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the nature of bodies fashions these various kinds of animals; for a certain change of the body, having been so disposed by nature, created this particular kind of animal; which is no other kind of generat 3.6.32 ion than that which is accomplished from nature and matter. Therefore, since these modes of generation are manifest to men, the philanthropic economy of the Holy Spirit, deli vering to us the divine mysteries, makes its teaching of things beyond reason through things comprehensible to us, as it also does this in all other cases, when it describes the divine in a bodily manner, relating about God an eye and eyelids and an ear and fingers and a hand and a right hand and an arm and feet and sandals and such things, none of which, according to the obvious sense, is apprehended in the divine nature, but leading the teaching toward what is easily under stood by us, it defines things beyond all meaning with terms that have become common in human custom, as we are led up analogically through each of the things said about God to some higher conception. 3.6.33 So then, it also takes up the many kinds of generation [from the divinely-inspired teaching] for the representation of the ineffable hypostasis of the Only-begotten, taking from each only so much as is pure to be adopted into our concept 3.6.34 ions about God. For just as the mention of fingers in connection with God, and of a hand and an arm, does not describe in the word the constitution of the member from bones, sinews, flesh, and ligaments, but signifies by such a name His practical and active power, and through each of the others indicates the appropriate concepts about God, not admitting along with them the corporeal meanings of the names, so also it speaks of these kinds of generations in connection with the divine nature, yet not in such a way 3.6.35 as our custom knows how to understand them. For when it speaks of the constructive power, it calls such an activity generation, because the word must condescend to the lowliness of our capacity, yet it does not indica tes all those things which among us are considered along with constructive generation, not place, not time, not preparation of matter, not cooperation of instruments, not the labor over things being made, but leaving these things to us, it magnanimously and loftily bears witness to God concerning the generation of beings in what it says: He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were creat 3.6.36 ed. Again, when it interprets the ineffable and suprarational hypostasis of the Only-begotten from the Father, because human poverty is incapable of teachings that are beyond reason and conception, there too it makes use of our own terms and calls him Son, a name which our custom gives to those who are begotten from matter and nature. But just as the word, when speaking of the generation of creation in connection with God, did not add that it comes to be through some matter, declaring the power of His will to be the substance of matter and place and time and all such things, so also here, having said Son, it has left aside all the other things that human nature observes concerning the lower generation, I mean passions and dispositions and the cooperation of time and the need for place and above all, matter, without all of which 3.6.37 the lower generation from nature does not consist. But with every such material and spatial concept not being inclu ded in the meaning of Son, nature alone was left, and for this reason, by the term Son, the intimate and genuine character of his manifestation from the Father is interpreted in the case of the Only-begotten. And since this kind of generation was not sufficient to produce in us an adequate conception concerning the ineffable existence of the Only-begotten, it also includes another kind of generation for the meaning of the theology of the Son, that from material emanation, and it speaks of the radiance of glory and the fragrance of ointment and the vapor of God, which things, in the classification previously set forth by us, our 3.6.38 custom calls material emanation. But just as in the things said before, neither the

