Chapter II.—Concerning things utterable and things unutterable, and things knowable and thing unknowable.

It is necessary, therefore, that one who wishes to speak or to hear of God should understand clearly that alike in the doctrine of Deity and in that of the Incarnation10    τά τε τῆς θεολογίας, τά τε τῆς οἰκονομίας.    Ps. xc. 2., neither are all things unutterable nor all utterable; neither all unknowable nor all knowable11    Dionys., De div. nom. c. 1; Greg. Naz., Orat. 34 and 37.    Hebr. i. 2.. But the knowable belongs to one order, and the utterable to another; just as it is one thing to speak and another thing to know. Many of the things relating to God, therefore, that are dimly understood cannot be put into fitting terms, but on things above us we cannot do else than express ourselves according to our limited capacity; as, for instance, when we speak of God we use the terms sleep, and wrath, and regardlessness, hands, too, and feet, and such like expressions.

We, therefore, both know and confess that God is without beginning, without end, eternal and everlasting, uncreate, unchangeable, invariable, simple, uncompound, incorporeal, invisible, impalpable, uncircumscribed, infinite, incognisable, indefinable, incomprehensible, good, just, maker of all things created, almighty, all-ruling, all-surveying, of all overseer, sovereign, judge; and that God is One, that is to say, one essence12    οὐσία, substance, being.    Arist., De Cœlo, bk. 1. text 100.; and that He is known13    ὑποστάσεσι, hypostases, persons.    St. Matt. xii. 32; St. Luke vii. 34., and has His being in three subsistences, in Father, I say, and Son and Holy Spirit; and that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in all respects, except in that of not being begotten, that of being begotten, and that of procession; and that the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, in His bowels of mercy, for our salvation, by the good pleasure of God and the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, being conceived without seed, was born uncorruptedly of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God, Mary, by the Holy Spirit, and became of her perfect Man; and that the Same is at once perfect God and perfect Man, of two natures, Godhead and Manhood, and in two natures possessing intelligence, will and energy, and freedom, and, in a word, perfect according to the measure and proportion proper to each, at once to the divinity, I say, and to the humanity, yet to one composite person14    μιᾷ δὲ συνθέτῳ ὑποστάσει.    Greg Naz., Orat. 35, 38, 42.; and that He suffered hunger and thirst and weariness, and was crucified, and for three days submitted to the experience of death and burial, and ascended to heaven, from which also He came to us, and shall come again. And the Holy Scripture is witness to this and the whole choir of the Saints.

But neither do we know, nor can we tell, what the essence15    οὐσία, substance, being.    Basil, De Struct., hom. 2; Greg. Naz., Orat. 44. of God is, or how it is in all, or how the Only-begotten Son and God, having emptied Himself, became Man of virgin blood, made by another law contrary to nature, or how He walked with dry feet upon the waters16    Dionys., De div. nom., c. 2.    Greg. Naz., Orat. 44.. It is not within our capacity, therefore, to say anything about God or even to think of Him, beyond the things which have been divinely revealed to us, whether by word or by manifestation, by the divine oracles at once of the Old Testament and of the New17    Ibid. c. 1.    αἰ& 240·νιος, ‘eternal,’ but also ‘secular,’ ‘aeonian,’ ‘age-long.’.

Περὶ ῥητῶν καὶ ἀρρήτων καὶ γνωστῶν καὶ ἀγνώστων

Χρὴ οὖν τὸν περὶ θεοῦ λέγειν ἢ ἀκούειν βουλόμενον σαφῶς εἰδέναι, ὡς οὐδὲ πάντα ἄρρητα οὐδὲ πάντα ῥητά, τά τε τῆς θεολογίας τά τε τῆς οἰκονομίας, οὔτε μὴν πάντα ἄγνωστα οὔτε πάντα γνωστά: ἕτερον δέ ἐστι τὸ γνωστὸν καὶ ἕτερον τὸ ῥητόν, ὥσπερ ἄλλο τὸ λαλεῖν καὶ ἄλλο τὸ γινώσκειν. Πολλὰ τοίνυν τῶν περὶ θεοῦ ἀμυδρῶς νοουμένων οὐ καιρίως ἐκφρασθῆναι δύναται, ἀλλὰ τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀναγκαζόμεθα ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς λέγειν, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ θεοῦ λέγομεν ὕπνον καὶ ὀργὴν καὶ ἀμέλειαν χεῖράς τε καὶ πόδας καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα.

Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἐστι θεὸς ἄναρχος, ἀτελεύτητος, αἰώνιός τε καὶ ἀίδιος, ἄκτιστος, ἄτρεπτος, ἀναλλοίωτος, ἁπλοῦς, ἀσύνθετος, ἀσώματος, ἀόρατος, ἀναφής, ἀπερίγραπτος, ἄπειρος, ἀπερίληπτος, ἀκατάληπτος, ἀπερινόητος, ἀγαθός, δίκαιος, παντοδύναμος, πάντων κτισμάτων δημιουργός, παντοκράτωρ, παντεπόπτης, πάντων προνοητής, ἐξουσιαστής, κριτής, καὶ γινώσκομεν καὶ ὁμολογοῦμεν. Καὶ ὅτι εἷς ἐστι θεὸς ἤγουν μία οὐσία, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τρισὶν ὑποστάσεσι γνωρίζεταί τε καὶ ἔστιν, πατρί φημι καὶ υἱῷ καὶ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, καὶ ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον κατὰ πάντα ἕν εἰσι πλὴν τῆς ἀγεννησίας καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐκπορεύσεως, καὶ ὅτι ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς καὶ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ θεὸς διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους αὐτοῦ, διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν, εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ συνεργίᾳ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἀσπόρως συλληφθεὶς ἀφθόρως ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου καὶ θεοτόκου Μαρίας γεγέννηται διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος ἐξ αὐτῆς γέγονε, καὶ ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς τέλειός ἐστιν ὁμοῦ καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος, ἐκ δύο φύσεων, θεότητός τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος, καὶ ἐν δύο φύσεσι νοεραῖς θελητικαῖς τε καὶ ἐνεργητικαῖς καὶ αὐτεξουσίοις καὶ ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν τελείως ἐχούσαις κατὰ τὸν ἑκάστῃ πρέποντα ὅρον τε καὶ λόγον, θεότητί τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητί φημι, μιᾷ δὲ συνθέτῳ ὑποστάσει, ὅτι τε ἐπείνησε καὶ ἐδίψησε καὶ ἐκοπίασε καὶ ἐσταυρώθη καὶ θανάτου καὶ ταφῆς πεῖραν ἐδέξατο καὶ ἀνέστη τριήμερος καὶ εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἀνεφοίτησεν, ὅθεν πρὸς ἡμᾶς παραγέγονε καὶ παραγενήσεται πάλιν εἰς ὕστερον, καὶ ἡ θεία γραφὴ μάρτυς καὶ πᾶς ὁ τῶν ἁγίων χορός.

Τί δέ ἐστι θεοῦ οὐσία ἢ πῶς ἐστιν ἐν πᾶσιν ἢ πῶς ἐκ θεοῦ θεὸς γεγέννηται ἢ ἐκπεπόρευται ἢ πῶς ἑαυτὸν κενώσας ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς καὶ θεὸς ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν ἐκ παρθενικῶν αἱμάτων ἑτέρῳ παρὰ τὴν φύσιν θεσμῷ πλαστουργηθεὶς ἢ πῶς ἀβρόχοις ποσὶ τοῖς ὕδασιν ἐπεπόρευτο, καὶ ἀγνοοῦμεν καὶ λέγειν οὐ δυνάμεθα. Οὐ δυνατὸν οὖν τι παρὰ τὰ θειωδῶς ὑπὸ τῶν θείων λογίων τῆς τε παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης ἡμῖν ἐκπεφασμένα ἤτοι εἰρημένα καὶ πεφανερωμένα εἰπεῖν τι περὶ θεοῦ ἢ ὅλως ἐννοῆσαι.