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all that the Son is, was not yet. For that which is, even according to the testimony of the heresy, does not need to come into being. Therefore, if He made, He surely made what was not. Therefore, before the Son came to be, according to them, clearly neither the truth had come into being, nor the intelligible light, nor the fount of life, nor the nature of anything at all beautiful and 3.7.58 good. But indeed, by the subtraction of each of these, its conceived opposite is introduced alongside it; and if light does not exist, it is not possible for darkness not to exist; and likewise in the other cases, for each of the things conceived as better, whenever one of them is not present, it is not possible for its opposite not to be present in place of what is lacking. Therefore, there is every necessity, when the Father was about to wish to "1make"2 the Son, according to the argument of the heresy, since none of the things that the Son is existed, to say that all the opposites were around him: instead of light, darkness; instead of truth, falsehood; instead of life, death; instead of the beautiful, the 3.7.59 evil. For he who creates, creates things that are not; 20for that which is20, as Eunomius says, 20does not need to be begotten20. And of things considered in opposition, it is not possible for the better things not to exist otherwise than by the worse things existing. These gifts, then, the wisdom of the heresy brings to the Father, by which it dishonors the eternity of the Son, presenting the catalogue of evils to God the Father before the manifestation of the Son. 3.7.60 And let no one think to overturn from the rest of creation the absurdity of the dogma demonstrated from this line of reasoning. For someone will perhaps say that just as when the heaven did not exist there was no opposite to it, so too when the Son had not yet come to be, who is truth, we are not at all compelled to posit that the opposite existed. To whom it is possible to say that for heaven there is no opposite, unless perhaps one should say its non-being is opposed to its being. But to virtue, vice is certainly opposed; and the Lord is virtue, so that when heaven did not exist, there was nothing, but when the good did not exist, 3.7.61 its opposite existed. He therefore who says that the good did not exist will, even unwillingly, certainly agree that evil existed. 20But the Father also20, he says, 20is perfect virtue and life and unapproachable light and all lofty concepts and names; so that there is no necessity, when the only-begotten light was not yet, to conceive of the corresponding darkness from its opposite20. But this is my argument, that darkness never was. For there never was a time when the light was not; for the light is always certainly in the 3.7.62 light, as the prophecy says. But if according to the argument of the heresy the unbegotten light is one thing and the begotten light is another, and the one is from eternity while this other came to be afterwards, there is every necessity that for the eternal light its opposite should never find a place to stand against it; for since the light is always shining, the activity of darkness has no place in it. But in the case of that which came to be afterwards, as they say, it is impossible for the light not to have shone out of darkness, but in every way and altogether darkness will be understood as the interval between the eternal light and the one that came to be later. 