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every... something in the middle of the one speaking and the one to whom the word comes and to suppose them. For if there is no intermediary, how will the voice travel from the one speaking to the one hearing? What then will they say is the medium by which they separate the Son [from] the Father? For in the case of bodies, the place in the air becomes the medium, being something else in its own nature besides the substance of human bodies. But God, who is intangible and formless and pure of all composition, sharing His own counsels with the only-begotten God similarly, or rather in the same way, both immaterially and incorporeally, if indeed he made the communication through a voice, what intermediary did He have, through which the word, flowing and being transferred, was settled in the hearing of the only-begotten? 2.1.211 If indeed one must also pass over this unexamined: that the divine is not divided into perceptive activities, as with us each of the senses separately grasps what is akin to it, sight grasping the visible, and the sense of hearing the audible, and touch does not taste, nor does hearing have the perception of vapors or juices, but each remains in the one activity to which it was assigned by nature, remaining in a certain way without sensation toward that for which it is not naturally suited, and without taste of the enjoyment which the neighboring sense reaps. 2.1.212 But it is not so there; rather, the divine is wholly and entirely sight and hearing and knowledge. For it is not right to apply the more animal-like of the senses to the undefiled nature. However, if one must suppose something base and bring down the divine to groveling conceptions, so as to think that the Father speaks words through a mouth, and that the Son's hearing is active, what medium do we suppose that conveys the Father's voice to the Son's hearing? 2.1.213 Must this be created or uncreated? But one cannot say it is created; for the Word came to be before creation was established. But nothing is uncreated except the divine nature. If, then, creation did not exist, and the Word mentioned in the account of the world's creation was older than creation, then what will he who says that words and the sound of a voice are signified by the Word suppose is between the Son and the Father, by which the voice formed the words? For if there is a medium, it certainly exists in its own distinct nature, so that it is neither the same as the Father nor does it coincide in nature with the Son, but being something else entirely it separates the Father and the Son from one another, being inserted between the two. 2.1.214 What then is this? It is not created, for creation is younger than the Word. We have been taught that the Only-begotten is begotten; nothing is unbegotten except the Father. Therefore the word of truth compels us of necessity to understand that there is nothing in the middle between the Father and the Son. And where no interval is conceived, what is joined together is by all means confessed, and that which is joined in all things is not mediated by voice and word. By 'joined' I mean that which is inseparable in all things. For the name of 'conjunction' does not indicate some bodily growing together in the case of the intellectual nature, but the union and blending of the intelligible with the intelligible through the identity of their wills. 2.1.215 Because there is no difference in will between the Son and the Father, but the image of goodness is also according to the archetypal beauty of goodness. And just as if someone should see himself in a mirror (for nothing prevents us from presenting the concept with bodily examples), the image will be formed in every way according to the original, so that the cause of the form in the mirror is the form that looks into it, and the image does not move or incline on its own, unless the original first makes the inclination or the movement, but if the antecedent moves, that which is shown in the mirror by all means moves with it, so we say also that the Lord, the image of the invisible God, is disposed with the Father toward every movement of will, immediately and without interval. 2.1.216 The Father willed something, and the Son who is in the Father had the will of the Father, or rather, he himself became the will of the Father. For he who has all the things of the Father in himself lacks nothing of the Father's things. If indeed he has all the things in himself

