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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 120
46. That to be called creatures, then, and to be created belongs to things which have by nature a created essence, these passages are sufficient to remind us, though Scripture is full of the like; on the other hand that the single word 'He created' does not simply denote the essence and mode of generation, David shews in the Psalm, 'This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord [2514] ;' and again, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God [2515] ;' and Paul in Ephesians says, 'Having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to create in Himself of two one new man [2516] ;' and again, 'Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness [2517] .' For neither David spoke of any people created in essence, nor prayed to have another heart than that he had, but meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul signify two persons created in essence in the Lord, nor again did he counsel us to put on any other man; but he called the life according to virtue the 'man after God,' and by the 'created' in Christ he meant the two people who are renewed in Him. Such too is the language of the book of Jeremiah; 'The Lord created a new salvation for a planting, in which salvation men shall walk to and fro [2518] ;' and in thus speaking, he does not mean any essence of a creature, but prophesies of the renewal of salvation among men, which has taken place in Christ for us. Such then being the difference between 'the creatures' and the single word 'He created,' if you find anywhere in divine Scripture the Lord called 'creature,' produce it and fight; but if it is nowhere written that He is a creature, only He Himself says about Himself in the Proverbs, 'The Lord created me,' shame upon you, both on the ground of the distinction aforesaid and for that the diction is like that of proverbs; and accordingly let 'He created' be understood, not of His being a creature, but of that human nature which became His, for to this belongs creation. Indeed is it not evidently unfair in you, when David and Paul say 'He created,' then indeed not to understand it of the essence and the generation, but the renewal; yet, when the Lord says 'He created' to number His essence with the creatures? and again when Scripture says, 'Wisdom built her an house, she set it upon seven pillars [2519] ,' to understand 'house' allegorically, but to take 'He created' as it stands, and to fasten on it the idea of creature? and neither His being Framer of all has had any weight with you, nor have you feared His being the sole and proper Offspring of the Father, but recklessly, as if you had enlisted against Him, do ye fight, and think less of Him than of men.
[2514] Ps. cii. 18. LXX.
[2515] Ps. li. 12.
[2516] Eph. ii. 15.
[2517] Eph. iv. 22; vid. Cyr. Thes. p. 156.
[2518] Jer. xxxi. 22. vid. also supr. p. 85, where he notices that this is the version of the Septuagint, Aquila's being 'The Lord created a new thing in woman.' Athan. has preserved Aquila's version in three other places, in Psalm xxx. 12; lix. 5; lxv. 18.
[2519] Prov. ix. 1.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians.asp?pg=120
