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knowledge, as I also mentioned somewhere above, when they say they do not simply know God in the knowledge of faith, but as if one knows every visible thing that can be touched by his hands, as if one took in his hands a stone or a piece of wood or an instrument of some other material, thus also this noble fellow said, "Thus I know God, just as I know myself, and I do not know myself as much as I know God." For the rest, to speak and to hear foolish things is a deception for many, but for the intelligent, a mockery. For who of those who have acquired a derangement of mind for themselves and are mad is not able to drive others mad also, and especially those who follow and obey? For if someone asked him and his followers: "Do not tell me that you know God the incomparable and incomprehensible, 3.412 who is not comprehended according to form, but is known by faith to his servants, but tell me the foundations of the earth, the storehouses of the abyss, the veins of the sea, the place of Hades, the measures of the air, the form and thickness of the heavens, what is the summit of the things above, what is the end of the things below, what is on the right, what is on the left of creation, the account of his own formation, the number and measures of the countless things on earth," then, having heard these things, as we have heard from those deceived by him, having digressed into sophistic pretexts, then those who have learned from him say with irony that all these things are corporeal and we are not able to know them; but God, who made these very things, we know clearly of what sort he is and how he is and what kind he is and who he is. But who, having heard these things, would not immediately laugh? For the whole thing is foolish, that he says he knows and has precisely understood the craftsman who is both incomparable and indescribable—and would that he said he knew and understood by faith, but he dared and they dare to speak not according to some knowledge of touch—but as for the things made by him, the incomparable one, which because of their form * can be greatly admired by those who see them, he claims that he and his followers do not know them, especially when the divine Scriptures everywhere clearly proclaim concerning God that he is invisible and incomprehensible and inconceivable, but is known only by faith in truth, that "he exists and becomes a rewarder of those who love him." But when someone says to them, one of those who rightly hold the doctrine concerning God's glory, faith, love, and incomprehensibility, "we know God as incomprehensible, God as invisible, indescribable, but we know him as truly being, yet invisible and incomprehensible," then, mockingly and prattling, as if telling some fable, this man who brings us the new dialectic dared *: "To what then are you and your faith like? To a defiled virgin, who is blind and deaf and mute, who, that she has been defiled is manifest to all who know her, but when asked who the defiler is, she does not hear so as to learn, and she has not seen the one who defiled her because she is blind, nor is she able to report it because she is mute." So that conversely against him and his fable, according to what is written, "his trouble shall return upon his own head, 3.413 and he shall fall into the pit which he has made," and things similar to these. For he is like a man born blind from birth, but who talks, and talks a great deal, and hears, and who indeed knows the name of white and black, and of blue and green and red and of the other different colors, and of light and darkness, of which the names sound in his ears, but he does not know what their form is, nor is he at all able to explain it, because he was born blind from the beginning and is ignorant of the variation of each quality of colors and their form. For the proper distinction of each of their names has its experience through the visual senses, but not through speech to one who does not know the form from the beginning, nor can it be tested through groping and touch. Whenever, at least, those who are blind from birth discuss these things and know how to contrast black with white and pale green with blue

