AN EXACT EXPOSITION OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH
BOOK I
CHAPTER I.
That the Deity is incomprehensible, and that we ought not to pry into and
meddle with tire things which have not been delivered to us by the holy
Prophets, and Apostles, and Evangelists.
No one hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. The Deity, therefore, is
ineffable and incomprehensible. For no one knoweth the Father, save the Son,
nor the Son, save the Father. And the Holy Spirit, too, so knows the things
of God as the spirit of the man knows the things that are in him. Moreover,
after the first and blessed nature no one, not of men only, but even of
supramundane powers, and the Cherubim, I say, and Seraphim themselves, has
ever known God, save he to whom He revealed Himself.
God, however, did not leave us in absolute ignorance. For the knowledge of
God's existence has been implanted by Him in all by nature. This creation,
too, and its maintenance, and its government, proclaim the majesty of the
Divine nature. Moreover, by the Law and the Prophets in former times and
afterwards by His Only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus
Christ, He disclosed to us the knowledge of Himself as that was possible for
us. All things, therefore, that have been delivered to us by Law and Prophets
and Apostles and Evangelists we receive, and know, and honour, seeking for
nothing beyond these. For God, being good, is the cause of all good, subject
neither to envy nor to any passion. For envy is far removed from the Divine
nature, which is both passionless and only good. As knowing all things,
therefore, and providing for what is profitable for each, He revealed that
which it was to our profit to know; but what we were unable to bear He kept
secret. With these things let us be satisfied, and let us abide by them, not
removing everlasting boundaries, nor overpassing the divine tradition.
CHAPTER II.
Concerning things utterable and things unutterable, and things knowable and
thinks unknowable.
It is necessary, therefore, that one who wishes to speak or to hear of God
should understand clearly that alike in the doctrine of Deity and in that of
the Incarnation, neither are all things unutterable nor all utterable;
neither all unknowable nor all knowable. But the knowable belongs to one
order, and the utterable to another; just as it is one thing to speak and
another thing to know. Many of the things relating to God, therefore, that are
dimly understood cannot be put into fitting terms, but on things above us we
cannot do else than express ourselves according to our limited capacity; as,
for instance, when we speak of God we use the terms sleep, and wrath, and
regardlessness, hands, too, and feet, land such like expressions.
We, therefore, both know and confess that God is without beginning,
without end, eternal and everlasting, uncreate, unchangeable, invariable,
simple, uncompound, incorporeal, invisible, impalpable, uncircumscribed,
infinite, incognisable, indefinable, incomprehensible, good, just, maker of
all things created, almighty, all-ruling, all-surveying, of all overseer,
sovereign, judge; and that God is One, that
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is to say, one essences; and that He is known, and has His being in three
subsistences, in Father, I say, and Son and Holy Spirit; and that the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in all respects, except in that of not
being begotten, that of being begotten, and that of procession; and that the
Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, in His bowels of mercy, for our
salvation, by the good pleasure of God and the co-operation of the Holy
Spirit, being conceived without seed, was born uncorruptedly of the Holy
Virgin and Mother of God, Mary, by the Holy Spirit, and became of her perfect
Man; and that the Same is at once perfect God and perfect Man, of two natures,
Godhead and Manhood, and in two natures possessing intelligence, will and
energy, and freedom, and, in a word, perfect according to the measure and
proportion proper to each, at once to the divinity, I say, and to the
humanity, yet to one composite persons; and that He suffered hunger and
thirst and weariness, and was crucified, and for three days submitted to the
experience of death and burial, and ascended to heaven, from which also He
came to us, and shall come again. And the Holy Scripture is witness to this
and the whole choir of the Saints.
But neither do we know, nor can we tell, what the essence of God is, or
how it is in all, or how the Only-begotten Son and God, having emptied
Himself, became Man of virgin blood, made by another law contrary to nature,
or how He walked with dry feet upon the waters. It is not within our
capacity, therefore, to say anything about God or even to think of Him, beyond
the things which have been divinely revealed to us, whether by word or by
manifestation, by the divine oracles at once of the Old Testament and of the
New.
CHAPTER III.
Proof that there is a God.
That there is a God, then, is no matter of doubt to those who receive the
Holy Scriptures, the Old Testament, I mean, and the New; nor indeed to most of
the Greeks. For, as we said, the knowledge of the existence of God is
implanted in us by nature. But since the wickedness of the Evil One has
prevailed so mightily against man's nature as even to drive some into denying
the existence of God, that most foolish and woe-fulest pit of destruction
(whose folly David, revealer of the Divine meaning, exposed when he said,
The fool said in his heart, There is no God), so the disciples of the Lord and
His Apostles, made wise by the Holy Spirit and working wonders in His power
and grace, took them captive in the net of miracles and drew them up out of
the depths of ignorance to the light of the knowledge of God. In like
manner also their successors in grace and worth, both pastors and teachers,
having received the enlightening grace of the Spirit, were wont, alike by the
power of miracles and the word of grace, to enlighten those walking in
darkness and to bring back the wanderers into the way. But as for us who
are not recipients either of the gift of miracles or the gift of teaching (for
indeed we have rendered ourselves unworthy of these by our passion for
pleasure), come, let us in connection with this theme discuss a few of those
things which have been delivered to us on this subject by the expounders of
grace, calling on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All things, that exist, are either created or uncreated. If, then, things
are created, it follows that they are also wholly mutable. For things, whose
existence originated in change, must also be subject to change, whether it be
that they perish or that they become other than they are by act of wills. But
if things are uncreated they must in all consistency be also wholly immutable.
For things which are opposed in the nature of their existence must also be
opposed in the mode of their existence, that is to say, must have opposite
properties: who, then, will refuse to grant that all existing things, not only
such as come within the province of the senses, but even the very angels, are
subject to change and transformation and movement of various kinds? For the
things appertaining to the rational world, I mean angels and spirits and
demons, are subject to changes of will, whether it is a progression or a
retrogression in goodness, whether a struggle or a surrender; while the others
suffer changes of generation and destruction, of increase and decrease, of
quality and of movement in space. Things then that are mutable are also wholly
created. But things that are created must be the work of some maker, and the
maker cannot have been created. For if he had been created, he also must
surely have been created by some one, and so on till we arrive at something
uncreated. The Creator, then, being uncreated, is also wholly immutable. And
what could this be other than Deity?
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And even the very continuity of the creation, and its preservation and
government, teach us that there does exist a Deity, who supports and maintains
and preserves and ever provides for this universe. For how could opposite
natures, such as fire and water, air and earth, have combined with each other
so as to form one complete world, and continue to abide in indissoluble union,
were there not some omnipotent power which bound them together and always is
preserving them from dissolution?
What is it that gave order to things of heaven and things of earth, and
all those things that move in the air and in the water, or rather to what was
in existence before these, viz., to heaven and earth and air and the elements
of fire and water? What was it that mingled and distributed these? What was
it that set these in motion and keeps them in their unceasing and unhindered
course? Was it not the Artificer of these things, and He Who hath implanted
in everything the law whereby the universe is carried on and directed? Who
then is the Artificer of these things? Is it not He Who created them and
brought them into existence. For we shall not attribute such a power to the
spontaneous. For, supposing their coming into existence was due to the
spontaneous; what of the power that put all in orders ? And let us grant
this, if you please. What of that which has preserved and kept them in harmony
with the original laws of their existence ? Clearly it is something quite
distinct from the spontaneous.And what could this be other than Deity ?
CHAPTER IV.
Concerning the nature of Deity: that it is incomprehensible.
It is plain, then, that there is a God. But what He is in His essence anti
nature is absolutely incomprehensible and unknowable. For it is evident that
He is incorporeal. For how could that possess body which is infinite, and
boundless, and formless, and intangible and invisible, in short, simple and
not compound? How could that be immutable which is circumscribed and
subject to passion? And how could that be passionless which is composed of
elements and is resolved again into them? For combination is the beginning
of conflict, and conflict of separation, and separation of dissolution, and
dissolution is altogether foreign to God.
Again, how will it also be maintained that God permeates and fills the
universe? as the Scriptures say, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the
Lords? For it is an impossibility that one body should permeate other
bodies without dividing and being divided, and without being enveloped and
contrasted, in the same way as all fluids mix and commingle.
But if some say that the body is immaterial, in thee same way as the fifth
body of which the Greek philosophers speak (which body is an
impossibility), it will be wholly subject to motion like the heaven. For that
is what they mean by the fifth body. Who then is it that moves it? For
everything that is moved is moved by another thing. And who again is it that
moves that? and so on to infinity till we at length arrive at something
motionless. For the first mover is motionless, and that is the Deity. And must
not that which is moved be circumscribed in space? The Deity, then, alone is
motionless, moving the universe by immobility. So then it must be assumed
that the Deity is incorporeal.
But even this gives no true idea of His essence, to say that He is
unbegotten, and without beginning, changeless and imperishable, and possessed
of such other qualities as we are wont to ascribe to God and His environments.
For these do not indicate what He is, but what He is not. But when we would
explain what
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the essence of anything is, we must not speak only negatively. In the case of
God, however, it is impossible to explain what He is in His essence, and it
befits us the rather to hold discourse about His absolute separation from all
things. For He does not belong to the class of existing things: not that He
has no existence, but that He is above all existing things, nay even above
existence itself. For if all forms of knowledge have to do with what exists,
assuredly that which is above knowledge must certainly be also above
essence: and, conversely, that which is above essence will also be above
knowledge.
God then is infinite and incomprehensible and all that is comprehensible
about Him is His infinity and incomprehensibility. But all that we can affirm
concerning God does not shew forth God's nature, but only the qualities of His
nature. For when you speak of Him as good, and just, and wise, and so
forth, you do not tell God's nature but only the qualities of His nature.
Further there are some affirmations which we make concerning God which have
the force of absolute negation: for example, when we use the term darkness, in
reference to God, we do not mean darkness itself, but that He is not light but
above light: and when we speak of Him as light, we mean that He is not
darkness.
CHAPTER V.
Proof that God is one and not many.
We have, then, adequately demonstrated that there is a God, and that His
essence is incomprehensible. But that God is one and not many is no matter
of doubt to those who believe in the Holy Scriptures. For the Lord says in the
beginning of the Law: I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt. Thou shall have no other Gods before Me. And again He
says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And in Isaiah the
prophet we read For I am the first God and I am the last and beside Me there
is no God. Before Me there was not any God, nor after Me will there be any
God, and beside Me there is no God. And the Lord, too, in the holy gospels
speaketh these words to His Father, And this is life eternal, that they may
know Thee the only true God. But with those that do not believe in the Holy
Scriptures we will reason thus.
The Deity is perfect, and without blemish in goodness, and wisdom, and
power, without beginning, without end, everlasting, uncircumscribed, and in
short, perfect in all things. Should we say, then, that there are many Gods,
we must recognise difference among the many. For if there is no difference
among them, they are one rather than many. But if there is difference among
them, what becomes of the perfectness? For that which comes short of
perfection, whether it be in goodness, or power, or wisdom, or time, or place,
could not be God. But it is this very identity in all respects that shews that
the Deity is one and not many.
Again, if there are many Gods, how can one maintain that God is
uncircumscribed? For where the one would be, the other could not be.
Further, how could the world be governed by many and saved from
dissolution and destruction, while strife is seen to rage between the rulers?
For difference introduces strife. And if any one should say that each rules
over a part, what of that which established this order and gave to each his
particular realm? For this would the rather be God. Therefore, God is one,
perfect, uncircumscribed, maker of the universe, and its preserver and
governor, exceeding and preceding all perfection.
Moreover, it is a natural necessity that duality should originate in
unity.
CHAPTER VI.
Concerning the Word and the Son of God:
a reasoned proof.
So then this one and only God is not Wordless. And possessing the Word,
He will have it not as without a subsistence, nor as having had a beginning,
nor as destined to cease to be. For there never was a time when God was not
Word: but He ever possesses His own Word, begotten of Himself, not, as our
word is, without a subsistence and dissolving into air, but having a
subsistence in Him and
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life and perfection, not proceeding out of Himself but ever existing within
Himself. For where could it be, if it were to go outside Him? For inasmuch
as our nature is perishable and easily dissolved, our word is also without
subsistence. But since God is everlasting and perfect, He will have His Word
subsistent in Him, and everlasting trod living, and possessed of all the
attributes of the Begetter. For just as our word, proceeding as it floes out
of the mind, is neither wholly identical with the mind nor utterly diverse
from it (for so far as it proceeds out of the mind it is different from it,
while so far as it reveals the mind, it is no longer absolutely diverse from
the mind, but being one in nature with the mind, it is yet to the subject
diverse from it), so in the same manner also the Word of Gods in its
independent subsistence is differentiated froth Him from Whom it derives
its subsistence: but inasmuch as it displays in itself the same attributes
as are seen in God, it is of the same nature as God. For just as absolute
perfection is contemplated in the Father, so also is it contemplated in the
Word that is begotten of Him.
CHAPTER VII.
Concerning the Holy Spirit, a reasoned proof.
Moreover the Word must also possess Spirit. For in fact even our word
is not destitute of spirit; but in our case the spirit is something different
from our essence. For there is an attraction and movement of the air which
is drawn in and poured forth that the body may be sustained. And it is this
which in the moment of utterance becomes the articulate word, revealing in
itself the force of the word. But in the case of the divine nature,
which is simple and uncompound, we must confess in all piety that there exists
a Spirit of God, for the Word is not more imperfect than our own word. Now we
cannot, in piety, consider the Spirit to be something foreign that gains
admission into God from without, as is the case with compound natures like us.
Nay, just as, when we heard of the Word of God, we considered it to be not
without subsistence, nor the product of learning, nor the mere utterance of
voice, nor as passing into the air and perishing, but as being essentially
subsisting, endowed with free volition, and energy, and omnipotence: so also,
when we have learnt about the Spirit of God, we contemplate it as the
companion of the Word and the revealer of His energy, and not as mere breath
without subsistence. For to conceive of the Spirit that dwells in God as after
the likeness of our own spirit, would be to drag down the greatness of the
divine nature to the lowest depths of degradation. But we must contemplate it
as an essential power, existing in its own proper and peculiar subsistence,
proceeding from the Father anti resting in the Word, and shewing forth the
Word, neither capable of disjunction from God in Whom it exists, and the Word
Whose companion it is, nor poured forth to vanish into nothingness, but
being in subsistence in the likeness of the Word, endowed with life, free
volition, independent movement, energy, ever willing that which is good, and
having power to keep pace with the will in all its decrees, having no
beginning and no end. For never was the Father at any time lacking in the
Word, nor the Word in the Spirit.
Thus because of the unity in nature, the error of the Greeks in holding
that God is many, is utterly destroyed: and again by our acceptance of the
Word and the Spirit, the dogma of the Jews is overthrown: and there remains of
each party only what is profitable. On the one hand of the Jewish idea
we have the unity of God's nature, anti on the other, of the Greek, we have
the distinction in subsistences and that only.
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But should the Jew refuse to accept the Word and the Spirit, let the
divine Scripture confute him and curb his tongue. For concerning the Word, the
divine David says, For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven. And
again , He sent His Word and healed them. But the word that is uttered is
not sent, nor is it for ever settled. And concerning the Spirit, the same
David says, Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created. And again, By
the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the host of them by the
breath of His mouth. Job, too, says, The Spirit of God hath made me, and
the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. Now the Spirit which is sent
and makes and stablishes and conserves, is not mere breath that dissolves, any
more than the mouth of God is a bodily member. For the conception of both must
be such as harmonizes with the Divine nature.
CHAPTER VIII.
Concerning the Holy Trinity.
We believe, then, in One God, one beginning, having no beginning,
uncreate, unbegotten, imperishable and immortal, everlasting, infinite,
uncircumscribed, boundless, of infinite power, simple, uncompound,
incorporeal, without flux, passionless, unchangeable, unalterable, unseen, the
fountain of goodness and justice, the light of the mind, inaccessible; a power
known by no measure, measurable only by His own will alone (for all things
that He wills He can), creator of all created things, seen or unseen, of
all the maintainer and preserver, for all the provider, master and lord and
king over all, with an endless and immortal kingdom: having no contrary,
filling all, by nothing encompassed, but rather Himself the encompasser and
maintainer and original possessor of the universe, occupying all essences
intact and extending beyond all things, and being separate from all essence
as being super-essential and above all things and absolute God, absolute
goodness, and absolute fulness: determining all sovereignties and ranks,
being placed above all sovereignty and rank, above essence and life and word
and thought: being Himself very light and goodness and life and essence,
inasmuch as He does not derive His being from another, that is to say, of
those things that exist: but being Himself the fountain of being to all that
is, of life to the living, of reason to those that have reason; to all the
cause of all good: perceiving all things even before they have become: one
essence, one divinity, one power, one will, one energy, one beginning, one
authority, one dominion, one sovereignty, made known in three perfect
subsistences anti adored with one adoration, believed in and ministered to by
all rational creation, united without confusion and divided without
separation (which indeed transcends thought). (We believe) in Father and Son
and Holy Spirit whereinto also we have been baptized. For so our Lord
commanded the Apostles to baptize, saying, Baptizing them in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
(We believe) in one Father, the beginning, and cause of all: begotten of
no one: without cause or generation, alone subsisting: creator of all: but
Father of one only by nature, His Only-begotten Son and our Lord and God and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and Producer of the most Holy Spirit. And in one Son
of God, the Only-begotten, our Lord, Jesus Christ: begotten of the Father,
before all the ages: Light of Light, true God of true God: begotten, not made,
consubstantial with the Father, through Whom all things are made: and when we
say He was before all the ages we shew that His birth is without time or
beginning: for the Son of God was not brought into being out of nothing, He
that is the effulgence of the glory, the impress of the Father's
subsistence, the living wisdom and power, the Word possessing interior
subsistence, the essential and perfect and living image s of the unseen
God. But always He was with the Father and in Him, everlastingly and
without beginning begotten of Him. For there never was
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a time when the Father was and the Son was not, but always the Father and
always the Son, Who was begotten of Him, existed together. For He could not
have received the name Father apart from the Son: for if He were without the
Son, He could not be the Father: and if He thereafter had the Son,
thereafter He became the Father, not having been the Father prior to this, and
He was changed from that which was not the Father and became the Father. This
is the worst form of blasphemy. For we may not speak of God as destitute of
natural generative power: and generative power means, the power of producing
from one's self, that is to say, from one's own proper essence, that which is
like in nature to one's self.
In treating, then, of the generation of the Son, it is an act of
impiety to say that time comes into play and that the existence of the Son
is of later origin than the Father. For we hold that it is from Him, that is,
from the Father's nature, that the Son is generated. And unless we grant that
the Son co-existed from the beginning with the Father, by Whom He was
begotten, we introduce change into the Father's subsistence, because, not
being the Father, He subsequently became the Father. For the creation, even
though it originated later, is nevertheless not derived from the essence of
God, but is brought into existence out of nothing by His will and power, and
change does not touch God's nature. For generation means that the begetter
produces out of his essence offspring similar in essence. But creation and
making mean that the creator and maker produces from that which is external,
and not out of his own essence, a creation of an absolutely dissimilar
nature.
Wherefore in God, Who alone is passionless and unalterable, and immutable,
and ever so continueth, both begetting and creating are passionless. For
being by nature passionless and not liable to flux, since He is simple and
uncompound, He is not subject to passion or flux either in begetting or in
creating, nor has He need of any co-operation. But generation in Him is
without beginning and everlasting, being the work of nature and producing out
of His own essence, that the Begetter may not undergo change, and that He may
not be God first and God last, nor receive any accession: while creation in
the case of God, being the work of will, is not co-eternal with God. For it
is not natural that that which is brought into existence out of nothing should
be co-eternal with what is without beginning and everlasting. There is this
difference in fact between man's making and God's. Man can bring nothing into
existence out of nothing, but all that he makes requires pre-existing
matter for its basis, and he does not create it by will only, but thinks
out first what it is to be and pictures it in his mind, and only then fashions
it with his hands, undergoing labour and troubles, and often missing the
mark and failing to produce to his satisfaction that after which he strives.
But God, through the exercise of will alone, has brought all things into
existence out of nothing. Now there is the same difference between God and man
in begetting and generating. For in God, Who is without time and beginning,
passionless, not liable to flux, incorporeal, alone and without end,
generation is without time and beginning, passionless and not liable to flux,
nor dependent on the union of two: nor has His own incomprehensible
generation beginning or end. And it is without beginning because He is
immutable: without flux because He is passionless and incorporeal: independent
of the union of two again because He is incorporeal but also because He is the
one and only God, and stands in need of no co-operation: and without end or
cessation because He is without beginning, or time, or end, and ever continues
the same. For that which has no beginning has no end: but that which through
grace is endless is assuredly not without beginning, as, witness, the
angels.
Accordingly the everlasting God generates His own Word which is perfect,
without beginning and without end, that God, Whose nature and existence are
above time, may not engender in time. But with man clearly it is otherwise,
for generation is with him a matter of sex, and destruction and flux and
increase and body clothe him round about, and he possesses a nature which
is male or female. For the male requires the assistance of the female. But may
He Who surpasses all, and transcends all thought and comprehension, be
gracious to us.
The holy catholic and apostolic Church,
then, teaches the existence at once of a Father: and of His Only-begotten Son,
born of Him without time and flux and passion, in a manner incomprehensible
and perceived by the God of the universe alone: just as we recognise the
existence at once of fire and the light which proceeds from it: for there is
not first fire and thereafter light, but they exist together. And just as
light is ever the product of fire, and ever is in it and at no time is
separate from it, so in like manner also the Son is begotten of the Father and
is never in any ways separate from Him, but ever is in Him. But whereas the
light which is produced from fire without separation, and abideth ever in it,
has no proper subsistence of its own distinct from that of fire (for it is a
natural quality of fire), the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father
without separation and difference and ever abiding in Him, has a proper
subsistence of its own distinct froth that of the Father.
The terms, 'Word' and 'effulgence,' then, are used because He is begotten
of the Father without the union of two, or passion, or time, or flux, or
separation: and the terms 'Son' and 'impress of the Father's subsistence,'
because He is perfect and has subsistence s and is in all respects similar to
the Father, save that the Father is not begotten: and the term
'Only-begotten' because He alone was begotten alone of the Father alone.
For no other generation is like to the generation of the Son of God, since no
other is Son of God. For though the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father,
yet this is not generative in character but processional. This is a different
mode of existence, alike incomprehensible and unknown, just as is the
generation of the Son. Wherefore all the qualities the Father has are the
Son's, save that the Father is unbegotten, and this exception involves no
difference in essence nor dignity, but only a different mode of coming into
existence. We have an analogy in Adam, who was not begotten (for God
Himself moulded him), and Seth, who was begotten (for he is Adam's son), and
Eve, who proceeded out of Adam's rib (for she was not begotten). These do not
differ from each other in nature, for they are human beings: but they differ
in the mode of coming into existence.
For one must recognise that the word agenhGon with only one
'n' signifies "uncreate" or "not having been made," while
agennhGon
written with double 'n' means "unbegotten." According to the
first significance essence differs from essence: for one essence is uncreate,
or agenhGon with one 'n,' and another is create
or genhGh. But in the second significance there is no
difference between essence and essence. For the first subsistence of all kinds
of living creatures is agennhGos but not
agenhGos. For they were created by the Creator, being brought
into being by His Word, but they were not begotten, for there was no
pre-existing form like themselves from which they might have been born.
So then in the first sense of the word the three absolutely divine
subsistences of the Holy Godhead agree: for they exist as one in essence
and uncreate. But with the second signification it is quite otherwise. For
the Father alone is ingenerate, no other subsistence having given Him
being. And the Son alone is generate, for He was begotten of the Father's
essence without beginning and without time. And only the Holy Spirit
proceedeth from the Father's essence, not having been generated but simply
proceeding. For this is the doctrine of Holy Scripture. But the nature of
the generation and the procession is quite beyond comprehension.
And this also it behoves us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship
and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary,
they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine apostle says,
Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from Whom is every family in heaven
and on earth. But if we say that the Father is the origin of the Son and
greater than the
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Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the
Father over the Son (for through His agency He made the ages), or
superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the
Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father of the Son, and that the
Father naturally is the cause of the Son: just as we say in the same way not
that fire proceedeth from light, but rather light from fire. So then, whenever
we hear it said that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the
Son, let us understand it to mean in respect of causation. And just as we do
not say that fire is of one essence and light of another, so we cannot say
that the Father is of one essence and the Son of another: but both are of one
and the same essence. And just as we say that fire has brightness
through the light proceeding from it, and do not consider the light of the
fire as an instrument ministering to the fire, but rather as its natural
force: so we say that the Father creates all that He creates through His
Only-begotten Son, not as though the Son were a mere instrument serving the
Father's ends, but as His natural and subsistential force. And just as we
say both that the fire shines and again that the light of the fire shines, So
all things whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
But whereas light possesses no proper subsistence of its own, distinct from
that of the fire, the Son is a perfect subsistence, inseparable from the
Father's subsistence, as we have shewn above. For it is quite impossible to
find in creation an image that will illustrate in itself exactly in all
details the nature of the Holy Trinity. For how could that which is create and
compound, subject to flux and change, circumscribed, formed and corruptible,
clearly shew forth the super-essential divine essence, unaffected as it is in
any of these ways? Now it is evident that all creation is liable to most of
these affections, and all from its very nature is subject to corruption.
Likewise we believe also in one Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life:
Who proceedeth from the Father and resteth in the Son: the object of equal
adoration and glorification with the Father and Son, since He is co-essential
and co-eternal: the Spirit of God, direct, authoritative, the fountain
of wisdom, and life, and holiness: God existing and addressed along with
Father and Son: uncreate, full, creative, all-ruling, all-effecting,
all-powerful, of infinite power, Lord of all creation and not under any
lord: deifying, not deified: filling, not filled: shared in, not sharing
in: sanctifying, not sanctified: the intercessor, receiving the supplications
of all: in all things like to the Father and Son: proceeding from the Father
and communicated through the Son, and participated in by all creation, through
Himself creating, and investing with essence and sanctifying, and maintaining
the universe: having subsistence, existing in its own proper and peculiar
subsistence, inseparable and indivisible from Father and Son, and possessing
all the qualities that the Father and Son possess, save that of not being
begotten or born. For the Father is without canst and unborn: for He is
derived from nothing, but derives from Himself His being, nor does He derive a
single quality from another. Rather He is Himself the beginning and cause
of the existence of all things in a definite and natural manner. But the Son
is derived from the Father after the manner of generation, and the Holy Spirit
likewise is derived from the Father, yet not after the manner of generation,
but after that of procession. And we have learned that there is a
difference between generation and procession, but the nature of that
difference we in no wise understand. Further, the generation of the Son from
the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit are simultaneous.
All then that the Son and the Spirit have is from the Father, even their
very being: and unless the Father is, neither the Son nor the Spirit is.
And unless the Father possesses a certain attribute, neither the Son nor the
Spirit possesses it: and through the Father, that is, because of the
Father's existence, the Son and the Spirit exist, and through the
Father, that is, because of the Father having the qualities, the Son and the
Spirit have all their qualities, those of being unbegotten, and of birth and
of procession being excepted. For in these hypo-
10
static or personal properties alone do the three holy subsistences differ
from each other, being indivisibly divided not by essence but by the
distinguishing mark of their proper and peculiar subsistence.
Further we say that each of the three has a perfect subsistence, that
we may understand not one compound perfect nature made up of three imperfect
elements, but one simple essence, surpassing and preceding perfection,
existing in three perfect subsistences. For all that is composed of
imperfect elements must necessarily be compound. But from perfect subsistences
no compound can arise. Wherefore we do not speak of the form as from
subsistences, but as in subsistences. But we speak of those things as
imperfect which do not preserve the form of that which is completed out of
them. For stone and wood and iron are each perfect in its own nature, but with
reference to the building that is completed out of them each is imperfect: for
none of them is in itself a house.
The subsistences then we say are perfect, that we may not conceive of the
divine nature as compound. For compoundness is the beginning of separation.
And again we speak of the three subsistences as being in each other, that
we may not introduce a crowd and multitude of Gods. Owing to the three
subsistences, there is no compoundness or confusion: while, owing to their
having the same essence and dwelling in one another, and being the same in
will, and energy, and power, and authority, and movement, so to speak, we
recognise the indivisibility and the unity of God. For verily there is one
God, and His word and Spirit.
Marg. MS. Concerning the distinction of the three subsistences: and
concerning the thing itself and our reason and thought in relation to it.
One ought, moreover, to recognise that it is one thing to look at a matter
as it is, and another thing to look at it in the light of reason and thought.
In the case of all created things, the distinction of the subsistences is
observed in actual fact. For in actual fact Peter is seen to be separate from
Paul. But the community and connection and unity are apprehended by reason and
thought. For it is by the mind that we perceive that Peter and Paul are of the
same nature and have one common nature. For both are living creatures,
rational and mortal: and both are flesh, endowed with the spirit of reason and
understanding. It is, then, by reason that this community of nature is
observed. For here indeed the subsistences do not exist one within the other.
But each privately and individually, that is to say, in itself, stands quite
separate, having very many points that divide it from the other. For they are
both separated in space and differ in time, and are divided in thought, and
power, and shape, or form, and habit, and temperament and dignity, and
pursuits, and all differentiating properties, but above all, in the fact that
they do not dwell in one another but are separated. Hence it comes that we can
speak of two, three, or many men.
And this may be perceived throughout the whole of creation, but in the
case of the holy and superessential and incomprehensible Trinity, far removed
from everything, it is quite the reverse. For there the community and unity
are observed in fact, through the co-eternity of the subsistences, and through
their having the same essence and energy and will and concord of mind, and
then being identical in authority and power and goodness--I do not say similar
but identical--and then movement by one impulse. For there is one essence,
one goodness, one power, one will, one energy, one authority, one and the
same, I repeat, not three resembling each other. But the three subsistences
have one and the same movement. For each one of them is related as closely to
the other as to itself: that is to say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are one in all respects, save those of not being begotten, of birth and
of procession. But it is by thought that the difference is perceived. For
we recognise one God: but only in the attributes of Fatherhood, Sonship, and
Procession, both in respect of cause and effect and perfection of subsistence,
that is, manner of existence, do we perceive difference. For with reference
to the uncircumscribed Deity we cannot speak of separation in space, as we can
in our own case. For the subsistences dwell in one another, in no wise
confused but cleaving together, according to the word of the Lord,
I am in the father, and the father in Me: nor can one admit difference in
will or judgment or energy or power or anything else whatsoever which may
produce actual and absolute separation in our case. Wherefore we do not speak
of three Gods, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but rather of one
God, the holy Trinity, the Son and Spirit being referred to one cause, and
not compounded or coalesced according to the synaeresis of Sabellius. For, as
we said, they are made one not so as to commingle, but so as to cleave to each
other, and they have their being in each other without any coalescence or
commingling. Nor do the Son and the Spirit stand apart, nor are they sundered
in essence according to the diaeresis of Arias. For the Deity is undivided
amongst things divided, to put it concisely: and it is just like three suns
cleaving to each other without separation and giving out light mingled and
conjoined into one. When, then, we turn our eyes to the Divinity, and the
first cause and the sovereignty and the oneness anti sameness, so to speak, of
the movement and will of the Divinity, and the identity in essence and power
and energy and lordship, what is seen by us is unity. But when we look to
those things in which the Divinity is, or, to put it more accurately, which
are the Divinity, and those things which are in it through the first cause
without time or distinction in glory or separation, that is to say, the
subsistences of the Son and the Spirit, it seems to us a Trinity that we
adore. The Father is one Father, and without beginning, that is, without
cause: for He is not derived from anything. The Son is one Son, but not
without beginning, that is, not without cause: for He is derived from the
Father. But if you eliminate the idea of a beginning from time, He is also
without beginning: for the creator of times cannot be subject to time. The
Holy Spirit is one Spirit, going forth from the Father, not in the manner of
Sonship but of procession; so that neither has the Father lost His property of
being unbegotten because He hath begotten, nor has the Son lost His property
of being begotten because He was begotten of that which was unbegotten (for
how could that be so?), nor does the Spirit change either into the Father or
into the Son because He hath proceeded and is God. For a property is quite
constant. For how could a property persist if it were variable, moveable, and
could change into something else? For if the Father is the Son, He is not
strictly the Father: for there is strictly one Father. And if the Son is the
Father, He is not strictly the Son: for there is strictly one Son and one Holy
Spirit.
