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he goes on boasting about a notion of incomprehensible things and other such things, despising what concerns us with these words: 20For if someone's mind, having been darkened by malice and therefore unable to see anything either before him or above his head, should be moderately disposed toward the comprehension of the truth, it is not for this reason necessary to think that the discovery of beings is unattainable for other men also.20 But I would say to him that the one who says 20the discovery of beings20 20is attainable20 surely advanced his own thought by some path and sequence through the knowledge of beings, and having been trained on the easily grasped and smaller things through comprehension, thus also he cast his own apprehensive imagination upon the things beyond all understanding. 3.8.3 Therefore, let the one boasting to have comprehended the knowledge of beings explain the nature of the smallest of the things that appear to us, so that through the known he might also give assurance concerning the hidden, and let him explain in his account what the nature of the ant is, if its life is held together by spirit and breath, if it is ordered by entrails similarly to other animals, if its body is encompassed by bones, if the hollows of the bones on the inside are filled with marrow **, if its joints are strung with sinews and ligaments, if the position of the sinews is held in place by coverings of muscles and glands, if the marrow is extended through the vertebrae of the back from the crown to the tail, if by the enclosure of the sinewy membrane it gives impulsive power to the moving limbs, if there is in it a liver and a gall bladder upon the liver, and kidneys and a heart and arteries and veins and membranes and a midriff and diaphragms, and if it is bare or hairy, and if it is divided into male and female, and in what part of its body the organ of sight or of hearing is established, and if it partakes of the sense of smell, if it is single-hoofed or has cloven feet, and for how long it lives, and what is their manner of generation from one another, and for how long the offspring is in gestation, and how it is that not all ants walk on the ground nor are all winged, but some are of those that go on the ground, while others are borne through the air. 3.8.4 Therefore, let the one who boasts to have comprehended the knowledge of beings for now make manifest to us the nature of the ant, and then let him discourse on the nature of the power that surpasses all understanding. But if he has not yet comprehended in his knowledge the nature of the smallest ant, how does he boast to have comprehended with his apprehensive reason the one who in himself holds sway over all creation, and says of those who confess in themselves the weakness of human nature that the senses of their soul 20have been darkened20 20and can attain neither20 any of 20the things before them nor the things above their head20? 3.8.5 But as for him who has the knowledge of beings, let us see what he knows beyond others, let us hear his pompous voice. or 20in vain would the Lord have called himself a door20, he says, 20if no one could pass through to the understanding and vision of the Father, and in vain a way, providing no ease to those wishing to come to the Father; and how would he be a light, not enlightening men, not illuminating the eye of the soul to the understanding of himself and of the light that is above him?20 If, then, he were setting forth some reasonings of his own that escape through their subtlety the mind of the hearers, it would perhaps have been possible to be deceived by the cleverness of the argument, as the inherent meaning often 3.8.6 escapes the hearer. But since he puts forward the divine words, surely no one will blame those who have believed that the divinely inspired teaching is set before all in common. Since, then, he says, the Lord was named a door, from this it is constructed that the substance of God is comprehensible. But the gospel does not accept this thought. For let us hear the divine voice itself. I am, he says, the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and go out, and find pasture. 3.8.7 What, then, from these things is the knowledge of the substance? For since the things said are many and the thought of each is particular

