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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 123
49. And from the visible creation, we clearly discern that His invisible things also, 'being perceived by the things that are made [2529] ,' are not independent of each other; for it was not first one and then another, but all at once were constituted after their kind. For the Apostle did not number individually, so as to say 'whether Angel, or Throne, or Dominion, or Authority,' but he mentions together all according to their kind, 'whether Angels, or Archangels, or Principalities [2530] :' for in this way is the origination of the creatures. If then, as I have said, the Word were creature He must have been brought into being, not first of them, but with all the other Powers, though in glory He excel the rest ever so much. For so we find it to be in their case, that at once they came to be, with neither first nor second, and they differ from each other in glory, some on the right of the throne, some all around, and some on the left, but one and all praising and standing in service before the Lord [2531] . Therefore if the Word be creature He would not be first or beginning of the rest; yet if He be before all, as indeed He is, and is Himself alone First and Son, it does not follow that He is beginning of all things as to His Essence [2532] , for what is the beginning of all is in the number of all. And if He is not such a beginning, then neither is He a creature, but it is very plain that He differs in essence and nature from the creatures, and is other than they, and is Likeness and Image of the sole and true God, being Himself sole also. Hence He is not classed with creatures in Scripture, but David rebukes those who dare even to think of Him as such, saying, 'Who among the gods is like unto the Lord [2533] ?' and 'Who is like unto the Lord among the sons of God?' and Baruch, 'This is our God, and another shall not be reckoned with Him [2534] .' For the One creates, and the rest are created; and the One is the own Word and Wisdom of the Father's Essence, and through this Word things which came to be, which before existed not, were made.
[2529] Rom. i. 20.
[2530] Vid. Col. i. 16
[2531] i. 61; ii. 27.
[2532] He says that, though none could be 'a beginning' of creation, who was a creature, yet still that such a title belongs not to His essence. It is the name of an office which the Eternal Word alone can fill. His Divine Sonship is both superior and necessary to that office of a 'Beginning.' Hence it is both true (as he says) that 'if the Word is a creature, He is not a beginning;' and yet that that 'beginning' is 'in the number of the creatures.' Though He becomes the 'beginning,' He is not 'a beginning as to His essence,' vid. supr. i. 49, and infr. S:60. where he says, 'He who is before all, cannot be a beginning of all, but is other than all,' which implies that the beginning of all is not other than all. vid. S:8, note 4, on the Priesthood, and S:16, n. 7.
[2533] Ps. lxxxix. 6.
[2534] Bar. iii. 35.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians.asp?pg=123
