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of those who have been honored. If, then, creation is later than the one who made it, and man is the last of all creation, and speech is proper to man, and the parts of speech are verbs and nouns, and 20unbegottenness20 is a noun, how does he not understand that he is fighting against what he himself establishes? For we say that the names that identify existing things were devised for existing things by human conception, and he confesses that those who use speech were shown forth later than the divine life, and that the divine nature is, as it both is now 2.1.165 and always was, unbegottenly. If, then, he confesses that the blessed life pre-exists human beings (for returning again, I will use the same argument) and we do not deny that human beings came to be later in time, and we say we have used verbs and nouns from when we were constituted and received from the Creator our being rational, and 20unbegottenness20 is a name that makes plain its own meaning, and every name is a part of human speech, then he who confesses that the divine nature pre-existed human beings agrees that the 2.1.166 name invented for the nature is later. For it was not likely that the use of speech was active before the constitution of those who use it, just as neither farming before farmers, nor navigation before sailors, nor anything else that is practiced in life before human life was constituted. Why then does he contend with us, he who does not know how to follow his own arguments? God was, he says, what he is before man came to be. This we also do not deny. For whatever is conceived concerning God, this was before the 2.1.167 constitution of the world. But we say that he was named after the one who names came to be. For if we use names for this reason, so that instruction concerning things may come to us from them; and only that which is ignorant is in need of a teacher, and the divine nature, because it contains all knowledge, is superior to all teaching, it is shown through these things that names have been devised not for God’s sake but for ours, 2.1.168 for the manifestation of what is. For not so that he might learn about himself did he apply the name of unbegottenness to his nature. For he who knows all things and himself before all things does not need syllables and words to learn how he is in nature and dignity; but so that we might have some comprehension of the things piously conceived concerning him, we have fashioned the differences of our concepts with certain words and syllables, like certain signs and characters, inscribing the impressions through speech upon the movements of the intellect, so as to make a clear and unconfused declaration of the movements arising in the soul through sounds fitted to the concepts. 2.1.169 Why then does he refute our argument, according to which we say that the name of 20unbegottenness20 was devised for the indication that God subsists without beginning, by saying that God, both when men speak and are silent and think, and before the conception of things that have come to be, was and is unbegotten? For if there were someone arguing that he was not unbegotten before the name was found out by us, he would have been pardonable for writing such things 2.1.170 against such an absurdity. But if it is confessed by all that he pre-existed both speech and thought, and the positing of the name, by which the mind is declared, is said to have been found out by us through conception, and the aim of his fight against us is to show that the name was not devised by men, but that it existed even before our constitution, I do not know what bearing on his present endeavor it has to say that God subsists unbegottenly before existing things and to contend that conception is 2.1.171 later than God. For surely no one declares that God is a conception, so that one should contend against him with such arguments and say what he has said, that 20it is the part of madmen to consider conception older than those who conceive20, and in addition to these things, whatever he goes on to elaborate;

