God is shared in, not sharing
Once again he strings together a number of points, stating them as though we granted them, though no Christian of sense grants them. For none of us says that God shares in shape or colour. Nor does he share in motion: it is because he stands firm and his nature is steadfast that he calls the righteous man too to the same, saying, “But you, stand here with me” (Deuteronomy 5:31). And if some passages seem to describe a kind of motion in him, such as the one that says, “They heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening” (Genesis 3:8), we must understand such passages to mean that God is thought of as moving by those who have sinned; or we must understand them in the same way as when sleep, or anger, or anything of the kind is ascribed to God figuratively.
Nor, again, does God share in substance. For he is shared in rather than sharing, and he is shared in by those who have “the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:9). Our Saviour, too, does not share in righteousness; rather, being “righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30), he is shared in by the righteous.
The question of substance is a large one and hard to see into, above all if substance in the proper sense is what is stable and incorporeal. We would need to find out whether God is “beyond substance in dignity and power” (Plato, Republic 509b), imparting substance to those to whom he imparts it according to his own Word, and to the Word himself; or whether he too is substance, though he is called invisible in nature in the passage about the Saviour that says, “who is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), where the word “invisible” signifies the incorporeal. We must also inquire whether the only-begotten, the firstborn “of all creation” (Colossians 1:15), is to be called substance of substances, idea of ideas, and first principle, while his Father and God is beyond all these.
Greek
Πάλιν δὲ αυ ἑαυτῷ συνείρει πλείονα λέγων ὡς ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν διδόμενα, ἅπερ οὐδεὶς τῶν ἐν Χριστιανοῖς νοῦν ἐχόντων δίδωσιν. οὐ γάρ φησι τὶς ἡμῶν ὅτι μετέχει σχήματος ὁ θεὸς ἢ χρώματος, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδὲ κινήσεως μετέχει ὁ διὰ τὸ ἑστηκέναι καὶ βεβαίαν εἶναι τὴν φύσιν αὐτοῦ προκαλούμενος καὶ τὸν δίκαιον ἐπὶ τὰ παραπλήσια καὶ λέγων· „σὺ δὲ αὐτοῦ στῆθι μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ.“ εἰ δέ τινες λέξεις οἱονεὶ κίνησίν τινα παριστᾶσιν αὐτοῦ, ὡς καὶ ἡ λέγουσα· „ἤκουσαν κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ περιπατοῦντος ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τὸ δειλινὸν,“ οὕτως ἀκουστέον τῶν τοιούτων ὡς κινουμένου νοουμένου τοῦ θεοῦ τοῖς ἡμαρτηκόσιν, ἢ οὕτως ἀκουστέον τῶν τοιούτων ὡς καὶ ὕπνου θεοῦ τροπικῶς λεγομένου ἢ ὀργῆς ἤ τινος τῶν παραπλησίων. ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ οὐσίας μετέχει ὁ θεός· μετέχεται γὰρ μᾶλλον ἢ μετέχει, καὶ μετέχεται ὑπὸ τῶν ἐχόντων „πνεῦμα θεοῦ“. καὶ ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν οὐ μετέχει μὲν δικαιοσύνης, „δικαιοσύνη“ δὲ ὢν μετέχεται ὑπὸ τῶν δικαίων. πολὺς δ᾿ ὁ περὶ τῆς οὐσίας λόγος καὶ δυσθεώρητος καὶ μάλιστα, ἐὰν ἡ κυρίως οὐσία ἡ ἑστῶσα καὶ ἀσώματος ᾖ· ἵν᾿ εὑρεθῇ, πότερον ἐπέκεινα οὐσίας ἐστὶ πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὁ θεὸς μεταδιδοὺς οὐσίας οἷς μεταδίδωσι κατὰ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λόγον καὶ αὐτῷ λόγῳ, ἢ καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν οὐσία, πλὴν τῇ φύσει ἀόρατος λέγεται ἐν τῷ περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος λόγῳ φάσκοντι· „ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου,“ σημαίνεται δὲ ἐκ τῆς „ἀοράτου“ φωνῆς ὁ ἀσώματος. ζητητέον δὲ καὶ, εἰ οὐσίαν μὲν οὐσιῶν λεκτέον καὶ ἰδέαν ἰδεῶν καὶ ἀρχὴν τὸν μονογενῆ καὶ πρωτότοκον „πάσης κτίσεως“ ἐπέκεινα δὲ πάντων τούτων τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ θεόν.