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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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25 Pages
Page 19
17. Arguments from Scripture against Arian statements.
But it is written [1241] , say they, 'The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways for His works.' O untaught and insensate that ye are! He is called also in the Scriptures, 'servant [1242] ,' and 'son of a handmaid,' and 'lamb,' and 'sheep,' and it is said that He suffered toil, and thirst, and was beaten, and has suffered pain. But there is plainly a reasonable ground and cause [1243] , why such representations as these are given of Him in the Scriptures; and it is because He became man and the Son of man, and took upon Him the form of a servant, which is the human flesh: for 'the Word,' says John, 'was made flesh [1244] .' And since He became man, no one ought to be offended at such expressions; for it is proper to man to be created, and born, and formed, to suffer toil and pain, to die and to rise again from the dead. And as, being Word and Wisdom of the Father, He has all the attributes of the Father, His eternity, and His unchangeableness, and the being like Him in all respects and in all things [1245] , and is neither before nor after, but co-existent with the Father, and is the very form [1246] of the Godhead, and is the Creator, and is not created: (for since He is in essence like [1247] the Father, He cannot be a creature, but must be the Creator, as Himself hath said, 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work [1248] :') so being made man, and bearing our flesh, He is necessarily said to be created and made, and that is proper to all flesh; however, these men, like Jewish vintners, who mix their wine with water [1249] , debase the Word, and subject His Godhead to their notions of created things. Wherefore the Fathers were with reason and justice indignant, and anathematized this most impious heresy; which these persons are now cautious of and keep back, as being easy to be disproved and unsound in every part of it. These that I have set down are but a few of the arguments which go to condemn their doctrines; but if any one desires to enter more at large into the proof against them, he will find that this heresy is not far removed from heathenism, and that it is the lowest and the very dregs of all the other heresies. These last are in error either concerning the body or the incarnation of the Lord, falsifying the truth, some in one way and some in another, or else they deny that the Lord has sojourned here at all, as the Jews erroneously suppose. But this one alone more madly than the rest has dared to assail the very Godhead, and to assert that the Word is not at all, and that the Father was not always a father; so that one might reasonably say that that Psalm was written against them; 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God [1250] . Corrupt are they, and become abominable in their doings.'
[1241] Orat. ii. 18-72; Prov. viii. 22.
[1242] Ps. cxvi. 16, &c.
[1243] de Decr. 14.
[1244] John i. 14.
[1245] De Syn. 26, and note.
[1246] eidos, ibid. S:52, note.
[1247] Orat. i. 20, note.
[1248] John v. 17.
[1249] Isa. i. 22, cf. Orat. iii. S:35, also de Decr. 10 end.
[1250] Ps. liii. 1.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/bishops-egypt.asp?pg=19
