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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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25 Pages
Page 15
13. Arguments from Scripture against Arian statements.
For maintaining these and the like opinions Arius was declared a heretic; for myself, while I have merely been writing them down, I have been cleansing myself by thinking of the contrary doctrines, and by holding fast the sense of the true faith. For the Bishops who all assembled from all parts at the Council of Nicaea, began to hold their ears at these statements, and all with one voice condemned this heresy on account of them, and anathematized it, declaring it to be alien and estranged from the faith of the Church. It was no compulsion which led the judges to this decision, but they all deliberately vindicated the truth [1215] : and they did so justly and rightly. For infidelity is coming in through these men, or rather a Judaism counter to the Scriptures, which has close upon it Gentile superstition, so that he who holds these opinions can no longer be even called a Christian, for they are all contrary to the Scriptures. John, for instance, saith, 'In the beginning was the Word [1216] ;' but these men say, 'He was not, before He was begotten.' And again he wrote, 'And we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God, and eternal life [1217] ;' but these men, as if in contradiction to this, allege that Christ is not the true God, but that He is only called God, as are other creatures, in regard of His participation in the divine nature. And the Apostle blames the Gentiles, because they worship the creatures, saying, 'They served the creature more than' God 'the Creator [1218] .' But if these men say that the Lord is a creature, and worship Him as a creature, how do they differ from the Gentiles? If they hold this opinion, is not this passage also against them; and does not the blessed Paul write as blaming them? The Lord also says, 'I and My Father are One:' and 'He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father [1219] ;' and the Apostle who was sent by Him to preach, writes, 'Who being the Brightness of His glory, and the express Image of His Person [1220] .' But these men dare to separate them, and to say that He is alien from the essence and eternity of the Father; and impiously to represent Him as changeable, not perceiving, that by speaking thus, they make Him to be, not one with the Father, but one with created things. Who does not see, that the brightness cannot be separated from the light, but that it is by nature proper to it, and co-existent with it, and is not produced after it? Again, when the Father says, 'This is My beloved Son [1221] ,' and when the Scriptures say that 'He is the Word' of the Father, by whom 'the heavens were established [1222] ,' and in short, 'All things were made by Him [1223] ;' these inventors of new doctrines and fictions represent that there is another Word, and another Wisdom of the Father, and that He is only called the Word and the Wisdom conceptually on account of things endued with reason, while they perceive not the absurdity of this.
[1215] Cf. Ep. ad Jov. (Letter 56, below), S:2. Theod. H. E. v. 9. p. 205, l. 17. vid. Keble on Primitive Trad. p. 122. 10. 'Let each boldly set down his faith in writing, having the fear of God before his eyes.' Conc. Chalced. Sess. 1. Hard. t. 2. 273. 'Give diligence without fear, favour, or dislike, to set out the faith in its purity.' ibid. p. 285.
[1216] John i. 1.
[1217] 1 John v. 20.
[1218] Rom. i. 25. supr. S:4, and note on Or. i. 8, also Vit. Ant. 69.
[1219] John x. 30; xiv. 9, and Or. i. 34, note.
[1220] Heb. i. 3.
[1221] Matt. xvii. 5.
[1222] Ps. xxxiii. 6.
[1223] John i. 3.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/bishops-egypt.asp?pg=15