3.7.63 For there would have been no need for the fashioning of the light that came afterwards, unless what was created was useful for something. And one use of light is the dispersal by it of the prevailing gloom. Therefore, the light that exists uncreatedly is in itself what it is by nature, but that which is created certainly comes to be for some reason. Therefore, darkness must pre-exist, for the sake of which the light is necessarily crafted, and it is not possible with any argument to gloss over the fact that darkness precedes the manifestation of the begotten light, when it is believed to have been fashioned 3.7.64 afterwards. But indeed such a thing is beyond all impiety. Therefore, it has been clearly shown that the Father of truth did not make the truth when it did not exist, but being the fount of light and truth and of every good, He beamed forth from Himself the only-begotten light of truth, by whom the glory of His own substance is always characterized, so that from every side the blasphemy of those who say the Son was begotten for God later through creation is refuted. 3.8.1 But let us keep to the matters at hand. For having advanced a little, he contends against those who confess that human nature is weak with respect to the

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πάντα ὅσα ἐστὶν ὁ υἱὸς οὔπω ἦν. τὸ γὰρ ὂν καὶ κατὰ τὴν τῆς αἱρέσεως μαρτυρίαν τοῦ γενέσθαι οὐ δέεται. οὐκοῦν εἰ ἐποίησε, τὸ μὴ ὂν πάντως ἐποίησε. πρὶν οὖν γενέσθαι κατ' αὐτοὺς τὸν υἱὸν οὐδὲ ἡ ἀλήθεια δηλονότι ἐγεγόνει οὔτε τὸ νοητὸν φῶς οὔτε ἡ πηγὴ τῆς ζωῆς οὔτε τινὸς καθόλου καλοῦ τε καὶ 3.7.58 ἀγαθοῦ φύσις. ἀλλὰ μὴν τούτων ἑκάστου τῇ ὑπεξαιρέσει τὸ ἐξ ἐναντίου νοούμενον παρυφίσταται, καὶ φωτὸς μὴ ὄντος οὐκ ἔστι μὴ σκότος εἶναι, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὡσαύτως ἀνθ' ἑκάστου τῶν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον νοουμένων, ὅταν μὴ παρῇ τι τούτων, οὐκ ἐνδέχεται μὴ τὸ ἐναντίον πάντως εἶναι ἀντὶ τοῦ λείποντος. ἀνάγκη οὖν πᾶσα, ὡς ἔμελλε θέλειν ὁ πατὴρ τὸν υἱὸν "1ποιῆσαι"2 κατὰ τὸν τῆς αἱρέσεως λόγον, μηδενὸς ὄντος τῶν ὅσα ὁ υἱός ἐστιν, πάντα τὰ ἐναντία περὶ αὐτὸν εἶναι λέγειν, ἀντὶ τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ σκότος, ἀντὶ τῆς ἀληθείας τὸ ψεῦδος, ἀντὶ τῆς ζωῆς τὸν θάνατον, ἀντὶ τοῦ καλοῦ τὸ 3.7.59 κακόν. ὁ γὰρ κτίζων τὰ μὴ ὄντα κτίζει· 20τῷ γὰρ ὄντι20, καθώς φησιν ὁ Εὐνόμιος, 20οὐ δεῖ γεννήσεως20. τῶν δὲ κατὰ ἀντίθεσιν θεωρουμένων οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλως τὰ κρείττω μὴ εἶναι ἢ ἐκ τοῦ τὰ χείρονα εἶναι. ταῦτα τοίνυν ἡ σοφία τῆς αἱρέσεως δωροφορεῖ τῷ πατρὶ δι' ὧν ἀτιμάζει τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ ἀΐδιον, τὸν τῶν κακῶν κατάλογον πρὸ τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ ἀναδείξεως προσάγουσα τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί. 3.7.60 Καὶ μηδεὶς ἐκ τῆς ἄλλης κτίσεως ἀνατρέπειν