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to be signified in the case of Him who, as the apostle said, has neither beginning of days nor end of life, so that by different terms the difference of conception might be signified, and for this reason that which is superior to all beginning is called unoriginate and unbegotten, while that which is circumscribed by no end is named immortal and incorruptible? These things, 20a provision20 and 20an occasion20 and suchlike, he is not 2.1.457 ashamed to write. But he also says that 20the ages20 are 20dichotomized20 by us, as if he had not read what he quoted, or as if arranging his argument forgetful of what was said. What does the teacher say? If we conceive of the things before creation and, traversing the ages with our reason, reckon the uncircumscribed nature of eternal life, by the designation of 'unbegotten' we signify such a concept, and if we turn our thought to what follows and comprehend that the life of God is more than the ages, through the term 'endless' and 'incorruptible' we interpret 2.1.458 this thought. Where in what has been said does the argument cut the ages, if we proclaim the eternity of God—which appears equally in every respect, and is the same from every side, and is measured by no interval—with words and names 2.1.459 as best we can? For since human life, moving through intervals, proceeds from some beginning to some end, and life here is divided into the past and the expected, so that the one is hoped for and the other remembered, for this reason, with respect to our own condition, conceiving of both the past and the expected of this extension through intervals, so also do we speak of the transcendent nature by a misuse of terms, not as if God, through his own life, leaves some interval behind himself and again travels toward what lies ahead in living, but as our understanding, conceiving things with respect to our own nature, measures out eternity in the past and the future, when neither what is behind cuts short the concept as it proceeds into the infinite of the indefinite, nor what is ahead promises any constitution 2.1.460 or limit of the infinite life. If this is what we both think and say, how is the division of the ages harped on against us, unless Eunomius should say that Holy Scripture also dichotomizes the ages when it signifies with the same thought the infinity of the divine life, with David having hymned the kingdom before the ages, and Moses having shown the kingdom of God extending beyond the ages; so that from both we are taught that every concept of interval is contained within the divine nature, being bounded on all sides by the infinity 2.1.461 of that which contains all things. For Moses, looking to what follows, says He reigns for the age and for the age upon age and yet more; while the great David, leading his thought to what is behind, said 'But God is our king from before the age', and again, 'God will hear, 2.1.462 He who exists before the ages'. But the wise Eunomius, having bid farewell to such great teachers, says we speak of one unoriginate life, and again another that is endless, and certain othernesses and differences of ages, splitting apart with their own otherness the conception of God as well. 2.1.463 But lest our battle against what has been said become lengthy, we shall set forth Eunomius's painstaking labor in these matters, unexamined and untested, as it is sufficient, through his zeal for falsehood, to make the truth more manifest to the intelligent. For proceeding with his argument, he asks us, 20what ever do we think the ages are20; and yet it would have been more just for such questions to be proposed by us to him; for who is it who says he has known the essence of God, who defines as comprehensible to his own understanding things that are unattainable for us? Therefore, let him who boasts of having comprehended the things beyond discourse to us on the nature of the ages, and let him not brandish this precipitous and two-horned dilemma of a response too fearsomely at us common folk, as if, should we [say] this concerning the ages