Further, it should be understood that we do not speak of the Father as
derived from any one, but we speak of Him as the Father of the Son. And we do
not speak of the Son as Cause or Father, but we speak of Him both as from
the Father, and as the Son of the Father. And we speak likewise of the Holy
Spirit as from the Father, and call Him the Spirit of the Father. And we do
not speak of the Spirit as from the Son: s but yet we call Him the Spirit
of the Son. For if any one hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His, saith the divine apostle. And we confess that He is manifested and
imparted to us through the Son. For He breathed upon His Disciples, says he,
and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. It is just the same as in the case of
the sun from which come both the ray and the radiance (for the sun itself is
the source of both the ray and the radiance), and it is through the ray that
the radiance is imparted to us, and it is the radiance itself by which we are
lightened and in which we participate. Further we do not speak of the Son of
the Spirit, or of the Son as derived from the Spirit.
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CHAPTER IX.
Concerning what is affirmed about God.
The Deity is simple and uncompound. But that which is composed of many and
different elements is compound. If, then, we should speak of the qualities of
being uncreate and without beginning and incorporeal and immortal and
everlasting and good and creative and so forth as essential differences in the
case of God, that which is composed of so many qualities will not be simple
but must be compound. But this is impious in the extreme. Each then of the
affirmations about God should be thought of as signifying not what He is in
essence, but either something that it is impossible to make plain, or some
relation to some of those things which are contrasts or some of those things
that follow the nature, or an energy.
It appears then that the most proper of all the names given to God is
"He that is," as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, Say to
the sons of Israel, He that is hath sent Me. For He keeps all being in His
own embrace, like a sea of essence infinite and unseen. Or as the holy
Dionysius says, "He that is good." For one cannot say of God that He has
being in the first place and goodness in the second.
The second name of God is o qeos, derived
from qeein, to run, because He courses through all things,
or from aiqein, to burn: For God is a fire consuming all
evils: or from qeasqai, because He is all-seeing: for
nothing can escape Him, and over all He keepeth watch. For He saw all things
before they were, holding them timelessly in His thoughts; and each one
conformably to His voluntary anti timeless thought, which constitutes
predetermination and image and pattern, comes into existence at the
predetermined time.
The first name then conveys the notion of His existence and of the nature
of His existence: while the second contains the idea of energy. Further, the
terms 'without beginning,' ' incorruptible,' 'unbegotten,' as also 'uncreate,'
'incorporeal,' 'unseen,' and so forth, explain what He is not: that is to say,
they tell us that His being had no beginning, that He is not corruptible, nor
created, nor corporeaI, nor visible. Again, goodness and justice and piety
and such like names belong to the nature, but do not explain His actual
essence. Finally, Lord and King and names of that class indicate a
relationship with their contrasts: for the name Lord has reference to those
over whom the lord rules, and the name King to those under kingly authority,
and the name Creator to the creatures, and the name Shepherd to the sheep he
tends.
CHAPTER X.
Concerning divine union and separation.
Therefore all these names must be understood as common to deity as a
whole, and as containing the notions of sameness and simplicity and
indivisibility and union: while the names Father, Son and Spirit, and cause,
less and caused, and unbegotten and begotten, and procession contain the idea
of separation: for these terms do not explain His essence, but the mutual
relationship and manner of existence.
When, then, we have perceived these things and are conducted from these to
the divine essence, we do not apprehend the essence itself but only the
attributes of the essence: just as we have not apprehended the essence of the
soul even when we have learnt that it is incorporeal and without magnitude and
form: nor again, the essence of the body when we know that it is white or
black, but only the attributes of the essence. Further, the true doctrine
teacheth that the Deity is simple and has one simple energy, good and
energising in all things, just as the sun's ray, which warms all things and
energises in each in harmony with its natural aptitude and receptive power,
having obtained this form of energy from God, its Maker.
But quite distinct is all that pertains to the divine and benignant
incarnation of the divine Word. For in that neither the Father nor the Spirit
have any part at all, unless so far as regards approval and the working of
inexplicable miracles which the God-Word,
13
having become man like us, worked, as unchangeable God and son of God.
CHAPTER XI.
Concerning what is affirmed about God as
though He had body.
Since we find many terms used symbolically in the Scriptures concerning
God which are more applicable to that which has body, we should recognise that
it is quite impossible for us men clothed about with this dense covering of
flesh to understand or speak of the divine and lofty and immaterial energies
of the Godhead, except by the use of images and types and symbols derived from
our own life. So then all the statements concerning God, that imply body,
are symbols, but have a higher meaning: for the Deity is simple and formless.
Hence by God's eyes and eyelids and sight we are to understand His power of
overseeing all things and His knowledge, that nothing can escape: for in the
case of us this sense makes our knowledge more complete and more full of
certainty. By God's ears and hearing is meant His readiness to be propitiated
and to receive our petitions: for it is this sense that renders us also kind
to suppliants, inclining our ear to them more graciously. God's mouth and
speech are His means of indicating His will; for it is by the mouth and speech
that we make clear the thoughts that are in the heart: God's food and drink
are our concurrence to His will, for we, too, satisfy the necessities of our
natural appetite through the sense of taste. And God's sense of smell is His
appreciation of our thoughts of and good will towards Him, for it is through
this sense that we appreciate sweet fragrance. And God's countenance is the
demonstration and manifestation of Himself through His works, for our
manifestation is through the countenance. And God's hands mean the effectual
nature of His energy, for it is with our own hands that we accomplish our most
useful and valuable work. And His right hand is His aid in prosperity, for it
is the right hand that we also use when making anything of beautiful shape or
of great value, or where much strength is required. His handling is His power
of accurate discrimination and exaction, even in the minutest and most secret
details, for those whom we have handled cannot conceal from us aught within
themselves. His feet and walk are His advent and presence, either for the
purpose of bringing succour to the needy, or vengeance against enemies, or to
perform any other action, for it is by using our feet that we come to arrive
at any place. His oath is the unchangeableness of His counsel, for it is by
oath that we confirm our compacts with one another. His anger and fury are
His hatred of and aversion to all wickedness, for we, too, hate that which is
contrary to our mind and become enraged thereat. His forgetfulness and
sleep and slumbering are His delay in taking vengeance on His enemies and the
postponement of the accustomed help to His own. And to put it shortly, all the
statements made about God that imply body have some hidden meaning and teach
us what is above us by means of something familiar to ourselves, with the
exception of any statement concerning the bodily sojourn of the God-Word. For
He for our safety took upon Himself the whole nature of man, the thinking
spirit, the body, and all the properties of human nature, even the natural and
blameless passions.
CHAPTER XII.
Concerning the Same.
The following, then, are the mysteries which we have learned from the holy
oracles, as the divine Dionysius the Areopagite said: that God is the cause
and beginning of all: the essence of all that have essence: the life of the
living: the reason of all rational beings: the intellect of all intelligent
beings: the recalling and restoring of those who fall away from Him: the
renovation and transformation of those that corrupt that which is natural: the
holy foundation of those who are tossed in unholiness: the steadfastness of
those who have stood firm: the way of those whose course is directed to Him
and the hand stretched forth to guide them upwards. And I shall add He is also
the Father of all His creatures (for God, Who brought us into being out of
nothing, is in a stricter sense our Father than are our parents who have
derived both being and begetting from Him): the shepherd of those who
follow and are tended by Him: the radiance of those who are enlightened: the
initiation of the initiated: the deification of the deified: the peace of
those at discord: the simplicity of those who love simplicity: the unity of
those who worship unity: of all beginning the beginning, super-essential be-
14
cause above all beginnings: and the good revelation of what is hidden, that
is, of the knowledge of Him so far as that is lawful for and attainable by
each.
Further and more accurately concerning
divine names.
The Deity being incomprehensible is also assuredly nameless. Therefore
since we know not His essence, let us not seek for a name for His essence. For
names are explanations of actual things. But God, Who is good and brought
us out of nothing into being that we might share in His goodness, and Who gave
us the faculty of knowledge, not only did not impart to us His essence, but
did not even grant us the knowledge of His essence. For it is impossible for
nature to understand fully the supernatural. Moreover, if knowledge is of
things that are, how can there be knowledge of the super-essential? Through
His unspeakable goodness, then, it pleased Him to be called by names that we
could understand, that we might not be altogether cut off from the knowlege of
Him but should have some notion of Him, however vague. Inasmuch, then, as He
is incomprehensible, He is also unnameable. But inasmuch as He is the cause of
all and contains in Himself the reasons and causes of all that is, He receives
names drawn from all that is, even from opposites: for example, He is called
light and darkness, water and fire: in order that we may know that these are
not of His essence but that He is super-essential and unnameable: but inasmuch
as He is the cause of all, He receives names from all His effects.
Wherefore, of the divine names, some have a negative signification, and
indicate that He is super-essential: such are "non-essential,"
"timeless," "without beginning," "invisible": not that God is inferior to
anything or lacking in anything (for all things are His and have become from
Him and through Him and endure in Him), but that He is pre-eminently
separated from all that is. For He is not one of the things that are, but over
all things. Some again have an affirmative signification, as indicating that
He is the cause of all things. For as the cause of all that is and of all
essence, He is called both Ens and Essence. And as the cause of all reason and
wisdom, of the rational and the wise, He is called both reason and rational,
and wisdom and wise. Similarly He is spoken of as Intellect and Intellectual,
Life and Living, Power and Powerful, and so on with all the rest. Or rather
those names are most appropriate to Him which are derived from what is most
precious and most akin to Himself. That which is immaterial is more precious
and more akin to Himself than that which is material, and the pure than the
impure, and the holy than the unholy: for they have greater part in Him. So
then, sun and light will be more apt names for Him than darkness, and day than
night, and life than death, and fire and spirit and water, as having life,
than earth, and above all, goodness than wickedness: which is just to say,
being more than not being. For goodness is existence and the cause of
existence, but wickedness is the negation of goodness, that is, of existence.
These, then, are the affirmations and the negations, but the sweetest names
are a combination of both: for example, the super-essential essence, the
Godhead that is more than God, the beginning that is above beginning and such
like. Further there are some affirmations about God which have in a
pre-eminent degree the force of denial: for example, darkness: for this does
not imply that God is darkness but that He is not light, but above light.
God then is called Mind and Reason and Spirit and Wisdom and Power, as the
cause of these, and as immaterial, and maker of all, and omnipotent. And
these names are common to the whole Godhead, whether affirmative or negative.
And they are also used of each of the subsistences of the Holy Trinity in the
very same and identical way and with their full significance. For when I
think of one of the subsistences, I recognise it to be perfect God and perfect
essence: but when I combine and reckon the three together, I know one perfect
God. For the Godhead is not compound but in three perfect subsistences, one
perfect indivisible and uncompound God. And when I think of the relation of
the three subsistences to each other, I perceive that the Father is
super-essential Sun, source of goodness, fathomless sea of essence, reason,
wisdom, power, light, divinity: the generating and productive source
15
of good hidden in it. He Himself then is mind, the depth of reason, begetter
of the Word, and through the Word the Producer of the revealing Spirit. And
to put it shortly, the Father has no reason, wisdom, power, will, save
the Son Who is the only power of the Father the immediate cause of the
creation of the universe: as perfect subsistence begotten of perfect
subsistence in a manner known to Himself, Who is and is named the Son. And the
Holy Spirit is the power of the Father revealing the hidden mysteries of His
Divinity, proceeding from the Father through the Son in a manner known to
Himself, but different from that of generation. Wherefore the Holy Spirit is
the perfecter of the creation of the universe. All the terms, then, that are
appropriate to the Father, as cause, source, begetter, are to be ascribed to
the Father alone: while those that are appropriate to the caused, begotten
Son, Word, immediate power, will, wisdom, are to be ascribed to the Son: and
those that are appropriate to the caused, processional, manifesting,
perfecting power, are to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Father is the
source and cause of the Son and the Holy Spirit: Father of the Son alone and
producer of the Holy Spirit. The Son is Son, Word, Wisdom, Power, Image,
Effulgence, Impress of the Father and derived from the Father. But the Holy
Spirit is not the Son of the Father but the Spirit of the Father as proceeding
from the Father. For there is no impulse without Spirit. And we speak also of
the Spirit of the Son, not as through proceeding from Him, but as proceeding
through Him from the Father. For the Father alone is cause.
CHAPTER XIII.
Concerning the place of God: and that the Deity alone is uncircumscribed.
Bodily place is the limit of that which contains, by which that which is
contained is contained: for example, the air contains but the body is
contained. But it is not the whole of the containing air which is the place
of the contained body, but the limit of the containing air, where it comes
into contact with the contained body: and the reason is clearly because that
which contains is not within that which it contains.
But there is also mental place where mind is active, and mental and
incorporeal nature exists: where mind dwells and energises and is contained
not in a bodily but in a mental fashion. For it is without form, and so cannot
be contained as a body is. God, then, being immaterial and uncircumscribed,
has not place. For He is His own place, filling all things and being above all
things, and Himself maintaining all things. Yet we speak of God having
place and the place of God where His energy becomes manifest. For He
penetrates everything without mixing with it, and imparts to all His energy in
proportion to the fitness and receptive power of each: and by this I mean, a
purity both natural and voluntary. For the immaterial is purer than the
material, and that which is virtuous than that which is linked with vice.
Wherefore by the place of God is meant that which has a greater share in His
energy and grace. For this reason the Heaven is His throne. For in it are the
angels who do His will and are always glorifying Him. For this is His rest
and the earth is His footstool. For in it He dwelt in the flesh among
men. And His sacred flesh has been named the foot of God. The Church, too,
is spoken of as the place of God: for we have set this apart for the
glorifying of God as a sort of consecrated place wherein we also hold converse
with Him. Likewise also the places in which His energy becomes manifest to us,
whether through the flesh or apart from flesh, are spoken of as the places of
God.
But it must be understood that the Deity is indivisible, being everywhere
wholly in His entirety and not divided up part by part like that which has
body, but wholly in everything and wholly above everything. Marg. MS.
Concerning the place of angel and spirit, and concerning the uncircumscribed.
The angel, although not contained in place with figured form as is body,
yet is spoken of as being in place because he has a mental presence and
energises in accordance with his nature, and is not elsewhere but has his
mental limitations there where he energises. For it is impossible to energise
at the same time in different places. For to God alone belongs the power of
energising everywhere
16
at the same time. The angel energises in different places by the quickness of
his nature and the promptness and speed by which he can change his place: but
the Deity, Who is everywhere and above all, energises at the same time in
diverse ways with one simple energy.
Further the soul is bound up with the body. whole with whole and not part
with part: and it is not contained by the body but contains it as fire does
iron, and being in it energises with its own proper energies.
That which is comprehended in place or time or apprehension is
circumscribed: while that which is contained by none of these is
uncircumscribed. Wherefore the Deity alone is uncircumscribed, being without
beginning and without end, and containing all things, and in no wise
apprehended. For He alone is incomprehensible and unbounded, within no
one's knowledge and contemplated by Himself alone. But the angel is
circumscribed alike in time (for His being had commencement) and in place (but
mental space, as we said above) and in apprehension. For they know somehow the
nature of each other and have their bounds perfectly defined by the Creator.
Bodies in short are circumscribed both in beginning and end, and bodily place
and apprehension.
Marg. MS. From various sources concerning
God and the father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And concerning the Word
and the Spirit.
The Deity, then, is quite unchangeable and invariable. For all things
which are not in our hands He hath predetermined by His foreknowledge, each in
its own proper and peculiar time and place. And accordingly the Father
judgeth no one, but hath given all judgment to the Son. For clearly the
Father and the Son and also the Holy Spirit judged as God. But the Son Himself
will descend in the body as man, and will sit on the throne of Glory (for
descending and sitting require circumscribed body), and will judge all the
world in justice.
All things are far apart from God, not in place but in nature. In our
case, thoughtfulness, and wisdom, and counsel come to pass and go away as
states of being. Not so in the case of God: for with Him there is no happening
or ceasing to be: for He is invariable and unchangeable: and it would not be
right to speak of contingency in connection with Him. For goodness is
concomitant with essence. He who longs alway after God, he seeth Him: for God
is in all things. Existing things are dependent on that which is, and nothing
can be unless it is in that which is. God then is mingled with everything,
maintaining their nature: and in His holy flesh the God-Word is made one in
subsistence and is mixed with our nature, yet without confusion.
No one seeth the Father, save the Son and the
Spirit.
The Son is the counsel and wisdom and power of the Father. For one may not
speak of quality in connection with God, from fear of implying that He was a
compound of essence and quality.
The Son is from the Father, and derives from Him all His properties: hence
He cannot do ought of Himself. For He has not energy peculiar to Himself
and distinct from the Father.
That God Who is invisible by nature is made visible by His energies, we
perceive from the organisation and government of the world.
The Son is the Father's image, and the Spirit the Son's, through which
Christ dwelling in man makes him after his own image.
The Holy Spirit is God, being between the unbegotten and the begotten, and
united to the Father through the Son. We speak of the Spirit of God, the
Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the very
Lord, the Spirit of adoption, of truth, of liberty, of wisdom (for He is
the creator of all these): filling all things with essence, maintaining all
things, filling the universe with essence, while yet the universe is not the
measure of His power.
God is everlasting and unchangeable essence, creator of all that is,
adored with pious consideration.
God is also Father, being ever unbegotten, for He was born of no one, but
hath begotten His co-eternal Son: God is likewise Son, being always with the
Father, born of the Father timelessly, everlastingly, without flux or passion,
or separation from Him. God is also Holy Spirit, being sanctifying power,
subsistential, proceeding from the Father without separation, and resting in
the Son, identical in essence with Father and Son.
Word is that which is ever essentially present with the Father. Again,
word is also the natural movement of the mind, according to which it is moved
and thinks and considers,
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being as it were its own light and radiance. Again, word is the thought that
is spoken only within the heart. And again, word is the utterance that is
the messenger of thought. God therefore is Word essential and enhypostatic:
and the other three kinds of word are faculties of the soul, and are not
contemplated as having a proper subsistence of their own. The first of these
is the natural offspring of the mind, ever welling up naturally out of it:
the second is the thought: and the third is the utterance.
The Spirit has various meanings. There is the Holy Spirit: but the powers
of the Holy Spirit are also spoken of as spirits: the good messenger is also
spirit: the demon also is spirit: the soul too is spirit: and sometimes mind
also is spoken of as spirit. Finally the wind is spirit and the air is
spirit.
CHAPTER XIV.
The properties of the divine nature.
Uncreate, without beginning, immortal, infinite, eternal, immaterial,
good, creative, just, enlightening, immutable, passionless, uncircumscribed,
immeasurable, unlimited, undefined, unseen, unthinkable, wanting in nothing,
being His own rule and authority, all-ruling, life-giving, omnipotent, of
infinite power, con-raining and maintaining the universe and making provision
for all: all these and such like attributes the Deity possesses by nature, not
having received them from elsewhere, but Himself imparting all good to His own
creations according to the capacity of each.
The subsistences dwell and are established firmly in one another. For they
are inseparable and cannot part from one another, but keep to their separate
courses within one another, without coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to
each other. For the Son is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in the
Father and the Son: and the Father in the Son and the Spirit, but there is no
coalescence or commingling or confusion And there is one and the same
motion: for there is one impulse and one motion of the three subsistences,
which is not to be observed in any created nature.
Further the divine effulgence and energy, being one anti simple and
indivisible, assuming many varied forms in its goodness among what is
divisible and allotting to each the component parts of its own nature, still
remains simple and is multiplied without division among the divided, and
gathers and converts the divided into its own simplicity. For all things
long after it and have their existence in it. It gives also to all things
being according to their several natures, and it is itself the being of
existing things, the life of living things, the reason of rational beings, the
thought of thinking beings. But it is itself above mind and reason and life
and essence.
Further the divine nature has the property of penetrating all things
without mixing with them and of being itself impenetrable by anything else.
Moreover, there is the property of knowing all things with a simple knowledge
and of seeing all things, simply with His divine, all-surveying, immaterial
eye, both the things of the present, and the things of the past, and the
things of the future, before they come into being. It is also sinless, and
can cast sin out, and bring salvation: and all that it wills, it can
accomplish, but does not will all it could accomplish. For it could destroy
the universe but it does not will so to do.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.
Concerning aeon or age.
HE created the ages Who Himself was. before the ages, Whom the divine
David thus addresses, From age to age Than art. The divine apostle also
says, Through Whom He created the ages.
It must then be understood that the word age has various meanings, for it
denotes many things. The life of each man is called an age. Again, a period of
a thousand years is called an age. Again, the whole course of the present
life is called an age: also the future life, the immortal life after the
resurrection, is spoken of as an age. Again, the word age is used to
denote, not time nor yet a part of time as measured by the movement and course
of the sun, that is to say, composed of days and nights, but the sort of
temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity. For age is
to things eternal just what time is to things temporal.
Seven ages of this world are spoken of, that is, from the creation of
the heaven and earth till the general consummation and resurrection of men.
For there is a partial consummation, viz., the death of each man: but there is
also a general and complete consummation, when the general resurrection of men
will come to pass. And the eighth age is the age to come.
Before the world was formed, when there was as yet no sun dividing day
from night, there was not an age such as could be measured, but there was
the sort of temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity.
And in this sense there is but one age, and God is spoken of as
aiwnios and proaiwnios, for the age or aeon
itself is His creation. For God, Who alone is without beginning, is Himself
the Creator of all things, whether age or any other existing thing. And when I
say God, it is evident that I mean the Father and His Only. begotten Son, our
Lord, Jesus Christ, and His all-holy Spirit, our one God.
But we speak also of ages of ages, inasmuch as the seven ages of the
present world include many ages in the sense of lives of men, and the one age
embraces all the ages, and the present and the future are spoken of as age of
age. Further, everlasting (i.e. aiwnios) life and everlasting
punishment prove that the age or neon to come is unending. For time will
not be counted by days and nights even after the resurrection, but there will
rather be one day with no evening, wherein the Sun of Justice will shine
brightly on the just, but for the sinful there will be night profound and
limitless. In what way then will the period of one thousand years be counted
which, according to Origen, is required for the complete restoration? Of
all the ages, therefore, the sole creator is God Who hath also created the
universe and Who was before the ages.
CHAPTER II.
Concerning the creation.
Since, then, God, Who is good and more than good, did not find
satisfaction in self-contemplation, but in fits exceeding goodness wished
certain things to come into existence which would enjoy His benefits and share
in His goodness, He brought all things out of nothing into being and created
them, both what is invisible and what is visible. Yea, even man, who is a
compound of the visible and the invisible. And it is by thought that He
creates, and thought is the basis of the work, the Word filling it and the
Spirit perfecting it.
CHAPTER IlI
Concerning angels.
He is Himself the Maker and Creator of the angels: for He brought them out
of nothing into being and created them after His own image, an incorporeal
race, a sort of spirit or immaterial fire: in the words of the divine David,
He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire: and He has
described their lightness and the ardour, and
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heat, and keenness and sharpness with which they hunger for God and serve Him,
and how they are borne to the regions above and are quite delivered from all
material thought.
An angel, then, is an intelligent essence, in perpetual motion, with
free-will, incorporeal, ministering to God, having obtained by grace an
immortal nature: and the Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its
essence. But all that we can understand is, that it is incorporeal and
immaterial. For all that is compared with God Who alone is incomparable, we
find to be dense and material. For in reality only the Deity is immaterial and
incorporeal.
The angel's nature then is rational, and intelligent, and endowed with
free-will, change. able in will, or fickle. For all that is created is
changeable, and only that which is un-created is unchangeable. Also all that
is rational is endowed with free-will. As it is, then, rational and
intelligent, it is endowed with free-will: and as it is created, it is
changeable, having power either to abide or progress in goodness, or to turn
towards evil.
It is not susceptible of repentance because it is incorporeal. For it is
owing to the weakness of his body that man comes to have repentance.
It is immortal, not by natures but by grace. For all that has had
beginning comes also to its natural end. But God alone is eternal, or rather,
He is above the Eternal: for He, the Creator of times, is not under the
dominion of time, but above time.
They are secondary intelligent lights derived from that first light which
is without beginning, for they have the power of illumination; they have no
need of tongue or hearing, but without uttering words they communicate to
each other their own thoughts and counsels.
Through the Word, therefore, all the angels were created, and through the
sanctification by the Holy Spirit were they brought to perfection, sharing
each in proportion to his worth and rank in brightness and grace.
They are circumscribed: for when they are in the Heaven they are not on
the earth: and when they are sent by God down to the earth they do not remain
in the Heaven. They are not hemmed in by walls and doors, and bars and seals,
for they are quite unlimited. Unlimited, I repeat, for it is not as they
really are that they reveal themselves to the worthy men to whom God wishes
them to appear, but in a changed form which the beholders are capable of
seeing. For that alone is naturally and strictly unlimited which is
un-created. For every created tiring is limited by God Who created it.
Further, apart from their essence they receive the sanctification from the
Spirit: through the divine grace they prophesy: they have no need of
marriage for they are immortal.
Seeing that they are minds they are in mental places, and are not
circumscribed after the fashion of a body. For they have not a bodily form by
nature, nor are they tended in three dimensions. But to whatever post they may
be assigned, there they are present after the manner of a mind and energise,
and cannot be present and energise in various places at the same time.
Whether they are equals in essence or differ from one another we know not.
God, their Creator, Who knoweth all things, alone knoweth. But they differ
from each other in brightness and position, whether it is that their position
is dependent on their brightness, or their brightness on their position: and
they impart brightness to one another, because they excel one another in rank
and nature. And clearly the higher share their brightness and knowledge
with the lower.
They are mighty and prompt to fulfil the will of the Deity, and their
nature is endowed with such celerity that wherever the Divine glance bids them
there they are straightway found. They are the guardians of the divisions of
the earth: they are set over nations and regions, allotted to them by their
Creator: they govern all our affairs and bring us succour. And the reason
surely is because they are set over us by the divine will and command and are
ever in the vicinity of God.
With difficulty they are moved to evil, yet they are not absolutely
immoveable: but now they are altogether immoveable, not by nature but by grace
and by their nearness to the Only Good.
They behold God according to their capacity, and this is their food.
They are above us for they are incorporeal, and are free of all bodily
passion, yet are not passionless: for the Deity alone is passionless.
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They take different forms at the bidding of their Master, God, and thus
reveal themselves to men and unveil the divine mysteries to them.
They have Heaven for their dwelling-place, and have one duty, to sing
God's praise and carry out His divine will.
Moreover, as that most holy, and sacred, and gifted theologian, Dionysius
the Areopagite, says, All theology, that is to say, the holy Scripture, has
nine different names for the heavenly essences. These essences that divine
master in sacred things divides into three groups, each containing three. And
the first group, he says, consists of those who are in God's presence and are
said to be directly and immediately one with Him, viz., the Seraphim with
their six wings, the many-eyed Cherubim and those that sit in the holiest
thrones. The second group is that of the Dominions, and the Powers, and the
Authorities; and the third, and last, is that of the Rulers and Archangels and
Angels
Some, indeed, like Gregory the Theologian, say that these were before
the creation of other things. He thinks that the angelic and heavenly powers
were first and that thought was their function. Others, again, hold that
they were created after the first heaven was made. But all are agreed that it
was before the foundation of man. For myself, I am in harmony with the
theologian. For it was fitting that the mental essence should be the first
created, and then that which can be perceived, and finally man himself, in
whose being both parts are united.
But those who say that the angels are creators of any kind of essence
whatever are the mouth of their father, the devil. For since they are created
things they are not creators. But He Who creates and provides for and
maintains all things is God, Who alone is uncreate and is praised and
glorified in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
CHAPTER IV.
Concerning the devil and demons.
He who from among these angelic powers was set over the earthly realm,
and into whose hands God committed the guardianship of the earth, was not
made wicked in nature but was good, and made for good ends, and received from
his Creator no trace whatever of evil in himself. But he did not sustain the
brightness and the honour which the Creator had bestowed on him, and of his
free choice was changed from what was in harmony to what was at variance with
his nature, and became roused against God Who created him, and determined to
rise in rebellion against Him: and he was the first to depart from good and
become evil. For evil is nothing else than absence of goodness, just as
darkness also is absence of light. For goodness is the light of the mind, and,
similarly, evil is the darkness of the mind. Light, therefore, being the work
of the Creator and being made good (for God saw all that He made, and behold
they were exceeding good) produced darkness at His free-will. But along
with him an innumerable host of angels subject to him were torn away and
followed him and shared in his fall. Wherefore, being of the same nature as
the angels, they became wicked, turning away at their own free choice from
good to evil
Hence they have no power or strength against any one except what God in
His dispensation hath conceded to them, as for instance, against Job and
those swine that are mentioned in the Gospels. But when God has made the
concession they do prevail, and are changed and transformed into any form
whatever in which they wish to appear.
Of the future both the angels of God and the demons are alike ignorant:
yet they make predictions. God reveals the future to the angels and commands
them to prophesy, and so what they say comes to pass. But the demons also make
predictions, sometimes because they see what is happening at a distance, and
sometimes merely making guesses: hence much that they say is false and they
should not be believed, even although they do often, in the way we have said,
tell what is true. Besides they know the Scriptures.
All wickedness, then, and all impure passions are the work of their mind.
But while the liberty to attack man has been granted to them, they have not
the strength to over master any one: for we have it in our power to receive or
not to receive the attack. Wherefore there has been prepared for the
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devil and his demons, and those who follow him, fire unquenchable and
everlasting punishment.
Note, further, that what in the case of man is death is a fall in the case
of angels. For after the fall there is no possibility of repentance for them,
just as after death there is for men no repentance.
CHAPTER V.
Concerning the visible creation.
Our God Himself, Whom we glorify as Three in One, created the heaven and
the earth and all that they contain, and brought all things out of nothing
into being: some He made out of no pre-existing basis of matter, such as
heaven, earth, air, fire, water: and the rest out of these elements that He
had created, such as living creatures, plants, seeds. For these are made up of
earth, and water, and air, and fire, at the bidding of the Creator.
