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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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88 Pages
Page 74
Chapter XXVII.
Of the origin of the word "with," and what force it has. Also concerning the unwritten laws of the church.
65. The word "in," say our opponents, "is exactly appropriate to the Spirit, and sufficient for every thought concerning Him. Why then, they ask, have we introduced this new phrase, saying, "with the Spirit" instead of "in the Holy Spirit," thus employing an expression which is quite unnecessary, and sanctioned by no usage in the churches? Now it has been asserted in the previous portion of this treatise that the word "in" has not been specially allotted to the Holy Spirit, but is common to the Father and the Son. It has also been, in my opinion, sufficiently demonstrated that, so far from detracting anything from the dignity of the Spirit, it leads all, but those whose thoughts are wholly perverted, to the sublimest height. It remains for me to trace the origin of the word "with;" to explain what force it has, and to shew that it is in harmony with Scripture.
66. [1268] Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church [1269] some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us "in a mystery" [1270] by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay;--no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather, should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more. [1271] For instance, to take the first and most general example, who is thence who has taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the cross those who have trusted in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn to the East at the prayer? Which of the saints has left us in writing the words of the invocation at the displaying [1272] of the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the apostle or the Gospel has recorded, but both in preface and conclusion we add other words as being of great importance to the validity of the ministry, and these we derive from unwritten teaching.
[1268] The genuineness of this latter portion of the Treatise was objected to by Erasmus on the ground that the style is unlike that of Basil's soberer writings. Bp. Jeremy Taylor follows Erasmus (Vol. vi. ed. 1852, p. 427). It was vindicated by Casaubon, who recalls St. John Damascene's quotation of the Thirty Chapters to Amphilochius. Mr. C.F.H. Johnston remarks, "The later discovery of the Syriac Paraphrases of the whole book pushes back this argument to about one hundred years from the date of St. Basil's writing. The peculiar care taken by St. Basil for the writing out of the treatise, and for its safe arrival in Amphilochius' hands, and the value set upon it by the friends of both, make the forgery of half the present book, and the substitution of it for the original within that period, almost incredible." Section 66 is quoted as an authoritative statement on the right use of Tradition "as a guide to the right understanding of Holy Scripture, for the right ministration of the Sacraments, and the preservation of sacred rights and ceremonies in the purity of their original institution," in Philaret's Longer Catechism of the Eastern Church. St. Basil is, however, strong on the supremacy of Holy Scripture, as in the passages quoted in Bp. H. Browne, On the xxxix Articles: "Believe those things which are written; the things which are not written seek not." (Hom. xxix. adv. Calum. S. Trin.) "It is a manifest defection from the faith, and a proof of arrogance, either to reject anything of what is written, or to introduce anything that is not." (De Fide. i.) cf. also Letters CV. and CLIX. On the right use of Tradition cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. lxv. 2, "Lest, therefore, the name of tradition should be offensive to any, considering how far by some it hath been and is abused, we mean by traditions ordinances made in the prime of Christian Religion, established with that authority which Christ hath left to His Church for matters indifferent, and in that consideration requisite to be observed, till like authority see just and reasonable causes to alter them. So that traditions ecclesiastical are not rudely and in gross to be shaken off, because the inventors of them were men." cf. Tert., De Praesc. 36, 20, 21, "Constat omnem doctrinam quae cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret veritati deputandam, id sine dubio tenentem quod ecclesiae ab apostolis, apostoli a Christo, Christus a Deo accepit." VideThomasius, Christ. Dogm. i. 105.
[1269] "tos en te Ekklesi& 139; pephulagmenon dogmaton kai kerugmaton." To give the apparent meaning of the original seems impossible except by some such paraphrase as the above. In Scripture dogma, which occurs five times (Luke ii. 1, Acts xvi. 4, xvii. 7, Eph. ii. 15, and Col. ii. 14), always has its proper sense of decree or ordinances. cf. Bp. Lightfoot, on Col. ii. 14, and his contention that the Greek Fathers generally have mistaken the force of the passage in understanding dogmata in both Col. and Eph. to mean the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel. Kerugma occurs eight times (Matt. xii. 41, Luke xi. 32, Rom. xvi. 25, 1 Cor. i. 21, ii. 4, xv. 14, 2 Tim iv. 17, and Tit. i. 3), always in the sense of preaching or proclamation. "The later Christian sense of dogma, meaning doctrine, came from its secondary classical use, where it was applied to the authoritative and categorical sentences' of the philosophers: cf. Just. Mart., Apol. i. 7. oi en ;'Ellesi ta autois aresta dogmatisantes ek pantos to eni onomati philosophias prosagoreuonta, kaiper ton dogmaton enantion onton." [All the sects in general among the Greeks are known by the common name of philosophy, though their doctrines are different.] Cic., Acad. ii. 19. De suis decretis quae philosophi vocant dogmata.'