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εἴδησιν, ὡς καὶ ἄνω που ὑπέμνησα φασκόντων αὐτῶν οὐχ ἁπλῶς εἰδέναι τὸν θεὸν ἐν γνώσει πίστεως, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐὰν γινώσκῃ τις πᾶν ὁρατὸν καὶ χερσὶν αὐτοῦ ψηλαφώμενον, ὡς εἴ τις λάβοι μετὰ χεῖρας λίθον ἢ ξύλον ἢ ἄλλης τινὸς ὕλης ἐργαλεῖον, οὕτως ἔφη καὶ οὗτος ὁ γεννάδας ὅτι οὕτως οἶδα τὸν θεόν, ὥσπερ ἐμαυτόν, καὶ οὐ τοσοῦτον οἶδα ἐμαυτὸν ὡς τὸν θεόν. λοιπὸν δὲ τὸ μωρὰ λέγειν καὶ ἀκούειν πολλοῖς μέν ἐστιν εἰς ἀπάτην, τοῖς δὲ συνετοῖς εἰς χλεύην. τίς γὰρ τῶν φρενοβλάβειαν ἑαυτοῖς κεκτημένων καὶ μεμηνότων οὐ δύναται καὶ ἄλλους ἐκμαίνειν, καὶ μάλιστα τοὺς συνεπομένους καὶ ὑπακούοντας; εἰ γάρ τις ἠρώτησεν αὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς ἀπ' αὐτοῦ· μή μοι διήγησαι θεὸν εἰδέναι τὸν ἀσύγκριτον καὶ ἀκατάληπτον, 3.412 τὸν κατὰ τὸ εἶδος μὲν μὴ καταλαμβανόμενον, πίστει δὲ γινωσκόμενον τοῖς αὐτοῦ δούλοις, ἀλλὰ διήγησαί μοι τοὺς πυθμένας τῆς γῆς, τὰ ταμιεῖα τῆς ἀβύσσου, τὰς φλέβας τῆς θαλάσσης, Ἅιδου τὸν τόπον, ἀέρος τὰ μέτρα, οὐρανῶν τὸ εἶδος καὶ τὰ πάχη, τί τὸ ἄκρον τῶν ἄνω, τί τὸ τέρμα τῶν κάτω, τί ἐν δεξιᾷ, τί ἐν εὐωνύμοις τῆς κτίσεως, τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πλάσεως τὸ διήγημα, τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ἀμυθήτων τὸν ἀριθμὸν καὶ τὰ μέτρα, λοιπὸν ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες, ὡς ἠκούσαμεν παρὰ τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ἠπατημένων, εἰς σοφιστικὰς προφάσεις παρεκκλίναντες εἰρωνείᾳ λοιπὸν λέγουσιν οἱ ἀπ' ἐκείνου μεμαθηκότες ὅτι πάντα ταῦτα τὰ σωματικά καὶ ἐστι καὶ οὐ δυνάμεθα εἰδέναι· τὸν θεὸν δὲ τὸν αὐτὰ πεποιηκότα οἴδαμεν σαφῶς ποταπός ἐστι καὶ πῶς ἐστι καὶ οἷός ἐστι καὶ τίς ἐστι. τίς δὲ ἀκούσας ταῦτα οὐκ ἂν καταγελάσειεν εὐθύς; εὔηθες γάρ ἐστι τὸ ὅλον ὅτι τὸν τεχνίτην καὶ ἀσύγκριτον καὶ ἀνεκδιήγητον λέγει εἰδέναι καὶ ἠκριβωκέναι καὶ εἴθε ἔλεγε τῇ πίστει εἰδέναι καὶ ἠκριβωκέναι, ἀλλὰ μὴ κατὰ εἴδησίν τινα ψηλαφήσεως ἐτόλμα καὶ τολμῶσι λέγειν, τὰ δὲ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γενόμενα τοῦ ἀσυγκρίτου διὰ τὸ κατὰ τὸ εἶδος * δυνάμενα παρὰ τῶν ὁρώντων ὑπερθαυμάζεσθαι φάσκει αὐτόν τε καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῦ μὴ εἰδέναι, μάλιστα πάντη τῶν θείων γραφῶν σαφῶς περὶ θεοῦ κηρυττουσῶν τὸ ἀόρατον αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ ἀκατάληπτον καὶ ἀπερινόητον, μόνον δὲ πίστει ἐν ἀληθείᾳ γινωσκόμενον ὅτι «ἔστι καὶ τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτὸν μισθαποδότης γίνεται». Ὅταν δέ τις αὐτοῖς εἴπῃ τῶν ὀρθῶς περὶ θεοῦ δόξης πίστεώς τε καὶ ἀγάπης καὶ ἀκαταληψίας δοξαζόντων ὅτι ἡμεῖς οἴδαμεν θεὸν ἀκατάληπτον, θεὸν ἀόρατον, ἀνεκδιήγητον, οἴδαμεν δὲ αὐτὸν ὄντως ὄντα δὲ ἀόρατον καὶ ἀκατάληπτον, ἐπισκωμματικῶς καὶ κωτίλως λοιπὸν ὡς μῦθόν τινα διηγούμενος ἐτόλμησεν οὗτος ὁ τὴν καινὴν διαλεκτικὴν ἡμῖν φέρων *· τίνι οὖν ἐοίκατε καὶ ἡ ὑμῶν πίστις; παρθένῳ φθαρείσῃ, οὔσῃ δὲ τυφλῇ καὶ κωφῇ καὶ ἀλάλῳ, ἥτις ὅτι μὲν πέφθαρται πᾶσι πέφηνε τοῖς αὐτὴν γινώσκουσιν, ἐρωτωμένη δὲ τίς ὁ φθορεὺς οὐκ ἀκούει ἵνα μάθῃ καὶ οὔτε ἑώρακε τὸν φθείραντα διὰ τὸ τετυφλῶσθαι οὔτε ἀπαγγεῖλαι δύναται διὰ τὸ ἄλαλον· ὡς εἶναι ἀντιστρόφως πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ μῦθον κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον «ἐπιστρέψει ὁ πόνος αὐτοῦ εἰς κεφαλὴν 3.413 αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐμπεσεῖται εἰς βόθρον ὃν εἰργάσατο» καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια. αὐτὸς γὰρ ἔοικε τυφλῷ ἐκ γενετῆς οὕτω γεγεννημένῳ, λαλοῦντι δὲ καὶ πολλὰ λαλοῦντι καὶ ἀκούοντι, καὶ εἰδότι μὲν λευκοῦ τὸ ὄνομα καὶ μέλανος, κυανοῦ τε καὶ πρασίνου καὶ πυρροῦ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων διαφόρων χρωμάτων, φωτός τε καὶ σκότους, ὧν μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐνηχεῖται, οὐ μὴν δὲ γινώσκει τί τὸ εἶδος οὐδ' ὅλως δύναται αὐτὸ ἑρμηνεῦσαι διὰ τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς αὐτὸν τυφλὸν γεννηθῆναι καὶ τὴν ἐναλλαγὴν ἑκάστης ποιότητος χρωμάτων ἀγνοεῖν καὶ τὸ εἶδος. ἑκάστου γὰρ αὐτῶν τῶν ὀνομάτων τὸ κατάλληλον τῆς διακρίσεως δι' ὁρατικῶν αἰσθήσεων ἔχει τὴν πεῖραν, οὐ μὴν δὲ διὰ φράσεως τῷ μὴ γινώσκοντι ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τὸ εἶδος, οὔτε διὰ ψηλαφήσεως καὶ ἁφῆς δυνάμενον δοκιμασθῆναι. ὅταν γοῦν οἱ ἀπὸ γενετῆς τυφλοὶ περὶ τούτων διαλεγόμενοι καὶ εἰδότες ἀντιπαρατιθέναι τὸ μέλαν πρὸς τὸ λευκὸν καὶ τὸ χλωρὸν πρὸς τὸ κυάνεον