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20creature20, that is to say, of the one who created it, the world itself and all the things in it are called. 3.1.9 If, then, looking at these things, he distinguishes the order of nature, skillfully explaining the relationship on the basis of the nominal significance of the mutual relation of names spoken in relation to something, it was superfluous even so—since no one is ignorant of these things—to make for us a certain technical 3.1.10 treatise of grammatical pedantry, having abandoned the dogmas. But if he applies such terms to the only-begotten God, so as to say He is a 20thing made20 20of the maker20 and a 20creature20 20of the creator20, and to refer the authority for this coining of names to the usage of the saints, let him first show by his argument which saints he says there are who declared the maker of all to be a 20thing made20 and a 20creature20, following whom he grows bold with this term. 3.1.11 The Church knows as saints those borne by the Holy Spirit: patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, evangelists, apostles. If there is any one among these who, through his own divinely-inspired words, dogmatizes that God over all is created and a thing made, he who bears all things by the word of his power and has grasped all existing things and by his will alone through himself has brought everything into being, he will be pardonable 20by the usage of the saints20, as 3.1.12 he says, following in such dogmatizing. But if the knowledge of the divine Scriptures is set before all by authority and nothing is forbidden or hidden from anyone wishing to partake of the divine teaching, how does he attempt to deceive his hearers through slander against the Scriptures, by referring the term of 20creature20 applied to the only-begotten to the usage of the saints? For it is possible to hear from nearly every holy voice that all things came to be through him, from Moses and the prophets and apostles in succession, of whom it would be long to set forth the individual accounts now. 3.1.13 But it is sufficient, with and before the others, for the lofty John to have cried this out in the prologue of his theology of the only-begotten, that there is nothing that has come to be that did not come to be through him, which is an irrefutable and indubitable proof that he is Lord of creation, not numbered in the catalogue of created things. For if all things that have come to be are through no other than through him, and John testifies that nothing among the things that exist through creation has come to be without him, who is so blind in mind as not to see the truth in the proclamation of the evangelist, that he who made all creation is altogether something 3.1.14 other than creation? For if everything numbered among things that have come to be is through him, but he himself is in the beginning and is with God, being God and Word and life and light and character and radiance, but none of the things that came to be through creation is called by the same names—not Word, not God, not life, not light, not truth, not character, not radiance, nor is it possible to find any other of the names befitting God in relation to creation—it is clear that he who is these things is something other in nature than creation, which is neither said to be nor is any of these things. 3.1.15 For if there were some homonymy in such terms for the creation with respect to the maker, perhaps it would have been pardonable, on account of the commonality of the other names, also to make common the name of creation to the thing created and to the maker; but if the characteristics observed through the names for the created and for the uncreated nature are in all respects incompatible and incommunicable, how is the slander not manifest to all of him who dares to apply the name of servitude to the one who rules, as the prophet says, in his everlasting dominion, and to bring him who is first in all things, as the apostle says, through the name and concept related to creation, into an equal <rank> with the servile nature? 3.1.16 For the great Paul declared that all creation serves, he who was taught the ineffable knowledge in the schools above the heavens, having learned these things there where every significant voice uttered by speech is inactive, but the unspoken thought becomes a word of teaching, the things
