駁歐諾米 第 1 章 第 4/4 段

He says, then, that God is incomparable, in order to show the Son to be equal to the creation, in that He likewise falls short of the glory of the Father;

because things surpassed by an equal measure are necessarily equal to one another.

But by so much, according to this man's argument, is the Only-Begotten Son surpassed by the God and Father, as is also each of the rest of things.

For such is the incomparable: that which is alike to all unapproachable and unattainable.

But if He falls short of the Father equally with the rest,

He is equal to those with whom He falls short.

What, then, worse than this blasphemy could the Jews utter? And what of the things said by the heathen is to be heard? And do they not blush—those who fashion themselves as ambassadors of the Word of God—proffering teachings agreeable and congenial to Jews and Greeks?

For if He is not compared with the God and Father—just as neither angels, nor heaven, nor sun, nor earth, nor each of the living creatures and plants within it—

how will He have the difference in respect to His kindred creatures? and whence comes to Him the kinship with the Begetter? 'I,' He says, 'and the Father are one.'

For again let us call to mind the same saying.

This—tell me—is it not the utterance of One comparing Himself? Why do I say 'comparing'? Of One rather uniting Himself, so to speak, and from this exhibiting the unvarying sameness of nature.

But he declares that God is incomparable.

And the goodness of God and of our Savior Jesus Christ leads men, in so far as we are capable of it, by the practice and exercise of good works, into likeness to the God of all, in the words in which He says:

'Be perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect';

but this man deprives the Only-Begotten, so far as it rests with him, of the kinship to the Begetter which belongs to Him by nature.

And yet even thus his argument will be turned around into its opposite.

For if the Father is incomparable, whence will he obtain and furnish the proofs of the Son's unlikeness? For if, setting the essences side by side with one another, he shall say that he has found the unlikeness, how is such a one incomparable? But if it is not compared in the first place, how was he able to recognize the difference? Thus it seems that evil is not only contrary to the good, but is also contrary to itself.