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formation, the labor, the birth, the time, without which the generation of a body cannot subsist; all of which are equally alien 3.7.29 to the divine generation of the Only-begotten. For if one of these were granted, all the rest would necessarily be introduced with it. Therefore, so that the divine generation might be pure of all passionate thought, we will not conceive of dimensional extension in its case either. For that which begins and ceases is certainly considered in some extension. But all extension is measured by time; and since there is no time, by which we mark both the end and the beginning of the birth, it would be pointless to conceive of an end and a beginning in the case of the dimensionless generation, since no signifying concept can be found either in 3.7.30 that in which it begins or that in which it ends. But if he looks to the inanimate things among creatures, and in their case too, likewise both place and time and matter and preparation and the power of the craftsman and many such things concur to bring to completion that which is coming into being. And since time is certainly co-extended with all things that come into being, and the constructive causes for that which is coming into being are conceived along with everything that is created, whether it be animate or inanimate, it is possible to find in these cases clear beginnings and ends of their constitution; for both the provision of matter becomes a beginning of the construction, and some local mark, and a sequence of time. All these things define the beginnings and the ends for things that come into being, and no one could say that these things have any fellowship with the pre-eternal existence of the Only-begotten God, so as to reason from what is observed here to some beginning and end in the case of that generation. 3.7.31

Since these things have thus been distinguished by us, let us consider again the argument of our opponents. 20Every20, he says, 20generation, not being extended to infinity, but coming to some end20. Since, therefore, the meaning of "generation" has been understood in each sense, whether one wishes to signify by such a name the procreation of bodily things or the construction of created things, neither of which has fellowship with the incorruptible nature, the proposition 3.7.32 is shown to be alien to the subject at hand. For it is not the case that, just because every making and generation comes to some limit, it is an absolute necessity, as he constructs it, for those who accept the generation of the Son to circumscribe it with twofold limits, conceiving a beginning and an end for it. For only things that are circumscribed by some quantity both begin to come into being and cease at a limit, and the measure of time, being extended along with the quantity of what is being generated, separates the beginning from the end by the interval between. But how could one measure or give interval to that which is without quantity and without interval? Having found what measure for that which is without quantity, or what interval for that which is without 3.7.33 interval? And how will one apprehend the indefinite with an end and a beginning? For "beginning" and "end" are names for dimensional limits. But where there is no dimension, there is no limit. But indeed, the divine nature is without interval, and being without interval it has no limit, and that which is without limit is and is called infinite. It is futile, therefore, to circumscribe the infinite with a beginning and an end; for what is circumscribed cannot be infinite.

Whence then does this Platonic Phaedrus incoherently stitch 3.7.34 what was philosophized there by Plato concerning the soul onto his own dogmas? For just as he spoke there of a cessation of motion, so this man desired to speak of a 20cessation of generation20, so that he might boast to those inexperienced in these things with Platonic euphonies. 20And it is not possible to disbelieve these things20, he says, 20both from nature itself, and also from the divine laws20. But 20nature20, from what has been said, has been shown to us to be untrustworthy for instruction on the divine generation, not even if one were to bring forward the cosmos itself as an example for the argument, since with its creation, as we learned in the cosmogony from Moses, the measure of time also ran its course, being measured out for each of the things coming into being in specified days and nights according to a certain order and sequence. Which, in the case of the hypostasis of the Only-begotten, not even the argument of our opponents itself accepts, since 3.7.35