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ἀλήπτων περίνοιαν καὶ τοι αῦτά τινα μεγαλαυχούμενος διεξέρχεται, τὸ καθ' ἡμᾶς εὐτελίζων τούτοις τοῖς ῥήμασιν· 20οὐδὲ γὰρ εἴ τινος ὁ νοῦς διὰ κακόνοιαν ἐσκοτωμένος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μηδὲν μήτε τῶν πρόσω μήτε τῶν ὑπὲρ κεφα λὴν ἰδεῖν δυνάμενος μετρίως ἔχοι πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας κατάληψιν, διὰ τοῦτο οἴεσθαι χρὴ μηδὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις ἐφικτὴν 3.8.2 εἶναι τὴν τῶν ὄντων εὕρεσιν20. ἀλλ' εἴποιμ' ἂν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι ὁ 20ἐφικτὴν εἶναι20 λέγων 20τὴν τῶν ὄντων εὕρεσιν20 ὁδῷ τινι πάντως καὶ ἀκολουθίᾳ διὰ τῆς τῶν ὄντων γνώσεως προήγαγεν ἑαυτοῦ τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τοῖς εὐλήπτοις τε καὶ μικροτέροις ἐγγυμνασθεὶς διὰ τῆς κατα λήψεως οὕτως καὶ τοῖς ἐπέκεινα πάσης ἐννοίας ἐπέβαλεν 3.8.3 ἑαυτοῦ τὴν καταληπτικὴν φαντασίαν. οὐκοῦν ὁ τὴν περὶ τῶν ὄντων εἴδησιν κατειληφέναι μεγαλαυχούμενος τὸ μικρό τατον τῶν προφαινομένων ἡμῖν ὅπως ἔχει φύσεως ἑρμη νευσάτω, ὡς ἂν διὰ τοῦ γνωρίμου καὶ περὶ τοῦ κεκρυμ μένου πιστώσαιτο, καὶ τίς ἡ τοῦ μύρμηκος φύσις ἑρμηνευ σάτω τῷ λόγῳ, εἰ πνεύματι καὶ ἄσθματι συνέχεται αὐτοῦ ἡ ζωή, εἰ σπλάγχνοις οἰκονομεῖται παραπλησίως τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις, εἰ ὀστέοις τὸ σῶμα περιείληπται, εἰ μυελῷ τὰ κοῖλα τῶν ὀστέων κατὰ τὸ ἐντὸς **, εἰ νεύροις καὶ συνδέσμοις τὰς ἁρμονίας τετόνωται, εἰ μυῶν περιβολαῖς καὶ ἀδένων ἡ τῶν νεύρων περικρατεῖται θέσις, εἰ τοῖς νωτιαίοις σπονδύ λοις ἐκ τοῦ βρέγματος ἐπὶ τὸ οὐραῖον ὁ μυελὸς παρατεί νεται, εἰ τῇ περιοχῇ τοῦ νευρώδους ὑμένος τοῖς κινουμένοις μέλεσι τὴν ὁρμητικὴν ἐνδίδωσι δύναμιν, εἰ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ ἧπαρ καὶ τὸ χοληδόχον ἀγγεῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἥπατος νεφροί τε καὶ καρδία καὶ ἀρτηρίαι καὶ φλέβες ὑμένες τε καὶ φρένες καὶ διαφράγματα, καὶ εἰ ψιλόν ἐστιν ἢ τετρίχωται, καὶ εἰ πρὸς τὸ ἄρρεν τε καὶ θῆλυ διαμερίζεται, ἐν τίνι τε μέρει τοῦ σώματος τὸ ὀπτικὸν ἢ τὸ ἀκουστικὸν ἐγκαθί δρυται, καὶ εἰ τῆς ὀσφραντικῆς μετέχει αἰσθήσεως, εἰ μο νώνυχόν ἐστιν ἢ πολυσχιδεῖς ἔχει τὰς βάσεις, πόσον δὲ βιοῖ χρόνον καὶ τίς ὁ τρόπος αὐτοῖς τῆς ἐξ ἀλλήλων γεν νήσεως, ἐπὶ πόσον δὲ κυίσκεται τὸ τικτόμενον καὶ πῶς οὔτε πεζοὶ πάντες οἱ μύρμηκες οὔτε ὑπόπτεροι πάντες, ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν τῶν χαμαὶ ἐρχομένων εἰσίν, οἱ δὲ διαέριοι φέρονται. 3.8.4 ὁ τοίνυν τῶν ὄντων κατειληφέναι τὴν γνῶσιν κομπάζων τέως ἡμῖν τὴν τοῦ μύρμηκος φύσιν φανερωσάτω, εἶθ' οὕτω φυ σιολογείτω τὴν πάντα νοῦν ὑπερέχουσαν δύναμιν. εἰ δὲ τοῦ βραχυτάτου μύρμηκος οὔπω περιέλαβε τῇ γνώσει τὴν φύσιν, πῶς τὸν ἐν ἑαυτῷ πᾶσαν περικρατοῦντα τὴν κτίσιν τῷ καταληπτικῷ περιειληφέναι λόγῳ μεγαλαυχεῖται καὶ τοὺς τὸ ἀσθενὲς τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν ὁμο λογοῦντας 20ἐσκοτῶσθαι20 λέγει τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια 20καὶ μήτε20 τινὸς 20τῶν πρόσω μήτε τῶν ὑπὲρ κε φαλὴν20 ἐφικνεῖσθαι; 3.8.5 Ἀλλ' ὁ τὴν γνῶσιν ἔχων τῶν ὄντων ἴδωμεν τί παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐπίσταται, ἀκούσωμεν τῆς ὑπερόγκου φωνῆς. ἢ 20μάτην ἂν ὁ κύριος ἑαυτὸν ὠνόμασεν θύραν20, φησί, 20μηδενὸς ὄντος τοῦ διϊόντος πρὸς κατα νόησιν καὶ θεωρίαν τοῦ πατρός, μάτην δ' ἂν ὁδόν, μηδεμίαν παρέχων εὐμάρειαν τοῖς ἐλ θεῖν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα βουλομένοις· πῶς δ' ἂν εἴη φῶς, μὴ φωτίζων τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, μὴ καταλάμπων τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα πρὸς κατανόησιν ἑαυτοῦ τε καὶ τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου φωτός20; εἰ μὲν οὖν οἴκοθέν τινας λογισμοὺς διεξῄει ἐκφεύγοντας τῇ λεπτότητι τὴν τῶν ἀκουόντων διάνοιαν, δυνατὸν ἂν ἦν ἴσως παρακρουσθῆναι τῇ περινοίᾳ τοῦ λόγου, διαδιδράσκοντος 3.8.6 πολλάκις τοῦ ἐγκειμένου νοήματος τὸν ἀκούοντα. ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ θεῖα προβάλλεται ῥήματα, πάντως οὐδεὶς καταμέμψεται τοὺς τὴν θεόπνευστον διδασκαλίαν πᾶσι κοινὴν προκεῖσθαι πεπιστευκότας. ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν θύρα, φησίν, ὠνομάσθη ὁ κύριος, ἐκ τούτου κατασκευάζεται τὸ καταληπτὴν εἶναι τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν. ἀλλ' οὐ δέχεται τὴν διάνοιαν ταύτην τὸ εὐαγγέλιον. αὐτῆς γὰρ ἀκούσωμεν τῆς θείας φωνῆς. Ἐγώ εἰμι, φησίν, ἡ θύρα· δι' ἐμοῦ ἐάν τις εἰσέλθῃ, σωθήσεται, καὶ εἰσελεύσεται καὶ ἐξελεύσεται, καὶ νομὴν εὑρήσει. τί 3.8.7 τοίνυν ἐκ τούτων ἡ γνῶσις τῆς οὐσίας ἐστίν; πλειόνων γὰρ ὄντων τῶν εἰρημένων καὶ ἰδίαν ἑκάστου διάνοιαν