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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 130 Pages
Page 116
22. For if, while He is not Son, we are sons, God is our Father and not His. How then does He appropriate the name instead, saying, 'My Father,' and 'I from the Father [3362] ?' for if He be common Father of all, He is not His Father only, nor did He alone come out from the Father. But he says, that He is sometimes called our Father also, because He has Himself become partaker in our flesh. For on this account the Word has become flesh, that, since the Word is Son, therefore, because of the Son dwelling in us [3363] , He may be called our Father also; for 'He sent forth,' says Scripture, 'the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father [3364] .' Therefore the Son in us, calling upon His own Father, causes Him to be named our Father also. Surely in whose hearts the Son is not, of them neither can God be called Father. But if because of the Word the Man is called Son, it follows necessarily, since the ancients [3365] are called sons even before the Incarnation, that the Word is Son even before His sojourn among us; for 'I begat sons,' saith Scripture; and in the time of Noah, 'When the sons of God saw,' and in the Song, 'Is not He thy Father [3366] ?' Therefore there was also that True Son, for whose sake they too were sons. But if, as they say again, neither of the two is Son, but it depends on the concurrence of the two, it follows that neither is Son; I say, neither the Word nor the Man, but some cause, on account of which they were united; and accordingly that cause which makes the Son will precede the uniting. Therefore in this way also the Son was before the flesh. When this then is urged, they will take refuge in another pretext, saying, neither that the Man is Son, nor both together, but that the Word was Word indeed simply in the beginning, but when He became Man, then He was named [3367] Son; for before His appearing He was not Son but Word only; and as the 'Word became flesh,' not being flesh before, so the Word became Son, not being Son before. Such are their idle words; but they admit of an obvious refutation.
[3362] John v. 17; xvi. 28.
[3363] Or. ii. 60. n. 5.
[3364] Gal. iv. 6.
[3365] Below, S:29.
[3366] Is. i. 2, LXX.; Gen. vi. 2; Deut. xxxii. 6
[3367] Or. ii. 19, n. 3.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians-2.asp?pg=116