CHAPTER VI.
Concerning the Heaven.
The heaven is the circumference of things created, both visible and
invisible. For within its boundary are included and marked off both the mental
faculties of the angels and all the world of sense. But the Deity alone is
uncircumscribed, filling all things, and surrounding all things, and hounding
all things, for He is above all things, and has created all things.
Since, therefore, the Scripture speaks of heaven, and heaven of
heaven, and heavens of heavens, and the blessed Paul says that he was
snatched away to the third heaven, we say that in the cosmogony of the
universe we accept the creation of a heaven which the foreign philosophers,
appropriating the views of Moses, call a starless sphere. But further, God
called the firmament also heaven, which He commanded to be in the midst of
the waters, setting it to divide the waters that are above the firmament from
the waters that are below the firmament. And its nature, according to the
divine Basilius, who is versed in the mysteries of divine Scripture, is
delicate as smoke. Others, however, hold that it is watery in nature, since it
is set in the midst of the waters: others say it is composed of the four
elements: and lastly, others speak of it as a filth body, distinct from the
four elements.
Further, some have thought that the heaven encircles the universe and has
the form of a sphere, and that everywhere it is the highest point, and that
the centre of the space enclosed by it is the lowest part: and, further, that
those bodies that are light and airy are allotted by the Creator the upper
region: while those that are heavy and tend to descend occupy the lower
region, which is the middle. The element, then, that is lightest and most
inclined to soar upwards is fire, and hence they hold that its position is
immediately after the heaven, and they call it ether, and after it comes the
lower air. But earth and water, which are heavier and have more of a downward
tendency, are suspended in the centre. Therefore, taking them in the reverse
order, we have in the lowest situation earth and water: but water is lighter
than earth, and hence is more easily set in motion: above these on all hands,
like a covering; is the circle of air, and all round the air is the circle of
ether, and outside air is the circle of the heaven.
Further, they say that the heaven moves in a circle and so compresses all
that is within it, that they remain firm and not liable to fall asunder.
They say also that there are seven zones of the heaven, one higher than
the other. And its nature, they say, is of extreme fineness, like that of
smoke, and each zone contains one of the planets. For there are said to be
seven planets: Sol, Luna, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn. But
sometimes Venus is called Lucifer and sometimes Vesper. These are called
planets because their movements are the reverse of those of the heaven. For
while the heaven and all other stars move from east to west, these alone move
from west to east. And this can easily be seen in the case of the moon, which
moves each evening a little backwards.
All, therefore, who hold that the heaven is in the form of a sphere, say
that it is equally removed and distant from the earth at all points, whether
above, or sideways, or below. And by 'below' and ' sideways' I mean all that
comes within the range of our senses. For it follows from what has been said,
that the heaven occupies the whole of the upper region and the earth the whole
of the lower. They say, besides, that the heaven encircles the earth in the
manner of a sphere, and bears along with it in its most rapid revolutions sun,
moon and stars, and that when the sun is over the earth it becomes day there,
and when it is under the earth it is
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night. And, again, when the sun goes under the earth it is night here, but day
yonder.
Others have pictured the heaven as a hemisphere. This idea is suggested by
these words of David, the singer of God, Who stretchest out the heavens like a
curtain, by which word he clearly means a tent: and by these from the
blessed Isaiah, Who hath established the heavens like a vault: and also
because when the sun, moon, and stars set they make a circuit round the earth
from west to north, and so reach once more the east. Still, whether it is
this way or that, all things have been made and established by the divine
command, and have the divine will and counsel for a foundation that cannot be
moved. For He Himself spoke and they were made: He Himself commanded and they
were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever: He hath made a
decree which will not pass.
The heaven of heaven, then, is the first heaven which is above the
firmament. So here we have two heavens, for God called the firmament also
Heaven. And it is customary in the divine Scripture to speak of the air
also as heavens, because we see it above us. Bless Him, it says, all ye birds
of the heaven, meaning of the air. For it is the air and not the heaven that
is the region in which birds fly. So here we have three heavens, as the divine
Apostle said. But if you should wish to look upon the seven zones as seven
heavens there is no injury done to the word of truth. For it is usual in the
Hebrew tongue to speak of heaven in the plural, that is, as heavens, and when
a Hebrew wishes to say heaven of heaven, he usually says heavens of heavens,
and this clearly means heaven of heaven, which is above the firmament, and
the waters which are above the heavens, whether it is the air and the
firmament, or the seven zones of the firmament, or the firmament itself which
are spoken of in the plural as heavens according to the Hebrew custom.
All things, then, which are brought into existence are subject to
corruption according to the law of their nature, and so even the heavens
themselves are corruptible. But by the grace of God they are maintained and
preserved. Only the Deity, however, is by nature without beginning and
without end. Wherefore it has been said, They will perish, but Thou dost
endure: nevertheless, the heavens will not be utterly destroyed. For they
will wax old and be wound round as a covering, and will be changed, and there
will be a new heaven and a new earth.
For the great part the heaven is greater than the earth, but we need not
investigate the essence of the heaven, for it is quite beyond our knowledge.
It must not be supposed that the heavens or the luminaries are endowed
with life. For they are inanimate and insensible. So that when the
divine Scripture saith, Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, it
is the angels in heaven and the men on earth that are invited to rejoice. For
the Scripture is familiar with the figure of personification, and is wont to
speak of inanimate things as though they were animate: for example, The sea
saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back. And again, What ailed thee, O thou
sea, that thou fleddest? thou, O Jordan, that thou was driven back?
Mountains, too, and hills are asked the reason of their leaping in the same
way as we are wont to say, the city was gathered together, when we do not mean
the buildings, but the inhabitants of the city: again, the heavens declare the
glory of God, does not mean that they send forth a voice that can be heard
by bodily ears, but that from their own greatness they bring before our minds
the power of the Creator: and when we contemplate their beauty we praise the
Maker as the Master-Craftsman.
CHAPTER VII.
Concerning light, fire, the luminaries,
sun, moon and stars.
Fire is one of the four elements, light and with a greater tendency to
ascend than the others. It has the power of burning and also of giving light,
and it was made by the Creator on the first day. For the divine Scripture
says, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Fire is not a
different thing from what light is, as some maintain. Others again hold that
this fire of the universe is above the air and call it ether. In the
beginning, then, that is to say on the first day, God created light, the
ornament and glory of the whole visible creation. For take away light and all
things remain in undistinguishable darkness, incapable of displaying their
native beauty. And God called the light day, but the darkness
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He called night. Further, darkness is not any essence, but an accident: for
it is simply absence of light. The air, indeed, has not light in its
essence. It was, then, this very absence of light from the air that God
called darkness: and it is not the essence of air that is darkness, but the
absence of light which clearly is rather an accident than an essence. And,
indeed, it was not night, but day, that was first named, so that day is first
and after that comes night. Night, therefore, follows day. And from the
beginning of day till the next day is one complete period of day and night.
For the Scripture says, And the evening and the morning were one day.
When, therefore, in the first three days the light was poured forth and
reduced at the divine command, both day and night came to pass. But on the
fourth day God created the great luminary, that is, the sun, to have rule and
authority over the day: for it is by it that day is made: for it is day
when the sun is above the earth, and the duration of a day is the course of
the sun over the earth from its rising till its setting. And He also created
the lesser luminaries, that is, the moon and the stars, to have rule and
authority over the night, and to give light by night. For it is night when
the sun is under the earth, and the duration of night is the course of the sun
under the earth from its rising till its setting. The moon, then, and the
stars were set to lighten the night: not that they are in the daytime under
the earth, for even by day stars are in the heaven over the earth but the sun
conceals both the stars and the moon by the greater brilliance of its light
and prevents them from being seen.
On these luminaries the Creator bestowed the first-created light: not
because He was in need of other light, but that that light might not remain
idle. For a luminary is not merely light, but a vessel for containing
light.
There are, we are told, seven planets amongst these luminaries, and these
move in a direction opposite to that of the heaven: hence the name planets.
For, while they say that the heaven moves from east to west, the planets move
from west to east; but the heaven bears the seven planets along with it by its
swifter motion. Now these are the names of the seven planets: Luna, Mercury,
Venus, Sol, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and in each zone of heaven is, we are told,
one of these seven planets:
In the first and highest Saturn
In the second Jupiter
In the third Mars
In the fourth Sol ]
In the fifth Venus
In the sixth Mercury
In the seventh and lowest Luna
The course which the Creator appointed for them to run is unceasing and
remaineth fixed as He established them. For the divine David says, The moan
and the stars which Thou establishedst, and by the word 'establishedst,' he
referred to the fixity and unchangeableness of the order and series granted to
them by God. For He appointed them for seasons, and signs, and days and years.
It is through the Sun that the four seasons are brought about. And the first
of these is spring: for in it God created all things, and even down to the
present time its presence is evidenced by the bursting of the flowers into
bud, and this is the equinoctial period, since day and night each consist of
twelve hours. It is caused by the sun rising in the middle, and is mild and
increases the blood, and is warm and moist, and holds a position midway
between winter and summer, being warmer and drier than winter, but colder and
moister than summer. This season lasts from March 21st till June 24th. Next,
when the rising of the sun moves towards more northerly parts, the season of
summer succeeds, which has a place midway between spring and autumn, combining
the warmth of spring with the dryness of autumn: for it is dry and warm, and
increases the yellow bile. In it falls the longest day, which has fifteen
hours, and the shortest night of all, having only nine hours. This season
lasts from June 24th till September 25th. Then when the sun again returns to
the middle, autumn takes the place of summer. It has a medium amount of cold
and heat, dryness and moisture, and holds a place midway between summer and
winter, combining the dryness of summer with the cold of winter. For it is
cold and dry, and increases the black bile. This season, again, is
equinoctial, both day and night consisting of twelve hours, and it lasts from
September 25th till December 25th. And when the rising of the sun sinks to its
smallest and lowest point, i.e. the south, winter is reached, with its cold
and moisture. It occupies a place midway between autumn and spring, combining
the cold of autumn
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and the moisture of spring. In it falls the shortest day, which has only nine
hours, and the longest night, which has fifteen: and it lasts from December
25th till March 21st. For the Creator made this wise provision that we should
not pass from the extreme of cold, or heat, or dryness, or moisture, to the
opposite extreme, and thus incur grievous maladies. For reason itself teaches
us the danger of sudden changes.
So, then, it is the sun that makes the seasons, and through them the year:
it likewise makes the days and nights, the days when it rises and is above the
earth, and the nights when it sets below the earth: and it bestows on the
other luminaries, both moon and stars, their power of giving forth light.
Further, they say that there are in the heaven twelve signs made by the
stars, and that these move in an opposite direction to the sun and moon, and
the other five planets, and that the seven planets pass across these twelve
signs. Further, the sun makes a complete month in each sign and traverses the
twelve signs in the same number of months. These, then, are the names of the
twelve signs and their respective months:--
The Ram, which receives the sun on the
21st of March.
The Bull, on the 23rd of April.
The Twins, on the 24th of May.
The Crab, on the 24th of June.
The Virgin, on the 25th of July.
The Scales, on the 25th of September.
The Scorpion,on the 25th of October.
The Archer, on the 25th of November.
Capricorn, on the 25th of December.
Aquarius, on the 25th of January.
The Fish, on the 24th of February.
But the moon traverses the twelve signs each month, since it occupies a
lower position and travels through the signs at a quicker rate. For if you
draw one circle within another, the inner one will be found to be the lesser:
and so it is that owing to the moon occupying a lower position its course is
shorter and is sooner completed
Now the Greeks declare that all our affairs are controlled by the rising
and setting and collision of these stars, viz., the sun and moon: for it is
with these matters that astrology has to do. But we hold that we get from them
signs of rain and drought, cold and heat, moisture and dryness, and of the
various winds, and so forth, but no sign whatever as to our actions. For we
have been created with free wills by our Creator and are masters over our own
actions. Indeed, if all our actions depend on the courses of the stars, all we
do is done of necessity: and necessity precludes either virtue or vice. But
if we possess neither virtue nor vice, we do not deserve praise or punishment,
and God, too, will turn out to be unjust, since He gives good things to some
and afflicts others. Nay, He will no longer continue to guide or provide for
His own creatures, if all things are carried and swept along in the grip of
necessity. And the faculty of reason will be superfluous to us: for if we are
not masters of any of our actions, deliberation is quite superfluous. Reason,
indeed, is granted to us solely that we might take counsel, and hence all
reason implies freedom of will.
And, therefore, we hold that the stars are not the causes of the things
that occur, nor of the origin of things that come to pass, nor of the
destruction of those things that perish. They are rather signs of showers and
changes of air. But, perhaps, some one may say that though they are not the
causes of wars, yet they are signs of them. And, in truth, the quality of the
air which is produced by sun, and moon, and stars, produces in various ways
different temperaments, and habits, and dispositions. But the habits are
amongst the things that we have in our own hands, for it is reason that
rules, and directs, and changes them.
It often happens, also, that comets arise. These are signs of the death of
kings, and they are not any of the stars that were made in the beginning,
but are formed at the same tithe by divine command and again dissolved. And
so not even that star which the Magi saw at the birth of the Friend and
Saviour of man, our Lord, Who became flesh for our sake, is of the number of
those that were made in the beginning. And this is evidently the case because
sometimes its course was from east to west, and sometimes from north to south;
at one moment it was hidden, and at the next it was revealed: which is quite
out of harmony with the order and nature of the stars.
It must be understood, then, that the moon derives its light from the sun;
not that God was unable to grant it light of its own, but in order that rhythm
and order may be unimpressed upon nature, one part ruling, the other being
ruled, and that we might thus be taught to live in community and to share
25
our possessions with one another, and to be under subjection, first to our
Maker and Creator, our God and Master, and then also to the rulers set in
authority over us by Him: and not to question why this man is ruler and not I
myself, but to welcome all that comes from God in a gracious and reasonable
spirit.
The sun and the moon, moreover, suffer eclipse, and this demonstrates the
folly of those who worship the creature in place of the Creator, and
teaches us how changeable and alterable all things are For all things are
changeable save God, and whatever is changeable is liable to corruption in
accordance with the laws of its own nature.
Now the cause of the eclipse of the sun is that the body of the moon is
interposed like a partition-wall and casts a shadow, and prevents the light
from being shed down on us: and the extent of the eclipse is proportional
to the size of the moon's body that is found to conceal the sun. But do not
marvel that the moon's body is the smaller. For many declare that the sun is
many times larger even than the earth, and the holy Fathers say that it is
equal to the earth: yet often a small cloud, or even a small hill or a wall
quite conceals it.
The eclipse of the moon, on the other hand, is due to the shadow the earth
casts on it when it is a fifteen days' moon and the sun and moon happen to be
at the opposite poles of the highest circle, the sun being under the earth and
the moon above the earth. For the earth casts a shadow and the sun's light is
prevented from illuminating the moon, and therefore it is then eclipsed.
It should be understood that the moon was made full by the Creator, that
is, a fifteen days' moon: for it was fitting that it should be made
complete. But on the fourth day, as we said, the sun was created. Therefore
the moon was eleven days in advance of the sun, because from the fourth to the
fifteenth day there are eleven days. Hence it happens that in each year the
twelve months of the moon contain eleven days fewer than the twelve months of
the sun. For the twelve months of the sun contain three hundred and sixty-five
and a quarter days, and so because the quarter becomes a whole, in four years
an extra day is completed, which is called bis-sextile. And that year has
three hundred and sixty-six days. The years of the moon, on the other hand,
have three hundred and fifty-four days. For the moon wanes from the time of
its origin, or renewal, till it is fourteen and three-quarter days' old, and
proceeds to wane till the twenty-ninth and a half day, when it is completely
void of light And then when it is once more connected with the sun it is
reproduced and renewed, a memorial of our resurrection. Thus in each year the
moon gives away eleven days to the sun, and so in three years the intercalary
month of the Hebrews arises, and that year comes to consist of thirteen
months, owing to the addition of these eleven days.
It is evident that both sun and moon and stars are compound and liable to
corruption according to the laws of their various natures. But of their nature
we are ignorant. Some, indeed, say that fire when deprived of matter is
invisible, and thus, that when it is quenched it vanishes altogether. Others,
again, say that when it is quenched it is transformed into air.
The circle of the zodiac has an oblique motion and is divided into twelve
sections called zodia, or signs: each sign has three divisions of ten each,
i.e. thirty divisions, and each division has sixty very minute subdivisions.
The heaven, therefore, has three hundred and sixty-five degrees: the
hemisphere above the earth and that below the earth each having one hundred
and eighty degrees.
The abodes of the planets.
The Ram and the Scorpion are the abode of Mars: the Bull and the Scales,
of Venus: the Twins and the Virgin, of Mercury: the Crab, of the Moon: the
Lion, of the Sun: the Archer and the Fish, of Jupiter: Capricorn and Aquarius,
of Saturn.
Their altitudes.
The Ram has the altitude of the Sun: the Bull, of the Moon: the Crab, of
Jupiter: the Virgin, of Mars: the Scales, of Saturn: Capricorn, of Mercury:
the Fish, of Venus.
The phases of the moon.
It is in conjunction whenever it is in the same degree as the sun: it is
born when it is fifteen degrees distant from the sun: it rises when it is
crescent-shaped, and this occurs twice, at which times it is sixty degrees
distant from the sun: it is half-full twice, when it is ninety degrees from
the sun: twice it is gibbous, when it is one hundred
26
and twenty degrees from the sun: it is twice a full moon, giving full light,
when it is a hundred and fifty degrees from the sun: it is a complete moon
when it is a hundred and eighty degrees distant from the sun. We say twice,
because these phases occur both when the moon waxes and when it wanes. In two
and a half days the moon traverses each sign.
CHAPTER VIII.
Concerning air and winds.
Air is the most subtle element, and is moist and warm: heavier, indeed,
than fire: but lighter than earth and water: it is the cause of respiration
and voice: it is colourless, that is, it has no colour by nature: it is clear
and transparent, for it is capable of receiving light: it ministers to three
of our senses, for it is by its aid that we see, hear and smell: it has the
power likewise of receiving heat and cold, dryness and moisture, and its
movements in space are up, down, within, without, to the right and to the
left, and the cyclical movement.
It does not derive its light from itself, but is illuminated by sun, and
moon, and stars, and fire. And this is just what the Scripture means when it
says, And darkeness was upon the deep; for its object is to shew that the
air has not derived its light from itself, but that it is quite a different
essence from light.
And wind is a movement of air: or wind is a rush of air which changes its
name as it changes the place whence it rushes.
Its place is in the air. For place is the circumference of a body. But
what is it that surrounds bodies but air? There are, moreover, different
places in which the movement of air originates, and from these the winds get
their names. There are in all twelve winds. It is said that air is just fire
after it has been extinguished, or the vapour of heated water. At all events,
in its own special nature the air is warm, but it becomes cold owing to the
proximity of water and earth, so that the lower parts of it are cold, and the
higher
warm.
These then are the winds: Caecias, or Meses, arises in the region where
the sun rises in summer. Subsolanus, where the sun rises at the equinoxes.
Eurus, where it rises in winter. Africus, where it sets in winter. Favonius,
where it sets at the equinoxes, and Corns, or Olympias, or Iapyx, where it
sets in summer. Then come Auster and Aquilo, whose blasts oppose one another.
Between Aquilo and Caecias comes Boreas: and tween Eurus and Auster, Phoenix
or Euronotus; between Auster and Africus, Libonotus or Leucouotus: and lastly,
between Aquilo and Corus, Thrascias, or Cercius, as it is called by the
inhabitants of that region.
[These, then, are the races which dwell at the ends of the world:
beside Subsolanus are the Bactriani: beside Eurus, the Indians: beside
Phoenix, the Red Sea and Ethiopia: beside Libonotus, the Garamantes, who are
beyond Systis: beside Africus, the Ethiopians and the Western Mauri: beside
Favonius, the columns of Hercules and the beginnings of Libya and Europe:
beside Corus, Iberia, which is now called Spain: beside Thrascia, the Gauls
and the neighbouring nations: beside Aquilo, the Scythians who are beyond
Thrace: beside Boreas, Pontus, Maeotis and the Sarmatae: beside Caecias, the
Caspian Sea and the Sacai.]
CHAPTER IX.
Concerning the waters.
Water also is one of the four elements, the most beautiful of God's
creations. It is both wet and cold, heavy, and with a tendency to descend, and
flows with great readiness. It is this the Holy Scripture has in view when it
says, And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. For the deep is nothing else than a huge
quantity of water whose limit man cannot comprehend. In the beginning, indeed,
the water lay all over the surface of the earth. And first God created the
firmament to divide the water above the firmament from the water below the
firmament. For in the midst of the sea of waters the firmament was established
at the Master's decree. And out of it God bade the firmament arise, and it
arose. Now for what reason was it that God placed water above the firmament?
It was because of the intense burning heat of the sun and ether. For
immediately under the firmament is spread out the ether, and the sun and
moon and stars are in the firmament, and so if water had not been put above it
the firmament would have been consumed by the heat.
Next, God bade the waters be gathered together into one mass. But when
the Scrip
27
ture speaks of one mass it evidently does not mean that they were gathered
together into one place: for immediately it goes on to say, And the gatherings
of the waters He called seas: but the words signify that the waters were
separated off in a body from the earth into distinct groups. Thus the waters
were gathered together into their special collections and the dry land was
brought to view. And hence arose the two seas that surround Egypt, for it lies
between two seas. These collections contain various seas and mountains, and
islands, and promontories, and harbours, and surround various bays and
beaches, and coastlands. For the word beach is used when the nature of the
tract is sandy, while coastland signifies that it is rocky and deep close into
shore, getting deep all on a sudden In like manner arose also the sea that
lies where the sun rises, the name of which is the Indian Sea: also the
northern sea called the Caspian. The lakes also were formed in the same
manner.
The ocean, then, is like a river encircling the whole earth, and I think
it is concerning it that the divine Scripture says, A river went ant of
Paradise. The water of the ocean is sweet and potable. It is it that
furnishes the seas with water which, because it stays a long time in the seas
and stands unmoved, becomes bitter: for the sun and the waterspouts draw up
always the finer parts. Thus it is that clouds are formed and showers take
place, because the filtration makes the water sweet.
This is parted into four first divisions, that is to say, into four
rivers. The name of the first is Pheison, which is the Indian Ganges; the name
of the second is Geon, which is the Nile flowing from Ethiopia down to Egypt:
the name of the third is Tigris, and the name of the fourth is Euphrates.
There are also very many other mighty rivers of which some empty themselves
into the sea and others are used up in the earth. Thus the whole earth is
bored through and mined, and has, so to speak, certain veins through which it
sends up in springs the water it has received from the sea. The water of the
spring thus depends for its character on the quality of the earth. For the sea
water is filtered and strained through the earth and thus becomes sweet. But
if the place from which the spring arises is bitter or briny, so also is the
water that is sent up. Moreover, it often happens that water which has been
closely pent up bursts through with violence, and thus it becomes warm. And
this is why they send forth waters that are naturally warm.
By the divine decree hollow places are made in the earth, and so into
these the waters are gathered. And this is how mountains are formed. God,
then, bade the first water produce living breath, since it was to be by water
and the Holy Spirit that moved upon the waters in the beginning, that man
was to be renewed. For this is what the divine Basilius said: Therefore it
produced living creatures, small and big; whales and dragons, fish that swim
in the waters, and feathered fowl. The birds form a link between water and
earth and air: for they have their origin in the water, they live on the earth
and they fly in the air. Water, then, is the most beautiful element and rich
in usefulness, and purifies from all filth, and not only from the filth of the
body but from that of the soul, if it should have received the grace of the
Spirit.
Concerning the seas.
The AEgean Sea is received by the Hellespont, which ends at Abydos and
Sestus: next, the Propontis, which ends at Chalcedon and Byzantium: here are
the straits where the Pontus arises. Next, the lake of Maeotis.
Again, from the beginning of Europe and Libya it is the Iberian Sea, which
extends from the pillars of Hercules to the Pyrenees mountain. Then the
Ligurian Sea as far as the borders of Etruria. Next, the Sardinian Sea, which
is above Sardinia and inclines downwards to Libya. Then the Etrurian Sea,
which begins at the extreme limits of Liguria and ends at Sicily. Then the
Libyan Sea. Then the Cretan, and Sicilian, and Ionian, and Adriatic Seas, the
last of which is poured out of the Sicilian Sea, which is called the
Corinthian Gulf, or the Alcyonian Sea. The Saronic Sea is surrounded by the
Sunian and Scylaean Seas. Next is the Myrtoan Sea and the Icarian Sea, in
which are also the Cyclades. Then the Carpathian, and Pamphylian, and Egyptian
Seas: and, thereafter, above the Icarian Sea, the AEgean Sea pours itself out.
There is also the coast of Europe from the mouth of the Tanais River to the
Pillars of Hercules, 609,709 stadia: and that of Libya from the Tigris, as far
as the mouth of the Canobus, 209,252
28
stadia: and lastly, that of Asia from the Canobus to the Tanais, which,
including the Gulf, is 4,111 stadia. And so the full extent of the seaboard of
the world that we inhabit with the gulfs is 1,309,072 stadia.
CHAPTER X.
Concerning earth and its products.
The earth is one of the four elements, dry, cold, heavy, motionless,
brought into being by God, out of nothing on the first day. For in the
beginning, he said, God created the heaven and the earths: but the seat and
foundation of the earth no man has been able to declare. Some, indeed, hold
that its seat is the waters: thus the divine David says, To Him Who
established the earth on the waters. Others place it in the air. Again some
other says, fare Who hangeth the earth on nothing. And, again, David, the
singer of God, says, as though the representative of God, I bear up the
pillars of it, meaning by "pillars" the force that sustains it. Further,
the expression, He hath rounded it upon the seas, shews clearly that the
earth is on all hands surrounded with water. But whether we grant that it is
established on itself, or on air or on water, or on nothing, we must not turn
aside from reverent thought, but must admit that all things are sustained and
preserved by the power of the Creator.
In the beginning, then, as the Holy Scripture says, it was hidden
beneath the waters, and was unwrought, that is to say, not beautified. But at
God's bidding, places to hold the waters appeared, and then the mountains came
into existence, and at the divine command the earth received its own proper
adornment, and was dressed in all manner of herbs and plants, and on these, by
the divine decree, was bestowed the power of growth and nourishment, and of
producing seed to generate their like. Moreover, at the bidding of the Creator
it produced also all manner of kinds of living creatures, creeping things, and
wild beasts, and cattle. All, indeed, are for the seasonable use of man: but
of them some are for food, such as stags, sheep, deer, and such like: others
for service such as camels, oxen, horses, asses, and such like: and others for
enjoyment, such as apes, and among birds, jays and parrots, and such like.
Again, amongst plants and herbs some are fruit bearing, others edible, others
fragrant and flowery, given to us for our enjoyment, for example, the rose and
such like, and others for the healing of disease. For there is not a single
animal or plant in which the Creator has not implanted some form of energy
capable of being used to satisfy man's needs. For He Who knew all things
before they were, saw that in the future man would go forward in the strength
of his own will, and would be subject to corruption, and, therefore, He
created all things for his seasonable use, alike those in the firmament, and
those on the earth, and those in the waters.
Indeed, before the transgression all things were under his power. For God
set him as ruler over all things on the earth and in the waters. Even the
serpent was accustomed to man, and approached him more readily than it did
other living creatures, and held intercourse with him with delightful
motions. And hence it was through it that the devil, the prince of evil,
made his most wicked suggestion to our first parents. Moreover, the earth
of its own accord used to yield fruits, for the benefit of the animals that
were obedient to man, and there was neither rain nor tempest on the earth. But
after the transgression, when he was compared with the unintelligent cattle
and became like to them, after he had contrived that in him irrational
desire should have rule over reasoning mind and had become disobedient to the
Master's command, the subject creation rose up against him whom the Creator
had appointed to be ruler: and it was appointed for him that he should till
with sweat the earth from which he had been taken.
But even now wild beasts are not without their uses, for, by the terror
they cause, they bring man to the knowledge of his Creator and lead him to
call upon His name. And, further, at the transgression the thorn sprung out of
the earth in accordance with the Lord's express declaration and was conjoined
with the pleasures of the rose, that it might lead us to remember the
transgression on account of which the earth was condemned to bring forth for
us thorns and prickles.
That this is the case is made worthy of belief from the fact that their
endurance is secured by the word of the Lord, saying, Be fruitful and
multiply, and replenish the earth.
Further, some hold that the earth is in the form of a sphere, others that
it is in that of a cone. At all events it is much smaller
29
than the heaven, and suspended almost like a point in its midst. And it will
pass away and be changed. But blessed is the man who inherits the earth
promised to the meek.
For the earth that is to be the possession of the holy is immortal. Who,
then, can fitly marvel at the boundless and incomprehensible wisdom of the
Creator? Or who can render sufficient thanks to the Giver of so many
blessings ?
[There are also provinces, or prefectures, of the earth which we
recognise: Europe embraces thirty four, and the huge continent of Asia has
forty-eight of these provinces, and twelve canons as they are called.]
CHAPTER XI.
Concerning Paradise.
Now when God was about to fashion man oat of the visible and invisible
creation in His own image and likeness to reign as king and ruler over all the
earth and all that it contains, He first made for him, so to speak, a kingdom
in which he should live a life of happiness and prosperity. And this is the
divine paradise, planted in Eden by the hands of God, a very storehouse of
joy and gladness of heart (for "Eden" means luxuriousness). Its site is
higher in the East than all the earth: it is temperate and the air that
surrounds it is the rarest and purest: evergreen plants are its pride, sweet
fragrances abound, it is flooded with light, and in sensuous freshness and
beauty it transcends imagination: in truth the place is divine, a meet home
for him who was created in God's image: no creature lacking reason made its
dwelling there but man alone, the work of God's own hands.
In its midst God planted the tree of life and the tree of knowledge.
The tree of knowledge was for trial, and proof, and exercise of man's
obedience and disobedience: and hence it was named the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, or else it was because to those who partook of it was given
power to know their own nature. Now this is a good thing for those who are
mature, but an evil thing for the immature and those whose appetites are too
strong, being like solid food to tender babes still in need of milk. For
our Creator, God, did not intend us to be burdened with care and troubled
about many things, nor to take thought about, or make provision for, our own
life. But this at length was Adam's fate: for he tasted and knew that he was
naked and made a girdle round about him: for he took fig-leaves and girded
himself about. But before they took of the fruit, They were both naked. Adam
and Eve, and were not ashamed. For God meant that we should be thus free
from passion, and this is indeed the mark of a mind absolutely void of
passion. Yea, He meant us further to be free from care and to have but one
work to perform, to sing as do the angels, without ceasing or intermission,
the praises of the Creator, and to delight in contemplation of Him and to cast
all our care on Him. This is what the Prophet David proclaimed to us when He
said, Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He will sustain thee. And, again, in
the Gospels, Christ taught His disciples saying, Take no thought for your life
what ye shall eat, nor for your body what ye shall put on. And further,
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you. And to Martha He said, Martha, Martha, thou art
careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary
hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her,
meaning, clearly, sitting at His feet and listening to His words.
