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and nothing mitigates the impious conception concerning the divine, that non-existence is rumored to apply to God, either at the beginning or at the end. 3.6.4 For this reason, we define the argument concerning the one who truly is having at some time not been, to be a denial and a rejection of the true divinity. For since he who showed himself to Moses through the light names himself as “being,” saying, “I am the one who is,” and Isaiah, having become like an instrument of the one speaking in him, says in the person of the one who is, “I am first and I am after these things,” so that through this the eternal nature of God is understood in each conception, and likewise also the voice that came to Manoah indicates that the divine is incomprehensible through the meaning of the name, when Manoah asked to learn the name, so that when the promise came to pass he might glorify the benefactor by name, he says to him, “Why do you ask this? It is wonderful,” so that through this we learn that there is one name indicative of the divine nature, the wonder that arises ineffably within 3.6.5 our soul concerning it, and likewise also the great David in his own words proclaims the same, that while all of creation was brought into being by him, God alone is likewise always and remains forever, in which he says, “But you are the same, and your years will not fail.” Hearing these and similar things from the God-bearing men, everything that is not from eternity, as both recent and foreign to the true divinity, we leave for idolaters to worship. 3.6.6 For that which is now, but formerly was not, is certainly recent and not eternal, but looking to one of the recent things Moses calls the worship of demons, saying, “They sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods whom their fathers did not know, new and recent have they come.” If therefore everything recent in worship is worship of demons and alienated from the true divinity, and what now is, but was not always, is recent and not eternal, necessarily, looking to that which is, those who contemplate non-being together with being and say, “there was a time when he was not,” 3.6.7 we count among the servants of idols. For indeed the great John, proclaiming the only-begotten God in his own preaching, in every way makes his own account secure, so that the notion of not-being may find no path against the one who is. For he says that he was in the beginning and was with God and was God and was light and life and truth and was always all good things and never was not any of the good things, being the fullness of all good things 3.6.8 and being in the bosom of the Father. If, then, Moses on the one hand lays down for us as law a certain character of the true divinity, to know nothing else about God than this alone, that he is (for this is what “I am the one who is” indicates), and Isaiah on the other hand proclaims in his preaching the in every way undefined nature of the one who is, seeing the being of God defined neither by a beginning nor by an end (for he who said, “I am first and I am after these things,” in neither sets the limit of eternity, so that looking to the beginning one can find no point from which he is and after which he was not, nor, raising the mind to what follows, can one interrupt with some limit the progression of being into the eternal), and since the prophet David forbids a recent and foreign god to be worshipped, each of which is in the dogmas of the heresy [for in not being eternal, “recent” is clearly shown, and in being estranged from the nature of the true God, “foreign” is clearly shown]; 3.6.9 since these things are so, we define every argument through sophisms concerning the one who truly is having at some time not been, to be nothing other than a transgression of Christianity and a turning to idolatry. For since the evangelist through his theology banished from every side non-being from the one who is, and through the continuous repetition of “was” carefully erased the suspicion of not-being, and named him only-begotten God and Word of God and Son of God and equal to God and all such things, we have this firm and unchangeable judgment in ourselves, that if the only-begotten Son is God, one must believe that he always is, God 3.6.10

