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by our applying to our concepts the appellations allotted by God, without saying what the allotment of appellations is or when and how it happened, <but> also as if confusing all things and reducing to the same thing both the essence and the energy of the Only-begotten, having discussed nothing about this very matter nor having demonstrated how the energy is made out by us to be the same as the essence, he finally brings on the very crown of his accusations, 2.1.360 speaking in these very words. 20And now20, he says, 20moving on from these things, he assails the God over all with the utmost blasphemies, using broken arguments and examples that are completely apostate20. But I, before these things were examined, would have wished to learn from what our 20arguments20 are 20broken off20 and from what our 20examples20 20apostatize20, not at all needing to learn these things, but rather to show the trashy and uncritical nature of the speech-writer's words, with which he deafens the old women among men and, beautifying himself with the pomposity of his petty phrases in the ears of those who admire such things, he does not realize he is setting forth this 2.1.361 argument as a monument against himself for the educated. But this has nothing to do with our purpose. For would that the accusations against him were limited to these things, and that, erring in nothing concerning the faith, he were thought to be at fault only in the delivery of his argument, so that it would have counted as nothing to him for praise 2.1.362 or for slander whether his phrasing was one way or another. So then, the sequence of what was said by him against us adds this also. 20Concerning the wheat20, he says, 20and the Lord, having variously exercised his concepts, he says that likewise the most holy substance of God admits of various concepts20. This is the most difficult of the accusations, and on this account he made those grave tragic pronouncements against us, invoking impiety and absurdity and all such things upon what was said. What then is the 2.1.363 proof of the impiety? Eunomius said something about wheat, distinguishing these common things which are readily known to all, how it comes to be, and how, when perfected, it nourishes through its fruit, growing and increasing and being managed by certain natural powers; and having said these things, he says 20that it is not at all unlikely that the Only-begotten God admits of various concepts on account of both the differences of energies and certain analogies and relations20. For he tediously repeats these names about him. 20But how20, he says, 20is it not absurd, or rather, impious, to compare the Unbegotten to these things? 2.1.364 To what things? To the wheat, he says, and to the Only-begotten God. Do you see his reverence? He makes out that the humble wheat and the Only-begotten God are equally distant from the dignity of the Unbegotten God. And that we are not misrepresenting his argument, it is possible to learn his meaning from what he himself has written. 20For how20, he says, 20is it not absurd, or rather, impious, to compare the Unbegotten to these things?20 And having said these things, he introduces the argument about the wheat and the Lord as things of equal value, judging it equally absurd to compare God to either of these. 2.1.365 And it is surely known to everyone that things which are distant from something by an equal measure are also equal to one another; thus, according to our wise theologian, the maker of the ages who holds in his grasp the <the> nature of all beings has been shown to be of equal standing with the smallest seed, if indeed he and the wheat are equally deficient in the comparison with God. 2.1.366 But such is the impiety of his argument. And it might be time to examine the very construction that leads to blasphemy, in what way it is connected to itself in the argument through logical sequence. For having said that it is absurd to compare God to the wheat and to Christ, he says concerning the wheat that God is not, in the manner of these things, susceptible to change, but concerning the Only-begotten, keeping silent about his not being susceptible to change and through this clearly showing the lowliness of his dignity, in arguing that he, like the wheat, should not be compared to God, he left the argument suspended, with no other reasoning