The tree of life, on the other hand, was a tree having the energy that is
the cause of life, or to be eaten only by those who deserve to live and are
not subject to death. Some, indeed, have pictured Paradise as a realm of
sense, and others as a realm of mind. But it seems to me, that, just as man
is a creature, in whom we find both sense and mind blended together, in like
manner also man's most holy temple combines the properties of sense and mind,
and has this twofold expression: for, as we said, the life in the body is
spent in the most divine and lovely region, while the life in the soul is
passed in a place far more sublime and of more surpassing beauty, where God
makes His home, and where He wraps man about as with a glorious garment, and
robes him in His grace, and delights and sustains him like an angel with the
sweetest of all fruits, the contemplation of Himself. Verily it has been filly
named the tree of life. For since the
30
life is not cut short by death, the sweetness of the divine participation is
imparted to those who share it. And this is, in truth, what God meant by every
tree, saying, Of every tree in Paradise thou mayest freely eat. For the
'every' is just Himself in Whom and through Whom the universe is maintained.
But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was for the distinguishing
between the many divisions of contemplation, and this is just the knowledge of
one's own nature, which, indeed, is a good thing for those who are mature and
advanced in divine contemplation (being of itself a proclamation of the
magnificence of God), and have no fear of falling, because they have
through time come to have the habit of such contemplation, but it is an evil
tiring to those still young and with stronger appetites, who by reason of
their insecure bold on the better part, and because as yet they are not firmly
established in the seat of the one and only good, are apt to be torn and
dragged away from this to the care of their own body.
Thus, to my thinking, the divine Paradise is twofold, and the God-inspired
Fathers handed down a true message, whether they taught this doctrine or that.
Indeed, it is possible to understand by every tree the knowledge of the divine
power derived from created things. In the words of the divine Apostle, For the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made. But of all these thoughts and
speculations the sublimest is that dealing with ourselves, that is, with our
own composition. As the divine David says, The knowledge of Thee from me,
that is from my constitution, was made a wonder. But for the reasons we
have already mentioned, such knowledge was dangerous for Adam who had been so
lately created.
The tree of life too may be understood as that more divine thought that
has its origin in the world of sense, and the ascent through that to the
originating and constructive cause of all. And this was the name He gave to
every tree, implying fulness and indivisibility, and conveying only
participation in what is good. But by the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, we are to understand that sensible and pleasurable food which, sweet
though it seems, in reality brings him who partakes of it into communion with
evil. For God says, Of every tree in Paradise thou mayest freely eat. It
is, me-thinks, as if God said, Through all My creations thou art to ascend to
Me thy creator, and of all the fruits titan mayest pluck one, that is, Myself
who ant the true life: let every thing bear for thee the fruit of life, and
let participation in Me be the support of your own being. For in this way than
wilt be immortal. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely
die s. For sensible food is by nature for the replenishing of that which
gradually wastes away and it passes into the drought and perisheth: and he
cannot remain incorruptible who partakes of sensible food.
CHAPTER XII.
Concerning Man.
IN this way, then, God brought into existence mental essence, by which
I mean, angels and all the heavenly orders. For these clearly have a mental
and incorporeal nature: "incorporeal" I mean in comparison with the denseness
of matter. For the Deity alone in reality is immaterial and incorporeal. But
further He created in the same way sensible essence, that is heaven and
earth and the intermediate region; and so He created both the kind of being
that is of His own nature (for the nature that has to do with reason is
related to God, and apprehensible by mind alone), and the kind which, inasmuch
as it clearly falls under the province of the senses, is separated from Him by
the greatest interval. And it was also fit that there should be a mixture of
both kinds of being, as a token of still greater wisdom and of the opulence of
the Divine expenditure as regards natures, as Gregorius, the expounder of
God's being and ways, puts it, and to be a sort of connecting link between the
visible and invisible natures. And by the word "fit" I mean, simply that it
was an evidence of the Creator's will, for that will is the law and ordinance
most meet, and no one will say to his Maker, "Why hast Thou so fashioned me?"
For the potter is able at his will to make vessels of various patterns out of
his clay, as a proof of his own wisdom.
Now this being the case, He creates with His own hands man of a visible
nature and an invisible, after His own image and likeness: on the one hand
man's body He formed of earth, and on the other his reasoning and
31
thinking soul He bestowed upon him by His own inbreathing, and this is what
we mean by "after His image." For the phrase "after His image" clearly
refers to the side of his nature which consists of mind and free will,
whereas "after His likeness "means likeness in virtue so far as that is
possible.
Further, body and soul were formed at one and the same time, not first
the one and then the other, as Origen so senselessly supposes.
God then made man without evil, upright, virtuous, free from pain and
care, glorified with every virtue, adorned with all that is good, like a sort
of second microcosm within the great world. another angel capable of
worship, compound, surveying the visible creation and initiated into the
mysteries of the realm of thought, king over the things of earth, but subject
to a higher king, of the earth and of the heaven, temporal and eternal,
belonging to the realm of sight and to the realm of thought, midway between
greatness and lowliness, spirit and flesh: for he is spirit by grace, but
flesh by overweening pride: spirit that he may abide and glorify his
Benefactor, and flesh that he may suffer, and suffering may be admonished and
disciplined when he prides himself in his greatness: here, that is, in the
present life, his life is ordered as an animal's, but elsewhere, that is, in
the age to come, he is changed and--to complete the mystery--becomes deified
by merely inclining himself towards God; becoming deified, in the way of
participating in the divine glory and not in that of a change into the divine
being.
But God made him by nature sinless, and endowed him with free will. By
sinless, I mean not that sin could find no place in him (for that is the case
with Deity alone), bat that sin is the result of the free volition he enjoys
rather than an integral part of his nature; that is to say, he has the
power to continue and go forward in the path of goodness, by co-operating with
the divine grace, and likewise to turn from good and take to wickedness, for
God has conceded this by conferring freedom of will upon him. For there is no
virtue in what is the result of mere force.
The soul, accordingly, is a living essence, simple, incorporeal,
invisible in its proper nature to bodily eyes, immortal, reasoning and
intelligent, formless, making use of an organised body, and being the source
of its powers of life, and growth, and sensation, and generation, mind
being but its purest part and not in any wise alien to it; (for as the eye to
the body, so is the mind to the soul); further it enjoys freedom and volition
and energy, and is mutable, that is, it is given to change, because it is
created. All these qualities according to nature it has received of the grace
of the Creator, of which grace it has received both its being and this
particular kind of nature.
Marg. The different applications of "incorporeal." We understand two kinds
of what is incorporeal and invisible and formless: the one is such in essence,
the other by free gift: and likewise the one is such in nature, and the other
only in comparison with the denseness of matter. God then is incorporeal by
nature, but the angels and demons and souls are said to be so by free gift,
and in comparison with the denseness of matter.
Further, body is that which has three dimensions, that is to say, it has
length and breadth and depth, or thickness. And every body is composed of the
four elements; the bodies of living creatures, moreover, are composed of the
four humours.
Now there are, it should be known, four elements: earth which is dry and
cold: water which is cold and wet: air which is wet and warm: fire which is
warm and dry. In like manner there are also four humours, analogous to the
four elements: black bile, which bears an analogy to earth, for it is dry and
cold: phlegm, analogous to water, for it is cold and wet: blood, analogous to
air, for it is wet and warm: yellow bile, the analogue to fire, for it is
warm and city. Now, fruits are composed of the elements, and the humours are
composed of the fruits, and the bodies of living creatures consist of the
humours and dissolve back into them. For every thing that is compound
dissolves back into its elements.
Marg. That man has community alike with inanimate things and animate
creatures, whe-
32
ther they are devoid of or possess the faculty of reason.
Man, it is to be noted, has community with things inanimate, and
participates in the life of unreasoning creatures, and shares in the mental
processes of those endowed with reason. For the bond of union between man and
inanimate things is the body and its composition out of the font elements: and
the bond between man and plants consists, in addition to these things, of
their powers of nourishment and growth and seeding, that is, generation: and
finally, over and above these links man is connected with unreasoning animals
by appetite, that is anger and desire, and sense and impulsive movement.
There are then five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Further,
impulsive movement consists in change from place to place, and in the
movements of the body as a whole and in the emission of voice and the drawing
of breath. For we have it in our power to perform or refrain from performing
these actions.
Lastly, man's reason unites him to incorporeal and intelligent natures,
for he applies his reason and mind and judgment to everything, and pursues
after virtues, and eagerly follows after piety, which is the crown of the
virtues. And so man is a microcosm.
Moreover, it should be known that division and flux and change are
peculiar to the body alone. By change, I mean change in quality, that is in
heat and cold and so forth: by flux, I mean change in the way of depletion,
for dry things and wet things and spirit s suffer depletion, and require
repletion: so that hunger and thirst are natural affections. Again, division
is the separation of the humours, one from another, and the partition into
form and matter.
But piety and thought are the peculiar properties of the soul. And the
virtues are common to soul and body, although they are referred to the soul as
if the soul were making use of the body.
The reasoning part, it should be understood, naturally bears rule over
that which is void of reason. For the faculties of the soul are divided into
that which has reason, and that which is without reason. Again, of that which
is without reason there are two divisions: that which does not listen to
reason, that is to say, is disobedient to reason, and that which listens and
obeys reason. That which does not listen or obey reason is the vital or
pulsating faculty, and the spermatic or generative faculty, and the vegetative
or nutritive faculty: to this belong also the faculties of growth and bodily
formation. For these are not under the dominion of reason but under that of
nature. That which listens to and obeys reason, on the other hand is divided
into anger anti desire. And the unreasoning part of the soul is called in
common the pathetic and the appetitive. Further, it is to be understood,
that impulsive movement s likewise belongs to the part that is obedient to
reason.
The part which does not pay heed to reason includes the nutritive and
generative and pulsating faculties: and the name "vegetative" is applied
to the faculties of increase and nutriment and generation, and the name
"vital" to the faculty of pulsation.
Of the faculty of nutrition, then, there are four forces: an attractive
force which attracts nourishment: a retentive force by which nourishment is
retained and not suffered to be immediately excreted: an alterative force by
which the food is resolved into the humours: and an excretive force, by which
the excess of food is excreted into the draught and cast forth.
The forces again, inherent in a living creature are, it should be
noted, partly psychical, partly vegetative, partly vital. The psychical forces
are concerned with free volition, that is to say, impulsive movement and
sensation. Impulsive movement includes change of place and movement of the
body as a whole, and phonation and respiration. For it is in our power to
perform or refrain from performing these acts. The vegetative and vital
forces, however, are quite outside the province of will. The vegetative,
moreover, include the faculties of nourishment and growth, and generation, and
the vital power is the faculty of pulsation. For these go on energising
whether we will it or not.
Lastly, we must observe that of actual things, some are good, and some are
bad. A good thing in anticipation constitutes desire: while a good thing in
realisation constitutes pleasure. Similarly an evil thing in anticipation
begets fear, and in realisation it begets pain. And when we speak of good in
this connection we are to be understood to mean both real and apparent good:
and, similarly, we mean real and apparent evil.
33
CHAPTER XIII.
Concerning Pleasures.
There are pleasures of the soul and pleasures of the body. The pleasures
of the soul are those which are the exclusive possession of the soul, such as
the pleasures of learning and contemplation. The pleasures of the body,
however, are those which are enjoyed by soul and body in fellowship, and hence
are called bodily pleasures: and such are the pleasures of food and
intercourse and the like. But one could not find any class of pleasures
belonging solely to the body.
Again, some pleasures are true, others false. And the exclusively
intellectual pleasures consist in knowledge and contemplation, while the
pleasures of the body depend upon sensation. Further, of bodily pleasures,
some are both natural and necessary, in the absence of which life is
impossible, for example the pleasures of food which replenishes waste, and the
pleasures of necessary clothing. Others are natural but not necessary, as the
pleasures of natural and lawful intercourse. For though the function that
these perform is to secure the permanence of the race as a whole, it is still
possible to live a virgin life apart from them. Others, however, are neither
natural nor necessary, such as drunkenness, lust, and surfeiting to excess.
For these contribute neither to the maintenance of our own lives nor to the
succession of the race, but on the contrary, are rather even a hindrance. He
therefore that would live a life acceptable to God must follow after those
pleasures which are both natural and necessary: and must give a secondary
place to those which are natural but not necessary, and enjoy them only in
fitting season, and manner, and measure; while the others must be altogether
renounced.
Those then are to be considered moral pleasures which are not bound up
with pain, and bring no cause for repentance, and result in no other harm and
keep within the bounds of moderation, and do not draw us far away from
serious occupations, nor make slaves of us.
CHAPTER XIV.
Concerning Pain.
There are four varieties of pain, viz., anguish, griefs, envy, pity.
Anguish is pain without utterance: grief is pain that is heavy to bear like a
burden: envy is pain over the good fortune of others: pity is pain over the
evil fortune of others.
CHAPTER XV.
Concerning Fear.
Fear is divided into six varieties: viz., shrinking, shame, disgrace,
consternation, panic, anxiety. Shrinking is fear of some act about to
take place. Shame is fear arising from the anticipation of blame: and this is
the highest form of the affection. Disgrace is fear springing from some base
act already done, and even for this form there is some hope of salvation.
Consternation is fear originating in some huge prOduct of the imagination.
Panic is fear caused by some unusual product of the imagination. Anxiety is
fear of failure, that is, of misfortune: for when we fear that our efforts
will not meet with success, we suffer anxiety.
CHAPTER XVI.
Concerning Anger.
Anger is the ebullition of the heart's blood produced by bilious
exhalation or turbidity. Hence it is that the words colh and
cols are both used in the sense of anger. Anger is sometimes
lust for vengeance. For when we are wronged or think that we are wronged, we
are distressed, and there arises this mixture of desire and anger.
There are three forms of anger: rage, which the Greeks also call
colh or cols, mhnis and
kotos. When anger arises and begins to be roused, it is called
rage or colh or cols. Wrath again implies that
the bile endures, that is to say, that the memory of the wrong abides: and
indeed the Greek word for it, mhnisis derived from
menein, and means what abides and is transferred to memory.
Rancour, on the other hand, implies watching for a suitable moment for
revenge, and the Greek word for it is kotos from
keisqai.
Anger further is the satellite of reason, the vindicator of desire. For
when we long after anything and are opposed in our desire by some one, we are
angered at that person, as though we had been wronged: and reason evidently
deems that there are just grounds for displeasure in what has happened, in the
34
case of those who, like us, have in the natural course of things to guard
their own position.
CHAPTER XVII.
Concerning Imagination.
Imagination is a faculty of the unreasoning part of the soul. It is
through the organs of sense that it is brought into action, and it is spoken
of as sensation. And further, what is imagined and perceived is that which
comes within the scope of the faculty of imagination and sensation. For
example, the sense of sight is the visual faculty itself, but the object of
sight is that which comes within the scope of the sense of sight, such as a
stone or any other such object. Further, an imagination is an affection of the
unreasoning part of the soul which is occasioned by some object acting upon
the sensation. But an appearance is an empty affection of the unreasoning
part of the soul, not occasioned by any object acting upon the sensation.
Moreover the organ of imagination is the anterior ventricle of the brain.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Concerning Sensation.
Sensation is that faculty of the soul whereby material objects can be
apprehended or discriminated. And the sensoria are the organs or members
through which sensations are conveyed. And the objects of sense are the things
that come within the province of sensation. And lastly, the subject of sense
is the living animal which possesses the faculty of sensation. Now there are
five senses, and likewise five organs of sense.
The first sense is sight: and the sensoria or organs of sight are the
nerves of the brain and the eyes. Now sight is primarily perception of colour,
but along with the colour it discriminates the body that has colour, and its
size and form, and locality, and the intervening space and the number: also
whether it is in motion or at rest, rough or smooth, even or uneven, sharp or
blunt, and finally whether its composition is watery or earthy, that is, wet
or dry.
The second sense is hearing, whereby voices and sounds are perceived. And
it distinguishes these as sharp or deep, or smooth or loud. Its organs are the
soft nerves of the brain, and the structure of the ears. Further, man and the
ape are the only animals that do not move their ears.
The third sense is smell, which is caused by
the nostrils transmitting the vapours to the brain: and it is bounded by the
extreme limits of the anterior ventricle of the brain. It is the faculty by
which vapours are perceived and apprehended. Now, the most generic distinction
between vapours is whether they have a good or an evil odour, or form an
intermediate class with neither a good nor an evil odour. A good odour is
produced by the thorough digestion in the body of the humours. When they are
only moderately digested the intermediate class is formed, and when the
digestion is very imperfect or utterly wanting, an evil odour results.
The fourth sense is taste: it is the faculty whereby the humours are
apprehended or perceived, and its organs of sense are the tongue, and more
especially the lips, and the palate (which the Greeks call
ouraniskou), and in these are nerves that come from the brain
and are spread out, and convey to the dominant part of the soul the perception
or sensation they have encountered. The so-called gustatory qualities of
the humours are these:--sweetness, pungency, bitterness, astringency,
acerbity, sourness, saltness, fattiness, stickiness; for taste is capable of
discriminating all these. But water has none of these qualities, and is
therefore devoid of taste. Moreover, astringency is only a more intense and
exaggerated form of acerbity.
The fifth sense is touch, which is common to all living things. Its
organs are nerves which come from the brain and ramify all through the body.
Hence the body as a whole, including even the other organs of sense, possesses
the sense of touch. Within its scope come heat and cold, softness and
hardness, viscosity and brittleness, heaviness and lightness: for it is by
touch alone that these qualities are discriminated. On the other hand,
roughness and smoothness, dryness and wetness, thickness and thinness, up and
down, place and size, whenever that is such as to be embraced in a single
application of the sense of touch, are all common to touch and sight, as well
as denseness and rareness, that is porosity, and rotundity if it is small, and
some other shapes. In like manner also by the aid of memory and thought
perception of the nearness of a body is possible, and similarly perception of
number up to two or three, and such small and easily reckoned figures. But it
is by sight rather than touch that these things are perceived.
The Creator, it is to be noted, fashioned
35
all the other organs of sense in pairs, so that if one were destroyed, the
other might fill its place. For there are two eyes, two ears, two orifices of
the nose, and two tongues, which in some animals, such as snakes, are
separate, but in others, like man, are united. But touch is spread over the
whole body with the exception of bones, nerves, nails, horns, hairs,
ligaments, and other such structures.
Further, it is to be observed that sight is possible only in straight
lines, whereas smell and hearing are not limited to straight lines only, but
act in all directions. Touch, again, and taste act neither in straight lines,
nor in every direction, but only when each comes near to the sensible objects
that are proper to it.
CHAPTER XIX.
Concerning Thought.
The faculty of thought deals with judgments and assents, and impulse to
action and disinclinations, and escapes from action: and more especially with
thoughts connected with what is thinkable, and the virtues and the different
branches of learning, and the theories of the arts and matters of counsel and
choice. Further, it is this faculty which prophesies the future to us in
dreams, and this is what the Pythagoreans, adopting the Hebrew view, hold to
be the one true form of prophecy. The organ of thought then is the
mid-ventricle of the brain, and the vital spirit it contains.
CHAPTER XX.
Concerning Memory.
The faculty of memory is the cause and storehouse of remembrance and
recollection. For memory is a fantasy s that is left behind of some sensation
and thought manifesting itself in action; or the preservation of a
sensation and thought. For the soul comprehends objects of sense through
the organs of sense, that is to say, it perceives, and thence arises a notion:
and similarly it comprehends the objects of thought through the mind, and
thence arises a thought. It is then the preservation of the types of these
notions and thoughts that is spoken of as memory.
Further, it is worthy of remark that the apprehension of matters of
thought depends on learning, or natural process of thought, and not on
sensation. For though objects of sense are retained in the memory by
themselves, only such objects of thought are remembered as we have learned,
and we have no memory of their essence.
Recollection is the name given to the recovery of some memory lost by
forgetfulness. For forgetfulness is just loss of memory. The faculty of
imagination then, having apprehended material objects through the senses,
transmits this to the faculty of thought or reason (for they are both the
same), and this after it has received and passed judgment on it, passes it on
to the faculty of memory. Now the organ of memory is the posterior ventricle
of the brain, which the Greeks call the paregkefalis, and the
vital spirit it contains.
CHAPTER XXI.
Concerning Conception and Articulation.
Again the reasoning part of the soul is divided into conception and
articulation. Conception is an activity of the soul originating in the reason
without resulting in utterance. Accordingly, often, even when we are silent we
run through a whole speech in our minds, and hold discussions in our dreams.
And it is this faculty chiefly which constitutes us all reasoning beings. For
those who are dumb by birth or have lost their voice through some disease or
injury, are just as much reasoning beings. But articulation by voice or in the
different dialects requires energy: that is to say, the word is articulated by
the
tongue and mouth, and this is why it is named articulation. It is, indeed, the
messenger of thought, and it is because of it that we are called speaking
beings.
CHAPTER XXII.
Concerning Passion and Energy.
Passion is a word with various meanings. It is used in regard to the
body, anti refers to diseases and wounds, and again, it is used in reference
to the soul, and means desire anti anger. But to speak broadly and generally,
passion is an animal affection which is succeeded by pleasure anti pain. For
pain succeeds passion, but is not the same thing as passion. For passion is an
affection of things without sense, but not so pain. Pain then is not passion,
but the sensation of passion: and it must be considerable, that is to say,
36
it must be great enough to come within the scope of sense.
Again, the definition of passions of the soul is this: Passion is a
sensible activity of the appetitive faculty, depending on the presentation to
the mind of something good or bad. Or in other words, passion is an irrational
activity of the soul, resulting from the notion of something good or bad. For
the notion of something good results in desire, and the notion of something
bad results in anger. But passion considered as a class, that is, passion in
general, is defined as a movement in one thing caused by another. Energy, on
the other hand, is a drastic movement, and by "drastic" is meant that which is
moved of itself. Thus, anger is the energy manifested by the part of the soul
where anger resides, whereas passion involves the two divisions of the soul,
and in addition the whole body when it is forcibly impelled to action by
anger. For there has been caused movement in one thing caused by another, and
this is called passion.
But in another sense energy is spoken of as passion. For energy is a
movement in harmony with nature, whereas passion is a movement at variance
with nature. According, then, to this view, energy may be spoken of as passion
when it does not act in accord with nature, whether its movement is due to
itself or to some other thing. Thus, in connection with the heart, its natural
pulsation is energy, whereas its palpitation, which is an excessive and
unnatural movement, is passion and not energy.
But it is not every activity of the passionate part of the soul that is
called passion, but only the more violent ones, and such as are capable of
causing sensation: for the minor and unperceived movements are certainly not
passions. For to constitute passion there is necessary a considerable degree
of force, and thus it is on this account that we add to the definition of
passion that it is a sensible activity. For the lesser activities escape the
notice of the senses, and do not cause passion.
Observe also that our soul possesses twofold faculties, those of
knowledge, and those of life. The faculties of knowledge are mind, thought,
notion, presentation, sensation: and the vital or appetitive faculties are
will and choice. Now, to make what has been said clearer, let us consider
these things more closely, and first let us take the faculties of knowledge.
Presentation and sensation then have already been sufficiently discussed
above. It is sensation that causes a passion, which is called presentation, to
arise in the soul, and from presentation comes notion. Thereafter thought,
weighing the truth or falseness of the notion, determines what is true: and
this explains the Greek word for thought, dianoia, which is
derived from dianoeia, meaning to think and discriminate. That,
however, which is judged and determined to be true, is spoken of as mind.
Or to put it otherwise: The primary activity of the mind, observe, is
intelligence, but intelligence applied to any object is called a thought, and
when this persists and makes on the mind an impression of the object of
thought, it is named reflection, and when reflection dwells on the same object
and puts itself to the test, and closely examines the relation of the thought
to the soul, it gets the name prudence. Further, prudence, when it extends its
area forms the power of reasoning, and is called conception, and this is
defined as the fullest activity of the soul, arising in that part where reason
resides, and being devoid of outward expression: and from it proceeds the
uttered word spoken by the tongue. And now that we have discussed the
faculties of knowledge, let us turn to the vital or appetitive faculties.
It should be understood that there is implanted in the soul by nature a
faculty of desiring that which is in harmony with its nature, and of
maintaining in close union all that belongs essentially to its nature: and
this power is called will or qelhsis. For the essence both of
existence and of living yearns after activity both as regards mind and sense,
and in this it merely longs to realise its own natural and perfect being. And
so this definition also is given of this natural will: will is an appetite,
both rational and vital, depending only on what is natural. So that will is
nothing else than the natural and vital and rational appetite of all things
that go to constitute nature, that is, just the simple faculty. For the
appetite of creatures without reason, since it is irrational, is not called
will.
Again boulhsis or wish is a sort of natural will, that is
to say, a natural and rational appetite for some definite thing. For there is
seated in the soul of man a faculty of rational desire. When, then, this
rational desire directs itself naturally to some definite object it is called
wish. For wish is rational desire and longing for some definite thing.
Wish, however, is used both in connection with what is within our power,
and in connection with what is outside our power, that is, both with regard to
the possible and the impossible. For we wish often to indulge lust or to be
temperate, or to sleep and the
37
like, and these are within our power to accomplish, and possible. But we wish
also to be kings, and this is not within our power, or we wish perchance never
to die, and this is an impossibility.
The wish, then, has reference to the end alone, and not to the means by
which the end is attained. The end is the object of our wish, for instance, to
be a king or to enjoy good health: but the means by which the end is attained,
that is to say, the manner in which we ought to enjoy good health, or reach
the rank of king, are the objects of deliberation. Then after wish follow
inquiry and speculation (zhthsis and skiYis),
and after these, if the object is anything within our power, comes counsel or
deliberation (boulh or bouleusis): counsel is an
appetite for investigating lines of action lying within our own power. For one
deliberates, whether one ought to prosecute any matter or not, and next, one
decides which is the better, and this is called judgment
(krisis). Thereafter, one becomes disposed to and forms a
liking for that in favour of which deliberation gave judgment, and this is
called inclination (gnwmh). For should one form a judgment and
not be disposed to or form a liking for the object of that judgment, it is not
called inclination. Then, again, after one has become so disposed, choice or
selection (proairesis and epilogh) comes into
play. For choice consists in the choosing and selecting of one of two
possibilities in preference to the other. Then one is impelled to action, and
this is called impulse (ormh): and thereafter it is brought
into employment, and this is called use (crhsis). The last
stage after we have enjoyed the use is cessation from desire.
In the case, however, of creatures without reason, as soon as appetite is
roused for any-tiring, straightway arises impulse to action. For the appetite
of creatures without reason is irrational, and they are ruled by their natural
appetite. Hence, neither the names of will or wish are applicable to the
appetite of creatures without reason. For will is rational, free and natural
desire, and in the case of man, endowed with reason as he is, the natural
appetite is ruled rather than rules For his actions are free, and depend upon
reason, since the faculties of knowledge and life are bound up together in
man. He is free in desire, free in wish, free in examination and
investigation, free in deliberation, free in judgment, free in inclination,
free in choice,
free in impulse, and free in action where thai is in accordance with nature.
But in the case of God, it is to be remembered, we speak of wish, but
it is not correct to speak of choice. For God does not deliberate, since that
is a mark of ignorance, and no one deliberates about what he knows. But if
counsel is a mark of ignorance, surely choice must also be so. God, then,
since He has absolute knowledge of everything, does not deliberate.
Nor in the case of the soul of the Lord do we speak of counsel or choice,
seeing that He had no part in ignorance. For, although He was of a nature that
is not cognisant of the future, yet because of His oneness in subsistence with
God the Word, He had knowledge of all things, and that not by grace, but, as
we have said, because He was one in subsistence. For He Himself was both
God and Man, and hence He did not possess the will that acts by opinion or
disposition. While He did possess the natural and simple will which is to be
observed equally in all the personalities of men, His holy soul had not
opinion (or, disposition) that is to say, no inclination opposed to His
divine will, nor aught else contrary to His divine will. For opinion (or,
disposition) differs as persons differ, except m the case of the holy and
simple and uncompound and indivisible Godhead. There, indeed, since the
subsistences are in nowise divided or separated, neither is the object of will
divided. And there, since there is but one nature, there is also but one
natural will. And again, since the subsistences are unseparated, the three
subsistences have also one object of will, and one activity. In the case of
men, however, seeing that their nature is one, their natural will is also one,
but since their subsistences are separated and divided from each other,
alike in place and time, and disposition to things, and in many other
respects, for this reason their acts of will and their opinions are different.
But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, since He possesses different
natures, His natural wills, that is, His volitional faculties belonging to Him
as God and as Man are also different. But since the subsistence is one, and He
Who exercises
38
the will is one, the object of the will the gnomic will, is also one, His
human will evidently following His divine will, and willing that which the
divine will willed it to will.
Further note, that will (qelhsis) and wish
(boulhsis) are two different things: also the object of will
(to qelhton) and the capacity for will
(qelhtikon), and the subject that exercises will
(o qelwn), are all different. For will is just
the simple faculty of willing, whereas wish is will directed to some definite
object. Again, the object of will is the matter underlying the will, that is
to say, the thing that we will: for instance, when appetite is roused for
food. The appetite pure and simple, however, is a rational will. The capacity
for will, moreover, means that which possesses the volitional faculty, for
example, man. Further, the subject that exercises will is the actual person
who makes use of will.
The word to qelhma, it is well to note,
sometimes denotes the will, that is, the volitional faculty, and in this sense
we speak of natural will: and sometimes it denotes the object of will, and we
speak of will (qelhma gnwmikon) depending on
inclination.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Concerning Energy.
All the faculties we have already discussed, both those of knowledge
and those of life, both the natural and the artificial, are, it is to be
noted, called energies. For energy s is the natural force and activity of each
essence: or again, natural energy is the activity innate in every essence: and
so, clearly, things that have the same essence have also the same energy, and
things that have different natures have also different energies. For no
essence can be devoid of natural energy.
Natural energy again is the force in each essence by which its nature is
made manifest. And again: natural energy is the primal, eternally-moving force
of the intelligent soul: that is, the eternally-moving word of the soul, which
ever springs naturally from it. And yet again: natural energy is the force
and activity of each essence which only that which is not lacks.
But actions are also called energies: for
instance, speaking, eating, drinking, and such like. The natural
affections also are often called energies, for instance, hunger, thirst,
and so forth. And yet again, the result of the force is also often called
energy.
Things are spoken of in a twofold way as being potential and actual. For
we say that the child at the breast is a potential scholar, for he is so
equipped that, if taught, he will become a scholar. Further, we speak of a
potential and an actual scholar, meaning that the latter is versed in letters,
while the former has the power of interpreting letters, but does not put it
into actual use: again, when we speak of an actual scholar, we mean that he
puts his power into actual use, that is to say, that he really interprets
writings.
It is, therefore, to be observed that in the second sense potentiality and
actuality go together; for the scholar is in the one case potential, and in
the other actual.
The primal and only true energy of nature is the voluntary or rational and
independent life which constitutes our humanity. I know not how those who rob
the Lord of this can say that He became man.
