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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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25 Pages
Page 18
16. Arians parallel to the Manichees.
It appears then that so far as these doctrines are concerned, these wonderful men have now joined themselves to the Manichees. For these also confess the existence of a good God, so far as the mere name goes, but they are unable to point out any of His works either visible or invisible. But inasmuch as they deny Him who is truly and indeed God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things invisible, they are mere inventors of fables. And this appears to me to be the case with these evil-minded men. They see the works of the true Word who alone is in the Father, and yet they deny Him, and make to themselves another Word [1232] , whose existence they are unable to prove either by His Works or by the testimony of others. Unless it be that they have adopted a fabulous notion of God, that He is a composite being like man, speaking and then changing His words, and as a man exercising understanding and wisdom; not perceiving to what absurdities they are reduced by such an opinion. For if God has a succession of words [1233] , they certainly must consider Him as a man. And if those words proceed from Him and then vanish away, they are guilty of a greater impiety, because they resolve into nothing what proceeds from the self-existent God. If they conceive that God doth at all beget, it were surely better and more religious to say that He is the begetter of One Word, who is the fulness of His Godhead, in whom are hidden the treasures of all knowledge [1234] , and that He is co-existent with His Father, and that all things were made by Him; rather than to suppose God to be the Father of many words which are nowhere to be found, or to represent Him who is simple in His nature as compounded of many [1235] , and as being subject to human passions and variable. Next whereas the Apostle says, 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God [1236] ,' these men reckon Him but as one among many powers; nay, worse than this, they compare Him, transgressors as they are, with the cankerworm and other irrational creatures which are sent by Him for the punishment of men. Next, whereas the Lord says, 'No one knoweth the Father, save the Son [1237] ;' and again, 'Not that any man hath seen the Father save He which is of the Father [1238] ;' are not these indeed enemies of God which say that the Father is neither seen nor known of the Son perfectly? If the Lord says, 'As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father [1239] ,' and if the Father knows not the Son partially, are they not mad to say idly that the Son knows the Father only partially, and not fully? Next, if the Son has a beginning of existence, and all things likewise have a beginning, let them say, which is prior to the other. But indeed they have nothing to say, neither can they with all their craft prove such a beginning of the Word. For He is the true and proper Offspring of the Father, and 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [1240] .' For with regard to their assertion, that the Son knows not His own essence, it is superfluous to reply to it, except only so far as to condemn their madness; for how does not the Word know Himself, when He imparts to all men the knowledge of His Father and of Himself, and blames those who know not themselves?
[1232] Vid. passage in Orat. ii. 39 fin.
[1233] de Decr. 16, note 4.
[1234] Cf. Col. ii. 3, 9.
[1235] de Decr. 22 note 9.
[1236] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[1237] Matt. xi. 27.
[1238] John vi. 46.
[1239] John x. 15.
[1240] John i. 1.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/bishops-egypt.asp?pg=18