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πᾶσα μέσον τι τοῦ φθεγγο μένου καὶ τοῦ πρὸς ὃν ὁ λόγος γίνεται καὶ αὐτοὺς ὑπο 2.1.210 θέσθαι. μὴ γὰρ ὄντος τοῦ μεσιτεύοντος, πῶς ἐκ τοῦ λαλοῦντος ἡ φωνὴ διοδεύσει πρὸς τὸν ἀκούοντα; τί οὖν ἐροῦσι τὸ μέσον ᾧ τὸν υἱὸν [ἐκ] τοῦ πατρὸς διορίζουσι; τῶν μὲν γὰρ σωμάτων ὁ κατὰ τὸν ἀέρα τόπος γίνεται μέσος, ἄλλο τι ὢν κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν παρὰ τὴν τῶν ἀνθρω πίνων σωμάτων οὐσίαν. ὁ δὲ ἀναφὴς καὶ ἀνείδεος καὶ πάσης συνθέσεως καθαρεύων θεός, τῷ μονογενεῖ θεῷ παραπλησίως, μᾶλλον δὲ ὡσαύτως ἀΰλως τε καὶ ἀσωμάτως τῶν ἰδίων κοινωνῶν βουλευμάτων, εἴπερ διὰ φωνῆς ἐποιεῖτο τὴν κοινωνίαν, τί τὸ μεσιτεῦον εἶχε, δι' οὗ ῥέων ὁ λόγος καὶ μεθιστάμενος ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τοῦ μονογενοῦς εἰσῳκίζετο; 2.1.211 εἴγε χρὴ καὶ τοῦτο παραδραμεῖν ἀθεώρητον, τὸ μὴ μεμε ρίσθαι τὸ θεῖον ταῖς ἀντιληπτικαῖς ἐνεργείαις, ὡς παρ' ἡμῖν διῃρημένως ἕκαστον τῶν αἰσθητηρίων τοῦ συγγενοῦς ἐπιδράσσεται, τοῦ ὁρατοῦ μὲν ἡ ὅρασις τοῦ ἀκουστοῦ δὲ ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἀκοὴν αἴσθησις, καὶ οὔτε γεύεται ἡ ἁφὴ οὔτε ἡ ἀκοὴ τὴν τῶν ἀτμῶν ἢ τῶν χυμῶν ἀντίληψιν ἔχει, ἀλλὰ παραμένει ἕκαστον τῇ μιᾷ ἐνεργείᾳ εἰς ἣν ἐτάχθη παρὰ τῆς φύσεως, ἀναίσθητον τρόπον τινὰ πρὸς ὃ μὴ πέφυκε διαμένον καὶ ἄγευστον τῆς ἀπολαύσεως ἧς καρποῦται ἡ 2.1.212 γείτων αἴσθησις. ἐκεῖ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως, ἀλλ' ὅλον δι' ὅλου τὸ θεῖον ὅρασίς ἐστι καὶ ἀκοὴ καὶ γνῶσις. οὐ γὰρ δὴ θέμις καὶ τὰς ζῳωδεστέρας τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐφαρμόζειν τῇ ἀκηράτῳ φύσει. πλὴν εἰ χρή τι καὶ ταπεινὸν ὑποθέσθαι καὶ καταγαγεῖν εἰς χαμαιζήλους ὑπολήψεις τὸ θεῖον, ὥστε λαλεῖν μὲν οἴεσθαι ῥήματα διὰ στόματος τὸν πατέρα, ἐν εργεῖν δὲ τὴν ἀκοὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ, τί τὸ μέσον ὑποτιθέμεθα τὸ διάγον τὴν πατρικὴν φωνὴν εἰς τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀκοήν; 2.1.213 κτιστὸν εἶναι χρὴ τοῦτο ἢ ἄκτιστον; ἀλλὰ κτιστὸν μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν· πρὸ γὰρ τοῦ συστῆναι τὴν κτίσιν ὁ λόγος ἐγένετο· ἄκτιστον δὲ πλὴν τῆς θείας φύσεώς ἐστιν οὐδέν. εἰ οὖν κτίσις οὐκ ἦν, ὁ δὲ μνημονευθεὶς ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ λόγος τῆς κτίσεως πρεσβύτερος ἦν, ἄρα ὁ λέγων ῥήματα καὶ φωνῆς ἦχον διὰ τοῦ λόγου σημαίνεσθαι τί τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑποθήσεται, ᾧ διετυποῦτο ἡ φωνὴ τὰ ῥήματα; εἰ γὰρ ἔστι μέσον, ἐν ἰδιαζούσῃ φύσει πάντως ἐστίν, ὡς μήτε τῷ πατρὶ ταὐτὸν εἶναι μήτε τῷ υἱῷ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν συμβαίνειν, ἀλλ' ἕτερόν τι πάντως ὂν διΐστησιν ἀπ' ἀλλήλων τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὸν υἱὸν μεταξὺ τῶν δύο 2.1.214 παρενειρόμενον. τί οὖν τοῦτο; κτιστὸν οὐκ ἔστι· νεωτέρα γὰρ ἡ κτίσις τοῦ λόγου. γεννητὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἐδιδά χθημεν, ἀγέννητον πλὴν τοῦ πατρός ἐστιν οὐδέν. οὐκοῦν ἐξ ἀνάγκης τὸ μηδὲν εἶναι μέσον τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ νοεῖν ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγος συναναγκάζει. ὅπου δὲ διά στασις οὐκ ἐπινοεῖται, τὸ συνημμένον πάντως ὁμολογεῖται, τὸ δὲ διὰ πάντων συνημμένον φωνῇ καὶ λόγῳ οὐ μεσιτεύ εται. συνημμένον δὲ λέγω τὸ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀχώριστον. οὐ γὰρ σωματικήν τινα συμφυΐαν ἐπὶ τῆς νοερᾶς φύσεως τὸ ὄνομα τῆς συναφείας ἐνδείκνυται, ἀλλὰ τὴν τοῦ νοητοῦ πρὸς τὸ νοητὸν διὰ τῆς ταὐτότητος τῶν θελημάτων ἕνωσίν τε καὶ ἀνάκρασιν. 2.1.215 ∆ιότι οὐδὲ ἔστι διαφορὰ μεταξὺ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν θελήματι, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον τῆς ἀγαθό τητος κάλλος καὶ ἡ εἰκών ἐστι τῆς ἀγαθότητος. καὶ ὥσπερ εἴ τις ἑαυτὸν ἐν κατόπτρῳ βλέποι (κωλύει γὰρ οὐδὲν σω ματικοῖς ὑποδείγμασι παραστῆσαι τὸ νόημα), κατὰ πάντα πρὸς τὸ πρωτότυπον καὶ ἡ εἰκὼν μορφωθήσεται, ὡς αἰτίαν τῆς ἐν τῷ κατόπτρῳ μορφῆς εἶναι τὴν ἐνορῶσαν μορφὴν καὶ μήτε κινεῖσθαι μήτε ἐπικλίνεσθαι καθ' ἑαυτὴν τὴν εἰκόνα, μὴ τοῦ πρωτοτύπου τῆς ἐπικλίσεως ἢ τῆς κινήσεως ἄρξαντος, εἰ δὲ κινηθείη τὸ προηγούμενον, συγκινεῖσθαι πάντως καὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ κατόπτρῳ δεικνύμενον, οὕτω φαμὲν καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου τὸν κύριον πρὸς πᾶσαν θελήματος κίνησιν ἀμέσως τε καὶ ἀδιαστάτως συν 2.1.216 διατίθεσθαι τῷ πατρί. ἠθέλησέ τι ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ ὢν υἱὸς εἶχε τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός, μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸς τοῦ πατρὸς ἐγένετο θέλημα. ὁ γὰρ πάντα τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν ὅ τι τῶν τοῦ πατρὸς οὐκ ἔχει. εἰ δὴ πάντα ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