Energy is drastic activity of nature: and by drastic is meant that which
is moved of itself.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Concerning what is Voluntary anal
what is Involuntary.
The voluntary implies a certain definite action, and so-called
involuntariness also implies a certain definite action. Further, many
attribute true involuntariness not only to suffering, but even to action. We
must then understand action to be rational energy. Actions are followed by
praise or blame, and some of them are accompanied with pleasure and others
with pain; some are to be desired by the actor, others are to be shunned:
further, of those that are desirable, some are always so, others only at some
particular time. And so it is also with those that are to be shunned. Again,
some actions enlist pity and are pardonable, others are hateful and deserve
punishment. Voluntariness, then, is assuredly followed by praise or blame, and
renders the action pleasurable and desirable to the actor, either for all time
or for the moment of its performance. Involuntariness, on the other
hand, brings merited pity or pardon in its train, and renders the act
painful and unde-
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sirable to the doer, and makes him leave it in a state of incompleteness even
though force is brought to bear upon him.
Further, what is involuntary, depends in part on force and in part on
ignorance. It depends on force when the creative beginning in cause is from
without, that is to say, when one is forced by another without being at all
persuaded, or when one does not contribute to the act on one's own impulse, or
does not co-operate at all, or do on one's own account that which is exacted
by force. Thus we may give this definition: "An involuntary act is one in
which the beginning is from without, and where one does not contribute at all
on one's own impulse to that which one is force" And by beginning we mean the
creative cause. All involuntary act depends, on the other hand, on ignorance,
when one is not the cause of the ignorance one's self, but events just so
happen. For, if one commits murder while drunk, it is an act of ignorance, but
yet not involuntary: for one was one's self responsible for the cause of
the ignorance, that is to say, the drunkenness. But if while shooting at the
customary range one slew one's father who happened to be passing by, this
would be termed an ignorant and involuntary act.
As, then, that which is involuntary is in two parts, one depending on
force, the other on ignorance, that which is voluntary is the opposite of
both. For that which is voluntary is the result neither of force nor of
ignorance. A voluntary act, then, is one of which the beginning or cause
originates in an actor, who knows each individual circumstance through which
and in which the action takes place. By "individual" is meant what the
rhetoricians call circumstantial elements: for instance, the actor, the
sufferer, the action (perchance a murder), the instrument, the place, the
time, the manner, the reason of the action.
Notice that there are certain things that occupy a place intermediate
between what is voluntary and what is involuntary. Although they are
unpleasant and painful we welcome them as the escape from a still greater
trouble; for instance, to escape shipwreck we cast the cargo overboard.
Notice also that children and irrational creatures perform voluntary
actions, but these do not involve the exercise of choice: further, all our
actions that are done in anger and without previous deliberation are voluntary
actions, but do not in the least involve free choice. Also, if a friend
suddenly appears on the scene, or if one unexpectedly lights on a treasure, so
far as we are concerned it is quite voluntary, but there is no question of
choice in the matter. For all these things are voluntary, because we desire
pleasure from them, but they do not by any means imply choice, because they
are not the result of deliberation. And deliberation must assuredly precede
choice, as we have said above.
CHAPTER XXV.
Concerning what is in our own power, that is, concerning Free-will.
The first enquiry involved in the consideration of free-will, that is, of what
is in our own power, is whether anything is in our power: for there are
many who deny this. The second is, what are the things that are in our power,
and over what things do we have authority? The third is, what is the reason
for which God Who created us endued us with free-will? So then we shall take
up the first question, and firstly we shall prove that of those things which
even our opponents grant, some are within our power. And let us proceed thus.
Of all the things that happen, the cause is said to be either God, or
necessity, or fate, or nature, or chance, or accident. But God's function has
to do with essence and providence: necessity deals with the movement of things
that ever keep to the same course: fate with the necessary accomplishment of
the things it brings to pass (for fate itself implies necessity): nature with
birth, growth, destruction, plants and animals; chance with what is rare and
unexpected. For chance is defined as the meeting and concurrence of two
causes, originating in choice but bringing to pass something other than what
is natural: for example, if a man finds a treasure while digging a ditch:
for the man who hid the treasure did not do so that the other might find it,
nor did the finder dig with the purpose of finding the treasure: but the
former hid it that he might take it away when he wished, and the other's aim
was to dig the ditch: whereas something happened quite different from what
both had in view. Accident again deals with casual occurrences that take place
among lifeless or irrational things, apart from nature and art. This then is
their doctrine. Under which, then, of these categories are we to bring what
happens through the agency of
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man, if indeed man is not the cause and beginning of action? for it would
not be right to ascribe to God actions that are sometimes base and unjust: nor
may we ascribe these to necessity, for they are not such as ever continue the
same: nor to fate, for fate implies not possibility only but necessity: nor to
nature, for nature's province is animals and plants: nor to chance, for the
actions of men are not rare and unexpected: nor to accident, for that is used
in reference to the casual occurrences that take place in the world of
lifeless and irrational things. We are left then with this fact, that the man
who acts and makes is himself the author of his own works, and is a creature
endowed with free-will.
Further, if man is the author of no action, the faculty of deliberation is
quite superfluous for to what purpose could deliberation be put if man is the
master of none of his actions? for all deliberation is for the sake of action.
But to prove that the fairest and most precious of man's endowments is quite
superfluous would be the height of absurdity. If then man deliberates, he
deliberates with a view to action. For all deliberation is with a view to and
on account of action.
CHAPTER XXVI.Concerning Events.
Of events, some are in our hands, others are not. Those then are in our
hands which we are free to do or not to do at our will, that is all actions
that are done voluntarily (for those actions are not called voluntary the
doing of which is not in our hands), and in a word, all that are followed by
blame or praise and depend on motive and law. Strictly all mental and
deliberative acts are in our hands. Now deliberation is concerned with equal
possibilities: and an 'equal possibility' is an action that is itself within
our power and its opposite, and our mind makes choice of the alternatives, and
this is the origin of action. The actions, therefore, that are in our hands
are these equal possibilities: e.g. to be moved or not to be moved, to hasten
or not to hasten, to long for unnecessaries or not to do so, to tell lies or
not to tell lies, to give or not to give, to rejoice or not to rejoice as fits
the occasion, and all such actions as imply virtue or vice in their
performance, for we are free to do or not to do these at our pleasure. Amongst
equal possibilities also are included the arts, for we have it in our power to
cultivate these or not as we please.
Note, however, that while the choice of what is to be done is ever in our
power, the action itself often is prevented by some dispensation of the divine
Providence.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Concerning the reason of our endowment
with Free-will.
We hold, therefore, that free-will comes on the scene at the same
moment as reason, and that change and alteration are congenital to all that is
produced. For all that is produced is also subject to change. For those
things must be subject to change whose production has its origin in change.
And change consists in being brought into being out of nothing, and in
transforming a substratum of matter into something different. Inanimate
things, then, and things without reason undergo the aforementioned bodily
changes, while the changes of things endowed with reason depend on choice. For
reason consists of a speculative and a practical part. The speculative part is
the contemplation of the nature of things, and the practical consists in
deliberation and defines the true reason for what is to be done. The
speculative side is called mind or wisdom, and the practical side is called
reason or prudence. Every one, then, who deliberates does so in the belief
that the choice of what is to be done lies in his hands, that he may choose
what seems best as the result of his deliberation, and having chosen may act
upon it. And if this is so, free-will must necessarily be very closely related
to reason. For either man is an irrational being, or, if he is rational, he is
master of his acts and endowed with free-will. Hence also creatures without
reason do not enjoy free-will: for nature leads them rather than they nature,
and so they do not oppose the natural appetite, but as soon as their appetite
longs after anything they rush headlong after it. But man, being rational,
leads nature rather than nature him, and so when he desires aught he has the
power to curb his appetite or to indulge it as he pleases. Hence also
creatures devoid of reason are the subjects neither of praise nor blame, while
man is the subject of both praise and blame.
Note also that the angels, being rational, are endowed with free-will,
and, inasmuch as they are created, are liable to change. This
41
in fact is made plain by the devil who, although made good by the Creator,
became of his own free-will the inventor of evil, and by the powers who
revolted with him, that is the demons, and by the other troops of angels
who abode in goodness.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Concerning what is not in our hands.
Of things that are not in our hands some have their beginning or cause in
those that are in our power, that is to say, the recompenses of our actions
both in the present and in the age to come, but all the rest are dependent on
the divine will. For the origin of all things is from God, but their
destruction has been introduced by our wickedness for our punishment or
benefit. For God did not create death, neither does He take delight in the
destruction of living things. But death is the work rather of man, that is,
its origin is in Adam's transgression, in like manner as all other
punishments. But all other things must be referred to God. For our birth is to
be referred to His creative power; and our continuance to His conservative
power; and our government and safety to His providential power; and the
eternal enjoyment of good things by those who preserve the laws of nature in
which we are formed is to be ascribed to His goodness. But since some deny the
existence of Providence, let us further devote a few words to the discussion
of Providence.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Concerning Providence.
Providence, then, is the care that God takes over existing things. And
again: Providence is the will of God through which all existing things receive
their fitting issue. But if Providence is God's will, according to true
reasoning all things that come into being through Providence must necessarily
be both most fair and most excellent, and such that they cannot be surpassed.
For the same person must of necessity be creator of and provider for what
exists: for it is not meet nor fitting that the creator of what exists and the
provider should be separate persons. For in that case they would both
assuredly be deficient, the one in creating, the other in providing. God
therefore is both Creator and Provider, and His creative and preserving and
providing power is simply His good-will. For whatsoever the Lard pleased that
did He in heaven and in earth, and no one resisted His will. He willed
that all things should be and they were. He wills the universe to be framed
and it is framed, and all that He wills comes to pass.
That He provides, and that He provides excellently, one can most
readily perceive thus. God alone is good and wise by nature. Since then He is
good, He provides: for he who does not provide is not good. For even men and
creatures without reason provide for their own offspring according to their
nature, and he who does not provide is blamed. Again, since He is wise, He
takes the best care over what exists.
When, therefore, we give heed to these things we ought to be filled with
wonder at all the works of Providence, and praise them all, and accept them
all without enquiry, even though they are in the eyes of many unjust, because
the Providence of God is beyond our ken and comprehension, while our
reasonings and actions and the future are revealed to His eyes alone. And by
"all" I mean those that are not in our hands: for those that are in our power
are outside the sphere of Providence and within that of our Free-will.
Now the works of Providence are partly according to the good-will(of
God) and partly according to permission. Works of good-will include alL
those that are undeniably good, while works of permission are ....... For
Providence often permits the just man to encounter misfortune in order that he
may reveal to otHers the virtue that lies concealed within him, as was the
case with Job. At other times it allows something strange to be done in
order that something great and marvellous might be accomplished through the
seemingly-strange act, as when the salvation of men was brought about through
the Cross. In another way it allows the pious man to suffer sore trials in
order that he may not depart from a right conscience nor lapse into pride on
account of the power and grace granted to him, as was the case with Paul.
One man is forsaken for a season with a view to another's restoration, in
order that others when they see his state may be taught a lesson, as in the
case of Lazarus and the rich man. For it belongs to our nature to be
42
east down when we see persons in distress. Another is deserted by Providence
in order that another may be glorified, and not for his own sin or that of his
parents, just as the man who was blind from his birth ministered to the glory
of the Son of Man. Again another is permitted to suffer in order to stir up
emulation in the breasts of others, so that others by magnifying the glory of
the sufferer may resolutely welcome suffering in the hope of future glory and
the desire for future blessings, as in the case of the martyrs. Another is
allowed to fall at times into some act of baseness in order that another worse
fault may be thus corrected, as for instance when God allows a man who takes
pride in his virtue and righteousness to fall away into fornication in order
that he may be brought through this fall into the perception of his own
weakness and be humbled and approach and make confession to the Lord.
Moreover, it is to be observed that the choice of what is to be done is
in our own hands: but the final issue depends, in the one case when our
actions are good, on the cooperation of God, Who in His justice brings help
according to His foreknowledge to such as choose the good with a right
conscience, and, in the other case when our actions are to evil, on the
desertion by God, Who again in His justice stands aloof in accordance with His
foreknowledge.
Now there are two forms of desertion: for there is desertion in the
matters of guidance and training, and there is complete and hopeless
desertion. The former has in view the restoration and safety and glory of the
sufferer, or the rousing of feelings of emulation and imitation in others, or
the glory of God: but the latter is when man, after God has done all that was
possible to save him, remains of his own set purpose blind and uncured, or
rather incurable, and then he is handed over to utter destruction, as was
Judas. May God be gracious to us, and deliver us from such desertion.
Observe further that the ways of God's providence are many, and they
cannot be explained in words nor conceived by the mind.
And remember that all the assaults of dark and evil fortune contribute to
the salvation of those who receive them with thankfulness, and are assuredly
ambassadors of help.
Also one must bear in mind that God's original wish was that all should
be saved and come to His Kingdom. For it was not for punishment that He
formed us but to share in His goodness, inasmuch as He is a good God. But
inasmuch as He is a just God, His will is that sinners should suffer
punishment.
The first then is called God's antecedent will and pleasure, and springs
from Himself, while the second is called God's consequent will and permission,
and has its origin in us. And the latter is two-fold; one part dealing with
matters of guidance and training, and having in view our salvation, and the
other being hopeless and leading to our utter punishment, as we said above.
And this is the case with actions that are not left in our hands.
But of actions that are in our hands the good ones depend on His
antecedent goodwill and pleasure, while the wicked ones depend neither on His
antecedent nor on His consequent will, but are a concession to free-will For
that which is the result of compulsion has neither reason nor virtue in it.
God makes provision for all creation and makes all creation the instrument
of His help and training, yea often even the demons themselves, as for example
in the cases of Job and the swine.
CHAPTER XXX.
Concerning Prescience and Predestination.
We ought to understand that while God knows all things beforehand, yet
He does not predetermine all things. For He knows beforehand those things
that are in our power, but He does not predetermine them. For it is not His
will that there should be wickedness nor does He choose to compel virtue. So
that predetermination is the work of the divine command based on
fore-knowledge. But on the other hand God predetermines those things which
are not within our power in accordance with His prescience. For already God in
His prescience has prejudged all things in accordance with His goodness and
justice.
Bear in mind, too, that virtue is a gift from God implanted in our
nature, and that He Himself is the source and cause of all good,
43
and without His co-operation and help we cannot will or do any good thing,
But we have it in our power either to abide in virtue and follow God, Who
calls us into ways of virtue, or to stray from paths of virtue, which is to
dwell in wickedness, and to follow the devil who summons but cannot compel us.
For wickedness is nothing else than the withdrawal of goodness, just as
darkness is nothing else than the withdrawal of light While then we abide in
the natural state we abide in virtue, but when we deviate from the natural
state, that is from virtue, we come into an unnatural state and dwell in
wickedness.
Repentance is the returning from the unnatural into the natural state,
from the devil to God, through discipline and effort.
Man then the Creator made male, giving him to share in His own divine
grace, and bringing him thus into communion with Himself: and thus it was that
he gave in the manner of a prophet the names to living flyings, with authority
as though they were given to be his slaves. For having been endowed with
reason and mind, and free-will after the image of God, he was filly entrusted
with dominion over earthly things by the common Creator and Master of all.
But since God in His prescience knew that man would transgress and
become liable to destruction, He made from him a female to be a help to him
like himself; a help, indeed, for the conservation of the race after the
transgression from age to age by generation. For the earliest formation is
called 'making' and not 'generation.' For 'making ' is the original formation
at God's hands, while 'generation' is the succession from each Other made
necessary by the sentence of death imposed on us 'on account of the
transgression.
This man He placed in Paradise, a home that was alike spiritual and
sensible. For he lived in the body on the earth in the realm of sense, while
he dwelt in the spirit among the angels, cultivating divine thoughts, and
being supported by them: living in naked simplicity a life free from
artificiality, and being led up through His creations to the one and only
Creator, in Whose contemplation he found joy and gladness.
When therefore He had furnished his nature with free-will, He imposed a
law on him, not to taste of the tree of knowledge. Concerning this tree, we
have said as much as is necessary in the chapter about Paradise, at least as
much as it was in our power to say. And with this command He gave the promise
that, if he should preserve the dignity of the soul by giving the victory to
reason, and acknowledging his Creator and observing His command, he should
share eternal blessedness and live to all eternity, proving mightier than
death: but if forsooth he should subject the soul to the body, and prefer the
delights of the body, comparing himself in ignorance of his true dignity to
the senseless beasts, and shaking off Iris Creator's yoke, and neglecting
His divine injunction, he will be liable to death and corruption, and will be
compelled to labour throughout a miserable life. For it was no profit to man
to obtain incorruption while still untried and unproved, lest he should fall
into pride and under the judgment of the devil. For through his incorruption
the devil, when he had fallen as the result of his own free choice, was firmly
established in wickedness, so that there was no room for repentance and no
hope of change: just as, moreover, the angels also, when they had made free
choice of virtue became through grace immoveably rooted in goodness.
It was necessary, therefore, that man should first be put to the test (for
man untried and unproved would be worth nothing), and being made perfect
by the trial through the observance of the command should thus receive
incorruption as the prize of his virtue. For being intermediate between God
and matter he was destined, if he kept the command, to be delivered from his
natural relation to existing things and to be made one with God's estate, and
to be immoveably established in goodness, but, if he transgressed and inclined
the rather to what was material, and tore his mind from the Author of his
being, I mean God, his fate was to be corruption, and he was to become subject
to passion instead of passionless, and mortal instead of immortal, and
dependent on connection and unsettled generation. And in his desire for life
he would cling to pleasures as though they were necessary to maintain it, and
would fearlessly abhor those who sought to deprive him of these, and transfer
his desire from God to matter, and his anger from the real enemy of his
salvation to his own brethren. The
44
envy of the devil then was the reason of man's fall. For that same demon,
so full of envy and with such a hatred of good, would not suffer us to enjoy
the pleasures of heaven, when he himself was kept below on account of his
arrogance, and hence the false one tempts miserable man with the hope of
Godhead, and leading him up to as great a height of arrogance as himself, he
hurls him down into a pit of destruction just as deep.
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
Concerning the Divine OEconomy and God's care over us, and
concerning our salvation.
MAN, then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his
Creator's command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with
God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is
the meaning of the fig-leaves); and was clothed about with death, that is,
mortality and the grossness of flesh (for this is what the garment of skins
signifies); and was banished from Paradise by God's just judgment, and
condemned to death, and made subject to corruption. Yet, notwithstanding all
this, in His pity, God, Who gave him his being, and Who in His graciousness
bestowed on him a life of happiness, did not disregard man. But He first
trained him in many ways and called him back, by groans and trembling, by the
deluge of water, and the utter destruction of almost the whole race, by
confusion and diversity of tongues, by the rule of angels, by the
burning of cities, by figurative manifestations of God, by wars and
victories and defeats, by signs and wonders, by manifold faculties, by the law
and the prophets: for by all these means God earnestly strove to emancipate
man from the wide-spread and enslaving bonds of sin, which had made life such
a mass of iniquity, and to effect man's return to a life of happiness. For it
was sin that brought death like a wild and savage beast into the world s to
the ruin of the human life. But it behoved the Redeemer to be without sin, and
not made liable through sin to death, and further, that His nature should be
strengthened and renewed, and trained by labour and taught the way of virtue
which leads away from corruption to the life eternal and, in the end, is
revealed the mighty ocean of love to man that is about Him. For the very
Creator and Lord Himself undertakes a struggle in behalf of the work of His
own hands, and learns by toil to become Master. And since the enemy snares man
by the hope of Godhead, he himself is snared in turn by the screen of flesh,
and so are shown at once the goodness and wisdom, the justice and might of
God. God's goodness is revealed in that He did not disregard the frailty of
His own handiwork, but was moved with compassion for him in his fall, and
stretched forth His hand to him: and His justice in that when man was overcome
He did not make another victorious over the tyrant, nor did He snatch man by
might from death, but in His goodness and justice He made him, who had become
through his sins the slave of death, himself once more conqueror and rescued
like by like, most difficult though it seemed: and His wisdom is seen in His
devising the most fitting solution of the difficulty. For by the good
pleasure of our God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God,
Who is in the bosom of the God and Father, of like essence with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without beginning and was
in the beginning, Who is in the presence of the God and Father, and is God and
made in the form of God, bent the heavens and descended to earth: that is
to say, He humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not
be humbled, and condescends to His servants, with a condescension ineffable
and incomprehensible: (for that is what the descent signifies). And God being
perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new
things, the only new thing under the Sun, through which the boundless might
of God is manifested. For what greater thing is there, than that God should
become Man? And the Word became flesh without being changed, of the Holy
Spirit, and Mary the holy and ever-virgin one, the mother of God. And He acts
as mediator between God and man, He the only lover of man conceived in the
Virgin's chaste womb without will or desire, or any connection with man or
pleasurable generation, but through the
46
Holy Spirit and the first offspring of Adam. And He becomes obedient to the
Father Who is like unto us, and finds a remedy for our disobedience in what He
had assumed from us, and became a pattern of obedience to us without which it
is not possible to obtain salvation.
CHAPTER II.
Concerning the manner in which the Word was conceived, and concerning His
divine incarnation.
The angel of the Lord was sent to the holy Virgin, who was descended from
David's line. Far it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which
tribe no one turned his attention to the altar, as the divine apostle said:
but about this we will speak more accurately later. And bearing glad tidings
to her, he said, Hail thou highly favoured one, the Lord is with thee. And
she was troubled at his word, and the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for
thou hast found favour with God, and shalt bring forth a Son and shalt call
His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins. Hence it
comes that Jesus has the interpretation Saviour. And when she asked in her
perplexity, How can this be, seeing I know not a man? the angel again
answered her, The Holy Spirit shall came upon thee, and the power of the
Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And she said to him, Behold
the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy word.
So then, after the assent of the holy Virgin, the Holy Spirit descended on
her, according to the word of the Lord which the angel spoke, purifying
her, and granting her power to receive the divinity of the Word, and
likewise power to bring forth. And then was she overshadowed by the
enhypostatic Wisdom and Power of the most high God, the Son of God Who is of
like essence with the Father as of Divine seed, and from her holy and most
pure blood He formed flesh animated with the spirit of reason and thought, the
first-fruits of our compound nature: not by procreation but by creation
through the Holy Spirit: not developing the fashion of the body by gradual
additions but perfecting it at once, He Himself, the very Word of God,
standing to the flesh in the relation of subsistence. For the divine Word was
not made one with flesh that had an independent pre-existence, but taking
up His abode in the womb of the holy Virgin, He unreservedly in His own
subsistence took upon Himself through the pure blood of the eternal Virgin a
body of flesh animated with the spirit of reason and thought, thus assuming to
Himself the first-fruits of man's compound nature, Himself, the Word, having
become a subsistence in the flesh. So that He is at once flesh, and at the
same time flesh of God the Word, and likewise flesh animated, possessing both
reason and thought. Wherefore we speak not of man as having become God, but
of God as having become Man. For being by nature perfect God, He naturally
became likewise perfect Man: and did not change His nature nor make the
dispensation an empty show, but became, without confusion or change or
division, one in subsistence with the flesh, which was conceived of the holy
Virgin, and animated with reason and thought, and had found existence in Him,
while He did not change the nature of His divinity into the essence of flesh,
nor the essence of flesh into the nature of His divinity, and did not make one
compound nature out of His divine nature and the human nature He had
assumed.
CHAPTER III.
Concerning Christ's two natures, in apposition to those who hold that He has
only one.
For the two natures were united with each other without change or
alteration, neither the divine nature departing from its native simplicity,
nor yet the human being either changed into the nature of God or reduced to
non-existence, nor one compound nature being produced out of the two. For the
compound nature cannot be of the same essence as either of the natures out
of which it is compounded, as made one thing out of others: for example, the
body is composed of the four elements, but is not of the same essence as fire
or air, or water or earth, nor does it keep these names. If, therefore, after
the union, Christ's nature was, as the heretics
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hold, a compound unity, He had changed from a simple into a compound
nature, and is not of the same essence as the Father Whose nature is
simple, nor as the mother, who is not a compound of divinity and humanity. Nor
will He then be in divinity and humanity: nor will He be called either God or
Man, but simply Christ: and the word Christ will be the name not of the
subsistence, but of what in their view is the one nature.
We, however, do not give it as our view that Christ's nature is compound,
nor yet that He is one thing made of other things and differing from them as
man is made of sold and body, or as the body is made of the four elements, but
hold that, though He is constituted of these different parts He is yet the
same. For we confess that He alike in His divinity and in His humanity both
is and is said to be perfect God, the same Being, and that He consists of two
natures, and exists in two natures. Further, by the word "Christ" we
understand the name of the subsistence, not in the sense of one kind, but as
signifying the existence of two natures. For in His own person He anointed
Himself; as God anointing His body with His own divinity, and as Man being
anointed. For He is Himself both God and Man. And the anointing is the
divinity of His humanity. For if Christ, being of one compound nature, is of
like essence to the Father, then the Father also must be compound and of like
essence with the flesh, which is absurd and extremely blasphemous.
How, indeed, could one and the same nature come to embrace opposing and
essential differences? For how is it possible that the same nature should be
at once created and uncreated, mortal and immortal, circumscribed and
uncircumscribed?
But if those who declare that Christ has only one nature should say also
that that nature is a simple one, they must admit either that He is God pure
and simple, and thus reduce the incarnation to a mere pretence, or that He is
only man, according to Nestorius. And how then about His being "perfect in
divinity and perfect in humanity"? And when can Christ be said to be of two
natures, if they hold that He is of one composite nature after the union? For
it is surely clear to every one that before the union Christ's nature was one.
But this is what leads the heretics astray, viz., that they look upon
nature and subsistence as the same thing. For when we speak of the nature
of men as one, observe that in saying this we are not looking to the
question of soul and body. For when we compare together the soul and the body
it cannot be said that they are of one nature. But since there are very many
subsistences of men, and yet all have the same kind of nature: for all are
composed of soul and body, and all have part in the nature of the soul, and
possess the essence of the body, and the common form: we speak of the one
nature of these very many and different subsistences; while each subsistence,
to wit, has two natures, and fulfils itself in two natures, namely, soul and
body.
But a common form cannot be admitted in the case of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For neither was there ever, nor is there, nor will there ever be
another Christ constituted of deity and humanity, and existing in deity and
humanity at once perfect God and perfect man. And thus in the case of our Lord
Jesus Christ we cannot speak of one nature made up of divinity and humanity,
as we do in the case of the individual made up of soul and body. For in the
latter case we have to do with an individual, but Christ is not an individual.
For there is no predicable form of Christlihood, so to speak, that He
possesses. And therefore we hold that there has been a union of two perfect
natures, one divine and one human; not with disorder or confusion, or
intermixture, or commingling, as is said by the God-accursed Dioscorus and
by Eutyches and Severus, and all that impious company: and not in a
personal or relative manner, or as a matter of dignity or agreement in will,
or equality in honour, or identity in name, or good pleasure, as Nestorius,
hated of God, said, and Diodorus and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and their
diabolical tribe: but by synthesis; that is, in subsistence, without change or
confusion or alteration or difference or separation, and we confess that in
two perfect natures there is but one subsistence of the Son of God
incarnate; holding that there is one and the same subsistence belong-
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ing to His divinity and His humanity, and granting that the two natures are
preserved in Him after the union, but we do not hold that each is separate and
by itself, but that they are united to each other in one compound subsistence.
For we look upon the union as essential, that is, as true and not imaginary.
We say that it is essential, moreover, not in the sense of two natures
resulting in one compound nature, but in the sense of a true union of them in
one compound subsistence of the Son of God, and we hold that their essential
difference is preserved. For the created remaineth created, and the uncreated,
uncreated: the mortal remaineth mortal; the immortal, immortal: the
circumscribed, circumscribed: the uncircumscribed, uncircumscribed: the
visible, visible: the invisible, invisible. "The one part is all glorious with
wonders: while the other is the victim of insults."
Moreover, the Word appropriates to Himself the attributes of humanity: for
all that pertains to His holy flesh is His: and He imparts to the flesh His
own attributes by way of communication in virtue of the interpenetration of
the parts one with another, and the oneness according to subsistence, and
inasmuch as He Who lived and acted both as God and as man, taking to Himself
either form and holding intercourse with the other form, was one and the
same. Hence it is that the Lord of Glory is said to have been crucified,
although His divine nature never endured the Cross, and that the Son of Man is
allowed to have been in heaven before the Passion, as the Lord Himself
said. For the Lord of Glory is one and the same with Him Who is in nature
and in truth the Son of Man, that is, Who became man, and both His wonders and
His sufferings are known to us, although His wonders were worked in His divine
capacity, and His sufferings endured as man. For we know that, just as is His
one subsistence, so is the essential difference of the nature preserved. For
how could difference be preserved if the very things that differ from one
another are not preserved? For difference is the difference between things
that differ. In so far as Christ's natures differ from one another, that is,
in the matter of essence, we hold that Christ unites in Himself two extremes:
in respect of His divinity He is connected with the Father and the Spirit,
while in respect of His humanity He is connected with His mother and all
mankind. And in so far as His natures are united, we hold that He differs from
the Father and the Spirit on the one hand, and from the mother and the rest of
mankind on the other. For the natures are united in His subsistence, having
one compound subsistence, in which He differs from the Father and the Spirit,
and also from the mother and us.
CHAPTER IV.
Concerning the manner of the Mutual
Communication.
Now we have often said already that essence is one thing and subsistence
another, and that essence signifies the common and general form of
subsistences of the same kind, such as God, man, while subsistence marks the
individual, that is to say, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, or Peter, Paul. Observe,
then, that the names, divinity and humanity, denote essences or natures: while
the names, God and man, are applied both in connection with natures, as when
we say that God is incomprehensible essence, and that God is one, and with
reference to subsistences, that which is more specific having the name of the
more general applied to it, as when the Scripture says, Therefore God, thy
God, hath anointed thee, or again, There was a certain man in the land of
Uz, for it was only to Job that reference was made.
Therefore, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing that we recognise
that He has two natures but only one subsistence compounded of both, when we
contemplate His natures we speak of His divinity and His humanity, but when we
contemplate the subsistence compounded of the natures we sometimes use terms
that have reference to His double nature, as "Christ," and "at once God and
man," and "God Incarnate;" and sometimes those that imply only one of His
natures, as "God" alone, or "Son of God," and "man" alone, or "Son of Man;"
sometimes using names that imply His loftiness and sometimes those that imply
His lowliness. For He Who is alike God and man is one, being the former from
the Father ever without cause, but having become the latter afterwards for
His love towards man.
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When, then, we speak of His divinity we do not ascribe to it the
properties of humanity. For we do not say that His divinity is subject to
passion or created. Nor, again, do we predicate of His flesh or of His
humanity the properties of divinity: for we do not say that His flesh or His
humanity is uncreated. But when we speak of His subsistence, whether we give
it a name implying both natures, or one that refers to only one of them, we
still attribute to it the properties of both natures. For Christ, which name
implies both natures, is spoken of as at once God and man, created and
uncreated, subject to suffering anti incapable of suffering: and when He is
named Son of God and God, in reference to only one of His natures, He still
keeps the properties of the co-existing nature, that is, the flesh, being
spoken of as God who suffers, and as the Lord of Glory crucified, not in
respect of His being God but in respect of His being at the same time man.
