St Gregory of Nyssa AGAINST EUNOMIUS, Second Part, Complete

Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson

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This Part: 128 Pages

Page 60

Of this new creation therefore in Christ, which He Himself began, He was called the first-born, being the first-fruits of all, both of those begotten into life, and of those quickened by resurrection of the dead, "that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living [637] ," and might sanctify the whole lump [638] by means of its first-fruits in Himself. Now that the character of "first-born" does not apply to the Son in respect of His pre-temporal existence the appellation of "Only-begotten" testifies. For he who is truly only-begotten has no brethren, for how could any one be only-begotten if numbered among brethren? but as He is called God and man, Son of God and Son of man,--for He has the form of God and the form of a servant [639] , being some things according to His supreme nature, becoming other things in His dispensation of love to man,--so too, being the Only-begotten God, He becomes the first-born of all creation,--the Only-begotten, He that is in the bosom of the Father, yet, among those who are saved by the new creation, both becoming and being called the first born of the creation. But if, as heresy will have it, He is called first-born because He was made before the rest of the creation, the name does not agree with what they maintain concerning the Only-begotten God. For they do not say this,--that the Son and the universe were from the Father in like manner,--but they say, that the Only-begotten God was made by the Father, and that all else was made by the Only-begotten. Therefore on the same ground on which, while they hold that the Son was created, they call God the Father of the created Being, on the same ground, while they say that all things were made by the Only-begotten God, they give Him the name not of the "first-born" of the things that were made by Him, but more properly of their "Father," as the same relation existing in both cases towards the things created, logically gives rise to the same appellation. For if God, Who is over all, is not properly called the "First-born," but the Father of the Being He Himself created, the Only-begotten God will surely also be called, by the same reasoning, the "father," and not properly the "first-born" of His own creatures, so that the appellation of "first-born" will be altogether improper and superfluous, having no place in the heretical conception.

[637] Rom. xiv. 9.

[638] Cf. Rom. xi. 16

[639] Cf. Phil. ii. 6

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