οἰέσθω τὴν ἐκ τῆς ἀκολουθίας ταύτης ἀναδειχθεῖσαν ἀτοπίαν τοῦ δόγματος. ἐρεῖ γάρ τις ἴσως ὅτι ὥσπερ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐδὲν ἐναντίον τούτῳ, οὕτως καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ μήπω γενομένου, ὅς ἐστιν ἀλήθεια, οὐ πάντως ἀναγκαζόμεθα τὸ ἐναντίον εἶναι συντίθεσθαι. πρὸς ὃν ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὅτι οὐ ρανῷ μὲν τὸ ἀντικείμενον ἔστιν οὐδέν, εἰ μὴ ἄρα τῷ εἶναι αὐτὸν τὸ μὴ εἶναί τις λέγοι ἀντίθετον. τῇ δὲ ἀρετῇ τὸ κατὰ κακίαν πάντως ἀντικαθέστηκεν, ἀρετὴ δὲ ὁ κύριος, ὥστε οὐρανοῦ μὲν μὴ ὄντος οὐδὲν ἦν, ἀγαθοῦ δὲ μὴ ὄντος 3.7.61 τὸ ἐναντίον ἦν. ὁ οὖν τὸ ἀγαθὸν λέγων μὴ εἶναι τὸ κακὸν εἶναι καὶ μὴ βουλόμενος πάντως συνθήσεται. 20ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ πατήρ20, φησί, 20καὶ παντελής ἐστιν ἀρετὴ καὶ ζωὴ καὶ ἀπρόσιτον φῶς καὶ πάντα τὰ ὑψηλὰ νοήματά τε καὶ ὀνόματα· ὡς μὴ εἶναι ἀνάγκην, ὅτε τὸ μονογενὲς φῶς οὔπω ἦν, τὸ κατάλληλον ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου νοεῖσθαι σκότος20. ἀλλ' οὗτος ὁ ἐμός ἐστι λόγος, ὅτι οὐδέποτε σκότος ἦν. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἦν ποτε ὅτε τὸ φῶς οὐκ ἦν· ἀεὶ γὰρ ἐν τῷ 3.7.62 φωτὶ πάντως ἐστὶ τὸ φῶς, καθὼς ἡ προφητεία λέγει. εἰ δὲ κατὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς αἱρέσεως ἄλλο τὸ ἀγέννητον καὶ ἕτερον τὸ γεννητόν ἐστι φῶς καὶ τὸ μὲν ἐξ ἀϊδίου τοῦτο δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα γενόμενον, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα τῷ μὲν ἀϊδίῳ φωτὶ μηδέποτε χώραν εὑρεῖν ἀντικαταστῆναι τὸ ἀντικείμενον· ἀεὶ γὰρ λάμποντος τοῦ φωτὸς ἡ ἐνέργεια τοῦ σκότους ἐπ' αὐτοῦ χώραν οὐκ ἔχει· ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ μετὰ ταῦτα, καθὼς ἐκεῖνοί φασι, γεγονότος ἀμήχανον εἶναι μὴ ἐκ σκότους τὸ φῶς λάμψαι, ἀλλὰ πάντῃ καὶ πάντως τοῦ τε ἀϊδίου φωτὸς καὶ τοῦ ὕστερον γενομένου σκότος τὸ μέσον διαληφθήσεται. 3.7.63 οὐ γὰρ ἂν τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ μετὰ ταῦτα φωτὸς χρεία ἐγίνετο, εἰ μὴ πρός τι χρήσιμον ἦν τὸ κτιζόμενον. μία δὲ φωτὸς χρῆσις τοῦ λύεσθαι δι' αὐτοῦ τὸν ἐπικρατοῦντα ζόφον. τὸ μὲν οὖν ἀκτίστως ὂν φῶς αὐτὸ δι' ἑαυτό ἐστιν ὅπερ ἐστὶν τῇ φύσει, τὸ δὲ κτιζόμενον διά τι γίνεται πάν τως. οὐκοῦν προϋπάρχειν ἀνάγκη τὸ σκότος, οὗ χάριν ἀναγκαίως δημιουργεῖται τὸ φέγγος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν οὐδενὶ λόγῳ παραμυθήσασθαι τὸ μὴ προτερεύειν τῆς τοῦ γεννη τοῦ φωτὸς ἀναδείξεως τὸ σκότος, ὅταν μετὰ ταῦτα κατε 3.7.64 σκευάσθαι πιστεύηται. ἀλλὰ μὴν πάσης ἀσεβείας τὸ τοι οῦτόν ἐστιν ἐπέκεινα. ἄρα σαφῶς πεφανέρωται ὅτι οὐχὶ μὴ οὖσαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὁ πατὴρ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐποίησεν, ἀλλὰ πηγὴ ὢν φωτὸς καὶ ἀληθείας καὶ παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ τὸ μονογενὲς φῶς τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπηύγασε, δι' οὗ πάντοτε ἡ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ δόξα χαρακτηρίζεται, ὡς πανταχόθεν τῶν ὕστερον τῷ θεῷ διὰ κτίσεως τὸν υἱὸν προγεγενῆσθαι λεγόντων τὴν βλασφημίαν ἐλέγχεσθαι. 3.8.1 Ἀλλὰ τῶν προκειμένων ἐχώμεθα. μικρὸν γὰρ προελ θὼν διαμάχεται πρὸς τοὺς ὁμολογοῦντας ἀσθενεῖν τὴν ἀν θρωπίνην φύσιν πρὸς τὴν τῶν