable things in silence, we were not ignorant that our nature proceeds through passion. But we seek for the argument to be made clear concerning the lofty and ineffable existence of the only-begotten, according to which he is believed to be from the Father. 3.2.8 Since this examination, then, is proposed, the new theologian adds to his argument flux and passion and material cause and an activity not free from defilement and a supply flowing in from outside and all such things, I know not what came over him who says that in the excellence of his wisdom nothing of the incomprehensible is left outside his own knowledge, and who professes to interpret the ineffable generation of the Son, that he, departing from the proposed topics, plunges like an eel into the muddy mire of his reasonings, like that nocturnal Nicodemus, who, when the Lord was teaching about the birth from above, was dragged down by his reasonings to the travail in the womb, and was perplexed how one could be in the womb a second time, saying "How can these things be?" thinking that by the impossibility of an old man being gestated again in his mother's womb he would refute 3.2.9 the spiritual birth as inconsistent. But the Lord corrects even his mistaken assumption, saying that the properties of the flesh and of the spirit are unmixed, and let this man correct himself in like manner, if he wishes. For it is necessary, I think, for the seeker of truth to consider the subject from its own properties, not to misrepresent the immaterial through the category of material things. For if a man or an ox or any other of those born through the flesh is not free from passion when begetting or being begotten, what 3.2.10 of this

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3.2.2 τοίοις πάθεσι συνεζεῦχθαι τὴν φύσιν20. ὁρᾶτε πῶς πρεπόντως τοῦ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντος λόγου θεοῦ διαλαμβάνει τῇ θεωρίᾳ τὴν προαιώνιον γέννησιν ὁ τὴν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν δι' ἀκριβείας ἐπισκεπτόμενος, σώματα περὶ γῆν καὶ ὑλικὴν αἰτίαν καὶ πάθος γεννώντων τε καὶ γεννωμένων καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα, δι' ὧν ἐρυθριάσειεν ἄν τις τῶν νοῦν ἐχόντων, κἂν περὶ ἡμῶν λέγηται, στηλιτευομένης τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἐμ παθοῦς ἡμῶν φύσεως. ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν λαμπρὰ τοῦ λογογράφου 3.2.3 περὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ φυσιολογία τοιαύτη. ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ σχετλιάζειν ἀφέντες (τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ πλέον ὁ στεναγμὸς ἡμῖν πρὸς κατάλυσιν τῆς τῶν ἐχθρῶν κακίας συναγωνίσαιτο;) τὸν νοῦν τῶν εἰρημένων, ὅπως ἂν οἷοί τε ὦμεν, δημοσιεύ σωμεν, περὶ ποίου γεννήματος ἡ θεωρία προὔκειτο, τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα συνισταμένου ἢ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν μονογενῆ θεόν. 3.2.4 διπλῆς γὰρ οὔσης τῆς θεωρίας, ἐπί τε τῆς θείας καὶ ἁπλῆς καὶ ἀΰλου ζωῆς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ὑλικῆς τε καὶ ἐμπαθοῦς ὑποστάσεως, καὶ ὁμοίως λεγομένης ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν τῆς γεννή σεως ἀναγκαῖον ἂν εἴη τρανὴν καὶ ἀσύγχυτον τὴν δια στολὴν τῶν σημαινομένων ποιήσασθαι, μή πη τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἡ τῆς γεννήσεως ὁμωνυμία παραλογίσηται. