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name. 2.1.320 But the divine scripture is so far from agreeing with this confusion that one may even hear prophecy openly complaining about these things. He who says, it says, that light is darkness and darkness is light, who makes the bitter sweet and the sweet bitter. With what in view, then, does he think he must bear witness to this absurdity for his own god? Let those who have been initiated by him into the secrets say what 20the weakest thing on earth20 they judge to be, which 20is honored with the most honorable20 2.1.321 of appellations by God. The weakest of beings are such animals whose generation has its origin from the decay of liquids, but the most honorable of beings are virtue and holiness and whatever is dear to God. Have flies and gnats and frogs and those whose origin is from dung, have these been honored with the name of "holy" and "virtue," so that they are exalted by the honorable names, but do not partake of the 20equal share of the dignities20, 2.1.322 as Eunomius says? But we have not yet heard such a thing, that these weak things have been named with the most magnificent of appellations or that what is great by nature and honorable has been insulted by the name of one of these. Noah was righteous, says the scripture, Abraham faithful, and Moses meek, and Daniel wise, and Joseph chaste, and Job blameless, and David one who had accomplished long-suffering. 2.1.323 Let them say, then, if each of these in any way received his names from their opposites, or if, in the case of those who are attested for the worse, such as Nabal the Carmelite and Pharaoh the Egyptian and Abimelech the foreigner and all who are remembered for wickedness, if they were honored by the divine voice with the more auspicious appellations. These things are not so, but as it is in nature and truth, so beings are both judged and spoken of by God, not being named contrary to what they are, but so that what is signified might become most manifest, being proclaimed by their proper appellations. 2.1.324 This one, the strong-minded, the accuser 20of detected custom20, who disparages those 20justly deprived of their reason20, supposes that these things are to be known about the divine nature, he sets forth these opinions about God as one who treats things with irony through false names and bestows 20the most honorable appellations on the weakest things20, while their nature cries out against the appellations, and insults honorable things 2.1.325 by homonymy with worthless beings. And while a man who looks to virtue, having often been carried away outside the truth even unwillingly, sinks down in shame, does he consider it a fitting honor for God to be shown to misrepresent things by their appellations? The prophecies do not bear witness to these things for the divine nature. Long-suffering and full of mercy and true, says David. How then is he true who speaks falsely of things and alters the truth in the meanings of names? The Lord 2.1.326 God is upright, he is again addressed by the same one. Is it then a mark of uprightness to honor the dishonorable with the most honorable of names and, giving a mere appellation stripped of the worth manifested by the word, to begrudge the one that has received the name? This is the testimony of these theologians concerning the new god; this is the end of their much-vaunted dialectical cleverness, to show that God himself both delights in deceptions and is not pure from the passion of envy. 2.1.327 For it is a mark of deceit not to name the weak things as they are in nature and worth, but to bestow upon them in vain appellations from superior things, without transferring with the name the power of the things so named; and of envy, for one who is able to bestow the more honorable lot on those named for the better, to be reluctant with the favor, as if judging the well-being of the weak to be a personal loss. 2.1.328 But I would advise those who have sense, even if the god of these Gnostics is compelled by the force of syllogisms to be such a one, not to think so of the true God, the only-begotten God, but