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σωμάτων ἡ φύσις τὰ ποικίλα ταῦτα τῶν ζῴων εἴδη τεχνάζεται· ἡ γὰρ ποιὰ τοῦ σώματος τροπὴ τοιῶσδε παρὰ τῆς φύσεως διατεθεῖσα τόδε τι τοῦ ζῴου τὸ εἶδος ἐδημιούργησεν· ὅπερ οὐκ ἄλλο τί ἐστιν εἶδος γεννή 3.6.32 σεως παρὰ τὸ ἐκ φύσεως καὶ ὕλης ἀποτελούμενον. τούτων τοίνυν τῶν τῆς γεννήσεως τρόπων φανερῶν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὄντων ἡ φιλάνθρωπος τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος οἰκονομία παρα διδοῦσα ἡμῖν τὰ θεῖα μυστήρια διὰ τῶν ἡμῖν χωρητῶν τὴν διδασκαλίαν ποιεῖται τῶν ὑπὲρ λόγον, ὡς καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασι τοῦτο ποιεῖ, ὅταν σωματικῶς διαγράφῃ τὸ θεῖον, ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ βλέφαρα καὶ οὖς καὶ δακτύλους καὶ χεῖρα καὶ δεξιὰν καὶ βραχίονα καὶ πόδας καὶ ὑποδήματα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα περὶ θεοῦ διεξιοῦσα, ὧν οὐδὲν κατὰ τὴν πρόχειρον ἔννοιαν ἐν τῇ θείᾳ καταλαμβάνεται φύσει, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ ἡμῖν εὐσύν οπτον τὴν διδασκαλίαν ἀνάγουσα ταῖς τετριμμέναις ἐν τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φωναῖς τὰ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν σημασίαν πράγματα διορίζει, ἀναλογικῶς ἡμῶν δι' ἑκάστου τῶν περὶ θεοῦ λεγομένων πρός τινα ἀναγομένων ὑψηλοτέραν ὑπόνοιαν. 3.6.33 οὕτως οὖν καὶ τὰ πολλὰ τῆς γεννήσεως εἴδη [παρὰ τῆς θεοπνεύστου διδασκαλίας] εἰς παράστασιν τῆς ἀρρήτου τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑποστάσεως παραλαμβάνει, τοσοῦτον ἀφ' ἑκάστου λαμβάνουσα ὅσον εὐαγές ἐστιν εἰς τὰς περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὑπο 3.6.34 λήψεις παραληφθῆναι. ὡς γὰρ ἡ τῶν δακτύλων μνήμη ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς χειρὸς καὶ τοῦ βραχίονος οὐ τὴν ἐξ ὀστῶν νεύρων καὶ σαρκῶν καὶ συνδέσμων τοῦ μέλους κατασκευὴν ὑπογράφει τῷ λόγῳ, ἀλλὰ τὴν πρακτικὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνεργητικὴν δύναμιν τῷ τοιούτῳ διασημαίνει ὀνόματι καὶ δι' ἑκάστου τῶν ἄλλων τὰ κατάλληλα τῶν περὶ θεοῦ νοουμένων ἐνδείκνυται, οὐ συμπαραδεχομένη τὰς σωματικὰς τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐμφάσεις, οὕτως καὶ τὰ τῶν γεννήσεων τού των εἴδη λέγει μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς θείας φύσεως, οὐ μὴν οὕτω 3.6.35 λέγει ὡς νοεῖν οἶδεν ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς συνήθεια. ὅταν μὲν γὰρ περὶ τῆς κατασκευαστικῆς λέγῃ δυνάμεως, γέννησιν μὲν ὀνομάζει τὴν τοιαύτην ἐνέργειαν διὰ τὸ δεῖν πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν τῆς ἡμετέρας δυνάμεως καταβῆναι τὸν λόγον, οὐ μὴν ἐν δείκνυται τὰ ὅσα παρ' ἡμῖν τῇ κατασκευαστικῇ γενέσει συνθεωρεῖται, οὐ τόπον, οὐ χρόνον, οὐχ ὕλης παρασκευήν, οὐκ ὀργάνων συνεργίαν, οὐ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς γινομένοις κόπον, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα ἡμῖν καταλιποῦσα μεγαλοφυῶς καὶ ὑψηλῶς τῷ θεῷ προσμαρτυρεῖ τῶν ὄντων τὴν γένεσιν ἐν οἷς φησιν ὅτι Αὐτὸς εἶπεν καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, αὐτὸς ἐνετείλατο καὶ ἐκτί 3.6.36 σθησαν. πάλιν ὅταν τὴν ἀπόρρητόν τε καὶ ὑπὲρ λόγον τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑπόστασιν ἑρμηνεύῃ, διὰ τὸ ἀχώρητον εἶναι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην πτωχείαν τῶν ὑπὲρ λόγον τε καὶ ἔννοιαν διδαγμάτων κἀκεῖ τοῖς ἡμετέροις συγκέχρηται καὶ υἱὸν ὀνομάζει, ὅπερ ἡ παρ' ἡμῖν συνήθεια τοῖς ἀπὸ ὕλης καὶ φύσεως ἀποτικτομένοις ὄνομα τίθεται. ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τὴν τῆς κτίσεως γένεσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ λόγος εἰπὼν τὸ διά τινος ὕλης γίνεσθαι αὐτὴν οὐ προσέθηκεν, οὐσίαν ὕλης καὶ τόπον καὶ χρόνον καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τὴν τοῦ θελήματος δύναμιν εἶναι ἀποφηνάμενος, οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα υἱὸν εἰπὼν ἀφῆκε πάντα τά τε ἄλλα ὅσα περὶ τὴν κάτω γέννησιν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις ὁρᾷ, πάθη λέγω καὶ διαθέσεις καὶ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ χρόνου συνεργίαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ τόπου χρείαν καὶ πρὸ πάντων τὴν ὕλην, ὧν ἄνευ ἁπάντων 3.6.37 ἡ κάτω γέννησις ἐκ τῆς φύσεως οὐ συνίσταται. πάσης δὲ τοιαύτης ἐννοίας ὑλικῆς τε καὶ διαστηματικῆς μὴ συμπαρα ληφθείσης ἐν τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ σημασίᾳ, μόνη ὑπελείφθη ἡ φύσις, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ φωνῇ τὸ οἰκεῖον καὶ γνήσιον τῆς ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀναδείξεως ἐπὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἑρμηνεύεται. καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὐχ ἱκανὸν ἦν τὸ τοιοῦτο τῆς γεννήσεως εἶδος ἀρκοῦσαν ἡμῖν ἐμποιῆσαι περὶ τῆς ἀρρήτου τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑπάρξεως τὴν φαντασίαν, συμπαραλαμβάνει καὶ ἕτερον τῆς γεννήσεως εἶδος πρὸς σημασίαν τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ θεολογίας τὸ ἐκ τῆς ὑλικῆς ἀπορροίας, καί φησιν ἀπαύγασμα δόξης καὶ ὀσμὴν μύρου καὶ ἀτμίδα θεοῦ, ἅπερ ἐν τῇ προεκτεθείσῃ παρ' ἡμῶν τεχνολογίᾳ ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς 3.6.38 συνήθεια ὑλικὴν ἀπόρροιαν ὀνομάζει. ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς προειρημένοις οὔτε ἡ τῆς