Likewise also when He is called Man and Son of Man, He still keeps the
properties and glories of the divine nature, a child before the ages, and man
who knew no beginning; it is not, however, as child or man but as God that He
is before the ages, and became a child in the end. And Ibis is the manner of
the mutual communication, either nature giving in exchange to the other its
own properties through the identity of the subsistence and the
interpenetration of the parts with one another. Accordingly we can say of
Christ: This our God was seen upon the earth and lived amongst men, and
This man is uncreated and impossible and uncircumscribed.
CHAPTER V.
Concerning the number of the Natures.
In the case, therefore, of the Godhead we confess that there is but one
nature, but hold that there are three subsistences actually existing, anti
hold that all things that are of nature and essence are simple, and recognise
the difference of the subsistences only in the three properties of
independence of cause and Fatherhood, of dependence on cause and Sonship, of
dependence on cause and procession. And we know further that these are
indivisible and inseparable from each other and united into one, and
interpenetrating one another without confusion. Yea, I repeat, united without
confusion, for they are three although united, and they are distinct, although
inseparable. For although each has an independent existence, that is to say,
is a perfect subsistence and has an individuality of its own, that is, has a
special mode of existence, yet they are one in essence and in the natural
properties. and in being inseparable and indivisible from the Father's
subsistence, and they both are and are said to be one God. In the very same
way, then, in the case of the divine and ineffable dispensation, exceeding
all thought and comprehension, I mean the Incarnation of the One God the Word
of the Holy Trinity, and our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that there are two
natures, one divine and one human, joined together with one another and united
in subsistence, so that one compound subsistence is formed out of the two
natures: but we hold that the two natures are still preserved, even after the
union, in the one compound subsistence, that is, in the one Christ, and that
these exist in reality and have their natural properties; for they are united
without confusion, and are distinguished and enumerated without being
separable. And just as the three subsistences of the Holy Trinity are united
without confusion, and are distinguished and enumerated without being
separable, the enumeration not entailing division or separation or
alienation or cleavage among them (for we recognise one God the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit), so in the same way the natures of Christ also,
although they are united, yet are united without confusion; and although they
interpenetrate one another, yet they do not permit of change or transmutation
of one into the other. For each keeps its own natural individuality
strictly unchanged. And thus it is that they can be enumerated without the
enumeration introducing division. For Christ, indeed, is one, perfect both in
divinity and in humanity. For it is not the nature of number to cause
separation or unity, but its nature is to indicate the quantity of what is
enumerated, whether these are united or separated: for we have unity, for
instance, when fifty stones compose a wall, but we have separation when the
fifty stones lie on the ground; and again, we have unity when we speak of coal
having two natures, namely, fire and wood, but we have separation in that the
nature of fire is one thing, and the nature of wood another thing;
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for these things are united and separated not by number, but in another way.
So, then, just as even though the three subsistences of the Godhead are united
with each other, we cannot speak of them as one subsistence because we should
confuse and do away with the difference between the subsistences, so also we
cannot speak of the two natures of Christ as one nature, united though they
are in subsistence, because we should then confuse and do away with and reduce
to nothing the difference between the two natures.
CHAPTER. VI.
That in one of its subsistences the divine nature is united in its entirety to
the human nature, in its entirety and not only part to part.
What is common and general is predicated of the included particulars.
Essence, then, is common as being a form, while subsistence is particular.
It is particular not as though it had part of the nature and had not the rest,
but particular in a numerical sense, as being individual. For it is in number
and not in nature that the difference between subsistences is said to lie.
Essence, therefore, is predicated of subsistence, because in each subsistence
of the same form the essence is perfect. Wherefore subsistences do not differ
from each other in essence but in the accidents which indeed are the
characteristic properties, but characteristic of subsistence and not of
nature. For indeed they define subsistence as essence along with accidents. So
that the subsistence contains both the general and the particular, and has an
independent existence, while essence has not an independent existence but
is contemplated in the subsistences. Accordingly when one of the subsistences
suffers, the whole essence, being capable of suffering, is held to have
suffered in one of its subsistences as much as the subsistence suffered, but
it does not necessarily follow, however, that all the subsistences of the same
class should suffer along with the suffering subsistence.
Thus, therefore, we confess that the nature of the Godhead is wholly and
perfectly in each of its subsistences, wholly in the Father, wholly in the
Son, and wholly in the Holy Spirit. Wherefore also the Father is perfect God,
the Son is perfect God, and the Holy Spirit is perfect God. In like manner,
too, in the Incarnation of the Trinity of the One God the Word of the Holy
Trinity, we hold that in one of its subsistences the nature of the Godhead is
wholly and perfectly united with the whole nature of humanity, and not part
united to part. The divine Apostle in truth says that in Him dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily, that is to say in His flesh. And His
divinely-inspired disciple, Dionysius, who had so deep a knowledge of things
divine, said that the Godhead as a whole had fellowship with us in one of its
own subsistences. But we shall not be driven to hold that all the
subsistences of the Holy Godhead, to wit the three, are made one in
subsistence with all the subsistences of humanity. For in no other respect did
the Father and the Holy Spirit take part in the incarnation of God the Word
than according to good will and pleasure But we hold that to the whole of
human nature the whole essence of the Godhead was united. For God the Word
omitted none of the things which He implanted in our nature when He formed us
in the beginning, but took them all upon Himself, body and soul both
intelligent and rational, and all their properties. For the creature that is
devoid of one of these is not man. But He in His fulness took upon Himself me
in my fulness, and was united whole to whole that He might in His grace bestow
salvation on the whole man. For what has not been taken cannot be healed.
The Word of God, then, was united to flesh through the medium of mind
which is intermediate between the purity of God and the grossness of flesh.
For the mind holds sway over soul and body, but while the mind is the purest
part of the soul God is that of the mind. And when it is allowed by that
which is more excellent, the mind of Christ gives proof of its own
authority, but it is under the dominion of and obedient to that which is
more excellent, and does those things which the divine will purposes.
Further the mind has become the seat of the divinity united with it in
subsistence, just as is evidently the case with the body too, not as an
inmate, which is the impious error into which the heretics fall when they
say that one bushel cannot contain two bushels, for they are judging what is
immaterial by material standards. How indeed could Christ be called perfect
God and perfect man, and be said to be of like essence with the Father and
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with us, if only part of the divine nature is joined in Him to part of the
human nature?
We hold, moreover, that our nature has been raised from the dead and has
ascended to the heavens and taken its seat at the right hand of the Father:
not that all the persons of men have risen from the dead and taken their seat
at the right hand of the Father, but that this has happened to the whole of
our nature in the subsistence of Christ. Verily the divine Apostle says,
God hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Christ.
And this further we hold, that the union took place through common
essences. For every essence is common to the subsistences contained in it, and
there cannot be found a partial and particular nature, that is to say,
essence: for otherwise we would have to hold that the same subsistences are at
once the same and different in essence, and that the Holy Trinity in respect
of the divinity is at once the same and different in essence. So then the same
nature is to be observed in each of the subsistences, and when we said that
the nature of the word became flesh, as did the blessed Athanasius and
Cyrillus, we mean that the divinity was joined to the flesh. Hence we cannot
say "The nature of the Word suffered;" for the divinity in it did not suffer,
but we say that the human nature, not by any means, however, meaning all
the subsistences of men, suffered in Christ, and we confess further that
Christ suffered in His human nature. So that when we speak of the nature of
the Word we mean the Word Himself. And the Word has both the general element
of essence and the particular element of subsistence.
CHAPTER VII.
Concerning the one compound subsistence of
God the Word.
We hold then that the divine subsistence of God the Word existed before
all else and is without time and eternal, simple and uncompound, uncreated,
incorporeal, invisible, intangible, uncircumscribed, possessing all the Father
possesses, since He is of the same essence with Him, differing from the
Father's subsistence in the manner of His generation and the relation of the
Father's subsistence, being perfect also and at no time separated from the
Father's subsistence: and in these last. days, without leaving the Father's
bosom, took up His abode in an uncircumscribed manner in the womb of the holy
Virgin, without the instrumentality of seed, and in an incomprehensible manner
known only to Himself, and causing the flesh derived from the holy Virgin to
subsist in the very subsistence that was before all the ages.
So then He was both in all things and above all things and also dwelt in
the womb of the holy Mother of God, but in it by the energy of the
incarnation. He therefore became flesh and He took upon Himself thereby the
first-fruits of our compound nature, viz., the flesh animated with the
intelligent and national soul, so that the very subsistence of God the Word
was changed into the subsistence of the flesh, and the subsistence of the
Word, which was formerly simple, became compound, yea compounded of two
perfect natures, divinity and humanity, and bearing the characteristic and
distinctive property of the divine Sonship of God the Word in virtue of which
it is distinguished from the Father and the Spirit, and also the
characteristic and distinctive properties of the flesh, in virtue of which it
differs from the Mother and the rest of mankind, bearing further the
properties of the divine nature in virtue of which it is united to the Father
and the Spirit, and the marks of the human nature in virtue of which it is
united to the Mother and to us. And further it differs from the Father and the
Spirit and the Mother and us in being at once God and man. For this we know to
be the most special property of the subsistence of Christ.
Wherefore we confess Him, even after the incarnation, the one Son of God,
and likewise Son of Man, one Christ, one Lord, the only-begotten Son and Word
of God, one Lord Jesus. We reverence His two generations, one from the Father
before time and beyond cause and reason and time and nature, and one in the
end for our sake, and like to us and above us; for our sake because it was for
our salvation, like to us in that He was man born of woman at full
tithe, and above us because it was not by seed, but by the Holy Spirit and
the Holy Virgin Mary, transcending the laws of parturition. We proclaim Him
not as God only, devoid of our humanity, nor yet as man only, stripping Him of
His divinity, nor as two distinct persons, but as one and the same, at once
God and man, perfect God and perfect man, wholly God anti wholly man, the same
being wholly God, even though He was also
52
flesh and wholly man, even though He was also most high God. And by "perfect
God" and "perfect man" we mean to emphasize the fulness and unfailingness of
the natures: while by "wholly God" and "wholly man" we mean to lay stress on
the singularity and individuality of the subsistence.
And we confess also that there is one incarnate nature of God the Word,
expressing by the word "incarnate" the essence of the flesh, according to
the blessed Cyril. And so the Word was made flesh and yet did not abandon
His own proper immateriality: He became wholly flesh and yet remained wholly
uncircumscribed. So far as He is body He is diminished and contracted into
narrow limits, but inasmuch as He is God He is uncircumscribed, His flesh not
being coextensive with His uncircumscribed divinity.
He is then wholly perfect God, but yet is not simply God: for He is not
only God but also man. And He is also wholly perfect man but not simply
man, for He is not only man but also God. For "simply" here has reference
to His nature, and "wholly" to His subsistence, just as "another thing"
would refer to nature, while "another" would refer to subsistence.
But observe that although we hold that the natures of the Lord permeate
one another, yet we know that the permeation springs from the divine nature.
For it is that that penetrates and permeates all things, as it wills, while
nothing penetrates it: and it is it, too, that imparts to the flesh its own
peculiar glories, while abiding itself impossible and without participation in
the affections of the flesh. For if the sun imparts to us his energies and yet
does not participate in ours, how much the rather must this be true of the
Creator anti Lord of the Sun.
CHAPTER VIII.
In reply to those who ask whether the natures of the Lord are brought under
a continuous or a discontinuous quantity.
If any one asks concerning the natures of the Lord if they are brought
under a continuous or discontinuous quantity, we will say that the natures
of the Lord are neither one body nor one superficies, nor one line, nor
time, nor place, so as to be reduced to a continuous quantity. For these are
the things that are reckoned continuously.
Further note that number deals with things that differ, and it is quite
impossible to enumerate things that differ from one another in no respect: and
just so far as they differ are they enumerated: for instance, Peter and Paul
are not counted separately in so far as they are one. For since they are one
in respect of their essence they cannot be spoken of as two natures, but as
they differ in respect of subsistence they are spoken of as two subsistences.
So that number deals with differences, and just as the differing objects
differ from one another so far they are enumerated.
The natures of the Lord, then, are united without confusion so far as
regards subsistence, and they are divided without separation according to the
method and manner of difference. And it is not according to the manner in
which they are united that they are enumerated, for it is not in respect of
subsistence that we hold that there are two natures of Christ: but according
to the manner in which they are divided without separation they are
enumerated, for it is in respect of the method and manner of difference that
there are two natures of Christ. For being united in subsistence and
permeating one another, they are united without confusion, each preserving
throughout its own peculiar and natural difference. Hence, since they are
enumerated according to the manner of difference, and that alone, they must be
brought under a discontinuous quantity.
Christ, therefore, is one, perfect God and perfect man: and Him we
worship along with the Father and the Spirit, with one obeisance, adoring even
His immaculate flesh and not holding that the flesh is not meet for worship:
for in fact it is worshipped in the one subsistence of the Word, which indeed
became subsistence for it. But in this we do not do homage to that which is
created. For we worship Him, not as mere flesh, but as flesh united with
divinity, and because His two natures are brought under the one person and one
subsistence of God the Word. I fear to touch coal because of the fire bound up
with the wood. I worship the twofold nature of Christ because of the divinity
that is in Him bound up with flesh. For I do not
53
introduce a fourth person into the Trinity. God forbid! but I confess one
person of God the Word and of His flesh, and the Trinity remains Trinity, even
after the incarnation of the Word.
In reply to those who ask whether the two natures are brought under a
continuous or a discontinuous quantity.
The natures of the Lord are neither one body nor one superficies, nor one
line, nor place, nor time, so as to be brought under a continuous quantity:
for these are the things that are reckoned continuously. But the natures of
the Lord are united without confusion in respect of subsistence, and are
divided without separation according to the method and manner of difference.
And according to the manner in which they are united they are not enumerated.
For we do not say that the natures of Christ are two subsistences or two in
respect of subsistence. But according to the manner in which they are divided
without division, are they enumerated. For there are two natures according to
the method and manner of difference. For being united in subsistence and
permeating one another they are united without confusion, neither having been
changed into the other, but each preserving its own natural difference even
after the union. For that which is created remained created, and that which is
uncreated, uncreated. By the manner of difference, then, and in that alone,
they are enumerated, and thus are brought under discontinuous quantity. For
things which differ from each other in no respect cannot be enumerated, but
just so far as they differ are they enumerated; for instance, Peter and Paul
are not enumerated in those respects in which they are one: for being one in
respect of their essence they are not two natures nor are they so spoken of.
But inasmuch as they differ in subsistence they are spoken of as two
subsistences.So that difference is the cause of number.
CHAPTER IX.
In reply to the question whether there is Nature that has no Subsistence.
For although there is no nature without subsistence, nor essence apart
from person (since in truth it is in persons and subsistences that essence and
nature are to be contemplated), yet it does not necessarily follow that the
natures that are united to one another in subsistence should have each its own
proper subsistence. For after they have come together into one subsistence, it
is possible that neither should they be without subsistence, nor should each
have its own peculiar subsistence, but that both should have one and the same
subsistence. For since one and the same subsistence of the Word has become
the subsistence of the natures, neither of them is permitted to be without
subsistence, nor are they allowed to have subsistences that differ from each
other, or to have sometimes the subsistence of this nature and sometimes of
that, but always without division or separation they both have the same
subsistence--a subsistence which is not broken up into parts or divided, so
that one part should belong to this, and one to that, but which belongs wholly
to this and wholly to that in its absolute entirety. For the flesh of God the
Word did not subsist as an independent subsistence, nor did there arise
another subsistence besides that of God the Word, but as it existed in that it
became rather a subsistence which subsisted in another, than one which was an
independent subsistence. Wherefore, neither does it lack subsistence
altogether, nor yet is there thus introduced into the Trinity another
subsistence.
CHAPTER X.
Concerning the Trisagium ("the Thrice Holy").
This being so, we declare that the addition which the vain-minded Peter
the Fuller made to the Trisagium or "Thrice Holy" Hymn is blasphemous; for
it introduces a fourth person into the Trinity, giving a separate place to the
Son of God, Who is the truly subsisting power of the Father, and a separate
place to Him Who was crucified as though He were different from the "Mighty
One," or as though the Holy Trinity was considered possible, and the Father
and the Holy Spirit suffered on the Cross along with the Son. Have done with
this blasphemous and nonsensical interpolation! For we hold the words "Holy
God" to refer to the Father, without limiting the title of divinity to Him
alone, but acknowledging also as God the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the
words
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"Holy and Mighty" we ascribe to the Son, without stripping the Father and the
Holy Spirit of might: and the words "Holy and Immortal" we attribute to the
Holy Spirit, without depriving the Father and the Son of immortality. For,
indeed, we apply all the divine names simply and unconditionally to each of
the subsistences in imitation of the divine Apostle's words. But to us there
is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him: and one
Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things, and we by Him And,
nevertheless, we follow Gregory the Theologian when he says, "But to us
there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus
Christ, through Whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in Whom are all
things:" for the words "of Whom" and "through Whom" and "in Whom" do not
divide the natures (for neither the prepositions nor the order of the names
could ever be changed), but they characterise the properties of one unconfused
nature. And this becomes clear from the fact that they are once more gathered
into one, if only one reads with care these words of the same Apostle, Of Him
and through Him and in Him are all things: to Him be the glory for ever and
ever. Amen.
For that the "Trisagium" refers not to the Son alone, but to the Holy
Trinity, the divine and saintly Athanasius and Basil and Gregory, and all the
band of the divinely-inspired Fathers bear witness: because, as a matter of
fact, by the threefold holiness the Holy Seraphim suggest to us the three
subsistences of the superessential Godhead. But by the one Lordship they
denote the one essence and dominion of the supremely-divine Trinity. Gregory
the Theologian of a truth says, "Thus, then, the Holy of Holies, which is
completely veiled by the Seraphim, and is glorified with three consecrations,
meet together in one lordship and one divinity." This was the most beautiful
and sublime philosophy of still another of our predecessors.
Ecclesiastical historians, then, say that once when the people of
Constantinople were offering prayers to God to avert a threatened calamity,
during Proclus' tenure of the office of Archbishop, it happened that a boy was
snatched up from among the people, and was taught by angelic teachers the
"Thrice Holy" Hymn, "Thou Holy God, Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal
One, have mercy upon us:" and when once more he was restored to earth, he told
what he had learned, and all the people sang the Hymn, and so the threatened
calamity was averted. And in the fourth holy and great (Ecumenical Council, I
mean the one at Chalcedon, we are told that it was in this form that the Hymn
was sung; for the minutes of this holy assembly so record it. It is,
therefore, a matter for laughter and ridicule that this "Thrice Holy" Hymn,
taught us by the angels, and confirmed by the averting of calamity,
ratified and established by so great an assembly of the holy Fathers, and sung
first by the Seraphim as a declaration of the three subsistences of the
Godhead, should be mangled and forsooth emended to suit the view of the stupid
Fuller as though he were higher than the Seraphim. But oh! the arrogance! not
to say folly! But we say it thus, though demons should rend us in pieces, "Do
Thou, Holy God, Holy and Mighty One, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy upon
us."
CHAPTER XI.
Concerning the Nature as viewed in Species
and in Individual, and concerning the difference between Union and
Incarnation: and how this is to be understood, "The one Nature of God the Word
Incarnate."
Nature is regarded either abstractly as a matter of pure thought
(for it has no independent existence): or commonly in all subsistences of the
same species as their bond of union, and is then spoken of as nature viewed in
species: or universally as the same, but with the addition of accidents, in
one subsistence, and is spoken of as nature viewed in the individual, this
being identical with nature viewed in species. God the Word Incarnate,
therefore, did not assume the nature that is regarded as an abstraction in
pure thought (for tiffs is not incarnation, but only an imposture and a
figment of incarnation), nor the nature viewed in species (for He did not
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assume all the subsistences): but the nature viewed in the individual, which
is identical with that viewed in species. For He took on Himself the elements
of our compound nature, and these not as having an independent existence or as
being originally an individual, and in this way assumed by Him, but as
existing in His own subsistence. For the subsistence of God the Word in itself
became the subsistence of the flesh, and accordingly "the Word became
flesh" clearly without any change, and likewise the flesh became Word
without alteration, and God became man. For the Word is God, and man is God,
through having one and the same subsistence. And so it is possible to speak of
tile same thing as being the nature of the Word and the nature in the
individual. For it signifies strictly and exclusively neither the individual,
that is, the subsistence, nor the common nature of the subsistences, but the
common nature as viewed and presented in one of the subsistences.
Union, then, is one thing, and incarnation is something quite different.
For union signifies only the conjunction, but not at all that with which union
is effected. But incarnation (which is just the same as if one said "the
putting on of man's nature") signifies that tile conjunction is with flesh,
that is to say, with man, just as the heating of iron implies its union
with fire. Indeed, the blessed Cyril himself, when he is interpreting the
phrase, "one nature of God the Word Incarnate," says in the second epistle to
Sucensus, "For if we simply said 'the one nature of the Word' and then were
silent, and did not add the word 'incarnate.' but, so to speak, quite excluded
the dispensation, there would be some plausibility in the question they
feign to ask, 'If one nature is the whole, what becomes of the perfection in
humanity, or how has the essence like us come to exist?' But inasmuch as
the perfection in humanity and the disclosure of the essence like us are
conveyed in the word 'incarnate,' they must cease from relying on a mere
straw" Here, then, he placed the nature of the Word over nature itself. For if
He had received nature instead of subsistence, it would not have been absurd
to have omitted the "incarnate." For when we say simply one subsistence of God
the Word, we do not err. In like manner, also, Leontius the Byzantine
considered this phrase to refer to nature, and not to subsistence. But in the
Defence which he wrote in reply to the attacks that Theodoret made on the
second anathema, the blessed Cyril says this: "The nature of the Word, that
is, the subsistence, which is the Word itself." So that "the nature of the
Word" means neither the subsistence alone, nor "the common nature of the
subsistence," but "the common nature viewed as a whole in the subsistence of
the Word."
It has been said, then, that the nature of the Word became flesh, that is,
was united to flesh: but that the nature of the Word suffered in the flesh we
have never heard up till now, though we have been taught that Christ suffered
in the flesh. So that "the nature of the Word" does not mean "the
subsistence." It remains, therefore, to say that to become flesh is to be
united with the flesh, while the Word having become flesh means that the very
subsistence of the Word became without change the subsistence of the flesh. It
has also been said that God became man, and man God. For the Word which is God
became without alteration man. But that the Godhead became man, or became
flesh, or put on the nature of man, this we have never heard. This, indeed, we
have learned, that the Godhead was united to humanity in one of its
subsistences, and it has been stated that God took on a different form or
essence, to wit our own. For the name God is applicable to each of the
subsistences, but we cannot use the term Godhead in reference to subsistence.
For we are never told that the Godhead is the Father alone, or the Son alone,
or the Holy Spirit alone. For "Godhead" implies "nature," while "Father"
implies subsistence just as "Humanity" implies nature, and "Peter"
subsistence. But "God" indicates the common element of the nature, and is
applicable derivatively to each of the subsistences, just as "man" is. For He
Who has divine nature is God, and he who has human nature is man.
Besides all this, notice that the Father and the Holy Spirit take no
part at all in the incarnation of the Word except in connection with the
miracles, and in respect of good will and purpose.
CHAPTER XII.
That the holy Virgin is the Mother of God: an argument directed against the
Nestorians.
Moreover we proclaim the holy Virgin to be
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in strict truth the Mother of God. For inasmuch as He who was born of
her was true God, she who bare the true God incarnate is the true mother of
God. For we hold that God was born of her, not implying that the divinity of
the Word received from her the beginning of its being, but meaning that God
the Word Himself, Who was begotten of the Father timelessly before the ages,
and was with the Father and the Spirit without beginning anti through
eternity, took up His abode in these last days for the sake of our salvation
in the Virgin's womb, and was without change made flesh and born of her. For
the holy Virgin did not bare mere man but true God: and not mere God but God
incarnate, Who did not bring down His body from Heaven, nor simply passed
through the Virgin as channel, but received from her flesh of like essence to
our own and subsisting in Himself. For if the body had come down from
heaven and had not partaken of our nature, what would have been the use of His
becoming man? For the purpose of God the Word becoming man was that the
very same nature, which had sinned and fallen and become corrupted, should
triumph over the deceiving tyrant and so be freed from corruption, just as the
divine apostle puts it, For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. If the first is true the second must also be
true.
Although, however, he says, The first Adam is of the earth earthy; the
second Adam is Lord from Heaven, he does not say that His body is from
heaven, but emphasises the fact that He is not mere man. For, mark, he called
Him both Adam and Lord, thus indicating His double nature. For Adam is, being
interpreted, earth-born: and it is clear that man's nature is earth-born since
he is formed from earth, but the title Lord signifies His divine essence.
And again the Apostle says: God sent forth His only-begotten Son, made of
a woman. He did not say "made by a woman." Wherefore the divine apostle
meant that the only-begotten Son of God and God is the same as He who was made
man of the Virgin, and that He who was born of the Virgin is the same as the
Son of God and God.
But He was born after the bodily fashion inasmuch as He became man, and
did not take up His abode in a man formed beforehand, as in a prophet, but
became Himself in essence and truth man, that is He caused flesh animated with
the intelligent and reasonable to subsist in His own subsistence, and Himself
became subsistence for it. For this is the meaning of "made of a woman." For
how could the very Word of God itself have been made under the law, if He did
not become man of like essence with ourselves?
Hence it is with justice and truth that we call the holy Mary the Mother
of God. For this name embraces the whole mystery of the dispensation. For if
she who bore Him is the Mother of God, assuredly He Who was born of her is God
and likewise also man. For how could God, Who was before the ages, have been
born of a woman unless He had become man ? For the son of man must clearly be
man himself. But if He Who was born of a woman is Himself God, manifestly He
Who was born of God the Father in accordance with the laws of an essence that
is divine and knows no beginning, and He Who was in the last days born of the
Virgin in accordance with the laws of an essence that has beginning and is
subject to time, that is, an essence which is human, must be one and the same.
The name in truth signifies the one subsistence and the two natures and the
two generations Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we never say that the holy Virgin is the Mother of Christ because
it was in order to do away with the title Mother of God, and to bring
dishonour on the Mother of God, who alone is in truth worthy of honour above
all creation, that the impure and abominable Judaizing Nestorius, that
vessel of dishonour, invented this name for an insult. For David the king,
and Aaron, the high priest, are also called Christ, for it is customary to
make kings and priests by anointing: and besides every God-inspired man may be
called Christ. but yet be is not by nature God: yea, the accursed Nestorius
insulted Him Who was born of the Virgin by calling Him God-bearer. May it
be far from us to speak of or think of Him as God-bearer only, Who is in
truth God incarnate. For the Word Himself became flesh, having been in truth
conceived of the Virgin, but coming forth as God with the assumed nature
which, as soon as He was brought forth into being, was deified by Him, so that
these three things took place simultaneously, the assumption of our nature,
the coming into being, and the
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deification of the assumed nature by the Word. And thus it is that the holy
Virgin is thought of and spoken of as the Mother of God, not only because of
the nature of the Word, but also because of the deification of man's nature,
the miracles of conception and of existence being wrought together, to wit,
the conception the Word, and the existence of the flesh in the Word Himself.
For the very Mother of God in some marvellous manner was the means of
fashioning the Framer of all things and of bestowing manhood on the God and
Creator of all, Who deified the nature that He assumed, while the union
preserved those things that were united just as they were united, that is to
say, not only the divine nature of Christ but also His human nature, not only
that which is above us but that which is of us. For He was not first made like
us and only later became higher than us, but ever from His first coating
into being He existed with the double nature, because He existed in the Word
Himself from the beginning of the conception. Wherefore He is human in His own
nature, but also, in some marvellous manner, of God and divine. Moreover He
has the properties of the living flesh: for by reason of the dispensation
the Word received these which are, according to the order of natural motion,
truly natural.
CHAPTER XIII.
Concerning the properties of the two Natures.
Confessing, then, the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, to be perfect God and
perfect man, we hold that the same has all the attributes of the Father save
that of being ingenerate, and all the attributes of the first Adam, save only
his sin, these attributes being body and the intelligent and rational soul;
and further that He has, corresponding to the two natures, the two sets of
natural qualities belonging to the two natures: two natural volitions, one
divine and one human, two natural, energies, one divine and one human, two
natural free-wills, one divine and one human, and two kinds of wisdom and
knowledge, one divine and one human. For being of like essence with God and
the Father, He wills and energises freely as God, and being also of like
essence with us He likewise wills and energises freely as man. For His are the
miracles and His also are the passive states.
CHAPTER XIV.
Concerning the volitions and free-will of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Since, then, Christ has two natures, we hold that He has also two natural
wills and two natural energies. But since His two natures have one
subsistence, we hold that it is one and the same person who wills and
energises naturally in both natures, of which, and in which, and also which is
Christ our Lord: and moreover that He wills and energises without separation
but as a united whole. For He wills and energises in either form in close
communion with the other. For things that have the same essence have also
the same will and energy, while things that are different in essence are
different in will and energy; and vice versa, things that have the same
will anti energy have the same essence, while things that are different in
will and energy are different in essence.
Wherefore in the case of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit we
recognise, from their sameness in will and energy, their sameness in nature.
But in the case of the divine dispensation we recognise from their
difference in will and energy the difference of the two natures, and as we
perceive the difference of the two natures we confess that the wills and
energies also are different. For just as the number of the natures of one and
the same Christ, when considered and spoken of with piety, do not cause a
division of the one Christ but merely bring out the fact that the difference
between the natures is maintained even in the union, so it is with the number
of wills and energies that belong essentially to His natures. (For He was
endowed with the powers of willing and energising in both natures, for the
sake of our salvation) It does not introduce division: God forbid! but merely
brings out the fact that the differences between them are safeguarded and
preserved even in the union. For we hold that wills and energies are faculties
belonging to nature, not to subsistence; I mean those faculties of will and
energy by which He Who wills and energises does so. For if we allow that they
belong to subsistence, we will be forced to say that the three subsistences of
the Holy Trinity have different wills and different energies.
For it is to be noted s that willing and the manner of willing are not the
same thing. For to will is a faculty of nature, just as
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seeing is, for all men possess it; but the manner of willing does not depend
on nature but on our judgment, just as does also the manner of seeing, whether
well or ill. For all men do not will in the same way, nor do they all see in
the same way. And this also we will grant in connection with energies. For the
manner of willing, or seeing, or energising, is the mode of using the
faculties of will and sight and energy, belonging only to him who uses them,
and marking him off from others by the generally accepted difference.
Simple willing then is spoken of as volition or the faculty of will,
being a rational propension and natural will; but in a particular way
willing, or that which underlies volition, is the object of will, and will
dependent on judgment. Further that which has innate in it the faculty of
volition is spoken of as capable of willing: as for instance the divine is
capable of willing, and the human in like manner. But he who exercises
volition, that is to say the subsistence, for instance Peter, is spoken of as
willing.
