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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 126
52. See here too, He is formed, not into existence, but in order to gather together the tribes, which were in existence before He was formed. For as in the former passage stands 'He created,' so in this 'He formed;' and as there 'for the works,' so here 'to gather together;' so that in every point of view it appears that 'He created' and 'He formed' are said after 'the Word was.' For as before His forming the tribes existed, for whose sake He was formed, so does it appear that the works exist, for which He was created. And when 'in the beginning was the Word,' not yet were the works, as I have said before; but when the works were made and the need required, then 'He created' was said; and as if some son, when the servants were lost, and in the hands of the enemy by their own carelessness, and need was urgent, were sent by his father to succour and recover them, and on setting out were to put over him the like dress [2543] with them, and should fashion himself as they, lest the capturers, recognising him [2544] as the master, should take to flight and prevent his descending to those who were hidden under the earth by them; and then were any one to inquire of him, why he did so, were to make answer, 'My Father thus formed and prepared me for his works,' while in thus speaking, he neither implies that he is a servant nor one of the works, nor speaks of the beginning of His origination, but of the subsequent charge given him over the works,--in the same way the Lord also, having put over Him our flesh, and 'being found in fashion as a man,' if He were questioned by those who saw Him thus and marvelled, would say, 'The Lord created Me the beginning of His ways for His works,' and 'He formed Me to gather together Israel.' This again the Spirit [2545] foretells in the Psalms, saying, 'Thou didst set Him over the works of Thine hands [2546] ;' which elsewhere the Lord signified of Himself, 'I am set as King by Him upon His holy hill of Sion [2547] .' And as, when He shone [2548] in the body upon Sion, He had not His beginning of existence or of reign, but being God's Word and everlasting King, He vouchsafed that His kingdom should shine in a human way in Sion, that redeeming them and us from the sin which reigned in them, He might bring them under His Father's Kingdom, so, on being set 'for the works,' He is not set for things which did not yet exist, but for such as already were and needed restoration.
[2543] S:7.
[2544] Vid. the well-known passage in S. Ignatius, ad Eph. 19 [and Lightfoot's note].
[2545] Supr. 20.
[2546] Heb. ii. 7.
[2547] Ps. ii. 6. LXX.
[2548] epelampse, vid. of the Holy Spirit, Serap. i. 20, c.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians.asp?pg=126
