ἀγένητον and
γενητόν, written with
one ‘ν’ Supr., bk.
i. ch. 9. and
meaning uncreated and created, refer to nature: but ἀγέννητον and
γεννητόν, that is
to say, unbegotten and begotten, as the double ‘ν’ indicates, refer not to nature but to
subsistence. The divine nature then is ἀγένητος, that is to
say, uncreate, but all things that come after the divine nature are
γένητα, that is,
created. In the divine and uncreated nature, therefore, the
property of being ἀγέννητον or
unbegotten is contemplated in the Father (for He was not begotten),
that of being γέννητον or
begotten in the Son (for He has been eternally begotten of the Father),
and that of procession in the Holy
Spirit. Moreover of each species of living creatures, the first
members were ἀγέννητα but not
ἀγένητα: for they were
brought into being by their Maker, but were not the offspring of
creatures like themselves. For γένεσις is creation,
while γέννησις or
begetting is in the case of God the origin of a co-essential Son
arising from the Father alone, and in the case of bodies, the origin of
a co-essential subsistence arising from the contact of male and
female. And thus we perceive that begetting refers not to nature
but to subsistence Euthym.,
p. 2, tit. 8.. For if
it did refer to nature, τὸ
γέννητον and
το
ἀγέννητον, i.e.
the properties of being begotten and unbegotten, could not be
contemplated in one and the same nature. Accordingly the holy
Mother of God bore a subsistence revealed in two natures; being
begotten on the one hand, by reason of its divinity, of the Father
timelessly, and, at last, on the other hand, being incarnated of her in
time and born in the flesh.