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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 8
62. But if He is also called 'First-born of the creation [2618] ,' still this is not as if He were levelled to the creatures, and only first of them in point of time (for how should that be, since He is 'Only-begotten?'), but it is because of the Word's condescension [2619] to the creatures, according to which He has become the 'Brother' of 'many.' For the term 'Only-begotten' is used where there are no brethren, but 'First-born [2620] ' because of brethren. Accordingly it is nowhere written in the Scriptures, 'the first-born of God,' nor 'the creature of God;' but 'Only-begotten' and 'Son' and 'Word' and 'Wisdom,' refer to Him as proper to the Father [2621] . Thus, 'We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father [2622] ;' and 'God sent His Only-begotten Son [2623] ;' and 'O Lord, Thy Word endureth for ever [2624] ;' and 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God;' and 'Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God [2625] ;' and 'This is My beloved Son;' and 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God [2626] .' But 'first-born' implied the descent to the creation [2627] ; for of it has He been called first-born; and 'He created' implies His grace towards the works, for for them is He created. If then He is Only-begotten, as indeed He is, 'First-born' needs some explanation; but if He be really First-born, then He is not Only-begotten [2628] . For the same cannot be both Only-begotten and First-born, except in different relations;--that is, Only-begotten, because of His generation from the Father, as has been said; and First-born, because of His condescension to the creation and His making the many His brethren. Certainly, those two terms being inconsistent with each other, one should say that the attribute of being Only-begotten has justly the preference in the instance of the Word, in that there is no other Word, or other Wisdom, but He alone is very Son of the Father. Moreover [2629] , as was before [2630] said, not in connection with any reason, but absolutely [2631] it is said of Him, 'The Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father [2632] ;' but the word 'First-born' has again the creation as a reason in connection with it, which Paul proceeds to say, 'for in Him all things were created [2633] .' But if all the creatures were created in Him, He is other than the creatures, and is not a creature, but the Creator of the creatures.
[2618] Here again, though speaking of the 'first-born of creation,' Athan. simply views the phrase as equivalent to 'first-born of the new creation or "brother" of many;' and so infr. 'first-born because of the brotherhood He has made with many.'
[2619] Bp. Bull considers sunkatabasis as equivalent to a figurative gennesis, an idea which (vid. supr. p. 346 sq.) seems quite foreign from Athan.'s meaning. In Bull's sense of the word, Athan. could not have said that the senses of Only-begotten and First-born were contrary to each other, Or. i. 28. Sunkatabenai occurs supr. 51 fin. of the Incarnation. What is meant by it will be found infr. 78-81. viz. that our Lord came 'to implant in the creatures a type and semblance of His Image;' which is just what is here maintained against Bull. The whole passage referred to is a comment on the word sunkatabasis, and begins and ends with an introduction of that word. Vid. also c. Gent. 47.
[2620] Vid. Rom. viii. 29.
[2621] This passage has been urged against Bull supr. Exc. B. All the words (says Athan.) which are proper to the Son, and describe Him fitly, are expressive of what is 'internal' to the Divine Nature, as Begotten, Word, Wisdom, Glory, Hand, &c., but (as he adds presently) the 'first-born,' like 'beginning of ways,' is relative to creation; and therefore cannot denote our Lord's essence or Divine subsistence, but something temporal, an office, character, or the like.
[2622] John i. 14.
[2623] 1 John iv. 9.
[2624] Ps. cxix. 89.
[2625] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[2626] Matt. iii. 17; xvi. 16.
[2627] This passage is imitated by Theodoret. in Coloss. i. 15, but the passages from the Fathers referable to these Orations are too many to enumerate.
[2628] This passage is imitated by Theodoret. in Coloss. i. 15, but the passages from the Fathers referable to these Orations are too many to enumerate.
[2629] We now come to a third and wider sense of prototokos, as found (not in Rom. viii. 29, and Col. i. 18, but) in Col. i. 15, where by 'creation' Athan. understands 'all things visible and invisible.' As then 'for the works' was just now taken to argue that 'created' was used in a relative and restricted sense, the same is shewn as regards 'first-born' by the words 'for in Him all things were created.'
[2630] i. 52.
[2631] apolelumenos; supr. i. 56, note 6, and S:S:53, 56, and so apolutos Theophylact to express the same distinction in loc. Coloss.
[2632] John i. 18.
[2633] Col. i. 16.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians-2.asp?pg=8