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τιμηθέντων. εἰ οὖν ὑστέρα μὲν τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἡ κτίσις, τῆς κτίσεως δὲ πάσης ἔσχατος ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, ἴδιον δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὁ λόγος, λόγου δὲ μέρη ῥήματά τε καὶ ὀνόματα, ὄνομα δὲ ἡ 20ἀγεννησία20, πῶς οὐ συνίησιν οἷς κατασκευάζει, τούτοις μαχόμενος; ἡμεῖς τε γάρ φαμεν ἐφευρῆσθαι τοῖς οὖσι τὰ γνωριστικὰ τῶν ὄντων ὀνόματα διὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐννοίας, κἀκεῖνος ὑστέρους ὁμολογεῖ τοὺς κεχρημένους τῷ λόγῳ τῆς θείας ἀναδειχθῆναι ζωῆς, εἶναι δὲ τὴν θείαν φύσιν, ὡς νῦν 2.1.165 τε ἔστι καὶ ἀεὶ ἦν, ἀγεννήτως. εἰ οὖν ἐκεῖνός τε προϋπ άρχειν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὁμολογεῖ τὴν μακαρίαν ζωήν (πάλιν γὰρ ἐπαναστρέψας τῷ αὐτῷ χρήσομαι λόγῳ) ἡμεῖς τε τὸ χρόνοις ὕστερον φῦναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οὐκ ἀντιλέγομεν, ῥήμασι δὲ κεχρῆσθαί φαμεν καὶ ὀνόμασιν, ἀφ' οὗ τε συνέ στημεν καὶ τὸ λογικοὶ εἶναι παρὰ τοῦ πεποιηκότος ἐσχή καμεν, ἡ δὲ 20ἀγεννησία20 ὄνομά ἐστιν ἐμφαντικὸν τοῦ ἰδίου νοήματος, πᾶν δὲ ὄνομα τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου λόγου μέρος ἐστίν, ἄρα ὁ προϋφεστάναι τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν θείαν φύσιν ὁμο λογῶν μεταγενεστέραν εἶναι τὴν ἐφευρεθεῖσαν τῇ φύσει 2.1.166 κλῆσιν συντίθεται. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν εἰκὸς τοῦ λόγου τὴν χρῆσιν πρὸ τῆς τῶν κεχρημένων κατασκευῆς ἐνεργεῖσθαι, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ γεωργίαν πρὸ τῶν γεωργούντων οὐδὲ ναυτιλίαν πρὸ τῶν ναυτιλλομένων οὐδὲ ἄλλο τι τῶν κατὰ τὸν βίον ἐνεργουμένων πρὸ τοῦ συστῆναι τὸν ἀνθρώπινον βίον. τί οὖν ἡμῖν διαμάχεται ὁ τοῖς ἰδίοις αὐτοῦ λόγοις ἀκολουθεῖν οὐ γινώσκων; Ἦν, φησίν, ὁ θεὸς ὅπερ ἐστὶ πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον. τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἀρνούμεθα. πᾶν γὰρ ὅτιπέρ ἐστι περὶ τὸν θεὸν νοούμενον, τοῦτο πρὸ τῆς 2.1.167 τοῦ κόσμου συστάσεως ἦν. ἀλλ' ὀνομάζεσθαι τοῦτόν φαμεν μετὰ τὸ γενέσθαι τὸν ὀνομάζοντα. εἰ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο χρώ μεθα τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ὥστε διδασκαλίαν· ἡμῖν ἐκεῖθεν τῶν πραγμάτων γίνεσθαι, μόνον δὲ τὸ ἀγνοοῦν ἐπιδεές ἐστι τοῦ διδάσκοντος, ἡ δὲ θεία φύσις διὰ τὸ πᾶσαν ἐμπεριειληφέναι τὴν γνῶσιν κρείττων πάσης διδασκαλίας ἐστί, δείκνυται διὰ τούτων ὅτι οὐ τοῦ θεοῦ χάριν ἀλλ' ἡμῶν ἕνεκα τὰ ὀνόματα 2.1.168 πρὸς δήλωσιν τοῦ ὄντος ἐπινενόηται. οὐ γὰρ ὅπως ἂν ἐκεῖνος ἑαυτὸν μάθοι, τὸ τῆς ἀγεννησίας ὄνομα τῇ φύσει ἐφήρμοσεν. ὁ γὰρ εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα καὶ ἑαυτὸν πρὸ πάντων συλλαβῶν καὶ ῥημάτων πρὸς τὸ μαθεῖν ὡς ἔχει φύσεως καὶ ἀξίας οὐκ ἐπιδέεται· ἀλλ' ὅπως ἡμεῖς τινα τῶν εὐσε βῶς περὶ αὐτὸν νοουμένων κατάληψιν σχοίημεν, ῥήμασί τισι καὶ συλλαβαῖς τὰς τῶν νοημάτων διαφορὰς ἐτυπώσαμεν, οἷόν τινα σήμαντρα καὶ χαρακτῆρας τὰς διὰ τοῦ λόγου τυπώσεις τοῖς τῆς διανοίας κινήμασιν ἐπιγράψαντες, ὥστε τῶν ἐγγινομένων τῇ ψυχῇ κινημάτων τρανὴν καὶ ἀσύγχυτον ποιεῖσθαι τὴν δήλωσιν διὰ τῶν ἐφηρμοσμένων τοῖς νοήμασι 2.1.169 φθόγγων. τί τοίνυν ἐλέγχει τὸν ἡμέτερον λόγον, καθ' ὅν φαμεν ἐπινενοῆσθαι τὸ τῆς 20ἀγεννησίας20 ὄνομα πρὸς ἔν δειξιν τοῦ ἀνάρχως τὸν θεὸν ὑφεστάναι, τῷ λέγειν ὅτι ὁ θεὸς καὶ λαλούντων καὶ σιωπώντων καὶ διανοουμένων καὶ πρὸ τῆς τῶν γενομένων ἐπινοίας ἦν τε καὶ ἔστιν ἀγέν νητος; εἰ μὲν γάρ τις ἦν ὁ κατασκευάζων μὴ πρότερον αὐτὸν ἀγέννητον εἶναι πρὶν ἢ παρ' ἡμῶν ἐξευρεθῆναι τὸ ὄνομα, συγγνωστὸς ἂν ἦν πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἀτοπίαν ἐκεῖνα 2.1.170 γράφων. εἰ δὲ τὸ προϋφεστάναι καὶ λόγου καὶ διανοίας αὐτὸν παρὰ πάντων ὁμολογεῖται, ἡ δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος θέσις, καθ' ἣν ὁ νοῦς ἐξαγγέλλεται, δι' ἐπινοίας παρ' ἡμῶν ἐξευ ρῆσθαι λέγεται, ὁ δὲ σκοπὸς αὐτῷ τῆς πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐστι μάχης τὸ δεῖξαι μὴ παρὰ ἀνθρώπων ἐπινενοῆσθαι τὸ ὄνομα, ἀλλ' εἶναι τοῦτο καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἡμετέρας συστάσεως, οὐκ οἶδα περὶ τίνος λεγόμενον τί κοινὸν ἔχει πρὸς τὴν προκει μένην αὐτῷ σπουδὴν τὸ πρὸ τῶν ὄντων ὑφεστάναι τὸν θεὸν ἀγεννήτως λέγειν καὶ τὸ διαβεβαιοῦσθαι μεταγενεστέραν 2.1.171 εἶναι διαγωνίζεσθαι τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἐπίνοιαν. μὴ γὰρ ἐπί νοιάν τις εἶναι τὸν θεὸν ἀποφαίνεται, ὥστε τοῖς τοιούτοις πρὸς αὐτὸν τῶν λόγων διαγωνίζεσθαι καὶ λέγειν ἃ εἴρηκεν, ὅτι 20μαινομένων ἐστὶ τὸ πρεσβυτέραν τῶν ἐπι νοούντων ἡγεῖσθαι τὴν ἐπίνοιαν20, καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τούτοις ὅσα ὑποβὰς διεξέρχεται·