Since, then, Christ is one and His subsistence is one, He also Who
wills both as God and as man is one and the same. And since He has two natures
endowed with volition, inasmuch as they are rational (for whatever is rational
is endowed with volition and free-will), we shall postulate two volitions or
natural wills in Him. For He in His own person is capable of volition in
accordance with both His natures. For He assumed that faculty of volition
which belongs naturally to us. And since Christ, Who in His own person wills
according to either nature, is one, we shall postulate the same object of will
in His case, not as though He wills only those things which He willed
naturally as God (for it is no part of Godhead to will to eat or drink and so
forth), but as willing also those things which human nature requires for its
support, and this without involving any opposition in judgment, but simply
as the result of the individuality of the natures. For then it was that He
thus willed naturally, when His divine volition so willed and permitted the
flesh to suffer and do that which was proper to it.
But that volition is implanted in man by nature is manifest from this.
Excluding the divine life, there are three forms of life: the vegetative, the
sentient, and the intellectual. The properties of the vegetative life are the
functions of nourishment, and growth, and production: that of the sentient
life is impulse: and that of the rational and intellectual life is freedom of
will. If, then, nourishment belongs by nature to the vegetative life and
impulse to the sentient, freedom of will by nature belongs to the rational and
intellectual life. But freedom of will is nothing else than volition. The
Word, therefore, having become flesh, endowed with life and mind and
free-will, became also endowed with volition.
Further, that which is natural is not the result of training: for no one
learns how to think, or live, or hunger, or thirst, or sleep. Nor do we learn
how to will: so that willing is natural.
And again: if in the case of creatures devoid of reason nature rules,
while nature is ruled in man who is moved of his own free-will and volition,
it follows, then, that man is by nature endowed with volition.
And again: if man has been made after the image of the blessed and
super-essential Godhead, and if the divine nature is by nature endowed with
free-will and volition, it follows that man, as its image, is free by nature
and volitive. For the fathers defined freedom as volition.
And further: if to will is a part of the nature of every man and not
present in some and absent in others, and if that which is seen to be common
to all is a characteristic feature of the nature that belongs to the
individuals of the class, surely, then, man is by nature endowed with
volition.
And once more: if the nature receives neither more nor less, but all are
equally endowed with volition and not some more than others, then by nature
man is endowed with volition. So that since man is by nature endowed with
volition, the Lord also must be by nature endowed with volition, not only
because He is God, but also because He became man. For just as He assumed our
nature, so also He has assumed naturally our will. And in this way the Fathers
said that He formed our will in Himself.
If the will is not natural, it must be either hypostatic or unnatural. But
if it is hypostatic, the Son must thus, forsooth, have a different will from
what the Father has: for that which is hypostatic is characteristic of
subsistence only. And if it is unnatural, will must be a defection from
nature: for
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what is unnatural is destructive of what is natural.
The God and Father of all things wills either as Father or as God. Now if
as Father, His will will be different from that of the Son, for the Son is not
the Father. But if as God, the Son is God and likewise the Holy Spirit is God,
and so volition is part of His nature, that is, it is natural.
Besides, if according to the view of the Fathers, those who have one
and the same will have also one and the same essence, and if the divinity and
humanity of Christ have one and the same will, then assuredly these have also
one and the same essence.
And again: if according to the view of the Fathers the distinction between
the natures is not seen in the single will, we mast either, when we speak of
the one will, cease to speak of the different natures in Christ or, when we
speak of the different natures of Christ, cease to speak of the one will.
And further, the divine Gospel says, The Lord came into the borders of
Tyre and Sidon and entered into a house, and would have no man know it; but He
could not be hid. If, then, His divine will is omnipotent, but yet, though
He would, He could not be hid, surely it was as man that He would and could
not, and so as man He must be endowed with volition.
And once again, the Gospel tells us that, He, having come into the
place, said 'I thirst': and they gave Him same vinegar mixed with gall, and
when He had tasted it fare would not drink. If, then, on the one hand it
was as God that tie suffered thirst and when He had tasted would not drink,
surely He must be subject to passion s also as God, for thirst and taste are
passions. But if it was not as God but altogether as man that He was
athirst, likewise as man He must be endowed with volition.
Moreover, the blessed Paul the Apostle says, He became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. But obedience is subjection of the real
will, not of the unreal will. For that which is irrational is not said to be
obedient or disobedient. But the Lord having become obedient to the Father,
became so not as God but as man. For as God He is not said to be obedient or
disobedient. For these things are of the things that are trader one's band,
as the inspired Gregorius said. Wherefore, then, Christ is endowed with
volition as man.
While, however, we assert that will is natural, we hold not that it is
dominated by necessity, but that it is free. For if it is rational, it must be
absolutely free. For it is not only the divine and uncreated nature that is
free from the bonds of necessity, but also the intellectual and created
nature. And this is manifest: for God, being by nature good and being by
nature the Creator and by nature God, is not all this of necessity. For who is
there to introduce this necessity?
It is to be observed further, that freedom of will is used in several
senses, one in connection with God, another in connection with angels, and a
third in connection with men. For used in reference to God it is to be
understood in a superessential manner, and in reference to angels it is to be
taken in the sense that the election is concomitant with the state, and
admits of the interposition of no interval of time at all: for while the angel
possesses free-will by nature, he uses it without let or hindrance, having
neither antipathy on the part of the body to overcome nor any assailant.
Again, used in reference to men, it is to be taken in the sense that the state
is considered to be anterior in time to the election. For than is free and has
free-will by nature, but he has also the assault of the devil to impede him
and the motion of the body: and thus through the assault and the weight of the
batty, election comes to be later than the state.
If, then, Adam obeyed of his own will and ate of his own will, surely
in us the will is the first part to suffer. And if the will is the first to
suffer, and the Word Incarnate did not assume this with the rest of our
nature, it follows that we have not been freed from sin.
Moreover, if the faculty of free-will which is in nature is His work and
yet He did not assume it, He either condemned His own workmanship as not good,
or grudged us the comfort it brought, and so deprived us of the full benefit,
and shewed that He was Himself subject to passion since He was not willing or
not able to work out our perfect salvation.
Moreover, one cannot speak of one com-
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pound thing made of two wills in the same way as a subsistence is a
composition of two natures. Firstly because the compositions are of things in
subsistence (hypotasis), not of things viewed in a different category, not in
one proper to them: and secondly, because if we speak of composition of
wills and energies, we will be obliged to speak of composition of the other
natural properties, such as the uncreated and the created, the invisible and
the visible, and so on. And what will be the name of the will that is
compounded out of two wills? For the compound cannot be called by the name of
the elements that make it up. For otherwise we should call that which is
compounded of natures nature and not subsistence. And further, if we say that
there is one compound will in Christ, we separate Him in will from the Father,
for the Father's will is not compound. It remains, therefore, to say that the
subsistence of Christ atone is compound and common, as in the case of the
natures so also in that of the natural properties.
And we cannot, if we wish to be accurate, speak of Christ as having
judgment (gnwmh) and preference. For judgment is a
disposition with reference to the decision arrived at after investigation and
deliberation concerning something unknown, that is to say, after counsel and
decision. And after judgment comes preference, which chooses out and
selects the one rather than the other. But the Lord being not mere man but
also God, and knowing all things, had no need of inquiry. and investigation,
and counsel, and decision, and by nature made whatever is good His own and
whatever is bad foreign to Him. For thus says Isaiah the prophet, Before
the child shall know to prefer the evil, he shall choose the good; because
before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness by choosing the
good. For the word "before" proves that it is not with investigation and
deliberation, as is the way with us, but as God and as subsisting in a divine
manner in the flesh, that is to say, being united in subsistence to the flesh,
and because of His very existence and all-embracing knowledge, that He is
possessed of good in His own nature. For the virtues are natural qualities,
and are implanted in all by nature and in equal measure, even if we do not all
in equal measure employ our natural energies. By the transgression we were
driven from the natural to the unnatural. But the Lord led us back from the
unnatural into the natural. For this is what is the meaning of in our
image, after our likeness. And the discipline and trouble of this life were
not designed as a means for our attaining virtue which was foreign to our
nature, but to enable us to cast aside the evil that was foreign and contrary
to our nature: just as on laboriously removing from steel the rust which is
not natural to it but acquired through neglect, we reveal the natural
brightness of the steel.
Observe further that the word judgment (gnwmh) is used in
many ways and in many senses. Sometimes it signifies exhortation: as when the
divine apostle says, Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord;
yet I give my judgment: sometimes it means counsel, as when the prophet
David says, They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people: sometimes it
means a decree, as when we read in Daniel, Concerning whom (or, what) went
this shameless decree forth? At other times it is used in the sense of
belief, or opinion, or purpose, and, to put it shortly, the word judgment has
twenty-eight different meanings.
CHAPTER XV.
Concerning the energies in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
We hold, further, that there are two energies in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For He possesses on the one hand, as God and being of like essence with the
Father, the divine energy, and, likewise, since He became man and of like
essence to us, the energy proper to human nature.
But observe that energy and capacity for energy, and the product of
energy, and the agent of energy, are all different. Energy is the efficient
(drastikh) and essential activity of nature: the capacity for
energy is the nature from which proceeds energy: the product of energy is that
which is effected by energy: and the agent of energy is the person or
subsistence which uses the energy. Further, sometimes energy is used in the
sense of the product of energy, and the product of energy in that of energy,
just as the terms creation and creature are sometimes transposed. For we say
"all creation," meaning creatures.
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Note also that energy is an activity and is energised rather than
energises; as Gregory the Theologian says m his thesis concerning the Holy
Spirit: "If energy exists, it must manifestly be energised and will not
energise: and as soon as it has been energised, it will cease."
Life itself, it should be observed, is energy, yea, the primal energy of
the living creature and so is the whole economy of the living creature, its
functions of nutrition and growth, that is, the vegetative side of its nature,
and the movement stirred By impulse, that is, the sentient side, and its
activity of intellect and free-will. Energy, moreover, is the perfect
realisation of power. If, then, we contemplate all these in Christ, surely we
must also hold that He possesses human energy.
The first thought that arises in us is called energy: and it is simple
energy not involving any relationship, the mind sending forth the thoughts
peculiar to it in an independent and invisible way, for if it did not do so it
could not justly be called mind. Again, the revelation and unfolding of
thought by means of articulate speech is said to be energy. But this is no
longer simple energy that revolves no relationship, but it is considered in
relation as being composed of thought and speech. Further, the very relation
which be who does anything bears to that which is brought about is energy; and
the very thing that is effected is called energy. The first belongs to the
soul alone, the second to the soul making use of the body, the third to the
body animated by mind, and the last is the effect. For the mind sees
beforehand what is to be and then performs it thus by means of the body. And
so the hegemony belongs to the soul, for it uses the body as an instrument,
leading and restraining it. But the energy of the body is quite different, for
the booty is led and moved by the soul. And with regard to the effect, the
touching and handling and, so to speak, the embrace of what is effected,
belong to the body, while the figuration and formation belong to the soul. And
so in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of miracles is the
energy of His divinity, while the work of His hands and the willing and the
saying, I will, be thou clean, are the energy of His humanity. And as to
the effect, the breaking of the loaves, and the fact that the leper heard
the "I will," belong to His humanity, while the multiplication of the loaves
and the purification of the leper belong to His divinity. For through both,
that is through the energy of the booty anti the energy of the soul. He
displayed one and the same, cognate and equal divine energy. For just as we
saw that His natures were united and permeate one another, and yet do not deny
that they are different but even enumerate them, although we know they are
inseparable, so also in connection with the wills and the energies we know
their union, and we recognise their difference and enumerate them without
introducing separation. For just as the flesh was deified without undergoing
change in its own nature, in the same way also will and energy are deified
without transgressing their own proper limits. For whether He is the one or
the other, He is one and the same, and whether He wills and energises in one
way or the other, that is as God or as man, He is one and the same.
We must, then, maintain that Christ has two energies in virtue of His
double nature. For things that have diverse natures, have also different
energies, and things that have diverse energies, have also different natures.
And so conversely, things that have the same nature have also the same energy,
and things that have one and the same energy have also one and the same
essence, which is the view of the Fathers, who declare the divine
meaning. One of these alternatives, then, must be true: either, if we hold
that Christ has one energy. we must also hold that He has but one essence, or,
if we are solicitous about truth. and confess that He has according to the
doctrine of the Gospels and the Fathers two essences, we must also confess
that He has two energies corresponding to and accompanying them. For as He is
of like essence with God and the Father in divinity, He will be His equal also
in energy. And as He likewise is of like essence with us in humanity He will
be our equal also in energy. For the blessed Gregory, bishop of Nyssa,
says, "Things that have one and the same energy, have also absolutely the
same power." For all energy is the effect of power. But it cannot be that
uncreated and created nature have one and the same nature or power or energy.
But if we should hold that Christ has but one energy, we should attribute to
the divinity of the Word the passions of the intelligentspirit, viz. tear and
grief and anguish.
If they should say, indeed, that the holy
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Fathers said in their disputation concerning the Holy Trinity, "Things that
have one and the same essence have also one and the same energy, and things
which have different essences have also different energies," and that it is
not right to transfer to the dispensation what has reference to matters of
theology, we shall answer that if it has been said by the Fathers solely with
reference to theology. and if the Son has not even after the incarnation the
same energy as the Father s, assuredly He cannot have the same essence. But to
whom shall we attribute this, My Father worketh hitherto and I work: and
this, What things soever He seeth the Father doing, these also doeth the Son
likewise: and this, If ye believe not Me, believe My works: and this,
The work which I do bear witness concerning Me: and this. As the Father
raised up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will. For all these shew not only that He is of like essence to the Father
even after the incarnation, but that He has also the same energy.
And again: if the providence that embraces all creation is not only of the
Father and the Holy Spirit, but also of the Son even after the incarnation,
assuredly since that is energy, He must have even after the incarnation the
same energy as the Father.
But if we have learnt from the miracles that Christ has the same essence
as the Father, and since the miracles happen to be the energy of God,
assuredly He must have even after the incarnation the same energy as the
Father.
But, if there is one energy belonging to both His divinity and His
humanity, it will be compound, and will be either a different energy from that
of the Father, or the Father, too, will have a compound energy. But if the
Father has a compound energy, manifestly He must also have a compound nature.
But if they should say that together with energy is also introduced
personality, we shall reply that if personality is introduced along with
energy, then the true converse must hold good that energy is also introduced
along with personality; and there will be also three energies of the Holy
Trinity just as there are three persons or subsistences, or there will be one
person and one subsistence just as there is only one energy. Indeed, the holy
Fathers have maintained with one voice that things that have the same essence
have also the same energy.
But further, if personality is introduced along with energy, those who
divine that neither one nor two energies of Christ are to be spoken of, do not
maintain that either one or two persons of Christ are to be spoken of.
Take the case of the flaming sword; just as in it the natures of the fire
and the steel are preserved distinct, so also are their two energies and
their effects. For the energy of the steel is its cutting power, and that of
the fire is its burning power, and the cut is the effect of the energy of the
steel, and the burn is the effect of the energy of the fire: and these are
kept quite distinct in the burnt cut, and in the cut burn, although neither
does the burning take place apart from the cut after the union of the two, nor
the cut apart from the burning: and we do not maintain on account of the
twofold natural energy that there are two flaming swords, nor do we confuse
the essential difference of the energies on account of the unity of the
flaming sword. In like manner also, in the case of Christ, His divinity
possesses an energy that is divine and omnipotent while His humanity has an
energy such as is our own. And the effect of His human energy was His taking
the child by the hand and drawing her to Himself, while that of His divine
energy was the restoring of her to life. For the one is quite distinct from
the other, although they are inseparable from one another in theandric energy.
But if, because Christ has one subsistence, He must also have one energy,
then, because He has one subsistence, He must also have one essence.
And again: if we should hold that Christ has but one energy, this must be
either divine or human, or neither. But if we hold that it is divine we
must maintain that He is God alone, stripped of our humanity. And if we hold
that it is human, we shall be guilty of the impiety of saying that He is mere
man. And if we hold that it is neither divine nor human, we must also hold
that He is neither God nor man, of like essence neither to the Father nor to
us. For it is as a result of the union that the identity in hypostasis
arises, but yet the difference between the natures is not done away with. But
since the difference between the natures is preserved, manifestly also the
energies of the natures will be preserved. For no nature exists that is
lacking in energy.
If Christ our Master has one energy, it must be either created or
uncreated; for
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between these there is no energy, just as there is no nature. If, then, it is
created, it will point to created nature alone, but if it is uncreated, it
will betoken uncreated essence alone. For that which is natural must
completely correspond with its nature: for there cannot exist a nature that is
defective. But the energy that harmonises with nature does not belong to
that which is external: and this is manifest because, apart from the energy
that haromonises with nature, no nature can either exist or be known. For
through that in which each thing manifests its energy, the absence of change
confirms its own proper nature.
If Christ has one energy, it must be one and the same energy that performs
both divine anti human actions. But there is no existing thing which abiding
in its natural state can act in opposite ways: for fire does not freeze and
boil, nor does water dry up and make wet. How then could He Who is by nature
God, and Who became by nature man, have both performed miracles, and endured
passions with one and the same energy?
If, then, Christ assumed the human mind, that is to say, the intelligent
and reasonable soul, undoubtedly He has + thought, and will think for ever.
But thought is the energy of the mind: and so Christ. as man, is endowed with
energy, and will be so for ever.
Indeed, the most wise and great and holy John Chrysostom says in his
interpretation of the Acts, in the second discourse, "One would not err if
he should call even His passion action: for in that He suffered all things,
tie accomplished that great and marvellous work, the overthrow of death, and
all His other works."
It all energy is defined as essential movement of some nature, as those
who are versed in these matters say, where does one perceive any nature that
has no movement, and is completely devoid of energy, or where does one find
energy that is not movement of natural power? But, as the blessed Cyril
says, no one in his senses could admit that there was but one natural
energy of God and His creation. It is not His human nature that raises up
Lazarus from the dead, nor is it His divine power that sheds tears: for the
shedding of tears is peculiar to human nature while the life is peculiar to
the enhypostatic life. But yet they are common the one to the other, because
of the identity in subsistence. For Christ is one, and one also is His person
or subsistence, but yet He has two natures, one belonging to His humanity, and
another belonging to His divinity. And the glory. indeed, which proceeded
naturally from His divinity became common to both through the identity in
subsistence. and again on account of His flesh that which was lowly became
common to both. For He Who is the one or the other, that is God or man, is one
and the same, and both what is divine and what is human belong to Himself. For
while His divinity performed the miracles, they were not done apart from the
flesh, and while His flesh performed its lowly offices, they were not done
apart from the divinity. For His divinity was joined to the suffering flesh,
yet remaining without passion, and endured the saving passions, and the holy
mind was joined to the energising divinity of the Word, perceiving and knowing
what was being accomplished.
And thus His divinity communicates its own glories to the body while it
remains itself without part in the sufferings of the flesh. For His flesh did
not suffer through His divinity in the same way that His divinity energised
tbrough the flesh. For the flesh acted as the instrument of His divinity.
Although, therefore, from the first conception there was no division at all
between the two forms, but the actions of either form through all the time
became those of one person, nevertheless we do not in any way confuse those
things that took place without separation, but recognise from the quality of
its works what sort of form anything has.
Christ, then, energises according to both His natures and either nature
energises in Him in communion with the other, the Word performing through tile
authority and power of its divinity all the actions proper to the Word, i.e.
all acts of supremacy and sovereignty, and the body performing all the actions
proper to the body, in obedience to the will of the Word that is united to it,
and of whom it has become a distinct part. For He was not moved of Himself to
the natural passions, nor again did He in that way recoil from the things
of pain, and pray for release from them, or suffer what befel from without,
but He was moved in conformity with His nature, the Word willing and allowing
Him oeconomically * to suffer that, and to do the
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things proper to Him, that the truth might be confirmed by the works of
nature.
Moreover, just as He received in His birth of a virgin superessential
essence, so also He revealed His human energy in a superhuman way, walking
with earthly feet on unstable water, not by turning the water into earth, but
by causing it in the superabundant power of His divinity not to flow away nor
yield beneath the weight of material feet. For not in a merely human way did
He do human things: for He was not only man, but also God, and so even His
sufferings brought life anti salvation: nor yet did He energise as God,
strictly after the manner of God, for He was not only God, but also man, and
so it was by touch and word and such like that He worked miracles.
But if any one should say, "We do not say that Christ has but one
nature, in order to do away with His human energy, but we do so because
human energy, in opposition to divine energy, is called passion
paGdod." we shall answer that, according to this reasoning,
those also who hold that He has but one nature do not maintain this with a
view to doing away with His human nature, but because human nature in
opposition to divine nature is spoken of as passible padhtikh.
But God forbid that we should call the human activity passion, when we are
distinguishing it from divine energy. For, to speak generally, of nothing is
the existence recognised or defined by comparison or collation. If it were so,
indeed, existing things would turn out to be mutually the one the cause of the
other. For if the human activity is passion because the divine activity is
energy, assuredly also the human nature must be wicked because the divine
nature is good, and, by conversion and opposition, if the divine activity is
called energy because the human activity is called passion, then also the
divine nature must be good because the human nature is bad. And so all created
things must be bad, and he must have spoken falsely who said, And God saw
every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.
We, therefore, maintain that the holy Fathers gave various names to the
human activity according to the underlying notion. For the called it power,
and energy, and difference, and activity, and property, and quality, and
passion, not in distinction from the divine activity, but power, because it is
a conservative and invariable force; and energy, because it is a
distinguishing mark, and reveals the absolute similarity between all things of
the same class; and difference, because it distinguishes; and activity,
because it makes manifest; and property, because it is constituent and belongs
to that alone, and not to any other; and quality, because it gives form; and
passion, because it is moved, For all things that are of God and after God
suffer in respect of being moved, forasmuch as they have not in themselves
motion or power. Therefore, as has been said, it is not in order to
distinguish the one from the other that it has been named, but it is in
accordance with the plan implanted in it in a creative manner by the Cause
that framed the universe. Wherefore, also, when they spoke of it along with
the divine nature they called it energy. For he who said, "For either form
energises close communion with the other," did something quite different
froth him who said, And when He had fasted forty days, He was afterwards an
hungered :(for He allowed His nature to energise when it so willed, in the
way proper to itself,) or from those who hold there is a different energy
in Him or that He has a twofold energy, or now one energy and now another.
For these statements with the change in terms signify the two energies.
Indeed, often the number is indi-cated both by change of terms and by speaking
of them as divine and human. For the difference is difference in differing
things, but how do things that do not exist differ?
CHAPTER XVI.
In reply to those who say "If man has two natures and two energies, Christ
must be held to have three natures and as many energies."
Each individual man, since he is composed of two natures, soul and body,
and since these natures are unchangeable in him, could appropriately be spoken
of as two natures: for he preserves even after their union thee natural
properties of either. For the body is not immortal, but corruptible; neither
is the soul mortal, but immortal: and the body is not invisible pot the soul
visible to bodily eyes: but the soul is rational and intellectual, and
incorporeal, while the body is dense and visible, and irrational. But things
that are opposed to one another in essence have not
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one nature, and, therefore, soul and body cannot have one essence.
And again: if man is a rational and mortal animal, and every definition is
explanatory of the underlying natures, and the rational is not the same as the
mortal according to the plan of nature, man then certainly cannot have one
nature, according to the rule of his own definition.
But if man should at any time be said to have one nature, the word
"nature" is here used instead of "species," as when we say that man does not
differ from man in any difference of nature. But since all men are fashioned
in the same way, and are composed of soul and body, and each has two distinct
natures, they are all brought under one definition. And this is not
unreasonable, for the holy Athanasius spake of all created things as having
one nature forasmuch as they were all produced, expressing himself thus in his
Oration against those who blasphemed the Holy Spirit: "That the Holy Spirit is
above all creation, and different from the nature of things produced and
peculiar to divinity, we may again perceive. For whatever is seen to be common
to many things, and not more in one and less in another, is called essence.
since, then, every man is composed of soul and body, accordingly we speak of
man as having one nature. But we cannot speak of our Lord's subsistence as one
nature: for each nature preserves, even after the union, its natural
properties, nor can we find a class of Christs. For no other Christ was born
both of divinity and of humanity to be at once God and man."
And again: man's unity in species is not the same thing as the unity of
soul and body in essence. For man's unity in species makes clear the absolute
similarity between all men, while the unity of soul and body in essence is an
insult to their very existence, and reduces them to nothingness: for either
the one must change into the essence of the other, or from different things
something different must be produced, and so both would be changed, or if they
keep to their own proper limits there must be two natures. For, as regards the
nature of essence the corporeal is not the same as the incorporeal. Therefore,
although holding that man has one nature, not because the essential quality of
his soul and that of his body are the same, but because the individuals
included under the species are exactly the same, it is not necessary for us to
maintain that Christ also has one nature, for in this case there is no species
embracing many subsistences.
Moreover, every compound is said to be composed of what immediately
composes it. For we do not say that a house is composed of earth and water,
but of bricks and timber. Otherwise, it would be necessary to speak of man as
composed of at least five things, viz., the four elements and soul. And so
also, in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ we do not look at the parts of the
parts, but at those divisions of which He is immediately composed, viz.,
divinity and humanity.
And further, if by saying that man has two natures we are obliged to hold
that Christ has three, you, too, by saying that man is composed of two natures
must hold that Christ is composed of three natures: and it is just the same
with the energies. For energy must correspond with nature: and Gregory the
Theologian bears witness that man is said to have and has two natures, saying,
"God and man are two natures, since, indeed, soul and body also are two
natures." And in his discourse "Concerning Baptism" he says, "Since we
consist of two parts, soul and body. the visible and the invisible nature, the
purification is likewise twofold, that is, by water and Spirit."
CHAPTER XVII.
Concerning the deification of the nature of our
Lord's flesh and of Hi's will.
It is worthy of note that the flesh of the Lord is not said to have
been deified and made equal to God and God in respect of any change or
alteration, or transformation, or confusion of nature: as Gregory the
Theologian says, "Whereof the one deified, and the other was deified, and,
to speak boldly, made equal to God: and that which anointed became man, and
that which was anointed became God." For these words do not mean any change
in nature, but rather the oeconomical union(I mean the union in subsistence by
virtue of which it was united inseparably with God the Word), and the
permeation of the natures through one another, just as we saw that burning
permeated the steel. For, just as we confess that God became man without
change or alteration, so we consider that the flesh became God without change.
For because the Word became flesh, He did not overstep the limits of His own
divinity nor abandon
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the divine glories that belong to Him: nor, on the other hand, was the flesh,
when deified, changed in its own nature or in its natural properties. For even
after the union, boil the natures abode unconfused and their properties
unimpaired. But the flesh of the Lord received the riches of the divine
energies through the purest union with the Word, that is to say, the union in
subsistence, without entailing the loss of any of its natural attributes. For
it is not in virtue of any energy of its own but through the Word united to
it, that it manifests divine energy: for the flaming steel burns, not because
it has been endowed in a physical way with burning energy, but because it has
obtained this energy by its union with fire. Wherefore the same flesh was
mortal by reason of its own nature and life-giving through its union with the
Word in subsistence. And we hold that it is just the same with the deification
of the will; for its natural activity was not changed but united with His
divine and omnipotent will, and became the will of God, made man. And so it
was that, though He wished, He could not of Himself escape, because it
pleased God the Word that the weakness of the human will, which was in truth
in Him, should be made manifest. But He was able to cause at His will the
cleansing of the leper, because of the union with the divine will. Observe
further, that the deification of the nature and the will points most expressly
and most directly both to two natures and two wills. For just as the burning
does not change into fire the nature of the thing that is burnt, but makes
distinct both what is burnt, and what burned it, and is indicative not of one
but of two natures, so also the deification does not bring about one compound
nature but two, and their union in subsistence. Gregory the Theologian,
indeed, says, "Whereof the one deified, the other was deified," and by the
words "whereof," "the one," "the other," he assuredly indicates two natures.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Further concerning volitions and free-wills: minds, too, and knowledges and
wisdoms.
When we say that Christ is perfect Gods and perfect man, we assuredly
attribute to Him all the properties natural to both the Father and mother. For
He became man in order that that which was overcome might overcome. For He Who
was omnipotent did not in His omnipotent authority and might lack the power to
rescue man out of the hands of the tyrant. But the tyrant would have had a
ground of complaint if, after He had overcome man, God should have used force
against him. Wherefore God in His pity and love for man wished to reveal
fallen man himself as conqueror, and became man to restore like with like.
But that man is a rational and intelligent animal, no one will deny. How,
then, could He have become man if He took on Himself flesh without soul, or
soul without mind? For that is not man. Again, what benefit would His becoming
man have been to us if He Who suffered first was not saved, nor renewed and
strengthened by the union with divinity? For that which is not assumed is not
remedied. He, therefore, assumed the whole man, even the fairest part of him,
which had become diseased, in order that He might bestow salvation on the
whole. And, indeed, there could never exist a mind that had not wisdom and was
destitute of knowledge. For if it has not energy or motion, it is utterly
reduced to nothingness.
Therefore, God the Word, wishing to restore that which was in His own
image, became man. But what is that which was in His own image, unless mind?
So He gave up the better and assumed the worse. For mind s is in the
border-land between God and flesh, for it dwells indeed in fellowship with the
flesh, and is, moreover, the image of God. Mind, then, mingles with mind, and
mind holds a place midway between the pureness of God and the denseness of
flesh. For if the Lord assumed a soul without mind, He assumed the soul of an
irrational animal.
But if the Evangelist said that the Word was made flesh, note that in
the Holy Scripture sometimes a man is spoken of as a soul, as, for example,
with seventy-five souls came Jacob into Egypt: and sometimes a man is
spoken of as flesh, as, for example, All flesh shall see the salvation of
God. And accordingly the Lord did not become flesh without soul or mind,
but man. He says, indeed, Himself, Why seek ye to kill Me, a Man that hath
told you the truth? He, therefore, assumed flesh animated with the spirit
of reason and mind, a spirit that holds sway
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over the flesh but is itself under the dominion of the divinity of the Word.
So, then, He had by nature, both as God and as man, the power of will. But
His human will was obedient anti subordinate to His divine will, not being
guided by its own inclination, but willing those things which the divine will
willed. For it was with the permission of the divine will that He suffered by
nature what was proper to Him. For when He prayed that He might escape the
death, it was with His divine will naturally willing and permitting it that He
did so pray and agonize and fear, and again when His divine will willed that
His human will should choose tire death, the passion became voluntary to
Him. For it was not as God only, but also as man, that He voluntarily
surrendered Himself to the death. And thus He bestowed on us also courage in
the face of death. So, indeed, He said before His saving passion, Father, if
it be possible, let this cup pass from Me," manifestly as though He were to
drink the cup as man and not as God. It was as man, then, that He wished the
cup to pass from Him: but these are the words of natural timidity.
Nevertheless, He said, not My will, that is to say, not in so far as I am of a
different essence from Thee, but Thy will be done, the is to say, My will
and Thy will, in so far as I am of the same essence as Thou. Now these are the
words of a brave heart. For the Spirit of the Lord, since He truly became man
in His good pleasure, on first testing its natural weakness was sensible of
the natural fellow-suffering involved in its separation from the body, but
being strengthened by the divine will it again grew bold in the face of death.