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σημαίνεσθαι ἐπὶ τοῦ, καθὼς εἶπεν ὁ ἀπόστολος, μήτε ἀρχὴν ἡμερῶν μήτε ζωῆς ἔχοντος τέλος, ὡς διαφόροις τοῖς ῥήμασι τὸ διάφορον σημανθῆναι τῆς ὑπολήψεως, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸ μὲν πάσης ἀρχῆς ἀνώ τερον ἄναρχον λέγεσθαι καὶ ἀγέννητον, τὸ δὲ μηδενὶ τέλει περιγραφόμενον ἀθάνατον ὀνομάσαι καὶ ἄφθαρτον; ταῦτα 20πορισμὸν20 καὶ 20προξένησιν20 καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐκ 2.1.457 αἰσχύνεται γράφων. ἀλλὰ καὶ 20διχοτομεῖσθαι20 παρ' ἡμῶν φησι 20τοὺς αἰῶνας20, ὥσπερ οὐκ ἀνεγνωκὼς ἃ παρέθετο ἢ ὡς ἐν ἐπιλήσμοσι τῶν λεγομένων τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον διατιθείς. τί φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος; ἐὰν τὰ πρὸ τῆς κτίσεως ἐννοήσωμεν καὶ τοὺς αἰῶνας τῷ λογισμῷ διαβάντες τὸ ἀπερίγραπτον τῆς ἀϊδίου ζωῆς λογισώμεθα, τῇ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου προσηγορίᾳ τὸ τοιοῦτον διασημαίνομεν νόημα, κἂν εἰς τὸ ἐφεξῆς τὴν διάνοιαν τρέψωμεν καὶ περισσοτέραν τῶν αἰώνων τὴν ζωὴν τοῦ θεοῦ καταλάβωμεν, διὰ τῆς ἀτελευτήτου καὶ ἀφθάρτου φωνῆς τὴν διάνοιαν ταύτην 2.1.458 διερμηνεύομεν. ποῦ τέμνει τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις ὁ λόγος, εἰ τὴν ἀϊδιότητα τοῦ θεοῦ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἐπιβολὴν ἐπίσης προφαινομένην καὶ πανταχόθεν ὡσαύτως ἔχουσαν καὶ μηδενὶ διαστήματι μετρουμένην τοῖς κατὰ δύναμιν 2.1.459 ἐξαγγέλλομεν ῥήμασί τε καὶ ὀνόμασιν; ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἡ ἀν θρωπίνη ζωὴ διαστηματικῶς κινουμένη ἀπό τινος ἀρχῆς εἴς τι τέλος προϊοῦσα διέξεισι καὶ μεμέρισται πρὸς τὸ παρῳχηκός τε καὶ προσδοκώμενον ὁ τῇδε βίος, ὡς τὸ μὲν ἐλπίζεσθαι τὸ δὲ μνημονεύεσθαι, τούτου χάριν ὡς πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν σχέσιν τό τε παρῳχηκὸς καὶ τὸ προσδοκώ μενον τῆς διαστηματικῆς παρατάσεως ἐννοοῦντες, οὕτως καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπερκειμένης φύσεως ἐκ καταχρήσεως λέγομεν, οὐχ ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τῆς ἰδίας ζωῆς κατόπιν ἑαυτοῦ τι καταλιπόντος διάστημα καὶ πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον πάλιν ἐν τῷ ζῆν διοδεύοντος, ἀλλ' ὡς τῆς ἡμετέρας κατανοήσεως ὡς πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἡμῶν φύσιν περινοούσης τὰ πράγματα καὶ τὸ ἀΐδιον ἐν τῷ παρῳχηκότι καὶ μέλλοντι διαμετρούσης, ὅταν μήτε τὸ κατόπιν περικόπτῃ προϊοῦσαν εἰς τὸ ἄπειρον τοῦ ἀορίστου τὴν ἔννοιαν, μήτε τὸ ἔμπροσθεν σύστασίν τινα 2.1.460 καὶ ὅρον τῆς ἀπείρου ζωῆς ἐπαγγέλληται. εἰ ταῦτα καὶ νοοῦμεν καὶ λέγομεν, πῶς ἡμῖν ἡ τῶν αἰώνων ἐπιθρυλεῖται τομή, εἰ μὴ καὶ τὴν ἁγίαν γραφὴν διχοτομεῖν τοὺς αἰῶνας ὁ Εὐνόμιος λέγοι τῇ αὐτῇ διανοίᾳ τῆς θείας ζωῆς τὴν ἀπειρίαν διασημαίνουσαν, τοῦ μὲν ∆αβὶδ τὴν πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων βασιλείαν ὑμνήσαντος, τοῦ δὲ Μωϋσέως τὴν ὑπὲρ τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐκτεινομένην τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλείαν δείξαντος· ὡς ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἡμᾶς διδαχθῆναι ὅτι πᾶν διαστηματικὸν νόημα ἐντὸς τῆς θείας φύσεως περιείληπται, τῇ ἀπειρίᾳ 2.1.461 τοῦ τὸ πᾶν περιέχοντος ἁπανταχόθεν ἐμπερατούμενον. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Μωϋσῆς εἰς τὸ ἐφεξῆς βλέπων βασιλεύειν αὐτόν φησι τὸν αἰῶνα καὶ ἐπ' αἰῶνα καὶ ἔτι· ὁ δὲ μέγας ∆αβὶδ πρὸς τὸ κατόπιν ἀγαγὼν τὴν διάνοιαν εἶπεν Ὁ δὲ θεὸς βασιλεὺς ἡμῶν πρὸ αἰῶνος, καὶ πάλιν Εἰσακούσεται ὁ θεὸς 2.1.462 ὁ ὑπάρχων πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων. ἀλλ' ὁ σοφὸς Εὐνόμιος ἐρ ρῶσθαι φράσας τοῖς τηλικούτοις καθηγηταῖς ἄλλην φησὶν ἡμᾶς λέγειν ἄναρχον ζωήν, ἑτέραν δὲ τὴν ἀτελεύτητον πάλιν καὶ αἰώνων τινῶν ἑτερότητας καὶ διαφορὰς συν διασχιζούσας τῇ ἑτερότητι ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὴν περὶ θεοῦ φαντασίαν. 2.1.463 Ἀλλ' ὡς ἂν μὴ διὰ μακροῦ γένοιτο ἡμῖν ἡ πρὸς τὰ εἰρημένα μάχη, αὐτὴν προθήσομεν ἀβασάνιστόν τε καὶ ἀνεξέταστον τὴν ἐν τούτοις τοῦ Εὐνομίου φιλοπονίαν ἱκανὴν οὖσαν δι' ὧν σπουδάζει περὶ τὸ ψεῦδος ἐκδηλοτέραν ποιῆσαι τοῖς συνετοῖς τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ἐρωτᾷ γὰρ ἡμᾶς προϊὼν τῷ λόγῳ, 20τί ποτε τοὺς αἰῶνας οἰόμεθα20· καίτοι γε δικαιότερον ἦν παρ' ἡμῶν αὐτῷ τὰ τοιαῦτα προτείνεσθαι τῶν ἐρωτημάτων· τίς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν ἐπεγνωκέναι λέγων ὁ τὰ ἡμῖν ἀνέφικτα καταληπτὰ τῇ ἰδίᾳ συνέσει διοριζόμενος; οὐκοῦν αὐτὸς ἡμῖν φυσιολογείτω τὴν τῶν αἰώνων οὐσίαν ὁ τὰ ὑπερέκεινα κατειληφέναι κομπάζων, καὶ τὸ ἀμφίκρημνον τοῦτο καὶ διλήμματον τῆς ἀποκρίσεως μὴ λίαν φοβερῶς ἐπισειέτω τοῖς ἰδιώταις ἡμῖν, ὡς εἰ τόδε τοὺς αἰῶνας