Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

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130 Pages

Page 50

If not of the essence of God, the Son could not be held to be eternal. "How utterly absurd," exclaims Basil, "to deny the glory of God to have had brightness; [351] to deny the wisdom of God to have been ever with God!...The Father is of eternity. So also is the Son of eternity, united by generation to the unbegotten nature of the Father. This is not my own statement. I shall prove it by quoting the words of Scripture. Let me cite from the Gospel In the beginning was the Word,' [352] and from the Psalm, other words spoken as in the person of the Father, From the womb before the morning I have begotten them.' [353] Let us put both together, and say, He was, and He was begotten....How absurd to seek for something higher in the case of the unoriginate and the unbegotten! Just as absurd is it to start questions as to time, about priority in the case of Him Who was with the Father from eternity, and between Whom and Him that begat Him there is no interval." [354]

A dilemma put by Eunomius was the following: When God begat the Son, the Son either was or was not. [355] If He was not, no argument could lie against Eunomius and the Arians. If He was, the position is blasphemous and absurd, for that which is needs no begetting. [356]

[351] apaugasma. cf. Heb. i. 13.

[352] John i. 1.

[353] Ps. cx. 3, LXX.

[354] Id. ii. 17.

[355] Etoi onta egennesen ho Theos ton Uion, e ouk onta.

[356] Id. ii. 14.

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