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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 96
22. If then God also wrought and compounded out of materials, this indeed is a gentile thought, according to which God is an artificer and not a Maker, but yet even in that case let the Word work the materials, at the bidding and in the service of God [2338] . But if He calls into existence things which existed not by His proper Word, then the Word is not in the number of things non-existing and called; or we have to seek another Word [2339] , through whom He too was called; for by the Word the things which were not have come to be. And if through Him He creates and makes, He is not Himself of things created and made; but rather He is the Word of the Creator God and is known from the Father's works which He Himself worketh, to be 'in the Father and the Father in Him,' and 'He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father [2340] ,' because the Son's Essence is proper to the Father, and He in all points like Him [2341] . How then does He create through Him, unless it be His Word and His Wisdom? and how can He be Word and Wisdom, unless He be the proper offspring of His Essence [2342] , and did not come to be, as others, out of nothing? And whereas all things are from nothing, and are creatures, and the Son, as they say, is one of the creatures too and of things which once were not, how does He alone reveal the Father, and none else but He know the Father? For could He, a work, possibly know the Father, then must the Father be also known by all according to the proportion of the measures of each: for all of them are works as He is. But if it be impossible for things originate either to see or to know, for the sight and the knowledge of Him surpasses all (since God Himself says, 'No one shall see My face and live [2343] '), yet the Son has declared, 'No one knoweth the Father, save the Son [2344] ,' therefore the Word is different from all things originate, in that He alone knows and alone sees the Father, as He says, 'Not that any one hath seen the Father, save He that is from the Father,' and 'no one knoweth the Father save the Son [2345] ,' though Arius think otherwise. How then did He alone know, except that He alone was proper to Him? and how proper, if He were a creature, and not a true Son from Him? (For one must not mind saying often the same thing for religion's sake.) Therefore it is irreligious to think that the Son is one of all things; and blasphemous and unmeaning to call Him 'a creature, but not as one of the creatures, and a work, but not as one of the works, an offspring, but not as one of the offsprings;' for how not as one of these, if, as they say, He was not before His generation [2346] ? for it is proper to the creatures and works not to be before their origination, and to subsist out of nothing, even though they excel other creatures in glory; for this difference of one with another will be found in all creatures, which appears in those which are visible [2347] .
[2338] prostattomenos kai hupourgon. It is not quite clear that Athan. accepts these words in his own person, as has been assumed de Decr. 9. note 2, de Syn. 27 (3). Vid. de Decr. 7. and infr. 24. and 31, which, as far as they go, are against the use of the word. Also S. Basil objects to hupourgos contr. Eunom. ii. 21. and S. Cyril in Joan. p. 48. though S. Basil speaks of ton prostattonta kurion. i. 46, note 3. and S. Cyril of the Son's hupotage, Thesaur. p. 255. Vid. 'ministering, huperetounta, to the Father of all.' Just. Tryph. p. 72. 'The Word become minister, huperetes, of the Creator,' Origen Hom. in Joan. p. 61. also Constit. Ap. viii. 12. but Pseudo-Athan. objects to hupereton, de Comm. Essent. 30. and Athan. apparently, infr. 28. Again, 'Whom did He order, praecepit?' Iren. Haer. iii. 8. n. 3. 'The Father bids, entelletai (allusion to Ps. xxxiii. 9. vid. infr. 31), the Word accomplishes....He who commands, keleuon, is the Father, He who obeys, hupakouon, the Son....The Father willed, ethelesen, the Son did it.' Hippol. contr. Noet. 14. on which Fabricius's note. S. Hilary speaks of the Son as 'subditus per obedientiae obsequelam.' de Syn. 51. Vid. below, on S:31. In note 8 there the principle is laid down for the use of these expressions. [Supr. p. 87, note 2.]
[2339] Cf. Ep. Aeg. 14. vid. also supr. p. 155. and Orat. iii. 2. 64. Aug. in Joan. Tract. i. 11. Vid. a parallel argument with reference to the Holy Spirit. Serap. i. 25. b.
[2340] Vid. John xiv. 9, 10.
[2341] ten kata panta homoioteta: vid. parallel instances, de Syn. 26 (5) note 1, which add, homoios kata panta, Orat. i. 40. kata panta kai en pasi, Ep. Aeg. 17, c. tou patros homoios, Orat. ii. 17. Orat. iii. 20, a. 'not homoios, as the Church preaches, but hos autoi thelousi' (vid. p. 289, note 4), also de Syn. 53, note 9.
[2342] As Sonship is implied in 'Image' (supr. S:2, note 2), so it is implied in 'Word' and 'Wisdom.' Orat. iv. 15. Orat. iii. 29 init. de Decr. 17. And still more pointedly, Orat. iv. 24 fin. vid. also supr. i. 28, note 5. And so 'Image is implied in Sonship: 'being Son of God He must be like Him,' supr. 17. And so 'Image' is implied in Word;' en te idi& 139; eikoni, hetis estin ho logos autou, infr. 82, d. also 34, c. On the contrary, the very root of heretical error was the denial that these titles implied each other, vid. supr. 27, de Decr. 17, 24, notes.
[2343] Vid. Ex. xxxiii. 20.
[2344] Matt. xi. 27.
[2345] John vi. 46, not to the letter.
[2346] Vid. supr. 1. and Exc. B.
[2347] Greek text dislocated.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians.asp?pg=96