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20κτίσμα20 δηλονότι τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτός τε ὁ κόσμος καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα κατονομάζεται. 3.1.9 εἰ μὲν οὖν πρὸς ταῦτα βλέπων διακρίνει τὴν τῆς φύσεως τάξιν, ἐπὶ τῆς ὀνοματικῆς σημασίας τῆς πρὸς ἄλληλα σχέ σεως τῶν πρός τι λεγομένων ὀνομάτων τεχνολογῶν τὴν οἰκείωσιν, περιττὸν μὲν καὶ οὕτως ἦν, μηδενὸς ἀγνοοῦντος ταῦτα, γραμματικῆς μικρολογίας ἡμῖν ποιεῖσθαί τινα τεχνο 3.1.10 λογίαν, τῶν δογμάτων ἀφέμενον. εἰ δὲ τῷ μονογενεῖ θεῷ τὰς τοιαύτας ἐφαρμόζει φωνάς, ὥστε 20ποίημά20 τε 20τοῦ ποιήσαντος20 καὶ 20κτίσμα20 αὐτὸν εἶναι λέγειν 20τοῦ κτί σαντος20, καὶ εἰς ἁγίων χρῆσιν ἀναπέμπειν τῆς ὀνοματο ποιΐας ταύτης τὴν ἐξουσίαν, τοῦτο πρῶτον ἐπιδειξάτω τῷ λόγῳ, τίνας ἁγίους εἶναί φησιν οἳ 20ποίημα20 καὶ 20κτίσμα20 τὸν τοῦ παντὸς ποιητὴν ἀπεφήναντο, οἷς ἀκολουθῶν τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης καταθρασύνεται. 3.1.11 Ἁγίους ἡ ἐκκλησία τοὺς τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι θεοφορου μένους ἐπίσταται πατριάρχας νομοθέτας προφήτας εὐαγγε λιστὰς ἀποστόλους. εἴ τις ἐν τούτοις ἐστὶ διὰ τῶν θεο πνεύστων ἑαυτοῦ λόγων κτιστὸν εἶναι καὶ ποίημα δογματί ζων τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεόν, τὸν φέροντα τὰ σύμπαντα τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ καὶ περιδεδραγμένον πάντων τῶν ὄντων καὶ δι' ἑαυτοῦ μόνῳ τῷ θελήματι τὸ πᾶν οὐσιώ σαντα, συγγνωστὸς ἔσται 20τῇ χρήσει τῶν ἁγίων20, καθ 3.1.12 ώς φησι, πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην δογματοποιΐαν ἑπόμενος. εἰ δὲ πᾶσι πρόκειται τῶν θείων γραφῶν κατ' ἐξουσίαν ἡ γνῶσις καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπόρρητον οὐδὲ ἀπόκρυφον οὐδενὶ τῶν βουλομένων τῆς θείας διδασκαλίας μετέχειν, πῶς ἐπιχειρεῖ τοὺς ἀκούντας παρακρούεσθαι διὰ τῆς κατὰ τῶν γραφῶν συκοφαντίας, εἰς ἁγίων χρῆσιν τὴν τοῦ 20κτίσματος20 φω νὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἀναπέμπων; τὸ μὲν γὰρ δι' αὐτοῦ γεγονέναι τὰ πάντα πάσης μικροῦ δεῖν ἔστι τῆς ἁγίας ἀκοῦσαι φωνῆς ἀπὸ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν καθεξῆς προφητῶν τε καὶ ἀποστόλων, ὧν μακρὸν ἂν εἴη τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον νυνὶ 3.1.13 παρατίθεσθαι. ἀρκεῖ δὲ μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ὁ ὑψηλὸς Ἰωάννης ἐν προοιμίοις τῆς τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεολογίας τοῦτο βοήσας, ὅτι οὐδὲν τῶν γεγονότων ἐστὶν ὃ μὴ δι' ἐκείνου ἐγένετο, ὅπερ ἄμαχός τε καὶ ἀναμφίβολός ἐστιν ἀπόδειξις τοῦ κύριον αὐτὸν εἶναι τῆς κτίσεως, οὐχὶ τῷ καταλόγῳ τῶν κτιστῶν ἐναρίθμιον. εἰ γὰρ πάντα τὰ γεγονότα δι' οὐδενὸς ἄλλου ἢ διὰ τούτου ἔστι καὶ οὐδὲν ἐν τοῖς διὰ τῆς κτίσεως οὖσι χωρὶς αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι ὁ Ἰωάννης μαρτύρεται, τίς οὕτω τυφλὸς τὴν διάνοιαν, ὡς μηδὲ ἰδεῖν ἐν τῷ κηρύγματι τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ τὴν ἀλή θειαν, ὅτι ὁ πᾶσαν τὴν κτίσιν ποιήσας ἄλλο τι πάντως 3.1.14 παρὰ τὴν κτίσιν ἐστίν; εἰ γὰρ πᾶν τὸ ἐν τοῖς γεγονόσιν ἀριθμούμενον δι' ἐκείνου ἐστίν, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐστι καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεόν ἐστι, θεὸς ὢν καὶ λόγος καὶ ζωὴ καὶ φῶς καὶ χαρακτὴρ καὶ ἀπαύγασμα, οὐδὲν δὲ τῶν διὰ κτίσεως γεγονότων διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ὀνομάτων ὀνομάζεται, οὐ λόγος, οὐ θεός, οὐ ζωή, οὐ φῶς, οὐκ ἀλήθεια, οὐ χαρακτήρ, οὐκ ἀπαύγασμα, οὐδ' ἄλλο τι τῶν θεοπρεπῶν ὀνομάτων ἔστι περὶ τὴν κτίσιν εὑρεῖν, δῆλον ὅτι ὁ ταῦτα ὢν ἄλλο τι τῇ φύσει παρὰ τὴν κτίσιν ἐστίν, ἥτις τούτων οὐδὲν οὔτε ἐστὶν οὔτε λέγεται. 3.1.15 Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν τις ἐν ταῖς τοιαύταις φωναῖς ὁμω νυμία τῇ κτίσει πρὸς τὸν ποιήσαντα, συγγνωστὸς ἦν ἴσως διὰ τῆς τῶν λοιπῶν ὀνομάτων κοινότητος καὶ τὸ τῆς κτί σεως ὄνομα κοινοποιῆσαι τῷ κτισθέντι καὶ τῷ ποιήσαντι· εἰ δὲ πάντων ἀσύμβατά τε καὶ ἀκοινώνητα τὰ ἐπιθεω ρούμενα τῇ κτιστῇ τε καὶ τῇ ἀκτίστῳ φύσει διὰ τῶν ὀνο μάτων γνωρίσματα, πῶς οὐ φανερὰ πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἡ συκο φαντία τοῦ τολμῶντος ἐφαρμόσαι τὸ τῆς δουλείας ὄνομα τῷ δεσπόζοντι, καθώς φησιν ὁ προφήτης, ἐν τῇ δυναστείᾳ αὐτοῦ τοῦ αἰῶνος, καὶ τὸν ἐν πᾶσι πρωτεύοντα, καθὼς ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει, διὰ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν κτίσιν ὀνόματός τε καὶ νοήματος εἰς ὁμότιμον ἄγειν <τάξιν> τῇ δουλευούσῃ φύσει; 3.1.16 πᾶσαν γὰρ τὴν κτίσιν δουλεύειν ὁ μέγας ἀπεφήνατο Παῦ λος, ὁ ἐν τοῖς ἄνω τῶν οὐρανῶν διδασκαλείοις παιδευθεὶς τὴν ἀπόρρητον γνῶσιν, ἐκεῖ ταῦτα μαθὼν ὅπου ἀργεῖ πᾶσα φωνὴ σημαντικὴ διὰ λόγου προφερομένη, ἀλλὰ ῥῆμα γίνεται διδασκαλίας ἡ ἀνεκφώνητος ἔννοια, τὰ