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ἀποκληρωθείσας παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ προσηγορίας ταῖς ἐπι νοίαις ἡμῶν προσαπτόντων, οὐκ εἰπὼν τίς ἡ τῶν προση γοριῶν ἀποκλήρωσις καὶ πότε καὶ πῶς γεγενημένη, <ἀλλὰ> καὶ ὡς πάντα φυρόντων τὰ πράγματα καὶ εἰς ταὐτὸν ἀγόντων τοῦ μονογενοῦς τήν τε οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν, οὐδὲν περὶ αὐτοῦ τούτου διαλεχθεὶς οὐδὲ ἀποδείξας, πῶς ταὐτὸν εἶναι τῇ οὐσίᾳ κατασκευάζεται παρ' ἡμῶν ἡ ἐνέργεια, τέλος ἐπάγει καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν κολοφῶνα τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, οὑτωσὶ 2.1.360 λέγων τοῖς ῥήμασιν. 20ἤδη δέ20, φησί, 20μεταβαίνων ἀπὸ τούτων καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν ταῖς ἐσχάταις περιβάλλει βλασφημίαις καὶ λόγοις ἀπερρω γόσι καὶ παραδείγμασι παντελῶς ἀποστατοῦσι χρώμενος20. ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο πρὸ τῶν ἐξητασμένων ἠξίουν μαθεῖν, τίνων 20ἀπερρώγασιν20 οἱ ἡμέτεροι 20λόγοι20 καὶ τίνος 20ἀποστατεῖ20 τὰ παρ' ἡμῶν 20παραδείγ ματα20, οὐ πάντως τοῦ μαθεῖν ταῦτα δεόμενος ἀλλ' ἢ δεῖξαι τὸ συρφετῶδες τῶν ῥημάτων τοῦ λογογράφου καὶ ἀκριτόμυθον, οἷς περικτυπῶν τὰ ἐν ἀνδράσι γραΐδια καὶ τῷ στόμφῳ τῶν λεξειδίων ἐν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς τῶν ταῦτα θαυμα ζόντων καλλωπιζόμενος στήλην καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν λόγον 2.1.361 τοῦτον τοῖς πεπαιδευμένοις προτιθεὶς οὐ συνίησιν. ἀλλ' οὐδὲν τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν σκοπὸν τὸν ἡμέτερον. εἴθε γὰρ μέχρι τού των ἦν κατ' αὐτοῦ τὰ ἐγκλήματα καὶ μηδὲν περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐξαμαρτάνων περὶ μόνην τὴν τοῦ λόγου προφορὰν πλημμε λεῖν ἐνομίζετο, ὡς ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ἂν ἦν αὐτῷ πρὸς ἔπαινον 2.1.362 ἢ διαβολὴν τὸ οὕτως ἢ ὡς ἑτέρως τὴν λέξιν ἔχειν. ἡ δ' οὖν ἀκολουθία τῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ καθ' ἡμῶν εἰρημένων καὶ τοῦτο προστίθησιν. 20ἐπὶ τοῦ σίτου20, φησί, 20καὶ τοῦ κυρίου διαφόρως γυμνάσας τὰς ἐπινοίας παραπλησίως καὶ τὴν ἁγιωτάτην οὐσίαν τοῦ θεοῦ διαφόρως δέχεσθαι τὰς ἐπινοίας φησί20. τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ χαλε πώτατον τῶν ἐγκλημάτων καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ τὰ βαρέα καθ' ἡμῶν ἐκεῖνα προετραγῴδησε, δυσσέβειαν καὶ ἀτοπίαν καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπικαλῶν. τίς οὖν ἡ 2.1.363 τῆς ἀσεβείας ἀπόδειξις; εἶπεν ὁ Εὐνόμιός τινα περὶ τοῦ σίτου, τὰ κοινὰ ταῦτα καὶ πᾶσιν ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου γνώριμα διευκρινούμενος, ὅπως τε γίνεται καὶ ὅπως τελειωθεὶς διὰ τοῦ καρποῦ τρέφει, φυσικαῖς τισι δυνάμεσι φυόμενός τε καὶ αὔξων καὶ διοικούμενος· καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν 20καὶ τὸν μονο γενῆ θεὸν οὐδὲν ἀπεικὸς εἶναί20 φησι 20διαφόρους δέχεσθαι τὰς ἐπινοίας διά τε τὰς ἑτερότητας τῶν ἐνεργειῶν καὶ ἀναλογίας τινὰς καὶ σχέ σεις20. ταῦτα γὰρ κατακόρως ἐπ' αὐτοῦ διαθρυλεῖ τὰ ὀνό ματα. 20ἀλλὰ πῶς20, φησίν, 20οὐκ ἄτοπον, ἀθέμιτον δὲ μᾶλλον, τούτοις παραβάλλειν τὸν ἀγέννητον; 2.1.364 τίσι τούτοις; τῷ σίτῳ, φησί, καὶ τῷ μονογενεῖ θεῷ. ὁρᾷς τὴν εὐλάβειαν; ἴσον ἀπέχειν τῆς ἀξίας τοῦ ἀγεννήτου θεοῦ κατασκευάζει τὸν βραχὺν σῖτον καὶ τὸν μονογενῆ θεόν. καὶ ὅτι οὐ συκοφαντοῦμεν τὸν λόγον, παρ' αὐτῶν ἔστι τῶν γεγραμμένων μαθεῖν αὐτοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν. 20πῶς γάρ20, φησίν, 20οὐκ ἄτοπον, ἀθέμιτον δὲ μᾶλλον, τούτοις πα ραβάλλειν τὸν ἀγέννητον20; καὶ ταῦτα εἰπὼν ἐπάγει κατὰ τὸ ὁμότιμον τὸν περὶ τοῦ σίτου καὶ τοῦ κυρίου λόγον, ἴσον εἰς ἀτοπίαν κρίνων ἑνὶ τούτων παραβάλλειν τὸν θεόν. 2.1.365 παντὶ δὲ γνώριμον πάντως τὸ τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὅτι τὰ ἴσῳ τῷ μέτρῳ τινὸς ἀφεστηκότα καὶ αὐτὰ πρὸς ἄλληλα τὸ ἴσον ἔχει· ὥστε κατὰ τὸν σοφὸν θεολόγον ὁ τῶν αἰώνων ποιητὴς καὶ πάσης περιδεδραγμένος τῶν ὄντων <τῆς> φύσεως ἰσο στάσιος ἀνεδείχθη τῷ βραχυτάτῳ σπέρματι, εἴπερ ἐπίσης ἀπολείπεται τῆς πρὸς τὸν θεὸν συγκρίσεως καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ ὁ σῖτος. 2.1.366 Ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν ἀσέβεια τοῦ λόγου τοσαύτη. καιρὸς δ' ἂν εἴη καὶ αὐτὴν ἐξετάσαι τὴν εἰς τὴν βλασφημίαν κατα σκευήν, ἐν τίνι πρὸς ἑαυτὴν τῷ λόγῳ δι' ἀκολουθίας συνήρ τηται. εἰπὼν γὰρ ἄτοπον εἶναι τῷ σίτῳ καὶ τῷ Χριστῷ τὸν θεὸν παραβάλλειν περὶ τοῦ σίτου φησὶν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς καθ' ὁμοιότητα τούτων πρὸς μεταβολὴν ἐπιτήδειος, περὶ δὲ τοῦ μονογενοῦς τὸ μὴ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρὸς μεταβολὴν ἐπιτήδειον σιωπήσας καὶ διὰ τούτου σαφῶς ἐνδειξάμενος τὸ ταπεινὸν τῆς ἀξίας, ἐν τῷ μὴ δεῖν αὐτὸν ὡς καὶ τὸν σῖτον τῷ θεῷ συγκρίνειν ἀφῆκε τὸν λόγον μετέωρον, οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ λογισμῷ