516

of arguments, having made the beginning concerning unbegotten God. Refutation. 15. Word for word of your dialectical boasting and syllogistic futility I shall make the refutation, not transgressing nor placing in a secondary position the immense number of what seem to you major or even brief words. and first, since writing above to the male and female athletes of your system you said that certain Chronites, having appropriated them, corrupted what you had in hand of your little work, † when the term you used was questioned, one might prove that you rather possess this name, and those who have been made disciples by you, not to say those who have been led astray. For the holy faith of God, being from the beginning and always ancient and not growing old, is forever, and its foundation has been made firm, and it exists having its own master who is timeless. Therefore, it too is not temporal, but is forever living as a citizen with angels and adorning saints generation after generation. But you are rather the temporal one, beguiled by error and puffed up in your mind, and you have vulgarly entangled your flock of the herd in a thorny pasture. For none of the ancients thought as you do, O Aetius, you who write against the "temporals," being yourself temporal and not ancient. And straightway from your first attempt, as you said you wrote the little work, by speaking about an unbegotten and a begotten god, you astonished the world with such a luminous attempt of your argument, so that I may thus make a laughing-stock of the argument of the discourse of your so great innovated word-coining. 16. For which of the children of Christians who possess the saving proclamation of God would abandon this, urged on by you through your mythical 3.362 error, leaving God who is ever-existing and his Holy Spirit who is ever-existing, and coming to hear from you about a begotten god, so that he too might be counted among fools, being taught to worship "the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever, amen?" For we do not have a created god, not a made one, but one uncreated and unbegotten, begotten from the Father without beginning and without time. For whether you use sophistry about "begotten," wishing to call "begotten" homonymously, I will not accept your term, or whether you do not understand it in a diminished sense from having been begotten of the Father; "For they do not gather grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles," nor from a man who is in error would a correct argument be supposed; for the Lord even muzzled the demons who confessed him to be Christ. "According to the sense of the divine scriptures," you assert your "little treatise" to be. Tell me, what divine scripture taught that a made god is to be worshipped? And that God is unbegotten would be clear to anyone. But not even this is found by name in the divine scripture; but from correct and pious reasoning and from understanding itself about God, it is fitting to piously think and say this. But you say that the main points have been composed by you in the manner of short verses, through a concise and easily grasped argument, so that those called by you male and female athletes, but rather those led astray, might know how they should answer each point. Therefore we, the humble and simple and not greater, but lesser than many in the holy church of God, will undertake, as I said before, the refutation of this incoherent and exceedingly trivial nonsense, by dealing with those very sayings of yours that seem strong and sophistical, which you have practiced for contradiction against your superiors, or rather, so that you may lift up your mouth against the truth. 17. And let the opposition of our littleness against your preface end here. But beginning again, having arranged your main points in order, directly opposite each word and main point I will set in opposition the refutations from the divine scriptures and from correct reasoning and the subversions of your rational inquiries, so that the servants of God and true athletes, upon encountering and understanding all your absurdity, may laugh it to scorn,