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καὶ οὐδὲν παραμυθεῖται τὴν ἀσεβῆ περὶ τὸ θεῖον ὑπόληψιν ἐν πρώτοις ἢ τελευταίοις ἐπιθρυλού 3.6.4 μενον τῷ θεῷ τὸ ἀνύπαρκτον. διὰ τοῦτο τὴν περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἶναί ποτε τὸν ὄντως ὄντα κατασκευὴν ἄρνησίν τε καὶ ἀθέ τησιν τῆς ἀληθινῆς θεότητος εἶναι διοριζόμεθα. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὁ μὲν διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς ἑαυτὸν τῷ Μωϋσῇ δείξας ὄντα ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάζει λέγων Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν, Ἠσαΐας δὲ καθάπερ ὄργανον τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ φθεγγομένου γενόμενος ἐκ προσώπου λέγει τοῦ ὄντος ὅτι Ἐγὼ πρῶτος καὶ ἐγὼ μετὰ ταῦτα, ὡς διὰ τούτου νοεῖσθαι καθ' ἑκατέραν ἔννοιαν ἐπὶ θεοῦ τὸ ἀΐδιον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸν Μανωὲ γενομένη φωνὴ τὸ ἀπερίληπτον εἶναι διὰ τῆς τοῦ ὀνόματος σημασίας τὸ θεῖον ἐνδείκνυται, ὅτε μαθεῖν ἀξιοῦντος τοῦ Μανωὲ τὸ ὄνομα, ὡς προελθούσης εἰς ἔργον τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἐπ' ὀνόματος δοξάσῃ τὸν εὐεργέτην, λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν Τί τοῦτο ἐρωτᾷς; καὶ αὐτό ἐστιν θαυμαστόν, ὡς διὰ τούτου μαθεῖν ὅτι ἕν ἐστι σημαντικὸν τῆς θείας φύσεως ὄνομα, τὸ ἀρρήτως περὶ 3.6.5 αὐτῆς ἡμῖν θαῦμα κατὰ ψυχὴν ἐγγινόμενον, ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ὁ μέγας ∆αβὶδ ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἑαυτὸν λόγοις τὸ ἴσον βοᾷ, ὡς πάσης μὲν τῆς κτίσεως ὑπ' αὐτοῦ παραχθείσης εἰς γένεσιν, μόνου δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ ὡσαύτως ἀεί τε ὄντος καὶ εἰσαεὶ διαμένοντος, ἐν οἷς φησι Σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ καὶ τὰ ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσι· ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα παρὰ τῶν θεοφορουμένων ἀκούοντες πᾶν, ὃ μὴ ἐξ ἀϊδίου ἐστίν, ὡς πρόσφατόν τε καὶ ἀλλότριον τῆς ἀληθινῆς θεότητος τοῖς 3.6.6 εἰδωλολάτραις προσκυνεῖν καταλείπομεν. τὸ γὰρ νῦν ὄν, πρότερον δὲ μὴ ὂν πρόσφατόν ἐστι πάντως καὶ οὐκ ἀΐδιον, τὸ δὲ πρός τι τῶν προσφάτων ὁρᾶν δαιμόνων λατρείαν ὁ Μωϋσῆς ὀνομάζει λέγων Ἔθυσαν δαιμονίοις καὶ οὐ θεῷ, θεοῖς οἷς οὐκ ᾔδεισαν οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν, καινοὶ καὶ πρό σφατοι ἥκασιν. εἰ οὖν πᾶν τὸ πρόσφατον ἐν σεβάσματι δαι μόνων ἐστὶ λατρεία καὶ τῆς ἀληθινῆς θεότητος ἠλλοτρίω, ὃ δὲ νῦν μὲν ἔστιν, ἀεὶ δὲ οὐκ ἦν, πρόσφατόν ἐστι καὶ οὐκ ἀΐδιον, ἀναγκαίως πρὸς τὸ ὂν βλέποντες τοὺς τὸ μὴ ὂν τῷ ὄντι συνθεωροῦντας καὶ λέγοντας, ὅτι ποτὲ οὐκ ἦν, 3.6.7 τοῖς θεραπευταῖς τῶν εἰδώλων ἐγκαταλέγομεν. καὶ γὰρ ὁ μέγας Ἰωάννης τὸν μονογενῆ θεὸν τῷ ἰδίῳ καταγγέλλων κηρύγματι παντοίως τὸν ἑαυτοῦ κατασφαλίζεται λόγον, ὡς μή τινα πάροδον τὴν τοῦ μὴ εἶναι ὑπόληψιν κατὰ τοῦ ὄντος λαβεῖν. λέγει γὰρ ὅτι ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἦν καὶ θεὸς ἦν καὶ φῶς ἦν καὶ ζωὴ καὶ ἀλήθεια καὶ πάντα τὰ ἀγαθὰ πάντοτε ἦν καὶ οὐδὲν οὐδέποτέ τι τῶν καλῶν οὐκ ἦν ὁ πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὸ πλήρωμα ὢν 3.6.8 καὶ ἐν τοῖς κόλποις τοῦ πατρὸς ὤν. εἰ τοίνυν Μωϋσῆς μὲν οἷόν τινα χαρακτῆρα τῆς ἀληθινῆς θεότητος ἡμῖν νομοθετεῖ τὸ μηδὲν ἄλλο περὶ θεοῦ γινώσκειν ἢ τοῦτο μόνον, ὅτι ἔστι (τοῦτο γὰρ ἐνδείκνυται τὸ Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν), Ἠσαΐας δὲ τὸ πανταχόθεν ἀόριστον τοῦ ὄντος βοᾷ τῷ κηρύγματι, μήτε δι' ἀρχῆς μήτε διὰ τέλους βλέπων τὸ ὂν ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁριζόμενον (ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν ὅτι Ἐγὼ πρῶτος καὶ ἐγὼ μετὰ ταῦτα, ἐν οὐθετέρῳ τὸν ὅρον τῆς ἀϊδιότητος ἵστησιν, ὡς μήτε πρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν ὁρῶντας εὑρεῖν τι σημεῖον, ἀφ' οὗ ἔστι καὶ μεθ' ὃ οὐκ ἦν, μήτε πρὸς τὸ ἐφεξῆς τὴν διάνοιαν ἀνάγοντας ὅρῳ τινὶ διακόπτειν τοῦ ὄντος τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ ἀΐδιον πρόοδον), τοῦ δὲ προφήτου ∆αβὶδ πρόσφατόν τε καὶ ἀλλότριον θεὸν προσκυνεῖσθαι ἀπαγορεύοντος, ὧν ἑκά τερον ἐν τοῖς δόγμασίν ἐστι τῆς αἱρέσεως [ἐν μὲν τῷ μὴ ἀϊδίῳ τὸ πρόσφατον, ἐν δὲ τῷ τῆς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ θεοῦ φύσεως ἀπεξενῶσθαι τὸ ἀλλότριον σαφῶς ἐπιδείκνυται]· 3.6.9 τούτων οὖν οὕτως ἐχόντων πᾶσαν τὴν διὰ τῶν σοφισμάτων κατασκευὴν τὴν περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἶναί ποτε τὸν ὄντως ὄντα οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ παράβασιν τοῦ Χριστιανισμοῦ καὶ τροπὴν εἰς εἰδωλολατρείαν εἶναι διοριζόμεθα. τοῦ γὰρ εὐαγγελιστοῦ διὰ τῆς θεολογίας πανταχόθεν ἐξορίσαντος τὸ μὴ ὂν ἐκ τοῦ ὄντος καὶ διὰ τῆς συνεχοῦς τοῦ ἦν ἐπαναλήψεως τὴν τοῦ μὴ εἶναι ὑπόνοιαν ἐπιμελῶς ἐξαλείψαντος, μονογενῆ δὲ θεὸν καὶ λόγον θεοῦ καὶ υἱὸν θεοῦ καὶ ἴσον θεῷ καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα κατονομάσαντος, παγίαν ἔχομεν ταύτην ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὴν κρίσιν καὶ ἀμετάθετον, ὅτι εἰ θεός ἐστιν ὁ μονογενὴς υἱός, ἀεὶ χρὴ πιστεύειν αὐτὸν εἶναι, τὸν θεὸν 3.6.10