...There is an approach towards the ecclesiastical meaning in Ignat., Mag. 13, bebaiothesai en tois dogmasi tou kuriou kai ton apostolon." Bp. Lightfoot in Col. ii. 14. The "doctrines" of heretics are also called dogmata, as in Basil, Ep. CCLXI. and Socr., E. H. iii. 10. cf. Bp. Bull, in Serm. 2, "The dogmata or tenets of the Sadducees." In Orig., c. Cels. iii. p. 135, Ed. Spencer, 1658, dogma is used of the gospel or teaching of our Lord. The special point about St. Basil's use of dogmata is that he uses the word of doctrines and practices privately and tacitly sanctioned in the Church (like aporreta, which is used of the esoteric doctrine of the Pythagoreans, Plat., Phaed. 62. B.), while he reserves kerugmata for what is now often understood by dogmata, i.e. "legitima synodo decreta." cf. Ep. LII., where he speaks of the great kerugma of the Fathers at Nicaea. In this he is supported by Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria, 579-607, of whom Photius (Cod. ccxxx. Migne Pat. Gr. ciii. p. 1027) writes, "In this work," i.e. Or. II. "he says that of the doctrines (didagmaton) handed down in the church by the ministers of the word, some are dogmata, and others kerugmata. The distinction is that dogmata are announced with concealment and prudence, and are often designedly compassed with obscurity, in order that holy things may not be exposed to profane persons nor pearls cast before swine. Kerugmata, on the other hand, are announced without any concealment." So the Benedictine Editors speak of Origen (c. Cels. i. 7) as replying to Celsus, "praedicationem Christianorum toti orbi notiorem esse quam placita philosophorum: sed tamen fatetur, ut apud philosophos, ita etiam apud Christianos nonulla esse veluti interiora, quae post exteriorem et propositam omnibus doctrinam tradantur." Of kerumata they note, "Videntur hoc nomine designari leges ecclesiasticae et canonum decreta quae promulgari in ecclesia mos erat, ut neminem laterent." Mr. C.F.H. Johnston remarks: "The homoousion, which many now-a-days would call the Nicene dogma (ta tou homoousiou dogmata, Soc., E.H. iii. 10) because it was put forth in the Council of Nicaea, was for that reason called not dogma, but kerugma, by St. Basil, who would have said that it became the kerugma (definition) of that Council, because it had always been the dogma of the Church." In extra theological philosophy a dogma has all along meant a certainly expressed opinion whether formally decreed or not. So Shaftesbury, Misc. Ref. ii. 2, "He who is certain, or presumes to say he knows, is in that particular whether he be mistaken or in the right a dogmatist." cf. Littre S.V. for a similar use in French. In theology the modern Roman limitation of dogma to decreed doctrine is illustrated by the statement of Abbe Bergier (Dict. de Theol. Ed. 1844) of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. "Or, nous convenons que ce n'est pas un dogme de foi," because, though a common opinion among Romanists, it had not been so asserted at the Council of Trent. Since the publication of Pius IX's Edict of 1854 it has become, to ultramontanists, a "dogma of faith."
[1270] 1 Cor. ii. 7. Whether there is or is not here a conscious reference to St. Paul's words, there seems to be both in the text and in the passage cited an employment of musterion in its proper sense of a secret revealed to the initiated.
[1271] i.e. if nothing were of weight but what was written, what need of any authorisation at all? There is no need of kerugma for a dogma expressly written in Scripture.
[1272] epi te anadeixei. The Benedictine note is: "Non respicit Basilius ad ritum ostensionis Eucharistiae, ut multi existimarunt, sed potius ad verba Liturgiae ipsi ascriptae, cum petit sacerdos, ut veniat Spiritus sanctus hagiasai kai anadeixai ton men arton touton auto to timion soma tou kuriou. Haec autem verba epi te anadeixei, sic reddit Erasmus,cum ostenditur. Vituperat eum Ducaeus; sicque ipse vertit, cum conficitur, atque hanc interpretationem multis exemplis confirmat. Videtur tamen nihil prorsus vitii habitura haec interpretatio, Invocationis verba cum ostenditur panis Eucharistiae, id est, cum panis non jam panis est, sed panis Eucharistiae, sive corpus Christi ostenditur; et in liturgia, ut sanctificet et ostendat hunc quidem panem, ipsum pretiosum corpus Domini. Nam 1^0 Cur eam vocem reformidemus, qua Latini uti non dubitant, ubi de Eucharistia loquuntur? Quale est illud Cypriani in epistola 63 ad Caecilium: Vino Christi sanguis ostenditur. Sic etiam Tertullianus I. Marc. c. 14: Panem quo ipsum corpus suum repraesentat 2^0 Ut Graece, anadeixai, apophainein, ita etiam Latine, ostendere, corpus Christi praesens in Eucharistia significatione quodam modo exprimit. Hoc enim verbum non solum panem fieri corpus Domini significat, sed etiam fidem nostram excitat, ut illud corpus sub specie panis videndum, tegendum, adorandum ostendi credamus. Quemadmodum Irenaeus, cum ait lib. iv. cap. 33: Accipiens panem suum corpus esse confitebatur, et temperamentum calicis suum sanguinem conformavit, non solum mutationem panis et vini in corpus et sanguinem Christi exprimit, sed ipsam etiam Christi asseverationem, quae hanc nobis mutationem persuadet: sic qui corpus Christi in Eucharistia ostendi et repraesentari dicunt, non modo jejuno et exiliter loqui non videntur, sed etiam acriores Christi praesentis adorandi stimulos subjicere. Poterat ergo retineri interpretatio Erasmi; sed quia viris eruditis displicuit, satius visum est quid sentirem in hac nota exponere." This view of the meaning of anadeiknusthai and anadeixis as being equivalent to poiein and poiesis is borne out and illustrated by Suicer, S.V. "Ex his jam satis liquere arbitror anadeixai apud Basilium id esse quod alii Graeci patres dicunt poiein vel apophainein soma christou." It is somewhat curious to find Bellarmine (De Sacr. Euch. iv. S: 14) interpreting the prayer to God eulogesai kai hagiasai kai anadeixai to mean "ostende per effectum salutarem in mentibus nostris istum panem salutificatum non esse panem vulgarem sed coelestem."
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/holy-spirit.asp?pg=74