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἡ μὲν διὰ σαρκὸς εἰς τὸ εἶναι πάροδος ὑλική τίς ἐστι καὶ διὰ πάθους προάγεται, τὸ δὲ ἀσώματον καὶ ἀναφὲς καὶ ἀνείδεον καὶ τῆς ὑλώδους ἐπιμιξίας ἐλεύθερον πάσης δια θέσεως ἐμπαθοῦς ἠλλοτρίωται, θεωρῆσαι προσήκει περὶ ποίας γεννήσεως ἡ ζήτησις ἦν, τῆς ἀκηράτου καὶ θείας 3.2.5 ἢ τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς καὶ ῥυπώσης. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄν τις ἀντείποι τὸ μὴ [περὶ] τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ τὴν προαιώνιον ὕπαρξιν προκεῖσθαι τῇ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ λόγου. τί οὖν ἐμφιλοχωρεῖ τῇ σωματικῇ ταύτῃ φυσιολογίᾳ, ἐν τῇ βδελυρᾷ τοῦ λόγου διασκευῇ καταρρυπαίνων τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὰ περὶ τὴν ἀνθρω πίνην γέννησιν πάθη δημοσιεύων, καταλιπὼν τὴν προκει μένην ὑπόθεσιν; οὐ γὰρ τὴν ζῳώδη ταύτην γέννησιν τὴν 3.2.6 διὰ σαρκὸς συνισταμένην μαθεῖν ἐδεόμεθα. τίς γὰρ οὕτως ἠλίθιος, ὡς ἑαυτὸν βλέπων καὶ νοῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ ἀνθρώ πινον ἄλλον ἑρμηνέα τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ζητεῖν φύσεως καὶ δεῖσθαι μαθεῖν τὰ ἀναγκαῖα πάθη, ὅσα τῇ γεννήσει συνθεωρεῖται τοῦ σώματος, ὅτι ἄλλως μὲν ὁ τίκτων, ἑτέρως δὲ τὸ τικτό μενον ἐν πάθει γίνεται, ὡς ἂν μάθοι ἐκ τῆς διδασκαλίας ταύτης ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὅτι αὐτός τε διὰ πάθους γεννᾷ καὶ 3.2.7 πάθος αὐτῷ τῆς γεννήσεως ἤρξατο; ταῦτα γὰρ καὶ σιω πώμενα καὶ λεγόμενα τὸ ἴσον ἔχει, κἄν τις διεξίῃ δημο σιεύων τὰ κρύφια, κἂν συγκαλύπτῃ [τῇ] σιωπῇ τὰ ἀπόρ ρητα, τὸ διὰ πάθους προϊέναι τὴν φύσιν ἡμῶν οὐκ ἠγνοή σαμεν. ζητοῦμεν δὲ περὶ τῆς ὑψηλῆς τε καὶ ἀφράστου τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑπάρξεως, καθ' ἣν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς εἶναι πεπίστευται, σαφηνισθῆναι τὸν λόγον. 3.2.8 Ταύτης τοίνυν προκειμένης τῆς ἐξετάσεως ὁ καινὸς θεολόγος ῥεῦσιν καὶ πάθος καὶ ὑλικὴν αἰτίαν καὶ ἐνέργειάν τινα ῥύπου μὴ καθαρεύουσαν καὶ ἔξωθεν ἐπιρρέουσαν χορηγίαν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τῷ λόγῳ προστίθησιν, οὐκ οἶδα τί παθὼν ὁ τῷ ὑπερβάλλοντι τῆς σοφίας μηδὲν τῶν ἀλήπτων ἔξω τῆς ἑαυτοῦ γνώσεως καταλείπεσθαι λέ γων καὶ τὴν ἄρρητον τοῦ υἱοῦ γέννησιν ἑρμηνεύειν ἐπαγγελ λόμενος, ἀποστὰς τῶν προκειμένων ἐγχέλυος δίκην εἰς τὸν ἰλυώδη βόρβορον τῶν λογισμῶν καταδύεται κατὰ τὸν νυ κτερινὸν ἐκεῖνον Νικόδημον, ὃς τὴν ἄνωθεν γέννησιν τοῦ κυρίου διδάσκοντος πρὸς τὸν ἐν μήτρᾳ κόπον τοῖς λογι σμοῖς κατεσύρετο, καὶ πῶς ἂν ἐκ δευτέρου πάλιν ἐντὸς τῆς νηδύος γένοιτο διηπόρει λέγων Πῶς δύναται τοῦτο γενέσθαι; νομίζων τῷ μὴ δύνασθαι τὸν πρεσβύτην διὰ σπλάγχνου πάλιν κυοφορηθῆναι μητρῴου τὴν πνευματικὴν γέννησιν διε 3.2.9 λέγξειν ἀσύστατον. ἀλλὰ κἀκείνου τὴν πεπλανημένην ὑπό ληψιν διορθοῦται ὁ κύριος, ἄμικτα λέγων εἶναι τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἰδιώματα, καὶ οὗτος ἑαυτὸν ἐν τοῖς ὁμοίοις, εἰ βούλεται, διορθούσθω. δεῖ γὰρ οἶμαι τὸν φροντιστὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων θεωρεῖν τὸ προκεί μενον, μὴ διὰ τῆς τῶν ὑλικῶν κατηγορίας διαβάλλειν τὸν ἄϋλον. εἰ γὰρ ἄνθρωπος ἢ βοῦς ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν διὰ σαρκὸς τικτομένων οὐ καθαρεύει πάθους γεννῶν ἢ γεννώμενος, τί 3.2.10 τοῦτο