|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
|
This Part: 130 Pages
Page 16
70. But this would not have come to pass, had the Word been a creature; for with a creature, the devil, himself a creature, would have ever continued the battle, and man, being between the two, had been ever in peril of death, having none in whom and through whom he might be joined to God and delivered from all fear. Whence the truth shews us that the Word is not of things originate, but rather Himself their Framer. For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it [2688] in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness. For man had not been deified if joined to a creature, or unless the Son were very God; nor had man been brought into the Father's presence, unless He had been His natural and true Word who had put on the body. And as we had not been delivered from sin and the curse, unless it had been by nature human flesh, which the Word put on (for we should have had nothing common with what was foreign), so also the man had not been deified, unless the Word who became flesh had been by nature from the Father and true and proper to Him. For therefore the union was of this kind, that He might unite what is man by nature to Him who is in the nature of the Godhead, and his salvation and deification might be sure. Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human flesh [2689] of Mary Ever-Virgin [2690] ; for in neither case had it been of profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed. But surely He took true flesh, though Valentinus rave; yea the Word was by nature Very God, though Ario-maniacs rave [2691] ; and in that flesh has come to pass the beginning [2692] of our new creation, He being created man for our sake, and having made for us that new way, as has been said.
[2688] en heauto theopoiese. supr. p. 65, note 5. vid. also ad Adelph. 4. a. Serap. i. 24, e. and S:56, note 5. and iii. 33. De Decr. 14. Orat. i. 42. vid. also Orat. iii. 23. fin. 33. init. 34. fin. 38, b. 39, d. 48. fin. 53. For our becoming theoi vid. Orat. iii. 25. theoi kata charin. Cyr. in Joan. p. 74. theophoroumetha. Orat. iii. 23, c. 41, a. 45 init. christophoroi. ibid. theoumetha. iii. 48 fin. 53. Theodor. H. E. i. p. 846. init.
[2689] S:45, n. 2.
[2690] Vid. also Athan. in Luc. (Migne xxvii. 1393 c). This title, which is commonly applied to S. Mary by later writers, is found Epiph. Haer. 78, 5. Didym. Trin. i. 27. p. 84. Rufin. Fid. i. 43. Lepor. ap Cassian. Incarn. i. 5. Leon. Ep. 28, 2. Caesarius has aeipais. Qu. 20. On the doctrine itself vid. a letter of S. Ambrose and his brethren to Siricius, and the Pope's letter in response. (Coust. Ep. Pont. p. 669-682.) Also Pearson On the Creed, Art. 3. [S:S:9, 10, p. 267 in Bohn's ed.] He replies to the argument from 'until' in Matt. i. 25, by referring to Gen. xxviii 15; Deut. xxxiv. 6; 1 Sam. xv. 35; 2 Sam. vi. 23; Matt. xxviii. 20. He might also have referred to Psalm cx. 1; 1 Cor. xv. 25. which are the more remarkable, because they were urged by the school of Marcellus as a proof that our Lord's kingdom would have an end, and are explained by Euseb. Eccl. Theol. iii. 13, 14. Vid. also Cyr. Cat. 15, 29; where the true meaning of 'until' (which may be transferred to Matt. i. 25), is well brought out. 'He who is King before He subdued His enemies, how shall He not the rather be King, after He has got the mastery over them?'
[2691] De Syn. 13, n. 4.
[2692] i. 48, n. 7.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians-2.asp?pg=16