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διάπλασιν, τὴν ὠδῖνα, τὸν τόκον, τὸν χρόνον, ὧν ἄνευ οὐκ ἔστι συστῆναι σώματος γέννησιν· ἅπερ ἐπίσης πάντα τῆς θείας γεννήσεως τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἠλλο 3.7.29 τρίωται. εἰ γὰρ ἕν τι τούτων δοθείη, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα κατ' ἀνάγκην συνεισελεύσεται. ὡς ἂν οὖν καθαρεύοι πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς διανοίας ἡ θεία γέννησις, οὐδὲ τὴν διαστηματικὴν παράτασιν ἐπ' ἐκείνης νοήσομεν. τὸ γὰρ ἀρχόμενον καὶ παυόμενον ἐν παρατάσει τινὶ θεωρεῖται πάντως. πᾶσα δὲ παράτασις χρόνῳ διαμετρεῖται· χρόνου δὲ μὴ ὄντος, ᾧ καὶ τέλος τοῦ τόκου καὶ ἀρχὴν σημειούμεθα, μάταιον ἂν εἴη τέλος καὶ ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀδιαστάτου γεννήσεως ἐν νοεῖν, οὐδενὸς εὑρισκομένου σημειωτικοῦ νοήματος οὔτε ἐν 3.7.30 ᾧ ἄρχεται οὔτε εἰς ὃ καταλήγει. εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὰ ἄψυχα τῶν κτισμάτων ὁρᾷ, καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνων ὡσαύτως καὶ τόπος καὶ χρόνος καὶ ὕλη καὶ παρασκευὴ καὶ δύναμις τοῦ τεχνι τεύοντος καὶ πολλὰ τοιαῦτα συνδραμόντα τελεσιουργεῖ τὸ γινόμενον. καὶ ἐπειδὴ πᾶσι τοῖς γινομένοις συμπαρατείνεται πάντως ὁ χρόνος καὶ αἱ κατασκευαστικαὶ πρὸς τὸ γινό μενον ἀφορμαὶ συνεπινοοῦνται παντὶ τῷ κτιζομένῳ, κἂν ἔμ ψυχόν τι κἂν ἄψυχον ᾖ, φανερὰς ἔστιν εὑρεῖν ἐπὶ τούτων καὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς τελευτὰς τῆς συστάσεως· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὕλης πορισμὸς ἀρχὴ τοῦ κατασκευάσματος γίνεται καὶ τοπικόν τι σημεῖον καὶ ἀκολουθία χρόνου. πάντα ταῦτα τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰ τέλη τοῖς γινομένοις ὁρίζει, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι κοινωνίαν ἔχειν τινὰ ταῦτα πρὸς τὴν προαιώνιον τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ ὕπαρξιν, ὥστε διὰ τῶν ὧδε θεωρου μένων ἀρχήν τινα καὶ τέλος ἐπὶ τῆς γεννήσεως ἐκείνης ἀναλογίζεσθαι. 3.7.31 Τούτων οὖν ἡμῖν οὕτω διῃρημένων πάλιν τὸν λόγον τῶν ἐναντίων κατανοήσωμεν. 20πάσης20, φησί, 20γεννήσεως οὐκ ἐπ' ἄπειρον ἐκτεινομένης, ἀλλ' εἴς τι τέλος καταληγούσης20. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν νενόηται τὸ τῆς γεννή σεως σημαινόμενον καθ' ἑκατέραν ἔννοιαν, εἴτε τὴν ἀπο κύησιν τῶν σωματικῶν εἴτε τὴν κατασκευὴν ἐθέλοι τῶν κτισμάτων τῷ τοιούτῳ σημαίνειν ὀνόματι, ὧν οὐδέτερον ἐπὶ τῆς ἀκηράτου φύσεως τὴν κοινωνίαν ἔχει, ἀλλοτρία δέ 3.7.32 δεικται τοῦ προκειμένου ἡ πρότασις. οὐ γάρ, ἐπειδὴ πᾶσα ποίησίς τε καὶ γέννησις εἴς τι καταλήγει πέρας, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος κατασκευάζει, καὶ τοὺς παραδεξα μένους τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν γέννησιν διπλοῖς αὐτὴν πέρασι περι γράφειν, ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἐννοοῦντας. μόνα γὰρ τὰ πηλικότητι περιγεγραμμένα τινὶ καὶ ἄρχεται γινόμενα καὶ εἰς πέρας λήγει, καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ χρόνου μέτρον τῷ ποσῷ τοῦ γεννωμένου παρατεινόμενον τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ τέλους διΐστησι τῷ μεταξὺ διαστήματι. τὸ δὲ ἄποσον καὶ ἀδιά στατον πῶς ἄν τις ἢ μετρήσειεν ἢ διαστήσειεν; ποῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀπόσου μέτρον εὑρὼν ἢ ποῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀδιαστάτου διά 3.7.33 στημα; πῶς δέ τις τὸ ἀόριστον τέλει καὶ ἀρχῇ διαλήψεται; ἀρχὴ γὰρ καὶ τέλος τῶν διαστηματικῶν περάτων ἐστὶν ὀνό ματα. διαστάσεως δὲ μὴ οὔσης οὐδὲ τὸ πέρας ἔστιν. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἀδιάστατος ἡ θεία φύσις, ἀδιάστατος δὲ οὖσα πέρας οὐκ ἔχει, τὸ δὲ ἀπεράτωτον ἄπειρόν ἐστί τε καὶ λέγεται. μάταιον ἄρα τὸ ἄπειρον ἀρχῇ καὶ τελευτῇ περι γράφειν· τὸ γὰρ περιγεγραμμένον ἄπειρον εἶναι οὐ δύναται. πόθεν οὖν ὁ Πλατωνικὸς οὗτος Φαῖδρος τὰ περὶ ψυχῆς ἐκεῖ φιλοσοφηθέντα τῷ Πλάτωνι τοῖς ἰδίοις δόγμασιν ἀσυν 3.7.34 αρτήτως ἐρράπτει; ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ἐκεῖ παῦλαν εἶπε κινή σεως, οὕτω 20παῦλαν γεννήσεως20 καὶ οὗτος εἰπεῖν ἐπε θύμησεν, ὡς ἂν τοὺς ἀπείρους τούτων ταῖς Πλατωνικαῖς καλλιφωνίαις περικομπήσειε. 20καὶ τούτοις ἀπιστεῖν οὐκ ἔστι20, φησί, 20ἔκ τε τῆς φύσεως αὐτῆς, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τῶν θείων νόμων20. ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν 20φύσις20 ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων οὐκ ἀξιόπιστος εἰς διδασκαλίαν τῆς θείας γεννή σεως ἡμῖν ἀναπέφηνεν, οὐδὲ εἰ τὸν κόσμον τις αὐτὸν εἰς ὑπόδειγμα φέροι τοῦ λόγου, ἐπεὶ καὶ τῇ τούτου κτίσει, καθὼς ἐν τῇ κοσμογενείᾳ παρὰ τοῦ Μωϋσέως ἐμάθομεν, συνδιεξῄει τὸ ἐκ τοῦ χρόνου μέτρον, ῥηταῖς ἡμέραις τε καὶ νυξὶν ἑκάστῳ τῶν γινομένων κατά τινα τάξιν καὶ ἀκολου θίαν παραμετρούμενον. ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ μονογενοῦς ὑπο στάσεως οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ὁ τῶν ἐναντίων δέχεται λόγος, ὁμο 3.7.35