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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 94
20. Let the Word then be excepted from the works, and as Creator be restored to the Father, and be confessed to be Son by nature; or if simply He be a creature, then let Him be assigned the same condition as the rest one with another, and let them as well as He be said every one of them to be 'a creature but not as one of the creatures, offspring or work, but not as one of the works or offsprings.' For ye say that an offspring is the same as a work, writing 'generated or made [2328] .' For though the Son excel the rest on a comparison, still a creature He is nevertheless, as they are; since in those which are by nature creatures one may find some excelling others. Star, for instance, differs from star in glory, and the rest have all of them their mutual differences when compared together; yet it follows not for all this that some are lords, and others servants to the superior, nor that some are efficient causes [2329] , others by them come into being, but all have a nature which comes to be and is created, confessing in their own selves their Framer: as David says in the Psalms, 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handy work [2330] ;' and as Zorobabel the wise says, 'All the earth calleth upon the Truth, and the heaven blesseth it: all works shake and tremble at it [2331] .' But if the whole earth hymns the Framer and the Truth, and blesses, and fears it, and its Framer is the Word, and He Himself says, 'I am the Truth [2332] ,' it follows that the Word is not a creature, but alone proper to the Father, in whom all things are disposed, and He is celebrated by all, as Framer; for 'I was by Him disposing [2333] ;' and 'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work [2334] .' And the word 'hitherto' shews His eternal existence in the Father as the Word; for it is proper to the Word to work the Father's works and not to be external to Him.
[2328] gennethenta e poiethenta; as if they were synonymous; in opposition to which the Nicene Creed says, gennethenta e poiethenta. In like manner Arius in his letter to Eusebius uses the words, prin gennethe etoi ktisthe, e oristhe, e themeliothe, Theodor. H. E. p. 750. And to Alexander, achronos gennetheis kai pro ai& 240;non ktistheis kai themeliotheis; de Syn. 16. And Eusebius to Paulinus, ktiston kai themelioton kai genneton Theod. p. 752. The different words profess to be Scriptural, and to explain each other; 'created' being in Prov. viii. 22. 'made' in the passages considered in the last two chapters, 'appointed' or 'declared' in Rom. i. 4. and 'founded' or 'established' in Prov. viii. 23. which is discussed infr. 22, &c. vid. also 52.
[2329] 21, note 2.
[2330] Ps. xix. 1.
[2331] 1 Esdr. iv. 36.
[2332] John xiv. 6.
[2333] Prov. viii. 30, LXX.
[2334] John v. 17.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians.asp?pg=94
