τρεῖς αἱ ἀνωτάτω δόξαι περὶ θεοῦ, ἀναρχία, καὶ πολυαρχία, καὶ μοναρχία. αἱ μὲν οὖν δύο παισὶν ‘Ελλήνων ἐπαίχθησαν, καὶ παιζέσθωσαν. τό τε γὰρ ἄναρχον ἄτακτον· τό τε πολύαρχον στασιῶδες, καὶ οὕτως ἄναρχον, καὶ οὕτως ἄτακτον. εἰς ταὐτὸν γὰρ ἀμφότερα φέρει, τὴν ἀταξίαν, ἡ δὲ εἰς λύσιν· ἀταξία γὰρ μελέτη λύσεως. 2 εὐδοκιμεῖσθαι b || 6 om ὡς f || 7 γενηται] γένωνται b ‘Reg. Cypr.’ || 9 διαχυθῇ bd ’Reg. Cypr.’ || IO νοούμενα] λεγόμενα ’Reg. Cypr.’ 1. τῆ ὑποστολῇ] Heb. x 38, 39 (Hab. ii 4). The word, as the context here shews, implies a disingenuous reticence; cp. Gal. ii 12, 13. 2. διττοῦ δὲ ὄντος] The Bene- dictine editors compare Athenagoras de Resurr. 1. 7. αὐτοί] the Eunomians. Gr. incidentally shews how systematically they went to work. 10. σωλῆνισφιγγ.] ’compressed in α pipe.’ 11. χεόμ. κ. λυόμ.] Cp. ii 13. 2. Atheism, Polytheism, Monotheism, are the three ancient opinions about God. The second ends in the same anarchy as the first, and we leave it to the Gentiles. Our Monotheism, however, is one where Three Persons are joined in equality of nature and in identity of will, — two of the three being derived from the first by what Scripture describes as generation and emission respectively. 12. αἱ ἀνωτάτω δόξαι] ’the most ancient opinions.’ 13. παισὶν Ἑλλήνων] a phrase formed on the fashion of υἱοὶ Ἰσραήλ; but the word παῖδες seems to be chosen with a view to the verb ἐπαίχθησαν. ‘With the first two the children of Greece amused themselves.’ 14. τό τε γάρ] The γάρ gives the reason why Gr. leaves those theories to the children of Greece (imperative). 17. ἀταξία γὰρ μ. λ.] ’Disorder is the prelude to ’For μελέτη (lit. ’practice,’ ’rehearsal’) cp. i 7. ἡμῖν δὲ μοναρχία τὸ τιμώμενον· μοναρχία δέ, οὐχ ἢν ἓν περιγράφει πρόσωπον· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἓν στασιάζον πρὸς ἑαυτὸ πολλὰ καθίστασθαι· ἀλλ’ ἢν φύσεως ὁμοτιμία συνίστησι, καὶ γνώμης σύμπνοια, καὶ ταὐτότης κινήσεως, καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἓν τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ σύννευσις, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἐπὶ τῆς γενητῆς φύσεως, ὥστε κἂν ἀριθμῷ διαφέρῃ, τῇ γε οὐσίᾳ μὴ τέμνεσθαι. διὰ τοῦτο μονὰς ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς, εἰς δυάδα κινηθεῖσα, μέχρι τριάδος ἔστη. καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡμῖν ὁ πατήρ, καὶ ὁ υἱός, καὶ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα· ὁ μὲν γεννήτωρ καὶ προβολεύς, λέγω δὲ ἀπαθῶς, καὶ ἀχρόνως, καὶ ἀσω- μάτως· τῶν δέ, τὸ μὲν γέννημα, τὸ δὲ πρόβλημα, ἢ οὐκ οἱδ’ ὅπως ἄν τις ταῦτα καλέσειεν, ἀφελὼν πάντῃ τῶν 2. 6 γενητης] γεννήτης def || τῆ γε οὐσία] τῆ ἐξουσία ac (sed τῆ γε οὐσία in marg.) g: τῆ γε οὐσία e in rasura 1. μ. δέ, οὐχ ἢν ἐν] ‘Not a souereignty contained in a single person.’ 2. ἐστι γάρ] Such a sovereignty, of a single person, does not necessarily exclude the thought of discord and confusion. It is possible to conceive of a single entity being divided against itself, and so becoming many. The divine unity, which we believe, is the result of ‘equality of nature, unanimity of judgment, and identity of action’ ‘of will.’ 5. πρὸς τὸ ἐν κτλ.] This complete harmony of mind and will in the Godhead is itself based upon the concurrence of the other Blessed Persons with that One of Their number from whom They are derived, viz. the Father. Gr. does not as yet name the Father, nor indeed any of the Persons, because he is speaking in the abstract of the divine unity and its conditions, and so says τὸ ἐν and not rbv ἔνα. Α comparison of v 14 shews that τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ depends on σύννευσις, not on τὸ ἐν. The ‘antecedent’ of ἐξ αὐτοῦ (neut.) is τὸ ἐν. ib. ὅπερ] refers to the whole fourfold description. It is perhaps not impossible that such an unity should exist among creaturely beings, but our experience suggests no instance of it, — only imperfect images of it. The clause is of course parenthetical. 6. ὥστε] again refers to the whole description. It will be seen that οὐσία to Gr. means more than φύσις. There is a moral element in it, and not only a metaphysical; ὁμοτιμία φύσεως is one of the things which secure οὖσ’. μὴ τ. The reading τῆ ἐξουσίᾳ gives no satisfactory sense. 7. μονὰς ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς] The language comes perilously near the Sabellian conception of πλατυσμός (see Dorner Person of Christ div. I, vol. 2, p. 156); but of course Gr.'s tenses κινηθεῖσα, ἔστη) are not to be understood in a temporal sense. There was no time before the κίνησις of which he speaks. For μάρι see ii 9. 9. γενν. κ. προβ.] the γεννήτωρ, of course, of the Son; προβολεύς, of the Spirit. 12. ἀφελών κτλ.] Gr. knows no other way of expressing the relation of the Son and Spirit to the Father, such as might get rid of material suggestions. ὁρωμένων. οὐ γὰρ δὴ ὑπέρχυσιν ἀγαθότητος εἰπεῖν θαρρήσομεν, ὃ τῶν παρ’ Ἕλλησι φιλοσοφησάντων εἰπεῖν τις ἐτόλμησεν, οἷον κρατήρ τις ὑπερερρύῃ, σαφῶς οὑτωσὶ λέγων, ἐν οἷς περὶ πρώτου αἰτίου καὶ δευτέρου φιλοσοφεῖ· μή ποτε ἀκούσιον τὴν γέννησιν εἰσαγάγωμεν, καὶ οἷον περίττωμά τι φυσικὸν καὶ δυσκάθεκτον, ἥκιστα ταῖς περὶ θεότητος ὑπονοίαις πρέπον. διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὅρων ἱστάμενοι τὸ ἀγέννητον εἰσάγομεν, καὶ τὸ γεννητόν, καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, ὥς πού φησιν αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ λόγος.