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προσηγορίαν. 2.1.320 ἡ δὲ θεία γραφὴ τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει τοῦ τῇ συγχύσει ταύτῃ συντίθεσθαι, ὥστε καὶ φανερῶς ἔστι τῆς προφητείας ἐπὶ τούτοις σχετλιαζούσης ἀκούειν. Ὁ λέγων, φησί, τὸ φῶς σκότος καὶ τὸ σκότος φῶς, ὁ τιθεὶς τὸ πικρὸν γλυκὺ καὶ τὸ γλυκὺ πικρόν. πρὸς τί τοίνυν βλέπων τὴν ἀτοπίαν ταύτην προσμαρτυρεῖν οἴεται δεῖν τῷ ἰδίῳ θεῷ; εἰπάτωσαν οἱ μυσταγωγηθέντες παρ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ἀπόρρητα, τί 20τῶν περὶ γῆν ἀσθενέστατον20 κρίνουσιν, ὃ 20ταῖς τιμιωτάταις20 2.1.321 τῶν ἐπωνυμιῶν παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ σεμνύνεται. ἀσθενέστατα τῶν ὄντων τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν ζῴων ἐστὶν οἷς ἡ γένεσις ἀπὸ σήψεως ὑγρῶν τὴν σύστασιν ἔχει, τιμιώτατον δὲ τῶν ὄντων ἀρετή τε καὶ ἁγιότης καὶ εἴ τι φίλον τῷ θεῷ. ἆρ' οὖν μυῖαι καὶ σκνῖπες καὶ βάτραχοι καὶ οἷς ἐκ κόπρου ἡ γέ νεσις, ταῦτα τῇ τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ τῇ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐπωνυμίᾳ τετίμηται, ὥστε σεμνύνεσθαι μὲν τοῖς τιμίοις τῶν ὀνομάτων, μὴ συμμετέχει δὲ τῆς τῶν 20ἀξιωμάτων ἰσομοιρίας20, 2.1.322 καθώς φησιν ὁ Εὐνόμιος; ἀλλ' οὔπω τὸ τοιοῦτον ἠκού σαμεν, ὅτι τὰ ἀσθενῆ ταῦτα ταῖς μεγαλοφυεστέραις τῶν προσηγοριῶν κατωνόμασται ἢ ὅτι τὸ μέγα τῇ φύσει καὶ τίμιον τῇ ἑνὸς τούτων καθυβρίσθη προσηγορίᾳ. δίκαιος ἦν ὁ Νῶε, φησὶν ἡ γραφή, πιστὸς Ἀβραὰμ καὶ πραῢς Μωϋσῆς καὶ σοφὸς ∆ανιὴλ καὶ σώφρων ὁ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ ἄμεμπτος ὁ Ἰὼβ καὶ μακροθυμίαν κατωρθωκὼς ὁ ∆αβίδ. 2.1.323 εἰπάτωσαν τοίνυν, εἴ πη τούτων ἕκαστος ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων τὰς ἐπωνυμίας ἔσχεν, ἢ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον μαρ τυρουμένων οἷον Νάβαλ ὁ Καρμήλιος καὶ Φαραὼ ὁ Αἰ γύπτιος καὶ Ἀβιμέλεχ ὁ ἀλλόφυλος καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐπὶ κακίᾳ μνημονευόμενοι, εἰ ταῖς δεξιωτέραις τῶν ἐπωνυμιῶν παρὰ τῆς θείας φωνῆς ἐτιμήθησαν. οὐκ ἔστι ταῦτα, ἀλλ' ὡς ἔχει φύσεως τε καὶ ἀληθείας, οὕτω τὰ ὄντα παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ κρίνεται τε καὶ λέγεται, οὐκ ἐναντίως τοῖς οὖσιν ὀνο μαζόμενα, ἀλλ' ὡς ἂν μάλιστα καταφανῆ γένοιτο τὰ ση μαινόμενα ταῖς οἰκείαις προσηγορίαις ἐξαγγελλόμενα. 2.1.324 Ταῦτα ὁ εὐσθενὴς τὴν διάνοιαν, ὁ 20τῆς πεφωρη μένης συνηθείας20 κατήγορος, ὁ τοὺς 20παρῃρημέ νους ἐν δίκῃ τὸν λογισμὸν20 διασύρων, ταῦτα γινώ σκειν περὶ τῆς θείας ὑποτίθεται φύσεως, ταύτας περὶ θεοῦ τὰς δόξας ἐκτίθεται ὡς κατειρωνευομένου τῶν πραγμάτων ταῖς ψευδωνύμοις φωναῖς καὶ 20τοῖς ἀσθενεστάτοις τὰς τιμιωτάτας20 χαριζομένου προσηγορίας, ἀντιφθεγγο μένης ταῖς προσηγορίαις τῆς φύσεως, καὶ τὰ τίμια καθυ 2.1.325 βρίζοντος τῇ πρὸς τὰ φαῦλα τῶν ὄντων ὁμωνυμίᾳ. καὶ ἄνθρωπος μέν τις τῶν πρὸς ἀρετὴν βλεπόντων ἔξω τι τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἀκουσίως πολλάκις παρενεχθεὶς ὑπ' αἰδοῦς καταδύεται, θεῷ δὲ πρέπουσαν ἡγεῖται τιμὴν τὸ φανῆναι διαψευδόμενον ταῖς ἐπωνυμίαις τὰ πράγματα; οὐ ταῦτα μαρτυροῦσιν αἱ προφητεῖαι τῇ θείᾳ φύσει. Μακρόθυμος καὶ πολυέλεος καὶ ἀληθινός, φησὶν ὁ ∆αβίδ. πῶς οὖν ἀληθινὸς ὁ τῶν πραγμάτων καταψευδόμενος καὶ ὑπαλλάσσων ἐν ταῖς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐμφάσεσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν; Εὐθὴς κύριος 2.1.326 ὁ θεός, παρὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πάλιν προσαγορεύεται. ἆρ' οὖν εὐθύτητός ἐστι τὸ σεμνύνειν ἐν τοῖς τιμιωτάτοις τῶν ὀνο μάτων τὰ ἄτιμα καὶ τὴν ἐπωνυμίαν διδόντα ψιλὴν τῆς ἐμ φαινομένης ἀξίας τῷ ῥήματι βασκαίνειν τῷ μετειληφότι τῆς κλήσεως; αὕτη τῶν θεολόγων τούτων ἡ περὶ τοῦ νέου θεοῦ μαρτυρία· τοῦτο τῆς πολυθρυλήτου διαλεκτικῆς ἀγχινοίας τὸ πέρας, τὸ δεῖξαι τὸν θεὸν αὐτὸν καὶ ταῖς ἀπάταις ἐπι τερπόμενον καὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν φθόνον πάθους οὐ καθα 2.1.327 ρεύοντα. ἀπάτης μὲν γάρ ἐστι τὸ μὴ ὡς ἔχει φύσεώς τε καὶ ἀξίας τὰ ἀσθενῆ τῶν πραγμάτων κατονομάζειν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν ὑπερεχόντων τὰς ἐπωνυμίας αὐτοῖς μάτην χαρίζεσθαι, μὴ συμμετατιθέντα τῇ κλήσει τῶν κατονομαζομένων τὴν δύναμιν· φθόνου δὲ τὸ δυνάμενον τὴν τιμιωτέραν λῆξιν τοῖς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ὀνομασθεῖσι χαρίζεσθαι ὀκνεῖν τὴν χάριν, οἱονεὶ ζημίαν ἰδίαν κρίνοντα τὴν τῶν ἀσθενῶν εὐπραγίαν. 2.1.328 ἀλλ' ἐγὼ συμβουλεύσαιμ' ἂν τοῖς γε νοῦν ἔχουσι, κἂν ὁ τῶν Γνωστικῶν τούτων θεὸς τοιοῦτος εἶναι ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν συλλογισμῶν βίας καταναγκάζηται, μὴ οὕτω καὶ τὸν ἀλη θινὸν θεόν, τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν οἴεσθαι, ἀλλὰ