3. In this way, then, they choose to set forth these things, and they make use only of one class of passages;12    καὶ αὐτοις μονοκῶλα χρώμενοι, etc.  The word μονοκῶλα appears to be used adverbially, instead of μονοκώλως and μονοτύπως, which are the terms employed by Epiphanius (p. 481). The meaning is, that the Noetians, in explaining the words of Scripture concerning Christ, looked only to one side of the question—namely, to the divine nature; just as Theodotus, on his part going to the opposite extreme, kept by the human nature exclusively, and held that Christ was a mere man. Besides others, the presbyter Timotheus, in Cotelerii Monument., vol. iii. p. 389, mentions Theodotus in these terms: “They say that this Theodotus was the leader and father of the heresy of the Samosatan, having first alleged that Christ was a mere man.” [See vol. iii, p. 654, this series.] just in the same one-sided manner that Theodotus employed when he sought to prove that Christ was a mere man. But neither has the one party nor the other understood the matter rightly, as the Scriptures themselves confute their senselessness, and attest the truth. See, brethren, what a rash and audacious dogma they have introduced, when they say without shame, the Father is Himself Christ, Himself the Son, Himself was born, Himself suffered, Himself raised Himself. But it is not so. The Scriptures speak what is right; but Noetus is of a different mind from them. Yet, though Noetus does not understand the truth, the Scriptures are not at once to be repudiated. For who will not say that there is one God? Yet he will not on that account deny the economy (i.e., the number and disposition of persons in the Trinity). The proper way, therefore, to deal with the question is first of all to refute the interpretation put upon these passages by these men, and then to explain their real meaning.  For it is right, in the first place, to expound the truth that the Father is one God, “of whom is every family,”13    Eph. iii. 15. “by whom are all things, of whom are all things, and we in Him.”14    1 Cor. viii. 6.

[3] καὶ ταῦτα βούλονται οὕτω διηγεῖσθαι καὶ αὐτοὶ μονόκωλα, χρώμενοι ὃν τρόπον εἶπεν Θεόδοτος ἄνθρωπον συνιστᾶν φιλὸν βουλόμενος. ἀλλ' οὔτε ἐκεῖνοί τι νενοήκασιν ἀληθὲς οὔθ' οὗτοι, καθὼς αὐταὶ αἱ γραφαὶ ἐλέγχουσιν αὐτῶν τὴν ἀμαθίαν μαρτυροῦσαι τῇ ἀληθείᾳ. ὁρᾶτε, ἀδελφοί, πῶς προαλὲς καὶ τολμηρὸν δόγμα παρεισήνεγκαν ἀναισχύντως λέγοντες, Αὐτός ἐστι Χριστὸς ὁ Πατήρ, αὐτὸς Υἱός, αὐτὸς ἐγεννήθη, αὐτὸς ἔπαθεν, αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ἤγειρεν. ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει. αἱ μὲν γραφαὶ ὀρθῶς λέγουσιν, ἄλλα ἂν καὶ Νοητὸς νοῇ. οὐκ ἤδη δέ, εἰ Νοητὸς μὴ νοεῖ, παρὰ τοῦτο ἔκβλητοι αἱ γραφαί. τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἐρεῖ ἕνα Θεὸν εἶναι; ἀλλ' οὐ τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἀναιρήσει. ὄντως μὲν οὖν τὰ κεφάλαια διὰ ταῦτα πρότερον δεῖ ἀνατραπῆναι κατὰ τὸν ἐκείνων νοῦν: κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀλήθειαν δειχθῆναι. πρότερον γὰρ ὄντως ἐστὶν διηγήσασθαι ὅτι εἷς Θεὸς ὁ Πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριά, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ⌊καὶ ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα⌋, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν αὐτῷ.