Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

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Page 45

In the creed of Eunomius the Son is God, and it is not in terms denied that He is of one substance with the Father. But in his doctrinal system there is a practical denial of the Creed; the Son may be styled God, but He is a creature, and therefore, in the strict sense of the term, not God at all, and, at best, a hero or demigod. The Father, unbegotten, stood alone and supreme; the very idea of "begotten" implied posteriority, inferiority, and unlikeness. Against this position Basil [314] protests. The arguments of Eunomius, he urges, are tantamount to an adoption of what was probably an Arian formula, "We believe that ingenerateness is the essence of God," [315] i.e., we believe that the Only-begotten is essentially unlike the Father. [316] This word "unbegotten," of which Eunomius and his supporters make so much, what is its real value? Basil admits that it is apparently a convenient term for human intelligence to use; but, he urges, "It is nowhere to be found in Scripture; it is one of the main elements in the Arian blasphemy; it had better be left alone. The word Father' implies all that is meant by Unbegotten,' and has moreover the advantage of suggesting at the same time the idea of the Son. He Who is essentially Father is alone of no other. In this being of no other is involved the sense of Unbegotten.' The title unbegotten' will not be preferred by us to that of Father, unless we wish to make ourselves wiser than the Saviour, Who said, Go and baptize in the name' not of the Unbegotten, but of the Father.'" [317] To the Eunomian contention that the word "Unbegotten" is no mere complimentary title, but required by the strictest necessity, in that it involves the confession of what He is, [318] Basil rejoins that it is only one of many negative terms applied to the Deity, none of which completely expresses the Divine Essence. "There exists no name which embraces the whole nature of God, and is sufficient to declare it; more names than one, and these of very various kinds, each in accordance with its own proper connotation, give a collective idea which may be dim indeed and poor when compared with the whole, but is enough for us." [319]

[314] Adv. Eunom. i. 5.

[315] pisteuomen ten agennesian ousian einas tou Theou. For the word agennesia cf. Letter ccxxxiv. p. 274.

[316] Adv. Eunom. i. 4.

[317] Matt. xxviii. 19. Adv. Eun. i. 5.

[318] en te tou einai ho estin homologi& 139;. Adv. Eunom. i. 8.

[319] Id. i. 10.

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