|
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 7
61. Such then being the difference between 'created' and 'begat me,' and between 'beginning of ways' and 'before all,' God, being first Creator, next, as has been said, becomes Father of men, because of His Word dwelling in them. But in the case of the Word the reverse; for God, being His Father by nature, becomes afterwards both His Creator and Maker, when the Word puts on that flesh which was created and made, and becomes man. For, as men, receiving the Spirit of the Son, become children through Him, so the Word of God, when He Himself puts on the flesh of man, then is said both to be created and to have been made. If then we are by nature sons, then is He by nature creature and work; but if we become sons by adoption and grace, then has the Word also, when in grace towards us He became man, said, 'The Lord created me.' And in the next place, when He put on a created nature and became like us in body, reasonably was He therefore called both our Brother and 'First-born [2613] .' For though it was after us [2614] that He was made man for us, and our brother by similitude of body, still He is therefore called and is the 'First-born' of us, because, all men being lost, according to the transgression of Adam, His flesh before all others was saved and liberated, as being the Word's body [2615] ; and henceforth we, becoming incorporate with It, are saved after Its pattern. For in It the Lord becomes our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven and to His own Father, saying, 'I am the way' and 'the door [2616] ,' and 'through Me all must enter.' Whence also is He said to be 'First-born from the dead [2617] ,' not that He died before us, for we had died first; but because having undergone death for us and abolished it, He was the first to rise, as man, for our sakes raising His own Body. Henceforth He having risen, we too from Him and because of Him rise in due course from the dead.
[2613] Rom. viii. 29. Bishop Bull's hypothesis about the sense of prototokos tes ktiseos has been commented on supr. p. 347. As far as Athan.'s discussion proceeds in this section, it only relates to prototokos of men (i.e. from the dead), and is equivalent to the 'beginning of ways.'
[2614] Marcellus seems to have argued against Asterius from the same texts (Euseb. in Marc. p. 12), that, since Christ is called 'first-born from the dead,' though others had been recalled to life before Him, therefore He is called 'first-born of creation,' not in point of time, but of dignity. vid. Montacut. Not. p. 11. Yet Athan. argues contrariwise. Orat. iv. 29.
[2615] S:10. n. 7; Orat. iii. 31. note.
[2616] John xiv. 6; x. 9.
[2617] Rev. i. 5.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians-2.asp?pg=7