516

ἐπιχειρημάτων, ποιησάμενος τὴν ἀρχὴν περὶ ἀγεννήτου θεοῦ. Ἀνατροπή. 15. Κατὰ λέξιν τῆς διαλεκτικῆς σου κομπείας καὶ συλλογιστικῆς ματαιοπονίας τὴν ἀνατροπὴν ποιήσομαι, μὴ ὑπερβαίνων μηδὲ ἐν δευτέρῳ τιθέμενος τῶν δοκουσῶν σοι μειζόνων ἢ καὶ βραχειῶν λέξεων τὸ ἀμύθητον. καὶ πρῶτον μὲν ἐπεὶ ἄνω γράφων τοῖς τοῦ σοῦ συστήματος ἀθληταῖς καὶ ἀθλητρίαις ἔφησθα Χρονίτας τινὰς σφετερισαμένους διαφθεῖραι ἅπερ μετὰ χεῖρας εἶχες τοῦ πονηματίου, † ἐρωτηθείσης τῆς παρὰ σοὶ λέξεώς σε μᾶλλον τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα κεκτημένον καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ σοῦ μεμαθητευμένους, ἵνα μὴ εἴπω πεπλανημένους τις διελέγξειεν. ἡ μὲν γὰρ θεοῦ ἁγία πίστις, ἀπ' ἀρχῆς οὖσα καὶ ἀεὶ ἀρχαΐζουσα καὶ μὴ παλαιουμένη, ἔστιν ἀεί, καὶ ἡδραίωται ταύτης ὁ θεμέλιος, καὶ ὑπάρχει ἔχουσα τὸν αὐτῆς δεσπότην ἄχρονον. διὸ οὐδὲ αὐτὴ χρονικὴ ὑπάρχει, ἀλλ' ἀεί ἐστι μετ' ἀγγέλων ἐμπολιτευομένη καὶ ἁγίους κατὰ γενεὰν καὶ γενεὰν κοσμοῦσα. σὺ δὲ μᾶλλον χρονικὸς ὑπάρχεις, βουκοληθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς πλάνης καὶ ἐπαρθεὶς κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν, καὶ τὸ σὸν βόσκημα τῆς ἀγέλης χυδαίως εἰς νομὴν ἀκανθώδη παρεμπλέξας. οὐδεὶς γὰρ κατὰ σὲ τῶν παλαιῶν ἐφρόνησεν, ὦ Ἀέτιε, ὁ κατὰ χρονικῶν γράφων, αὐτὸς χρονικὸς ὑπάρχων καὶ οὐκ ἀρχαΐζων. εὐθὺς δὲ ἐκ πρώτης ἐπιβολῆς, ὡς ἔφης τὸ πονημάτιον γεγραφέναι, εἰπὼν περὶ ἀγεννήτου θεοῦ καὶ γεννητοῦ, ἐξέπληξας τὸν βίον ἐν τῇ τοσαύτῃ σου φωτεινῇ ἐπιβολῇ τοῦ λόγου, ἵνα οὕτως περιγέλαστόν σου ποιήσωμαι τὸν λόγον τῆς διαλέξεως τῆς τοσαύτης σου καινοτομουμένης ὀνοματοποιίας. 16. Τίς γὰρ τῶν τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ κήρυγμα κεκτημένων Χριστιανῶν παίδων τοῦτο καταλείποι, προτραπεὶς ὑπὸ σοῦ διὰ τῆς μυθώδους 3.362 σου πλάνης, ἐάσας θεὸν ἀεὶ ὄντα καὶ τὸ ἅγιον αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ἀεὶ ὄν, καὶ ἐλθὼν ἀκούσει παρὰ σοῦ περὶ γεννητοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν μωροῖς καταλεχθείη, διδασκόμενος προσκυνεῖν «τὴν κτίσιν παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα, ὅς ἐστιν εὐλογημένος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἀμήν;» οὐκ ἔχομεν γὰρ ἡμεῖς κτιστὸν θεόν, οὐ ποιητόν, ἀλλ' ἄκτιστον καὶ ἀγένητον, ἐκ πατρὸς γεγεννημένον ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀχρόνως. κἄν τε γὰρ σοφίζῃ τὸ γεννητόν, γεννητὸν ὁμωνύμως καλεῖν βουλόμενος, οὐ δέξομαί σου τὴν λέξιν, κἄν τε οὐχ οὕτως νοήσῃς ἠλαττωμένως παρὰ τὸ ἐκ πατρὸς γεγενῆσθαι· «ἐξ ἀκανθῶν γὰρ οὐ συλλέγουσι σταφυλάς, οὔτε ἐκ τριβόλων σῦκα», οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀνδρὸς πεπλανημένου ὀρθὸς ἂν ὑποληφθείη λόγος· ἐφίμου γὰρ καὶ ὁ κύριος τοὺς δαίμονας Χριστὸν αὐτὸν ὁμολογοῦντας. «κατ' ἔννοιαν δὲ τῶν θείων γραφῶν» φάσκεις εἶναι «τὸ λογίδιον». λέγε μοι, ποία γραφὴ θεία ἐδίδασκε προσκυνεῖσθαι θεὸν ποιητόν; καὶ ὅτι μὲν θεὸς ἀγέννητός ἐστι παντί τῳ σαφὲς εἴη. ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τοῦτο ὀνομαστὶ ἔγκειται ἐν τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ· ἀπὸ δὲ ὀρθοῦ καὶ εὐσεβοῦς λογισμοῦ καὶ αὐτῆς τῆς συνέσεως περὶ θεοῦ εὐσεβῶς τοῦτο νοεῖν καὶ λέγειν ἀραρότως ἔχει. λέγεις δέ, ἵνα εἰδέναι ἔχοιεν οἱ ὑπὸ σοῦ ἀθληταί τε καὶ ἀθλήτριαι καλούμενοι, πεπλανημένοι δὲ μᾶλλον, πῶς πρὸς ἕκαστον ἀποκριθῶσι, διὰ συντόμου καὶ εὐπεριδράκτου λόγου στιχηρῶν τρόπον τὰ κεφάλαια ὑπὸ σοῦ συντεθεῖσθαι. διὸ αὐτὰ τὰ δοκοῦντά σου ἰσχυρὰ ῥήματα καὶ σοφιστικά, ἃ πρὸς τοὺς μείζους εἰς ἀντιλογίαν ἐξήσκηταί σοι, μᾶλλον δὲ ἵνα πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐπάρῃς στόμα, ἡμεῖς οἱ εὐτελεῖς καὶ ἰδιῶται καὶ οὐ μείζους, ἀλλὰ βραχύτεροι πολλῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίᾳ, διαλαμβάνοντες ποιησόμεθα, ὡς προεῖπον, τὴν ἀνατροπὴν τῆς ἀσυστάτου ταύτης καὶ σφόδρα εὐτελοῦς φλυαρίας. 17. Καὶ ἕως ὧδε ἐχέτω ἡ κατὰ τοῦ προοιμίου σου ἀντίθεσις τῆς ἡμῶν βραχύτητος. ἀρχὴν δὲ αὖθις τῶν ὑπὸ σοῦ κεφαλαίων καθεξῆς κατατάξας ἄντικρυς ἑκάστης λέξεως καὶ κεφαλαίου ἀντιπαραθήσομαι τὰς ἐκ τῶν θείων γραφῶν καὶ ἐξ ὀρθοῦ λογισμοῦ ἀντιρρήσεις τε καὶ ζητημάτων παρὰ σοὶ λογικῶν ἀνατροπάς, ὅπως οἱ θεοῦ δοῦλοι καὶ ἀληθεῖς ἀθληταὶ ἐντυχόντες καὶ κατανοήσαντες τὴν πᾶσάν σου ἀτοπίαν καταγελάσωσι,