17. But for God Only-begotten, Who is preceded by no antecedent time, the possibility is excluded that at some time He was not, since that “some time” thus becomes prior to Him; and again, the assertion that He was not involves the notion of time: whence time will not begin to be after Him, but He Himself will begin to be after time, and, inasmuch as He was not before He was born, the very period when He was not will take precedence of Him. Further, He Who is born from Him Who really is, cannot be understood to have been born from that which was not: since He Who really is, is the cause of His existing, and His birth cannot have its origin in that which is not. And therefore since in His case it is not true either in regard of time that He ever was not, or in regard of the Father, that is, the Author of His being, that He has come into existence out of nothing, He has left no possibility with regard to Himself either of His having been born out of nothing, or of His not having existed before He was born.

17. Unigenitus neque aliquando non fuit, neque ex nihilo.---Sed unigenito Deo, cui non praeest tempus anterius, non relinquitur ut aliquando non fuerit, quia ipsum illud aliquando jam prius est, deinde 0443B non fuisse jam temporis est: et incipiet non post eum tempus esse, sed ipse esse post tempus, cui in eo quod ante quam nascitur non fuit, id ipsum in quo non fuit praeferetur. Deinde qui ex eo qui est natus est, intelligi non potest ex eo quod non fuit natus esse: quia ei is qui est, ad id quod est, causa est; non etiam id quod non est, origo nascendi est. Ergo cui neque in tempore est, ut aliquando non fuerit; neque in patre, 418 id est, auctore est, ut subsistat ex nullis: non reliquit id de se occasionis, ut aut ex nihilo natus sit, aut non fuerit antequam nasceretur.