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to confess that He was begotten, but not to transform this concept into a type of name, so as to call the one begotten 20offspring20, since this term is particularly assigned by scripture to inanimate things or to those things taken up as an image of 3.2.14 wickedness? But when we say that the term 20offspring20 should be passed over in silence, he brings forward that invincible rhetoric, taking as an ally both frigid grammatical speech and, through the art of names—whether derivation or paronymy or I know not how it is proper to speak of these things—through these things he concludes his syllogisms, not shrinking from calling the one begotten 3.2.15 20offspring20. But when, having accepted this, we consider the concept of the name, as if the community of substance is indicated thereby, he again retracts his own words and insists that the 20offspring20 was not begotten, setting aside the pure, divine, and impassible generation of the Lord with the foul natural philosophy of corporeal birth, as if it were not possible for two things to concur in God at the same time: both what is genuine with respect to the Father and the impassibility of the nature, but if it were impassible, there is no generation, and if one were to confess the genuine, then passion must in every way be admitted along with the generation. 3.2.16 Not so does the sublime John, not so does that voice of thunder proclaim the mystery of theology, who both names him Son of God and purifies the proclamation from every passionate supposition. For behold how he prepares the hearing in the prologues of the gospel. For how great is the teacher’s foresight, lest any of his hearers should fall into base suppositions, slipping through ignorance into certain absurd 3.2.17 suspicions. For so that he might best lead the untrained hearing far from passion, he did not say in the prologues, Son, nor Father, nor generation, lest anyone at the outset, hearing of a father, be dragged down to the ready significance of the name, or, learning that a son is proclaimed, understand the name according to the custom here, or stumble at the word of generation as at a stumbling block; but instead of father he names beginning, and instead of 'he was begotten,' 'was,' and instead of son, the Word, and says, 'In the beginning was the Word.' What passion is in these things, tell me: 'beginning' and 'was' and 'Word'? Is 'beginning' passion? Is 'was' in passion? Is the Word through 3.2.18 passion? Or, because there is no passion in what has been said, is what is proper not also shown forth in the proclamation? And yet how else could the community of substance and genuineness and the co-eternity of the Word with the beginning be more clearly shown than through these words? For he did not say, 'from the beginning the Word was begotten,' lest he separate the Word from the beginning by some extended concept, but together with the beginning he also proclaimed him who is in the beginning, saying that 'was' is common to both the beginning and the Word, so that the Word might not come after the beginning, but might anticipate the hearing with the proclamation, entering in together with the faith concerning the beginning, before one accepts the beginning alone by itself. 3.2.19 Then he says, 'And the Word was with God.' Still the evangelist fears our lack of training, still he is afraid of our childish and uneducated state, he does not yet entrust to the hearing the title of Father, lest one of the more carnal, having learned of a father, should consequently also picture a mother in his mind. But neither does he yet name a son in the proclamation; for he still suspects our familiarity with the nature below, lest anyone hearing 'son' should 3.2.20 humanize the divine through a passionate supposition. For this reason, taking up the proclamation again, he again named him Word, explaining these things for you, the unbeliever. For just as your word both appears from the mind and is not mediated by passion, so also there, hearing 'Word,' you will understand both that which is from someone and you will not understand passion. For this reason, taking up the proclamation again, he says, 'And the Word was with God.' Oh, how he measures the Word with God, or rather how he extends the infinite together with the infinite; the Word was with God, the whole Word entirely with the whole God. Therefore, as great as God is, so great

