V.  Who then is that Father Who had no beginning?  One Whose very Existence had no beginning; for one whose existence had a beginning must also have begun to be a Father.  He did not then become a Father after He began to be, for His being had no beginning.  And He is Father in the absolute sense, for He is not also Son; just as the Son is Son in the absolute sense, because He is not also Father.  These names do not belong to us in the absolute sense, because we are both, and not one more than the other; and we are of both, and not of one only; and so we are divided, and by degrees become men, and perhaps not even men, and such as we did not desire, leaving and being left, so that only the relations remain, without the underlying facts. Elias explains this to refer to the fact that children leave and are left by parents; or else to the death of either one or the other.