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γεγεννῆσθαι μὲν ὁμολογεῖν, μὴ παρασχηματίζειν δὲ τὴν ἔννοιαν ταύτην εἰς ὀνόματος τύπον, ὥστε 20γέννημα20 τὸν γεννηθέντα προσαγορεύειν, ἰδίως τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης ἐπὶ τῶν ἀψύχων ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν εἰς εἰκόνα πο 3.2.14 νηρίας παρειλημμένων ὑπὸ τῆς γραφῆς τεταγμένης; ἀλλ' ὅταν μὲν παρ' ἡμῶν λέγηται τὸ δεῖν σιωπᾶσθαι τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ 20γεννήματος20, τὴν ἄμαχον ἐκείνην ῥητορικὴν προ χειρίζεται, συμπαραλαμβάνων εἰς συμμαχίαν καὶ τὴν γραμ ματικὴν ψυχρολογίαν καὶ διὰ τῆς τεχνικῆς τῶν ὀνομάτων εἴτε παραγωγῆς εἴτε παρωνυμίας εἴτε οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως δὴ λέγειν ταῦτα προσήκει, διὰ τούτων τοὺς συλλογισμοὺς συμ περαίνει 20γέννημα20 τὸν γεννηθέντα λέγειν οὐ παραιτού 3.2.15 μενος. ἐπειδὰν δὲ τοῦτο δεξάμενοι τὴν τοῦ ὀνόματος ἔν νοιαν θεωρήσωμεν, ὡς τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς οὐσίας ἐντεῦθεν συνενδεικνυμένου, πάλιν ἀνατίθεται τὰς ἰδίας φωνὰς καὶ περὶ τοῦ μὴ γεννηθῆναι τὸ 20γέννημα20 διατείνεται, τῇ ῥυ πώσῃ φυσιολογίᾳ τοῦ σωματικοῦ τόκου τὴν καθαράν τε καὶ θείαν καὶ ἀπαθῆ τοῦ κυρίου παραγραφόμενος γέννησιν, ὡς οὐκ ἐνδεχόμενον τὰ δύο κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ συνδραμεῖν, τό τε πρὸς τὸν πατέρα γνήσιον καὶ τὴν ἀπά θειαν τῆς φύσεως, ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν τὸ ἀπαθὲς εἴη, μὴ εἶναι τὴν γέννησιν, εἰ δὲ τὸ γνήσιόν τις ὁμολογοίη, καὶ πάθος τῇ γεννήσει πάντως συμπαραδέχεσθαι. 3.2.16 Οὐχ οὕτως ὁ ὑψηλὸς Ἰωάννης, οὐχ οὕτως ἐκείνη ἡ βρονταία φωνὴ τὸ τῆς θεολογίας κηρύσσει μυστήριον, ὃς καὶ υἱὸν ὀνομάζει θεοῦ καὶ πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς ὑπολήψεως ἐκ καθαίρει τὸ κήρυγμα. ἰδοὺ γὰρ πῶς προθεραπεύει τὴν ἀκοὴν ἐν τοῖς προοιμίοις τοῦ εὐαγγελίου. ὅση γὰρ ἐν τῷ διδασκάλῳ προμήθεια τοῦ μή τινα τῶν ἀκουόντων εἰς τα πεινὰς ὑπολήψεις καταπεσεῖν, πρὸς ἀτόπους τινὰς ὑπονοίας 3.2.17 ἐξ ἀμαθίας ὑπολισθήσαντα. ὡς γὰρ ἂν μάλιστα πόρρω πάθους ἀπαγάγοι τὴν ἀγύμναστον ἀκοήν, οὐχ υἱὸν εἶπεν ἐν προοιμίοις, οὐ πατέρα, οὐ γέννησιν, ἵνα μή τις ἐν πρώ τοις ἢ πατρὸς ἀκούσας κατασυρῇ πρὸς τὴν πρόχειρον ἔμφασιν τοῦ ὀνόματος, ἢ υἱὸν μαθὼν κηρυσσόμενον κατὰ τὴν ὧδε συνήθειαν νοήσῃ τὸ ὄνομα, ἢ προσπταίσῃ τῷ ῥήματι τῆς γεννήσεως ὡς λίθῳ προσκόμματος· ἀλλ' ἀντὶ μὲν πατρὸς ἀρχὴν ὀνομάζει, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ ἐγεννήθη τὸ ἦν, ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸν λόγον, καί φησιν Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. ποῖον ἐν τούτοις πάθος, εἰπέ μοι, ἀρχὴ καὶ ἦν καὶ λόγος; μὴ πάθος ἡ ἀρχή; μὴ ἐν πάθει τὸ ἦν; μὴ διὰ πάθους 3.2.18 ὁ λόγος; ἢ ἐπειδὴ πάθος ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις οὐκ ἔστιν, οὐδὲ τὸ οἰκεῖον συνεμφαίνεται τῷ κηρύγματι; καίτοι γε πῶς ἂν ἑτέρως μᾶλλον διαφανείη τὸ κατ' οὐσίαν κοινόν τε καὶ γνήσιον καὶ τὸ συναϊδιάζον τοῦ λόγου πρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἢ διὰ τούτων τῶν λόγων; οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐγεννήθη ὁ λόγος, ἵνα μή τινι παρατατικῷ νοήματι τῆς ἀρχῆς διαζεύξῃ τὸν λόγον, ἀλλ' ὁμοῦ τῇ ἀρχῇ καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ ἀρχῇ συνεκήρυξε, κοινὸν εἰπὼν τῆς ἀρχῆς τε καὶ τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἦν, ἵνα μὴ ἐφυστερήσῃ μετὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ὁ λόγος, ἀλλὰ φθάσῃ τὴν ἀκοὴν τῷ κηρύγματι, πρὶν μόνην τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς παραδέξασθαι, τῇ περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς πίστει συνεισελθών. 3.2.19 Εἶτά φησι Καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν. ἔτι δέ δοικεν ἡμῶν ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς τὸ ἀγύμναστον, ἔτι φοβεῖται ἡμῶν τὸ νηπιῶδές τε καὶ ἀπαίδευτον, οὔπω καταπιστεύει τῇ ἀκοῇ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς προσηγορίαν, ἵνα μή τις τῶν σαρκωδεστέρων πατέρα μαθὼν καὶ μητέρα κατὰ τὸ ἀκό λουθον διὰ τῆς διανοίας ἀνατυπώσηται. ἀλλ' οὐδέπω οὐδὲ υἱὸν ὀνομάζει ἐν τῷ κηρύγματι· ὑποπτεύει γὰρ ἔτι ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς τὴν κάτω φύσιν συνήθειαν, μή τις υἱὸν ἀκούσας 3.2.20 ἐξανθρωπίσῃ τὸ θεῖον δι' ἐμπαθοῦς ὑπολήψεως. διὰ τοῦτο ἐπαναλαμβάνων τὸ κήρυγμα λόγον πάλιν ὠνόμασε, σοὶ ταῦτα φυσιολογῶν τῷ ἀπίστῳ. ὡς γὰρ ὁ σὸς λόγος καὶ ἐκ τοῦ νοῦ ἀναφαίνεται καὶ οὐ μεσιτεύεται πάθει, οὕτως κἀκεῖ λόγον ἀκούσας καὶ τὸ ἔκ τινος νοήσεις καὶ οὐ νοήσεις τὸ πάθος. διὰ τοῦτό φησιν ἀναλαβὼν πάλιν τὸ κήρυγμα Καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν. ὢ πῶς παρα μετρεῖ τῷ θεῷ τὸν λόγον, μᾶλλον δὲ πῶς συμπαρατείνει τῷ ἀπείρῳ τὸ ἄπειρον· ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, πρὸς ὅλον τὸν θεὸν πάντως ὅλος ὁ λόγος. οὐκοῦν ὅσος ὁ θεός, τοσοῦτος