For since He was Himself wholly God although also man, and wholly man although
also God, He Himself as man subjected in Himself and by Himself His human
nature to God and the Father, and became obedient to the Father, thus making
Himself the most excellent type and example for us.
Of His own free-will, moreover, He exercised His divine and human will.
For free-will is assuredly implanted in every rational nature. For to what end
would it possess reason, if it could not reason at its own free-will? For the
Creator hath implanted even in the unreasoning brutes natural appetite to
compel them to sustain their own nature. For devoid of reason, as they are,
they cannot guide their natural appetite but are guided by it. And so, as soon
as the appetite for anything has sprung up, straightway arises also the
impulse for action. And thus they do not win praise or happiness for pursuing
virtue, nor punishment for doing evil. But the rational nature, although it
does possess a natural appetite, can guide and train it by reason wherever the
laws of nature are observed. For the advantage of reason consists in this,
tire free-will, by which we mean natural activity in a rational subject.
Wherefore in pursuing virtue it wins praise and happiness, and in pursuing
vice it wins punishment.
So that the soul s of the Lord being moved of its own free-will willed,
but willed of its free-will those things which His divine will willed it to
will. For the flesh was not moved at a sign from the Word, as Moses and all
the holy men were moved at a sign from heaven. But He Himself, Who was one and
yet both God and man, willed according to both His divine and His human will.
Wherefore it was not in inclination but rather in natural power that the two
wills of the Lord differed from one another. For His divine will was without
beginning and all-effecting, as having power that kept pace with it, and free
from passion; while His human will had a beginning in time, and itself endured
the natural and innocent passions, and was not naturally omnipotent. But yet
it was omni-potent because it truly and naturally had its origin in the
God-Word.
CHAPTER XIX.
Concerning the theandric energy.
When the blessed Dionysius says that Christ exhibited to us some sort
of novel theandric energy, he does not do away with the natural energies by
saying that one energy resulted from the union of the divine with the human
energy: for in the same way we could speak of one new nature resulting from
the union of the divine with the human nature. For, according to the holy
Fathers, things that have one energy have also one essence. But Ire wished to
indicate the novel and ineffable manner in which the natural energies of
Christ manifest themselves, a manner befitting the ineffable manner in which
the natures of Christ mutually, permeate one another, and further how strange
and wonder-rid and, in the nature of things, unknown was His life as man,
and lastly the manner of
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the mutual interchange arising from the ineffable union. For we hold that the
energies are not divided and that the natures do not energies separately, but
that each conjointly in complete community with the other energises with its
own proper energy. For the human part did not energise merely in a human
manner, for He was not mere man; nor did the divine part energise only after
the manner of God, for He was not simply God, but He was at once God and man.
For just as in the case of natures we recognise both their union and their
natural difference, so is it also with the natural wills and energies.
Note, therefore, that in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, we speak
sometimes of His two natures and sometimes of His one person: anti the one or
the other is referred to one conception. For the two natures are one Christ,
and the one Christ is two natures. Wherefore it is all the same whether we say
"Christ energises according to either of His natures," or "either nature
energises in Christ in communion with the other." The divine nature, then, has
communion with the flesh in its energising, because it is by the good pleasure
of the divine will that the flesh is permitted to suffer and do the things
proper to itself, and because the energy of the flesh is altogether saving,
and this is an attribute not of human but of divine energy. On the other hand
the flesh has communion with the divinity of the Word in its energising,
because the divine energies are performed, so to speak, through the organ of
the body, and because He Who energises at once as God and man is one and the
same.
Further observe that His holy mind also performs its natural energies,
thinking and knowing that it is God's mind and that it is worshipped by all
creation, and remembering the times He spent on earth and all He suffered, but
it has communion with the divinity of the Word in its energising and orders
and governs the universe, thinking and knowing and ordering not as the mere
mind of man, but as united in subsistence with God and acting as the mind of
God.
This, then, the theandric energy makes plain that when God became man,
that is when He became incarnate, both His human energy was divine, that is
deified, and not without part in His divine energy, and His divine energy was
not without part in His human energy, but either was observed in conjunction
with the other. Now this manner of speaking is called a periphrasis, viz.,
when one embraces two things in one statement. For just as in the case of
the flaming sword we speak of the cut burn as one, and the burnt cut as one,
but still hold that the cut and the burn have different energies and different
natures, the burn having the nature of fire and the cut the nature of steel,
in the same way also when we speak of one theandric energy of Christ, we
understand two distinct energies of His two natures, a divine energy belonging
to His divinity, and a human energy belonging to His humanity.
CHAPTER XX.
Concerning the natural and innocent passions.
We confess, then, that He assumed all the natural and innocent passions
of man. For He assumed the whole man and all man's attributes save sin. For
that is not natural, nor is it implanted in us by the Creator, but arises
voluntarily in our mode of life as the result of a further implantation by the
devil, though it cannot prevail over us by force. For the natural and innocent
passions are those which are not in our power, but which have entered into the
life of man owing to the condemnation by reason of the transgression; such as
hunger, thirst, weariness, labour, the tears, the corruption, the shrinking
from death, the fear, the agony with the bloody sweat, the succour at the
hands of angels because of the weakness of the nature, and other such like
passions which belong by nature to every man.
All, then, He assumed that He might sanctify all. He was tried and
overcame in order that He might prepare victory for us and give to nature
power to overcome its antagonist, in order that nature which was overcome of
old might overcome its former conqueror by the very weapons wherewith it had
itself been overcome.
The wicked one, then, made his assault from without, not by thoughts
prompted inwardly, just as it was with Adam. For it was not by inward
thoughts, but by the serpent that Adam was assailed. But the Lord repulsed the
assault and dispelled it like vapour, in order that the passions which
assailed him and were overcome might be easily subdued by us, and that the new
Adam should save the old.
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Of a truth our natural passions were in harmony with nature and above
nature in Christ. For they were stirred in Him after a natural manner when He
permitted the flesh to suffer what was proper to it: but they were above
nature because that which was natural did not in the Lord assume command over
the will. For no compulsion is contemplated in Him but all is voluntary. For
it was with His will that He hungered and thirsted and feared and died.
CHAPTER XXI.
Concerning ignorance and servitude. He assumed, it is to be noted, the
ignorant and servile nature. For it is man's nature to be the servant of
God, his Creator, and he does not possess knowledge of the future. If, then,
as Gregory the Theologian holds, you are to separate the realm of sight from
the realm of thought, the flesh is to be spoken of as both servile and
ignorant, but on account of the identity of subsistence and the inseparable
union the soul of the Lord was enriched with the knowledge of the future as
also with the other miraculous powers. For just as the flesh of men is not in
its own nature life-giving, while the flesh of our Lord which was united in
subsistence with God the Word Himself, although it was not exempt from the
mortality of its nature, yet became life-giving through its union in
subsistence with the Word, and we may not say that it was not and is not for
ever life-giving: in like manner His human nature does not in essence possess
the knowledge of the future, but the soul of the Lord through its union with
God the Word Himself and its identity in subsistence was enriched, as I said,
with the knowledge of the future as well as with the other miraculous powers.
Observe further that we may not speak of Him as servant. For the words
servitude and mastership are not marks of nature but indicate relationship, to
something, such as that of fatherhood and sonship.For these do not signify
essence but relation.
It is just as we said, then, in connection with ignorance, that if you
separate with subtle thoughts, that is, with fine imaginings, the created from
the uncreated, the flesh is a servant, unless it has been united with God the
Word. But how can it be a servant when t is once united in subsistence? For
since Christ is one, He cannot be His own servant and Lord. For these are not
simple predications but relative. Whose servant, then could He be? His
Father's? The Son, then, would not have all the Father's attributes, if He is
the Father's servant and yet in no respect His own. Besides, how could the
apostle say concerning us who were adopted by Him, So that you are no longer a
servant but a son, if indeed He is Himself a servant? The word servant,
then, is used merely as a title, though not in the strict meaning: but for our
sakes He assumed the form of a servant and is called a servant among us. For
although He is without passion, yet for our sake He was the servant of passion
and became the minister of our salvation. Those, then, who say that He is a
servant divide the one Christ into two, just as Nestorius did. But we declare
Him to be Master and Lord of all creation, the one Christ, at once God and
man, and all-knowing. For in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, the hidden treasures.
CHAPTER XXII.
Concerning His growth.
He is, moreover, said to grow in wisdom and age and grace, increasing
in age indeed and through the increase in age manifesting the wisdom that is
in Him; yea, further, making men's progress in wisdom and grace, and the
fulfilment of the Father's goodwill, that is to say, men's knowledge of God
and men's salvation, His own increase, and everywhere taking as His own that
which is ours. But those who hold that He progressed in wisdom and grace in
the sense of receiving some addition to these attributes, do not say that the
union took place at the first origin of the flesh, nor yet do they give
precedence to the union in subsistence, but giving heed to the foolish
Nestorius they imagine some strange relative union and mere indwelling,
understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. For if in
truth the flesh was united with God the Word from its first origin, or rather
if it existed in Him and was identical in subsistence with Him, how was it
that it was not endowed completely with all wisdom and grace? not that it
might itself participate in the grace, nor share by grace in what belonged to
the Word, but rather by reason of the union in subsistence, since both what is
human and
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what is divine belong to the one Christ, and that He Who was Himself at once
God and man should pour forth like a fountain over the universe His grace and
wisdom and plenitude of every blessing.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Concerning His Fear.
The word fear has a double meaning. For fear is natural when the soul is
unwilling to be separated from the body, on account of the natural sympathy
and close relationship planted in it in the beginning by the Creator, which
makes it fear and struggle against death and pray for an escape from it. It
may be defined thus: natural fear is the force whereby we cling to being with
shrinking. For if all things were brought by the Creator out of nothing
into being, they all have by nature a longing after being and not after
non-being. Moreover the inclination towards those things that support
existence is a natural property of them. Hence God the Word when He became man
had this longing, manifesting, on the one hand, in those things that support
existence, the inclination of His nature in desiring food and drink and sleep,
and having in a natural manner made proof of these things, while on the other
hand displaying in those things that bring corruption His natural
disinclination in voluntarily shrinking in the hour of His passion before the
flee of death. For although what happened did so according to the laws of
nature, yet it was not, as in our case, a matter of necessity. For He
willingly and spontaneously accepted that which was natural. So that fear
itself and terror and agony belong to the natural and innocent passions and
are not under the dominion of sin.
Again, there is a fear which arises from treachery of reasoning and want
of faith, and ignorance of the hour of death, as when we are at night affected
by fear at some chance noise. This is unnatural fear, and may be thus defined:
unnatural fear is an unexpected shrinking. This our Lord did not assume. Hence
He never felt fear except in the hour of His passion, although He often
experienced a feeling of shrinking in accordance with the dispensation. For He
was not ignorant of the appointed time.
But the holy Athanasius in his discourse against Apollinarius says that He
did actually feel fear. "Wherefore the Lord said: Now is My soul troubled.
The 'now' indeed means just 'when He willed,' but yet points to what actually
was. For He did not speak of what was not, as though it were present, as if
the things that were said only apparently happened. For all things happened
naturally and actually." And again, after some other matters, he says," In
nowise does His divinity admit passion apart from a suffering body, nor yet
does it manifest trouble and pain apart froth a pained and troubled soul, nor
does it suffer anguish and offer up prayer apart from a mind that suffered
anguish and offered up prayer. For, although these occurrences were not due to
any overthrow of nature, yet they took place to shew forth His real being."
The words "these occurrences were not due to any overthrow of His nature,"
prove that it was not involuntarily that He endured these things.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Concerning our Lord's Praying. Prayer is an uprising of the mind to God or a
petitioning of God for what is fitting. How then did it happen that our Lord
offered up prayer in the case of Lazarus, and at the hour of His passion? For
His holy mind was in no need either of any uprising towards God, since it had
been once and for all united in subsistence with the God Word, or of any
petitioning of God. For Christ is one. But it was because He appropriated to
Himself our personality and took our impress on Himself, and became an
ensample for us, and taught us to ask of God and strain towards Him, and
guided us through His own holy mind in the way that leads up to God. For just
as He endured the passion, achieving for our sakes a triumph over it, so
also He offered up prayer, guiding us, as I said, in the way that leads up to
God, and "fulfilling all righteousness" on our behalf, as He said to John,
and reconciling His Father to us, and honouring Him as the beginning and
cause, and proving that He is no enemy of God. For when He said in connection
with Lazarus, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I know that
Thou hearest Me always, but because of the people which stand by I said it,
that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me, is it not most manifest to
all that He said this in honour of His Father as the cause even of Himself,
and to shew that He was no enemy of God?
Again, when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me:
yet, not as I will
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but as Thou wilt, is it not clear to all that He said this as a lesson
to us to ask help in our trials only from God, and to prefer God's will to
oar own, and as a proof that He did actually appropriate to Himself the
attributes of our nature, and that He did in truth possess two wills, natural,
indeed, and corresponding with His natures but yet in no wise opposed to one
another? "Father" implies that He is of the same essence, but "if it be
possible" does not mean that He was in ignorance (for what is impossible to
God?), but serves to teach us to prefer God's will to our own. For that alone
is impossible which is against God's will and permission. "But not as I
will but as Thou wilt," for inasmuch as He is God, He is identical with the
Father, while inasmuch as He is man, He manifests the natural will of mankind.
For it is this that naturally seeks escape from death.
Further, these words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He
said as making our personality His own. For neither would God be regarded
with us as His Father, unless one were to discriminate with subtle imaginings
of the mind between that which is seen and that which is thought, nor was He
ever forsaken by His divinity: nay, it was we who were forsaken and
disregarded. So that it was as appropriating our personality that He offered
these prayers.
CHAPTER XXV.
Concerning the Appropriation.
It is to be observed that there are two appropriations: one that is
natural and essential, and one that is personal and relative. The natural and
essential one is that by which our Lord in His love for man took on Himself
our nature and all our natural attributes, becoming in nature and truth man,
and making trial of that which is natural: but the personal and relative
appropriation is when any one assumes the person of another relatively, for
instance, out of pity or love, and in his place utters words concerning him
that have no connection with himself. And it was in this way that our Lord
appropriated both our curse and our desertion, and such other things as are
not natural: not that He Himself was or became such, but that He took upon
Himself our personality and ranked Himself as one of us. Such is the meaning
in which this phrase is to be taken: Being made a curse for our sakes.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Concerning the Passion of our Lord's body, and the Impassibility of His
divinity.
The Word of God then itself endured all in the flesh, while His divine
nature which alone was passionless remained void of passion. For since the one
Christ, Who is a compound of divinity and humanity, and exists in divinity and
humanity, truly suffered, that part which is capable of passion suffered as it
was natural it should, but that part which was void of passion did not share
in the suffering. For the soul, indeed, since it is capable of passion shares
in the pain and suffering of a bodily cut, though it is not cut itself but
only the body: but the divine part which is void of passion does not share in
the suffering of the body.
Observe, further, that we say that God suffered in the flesh, bat never
that His divinity suffered in the flesh, or that God suffered through the
flesh. For if, when the sun is shining upon a tree, the axe should cleave the
tree, and, nevertheless, the sun remains uncleft and void of passion, much
more will the passionless divinity of the Word, united in subsistence to the
flesh, remain void of passion when the body undergoes passion. And should
any one pour water over flaming steel, it is that which naturally suffers by
the water, I mean, the fire, that is quenched, but the steel remains untouched
(for it is not the nature of steel to be destroyed by water): much more, then,
when the flesh suffered did His only passionless divinity escape all passion
although abiding inseparable from it. For one must not take the examples too
absolutely and strictly: indeed, in the examples, one must consider both what
is like and what is unlike, otherwise it would not be an example. For, if they
were like in all respects they would be identities, and not examples, and all
the more so in dealing with divine matters. For one cannot find an example
that is like in all respects whether we are dealing with theology or the
dispensation.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Concerning the fact that the divinity of the Word remained inseparable from
the soul
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and the body, even at our Lord's death, and that His subsistence continued
one.
Since our Lord Jesus Christ was without sin (for He committed no sin, He
Who took away the sin of the world, nor was there any deceit found in His
mouth) He was not subject to death, since death came into the world through
sin. He dies, therefore, because He took on Himself death on our behalf,
and He makes Himself an offering to the Father for our sakes. For we had
sinned against Him, and it was meet that He should receive the ransom for us,
and that we should thus he delivered from the condemnation. God forbid that
the blood of the Lord should have been offered to the tyrant. Wherefore
death approaches, and swallowing up the body as a bait is transfixed on the
hook of divinity, and after tasting of a sinless and life-giving body,
perishes, and brings up again all whom of old he swallowed up. For just as
darkness disappears on the introduction of light, so is death repulsed before
the assault of life, and brings life to all, but death to the destroyer.
Wherefore, although He died as man and His Holy Spirit was severed from
His immaculate body, yet His divinity remained inseparable from both, I mean,
from His soul and His body, and so even thus His one hypostasis was not
divided into two hypostases. For body and soul received simultaneously in the
beginning their being in the subsistence of the Word, and although they
were severed from one another by death, yet they continued, each of them,
having the one subsistence of the Word. So that the one subsistence of the
Word is alike the subsistence of the Word, and of soul and body. For at no
time had either soul or body a separate subsistence of their own, different
from that of the Word, and the subsistence of the Word is for ever one, and at
no time two. So that the subsistence of Christ is always one. For, although
the soul was separated from the body topically, yet hypostatically they were
united through the Word.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Concerning Corruption and Destruction.
The word corruption has two meanings. For it signifies all the human
sufferings, such as hunger, thirst, weariness, the piercing with nails, death,
that is, the separation of soul and body, and so forth. In this sense we say
that our Lord's body was subject to corruption. For He voluntarily accepted
all these things. But corruption means also the complete resolution of the
body into its constituent elements, and its utter disappearance, which is
spoken of by many preferably as destruction. The body of our Lord did not
experience this form of corruption, as the prophet David says, For Thou will
not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see
corruption.
Wherefore to say, with that foolish Julianus and Gaianus, that our Lord's
body was incorruptible, in the first sense of the word, before His
resurrection is impious. For if it were incorruptible it was not really, but
only apparently, of the same essence as ours, and what the Gospel tells us
happened, viz. the hunger, the thirst, the nails, the wound in His side, the
death, did not actually occur. But if they only apparently happened, then the
mystery of the dispensation is an imposture and a sham, and He became man only
in appearance, and not in actual fact, and we are saved only in appearance,
and not in actual fact. But God forbid, and may those who so say have no part
in the salvation. But we have obtained and shall obtain the true salvation.
But in the second meaning of the word "corruption," we confess that our Lord's
body is incorruptible, that is, indestructible, for such is the tradition of
the inspired Fathers. Indeed, after the resurrection of our Saviour from the
dead, we say that our Lord's body is incorruptible even in the first sense of
the word. For our Lord by His own body bestowed the gifts both of resurrection
and of subsequent incorruption even on our own body, He Himself having
become to us the firstfruits both of resurrection and incorruption, and of
passionlessness. For as the divine Apostle says, This corruptible must put
an incorruption.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Concerning the Descent to Hades.
The soul when it was deified descended into Hades, in order that, just
as the Sun of Righteousness rose for those upon the earth, so likewise He
might bring light to those who sit under the earth in darkness
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and shadow of death: in order that just as He brought the message of peace
to those upon the earth, and of release to the prisoners, and of sight to the
blind, and became to those who believed the Author of everlasting salvation
and to those who did not believe a reproach of their unbelief, so He might
become the same to those in Hades: That every knee should bow to Him, of
things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth. And thus
after He had freed those who had been bound for ages, straightway He rose
again from the dead, shewing us the way of resurrection.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER I.
Concerning what followed the Resurrection.
After Christ was risen from the dead He laid aside all His passions, I
mean His corruption or hunger or thirst or sleep or weariness or such like.
For, although He did taste food after the resurrection, yet He did not do
so because it was a law of His nature (for He felt no hunger), but in the way
of economy, in order that He might convince us of the reality of the
resurrection, and that it was one and the same flesh which suffered and rose
again. But He laid aside none of the divisions of His nature, neither body
nor spirit, but possesses both the body and the soul intelligent and
reasonable, volitional and energetic, and in this wise He sits at the right
hand of the Father, using His will both as God and as man in behalf of our
salvation, energising in His divine capacity to provide for and maintain and
govern all things, and remembering in His human capacity the time He spent on
earth, while all the time He both sees and knows that He is adored by all
rational creation. For His Holy Spirit knows that He is one in substance with
God the Word, and shares as Spirit of God and not simply as Spirit the worship
accorded to Him. Moreover, His ascent from earth to heaven, and again, His
descent from heaven to earth, are manifestations of the energies of His
circumscribed body. For He shall so come again to you, saith he, in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.
CHAPTER II.
Concerning the sitting at the right hand
of the Father.
We hold, moreover, that Christ sits in the body at the right hand of God
the Father, but we do not hold that the right hand of the Father is actual
place. For how could He that is uncircumscribed have a right hand limited by
place? Right hands and left hands belong to what is circumscribed. But we
understand the right hand of the Father to be the glory and honour of the
Godhead in which the Son of God, who existed as God before the ages, and is of
like essence to the Father, and in the end became flesh, has a seat in the
body, His flesh sharing in the glory. For He along with His flesh is adored
with one adoration by all creation.
CHAPTER III.
In reply to those who say "If Christ has two natures, either ye do service
to the creature in worshipping created nature, or ye say that there is one
nature to be worshipped, and another not to be worshipped."
Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit we worship the Son of God, Who
was incorporeal before He took on humanity, and now in His own person is
incarnate and has become man though still being also God. His flesh, then, in
its own nature, if one were to make subtle mental distinctions between what
is seen and what is thought, is not deserving of worship since it is created.
But as it is united with God the Word, it is worshipped on account of Him and
in Him. For just as the king deserves homage alike when un-robed and when
robed, and just as the purple robe, considered simply as a purple robe, is
trampled upon and tossed about, but after becoming the royal dress receives
all honour and glory, and whoever dishonours it is generally condemned to
death: and again, just as wood in itself is not of such a nature that it
cannot be touched, but becomes so when fire is applied to it, and it becomes
charcoal, and yet this is not because of its own nature, but because of the
fire united to it, and the nature of the wood is not such as cannot be
touched, but rather the charcoal or burning wood: so also the flesh, in its
own nature, is not to be worshipped, but is worshipped in the incarnate God
Word, not because of itself, but because of its union in subsistence with God
the Word. And we do not say that
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we worship mere flesh, but God's flesh, that is, God incarnate.
CHAPTER IV.
Why it was the Son of God, and not the Father or the Spirit, that became man:
and what having became man He achieved.
The Father is Father and not Son: the Son is Son and not Father: the
Holy Spirit is Spirit and not Father or Son. For the individuality is
unchangeable. How, indeed, could individuality continue to exist at all if it
were ever changing and altering? Wherefore the Son of God became Son of Man in
order that His individuality might endure. For since He was the Son of God, He
became Son of Man, being made flesh of the holy Virgin and not losing the
individuality of Sonship.
Further, the Son of God became man, in order that He might again bestow on
man that favour for the sake of which He created him. For He created him after
His own image, endowed with intellect and free-will, and after His own
likeness, that is to say, perfect in all virtue so far as it is possible for
man's nature to attain perfection. For the following properties are, so to
speak, marks of the divine nature: viz. absence of care and distraction and
guile, goodness, wisdom, justice, freedom from all vice. So then, after He had
placed man in communion with Himself (for having made him for incorruption,
He led him up through communion wills Himself to incorruption), and when
moreover, through the transgression of the command we had confused and
obliterated the marks of the divine image, and had become evil, we were
stripped of our communion with God (for what communion hath light with
darkness?): and having been shut out from life we became subject to the
corruption of death: yea, since He gave us to share in the better part, and we
did not keep it secure, He shares in the inferior part, I mean our own nature,
in order that through Himself and in Himself He might renew that which was
made after His image and likeness, and might teach us, too, the conduct of a
virtuous life, making through Himself the way thither easy for us, and might
by the communication of life deliver us from corruption, becoming Himself the
firstfruits of our resurrection, and might renovate the useless and worn
vessel calling us to the knowledge of God that He might redeem us from the
tyranny of the devil, and might strengthen and teach us how to overthrow the
tyrant through patience and humility.
The worship of demons then has ceased: creation has been sanctified by the
divine blood: altars and temples of idols have been overthrown, the knowledge
of God has been implanted in men's minds, the co-essential Trinity, the
uncreate divinity, one true God, Creator and Lord of all receives men's
service: virtues are cultivated, the hope of resurrection has been granted
through the resurrection of Christ, the demons shudder at those men who of old
were under their subjection. And the marvel, indeed, is that all this has been
successfully brought about through His cross and passion and death. Throughout
all the earth the Gospel of the knowledge of God has been preached; no wars or
weapons or armies being used to rout the enemy, but only a few, naked, poor,
illiterate, persecuted and tormented men, who with their lives in their hands,
preached Him Who was crucified in the flesh and died, and who became victors
over the wise and powerful. For the omnipotent power of the Cross accompanied
them. Death itself, which once was maws chiefest terror, has been overthrown,
and now that which was once the object of hate and loathing is preferred to
life. These are the achievements of Christ's presence: these are the tokens of
His power. For it was not one people that He saved, as when through Moses He
divided the sea and delivered Israel out of Egypt and the bondage of
Pharaoh; nay, rather He rescued all mankind from the corruption of death
and the bitter tyranny of sin: not leading them by force to virtue, not
overwhelming them with earth or burning them with fire, or ordering the
sinners to be stoned, but persuading men by gentleness and long-suffering to
choose virtue and vie with one another, and find pleasure in the struggle to
attain it. For, formerly, it was sinners who were persecuted, and yet they
clung all the closer to sin, and sin was looked upon by them as their God: but
now for the sake of piety and virtue men choose persecutions and crucifixions
and death.
Hail! O Christ, the Word and Wisdom and Power of God, and God omnipotent!
What can we helpless ones give Thee in return for
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all these good gifts? For all are Thine, and Thou askest naught from us save
our salvation, Thou Who Thyself art the Giver of this, and yet art grateful to
those who receive it, through Thy unspeakable goodness. Thanks be to Thee Who
gave us life, and granted us the grace of a happy life, and restored us to
that, when we had gone astray, through Thy unspeakable condescension.
CHAPTER V.
In reply to those who ask if Christ's subsistence
is create or uncreate.
The subsistence of God the Word before the Incarnation was simple and
uncompound, and incorporeal and uncreate: but after it became flesh, it became
also the subsistence of the flesh, and became compounded of divinity which it
always possessed, and of flesh which it had assumed: and it bears the
properties of the two natures, being made known in two natures: so that the
one same subsistence is both uncreate in divinity and create in humanity,
visible and invisible. For otherwise we are compelled either to divide the one
Christ and speak of two subsistences, or to deny the distinction between the
natures and thus introduce change and confusion.
CHAPTER VI.
Concerning the question, when Christ was
called.
The mind was not united with God the Word, as some falsely assert,
before the Incarnation by the Virgin and from that time called Christ. That is
the absurd nonsense of Origen who lays down the doctrine of the priority of
the existence of souls. But we hold that the Son and Word of God became Christ
after He had dwelt in the womb of His holy ever-virgin Mother, and became
flesh without change, and that the flesh was anointed with divinity. For this
is the anointing of humanity, as Gregory the Theologian says. And here are
the words of the most holy Cyril of Alexandria which he wrote to the Emperor
Theodosius: "For I indeed hold that one ought to give the name Jesus Christ
neither to the Word that is of God if He is without humanity, nor yet to the
temple born of woman if it is not united with the Word. For the Word that is
of God is understood to be Christ when united with humanity in ineffable
manner in the union of the oeconomy." And again, he writes to the Empresses
thus: "Some hold that the name 'Christ' is rightly given to the Word that
is begotten of God the Father, to Him alone, and regarded separately by
Himself. But we have not been taught so to think and speak. For when the Word
became flesh, then it was, we say, that He was called Christ Jesus. For since
He was anointed with the oil of gladness, that is the Spirit, by Him Who is
God and Father, He is for this reason called Christ. But that the anointing
was an act that concerned Him as man could be doubted by no one who is
accustomed to think rightly." Moreover, the celebrated Athanasius says this in
his discourse "Concerning the Saving Manifestation:" "The God Who was before
the sojourn in the flesh was not man, but God in God, being invisible and
without passion, but when He became man, He received in addition the name of
Christ because of the flesh, since, indeed, passion and death follow in the
train of this name."
And although the holy Scripture says, Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness, it is to be observed that the holy
Scripture often uses the past tense instead of the future, as for example
here: Thereafter He was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men. For as yet
God was not seen nor did He dwell among men when this was said. And here
again: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea wept. For as yet
these things had not come to pass.
CHAPTER VII.
In answer to those who enquire whether the holy Mother of God bore two
natures, and whether two natures hung upon the Crass.
agenhton and genhton, written with one
'n' and meaning uncreated and created, refer to nature: but
agennhton and gennhton, that is to say,
unbegotten and begotten, as the double 'n' indicates, refer not
to nature but to subsistence. The divine nature then is
agenhtos, that is to say, uncreate, but all things that come
after the divine nature are genhhta, that is, created. In the
divine and uncreated nature, therefore, the property of being
agennhton or unbegotten is contemplated in the Father (for He
was not begotten), that of being gennhton or begotten in the
Son (for He has been eternally begotten of the Father),
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and that of procession in the Holy Spirit. Moreover of each species of living
creatures, the first members were agennhta but not
agenhta: for they were brought into being by their Maker, but
were not the offspring of creatures like themselves. For
genesis is creation, while gennhsis or begetting
is in the case of God the origin of a co-essential Son arising from the Father
alone, and in the case of bodies, the origin of a co-essential subsistence
arising from the contact of male and female. And thus we perceive that
begetting refers not to nature but to subsistence. For if it did refer to
nature, to agennhton and to
gennhton, i.e. the properties of being begotten and unbegotten,
could not be contemplated in one and the same nature. Accordingly the holy
Mother of God bore a subsistence revealed in two natures; being begotten on
the one hand, by reason of its divinity, of the Father timelessly, and, at
last, on the other hand, being incarnated of her in time and born in the
flesh.
But if our interrogators should hint that He Who is begotten of the holy
Mother of God is two natures, we reply, "Yea! He is two natures: for He is in
His own person God and man. And the same is to be said concerning the
crucifixion and resurrection and ascension. For these refer not to nature but
to subsistence. Christ then, since He is in two natures, suffered and was
crucified in the nature that was subject to passion. For it was in the flesh
and not in His divinity that He hung upon the Cross. Otherwise, let them
answer us, when we ask if two natures died. No, we shall say. And so two
natures Were not crucified but Christ was begotten, that is to say, the divine
Word having become man was begotten in the flesh, was crucified in the flesh,
suffered in the flesh, while His divinity continued to be impossible."
CHAPTER VIII.
How the Only-begotten Son of God is called
first-born.
He who is first begotten is called first-born, whether he is
only-begotten or the first of a number of brothers. If then the Son of God was
called first-born, but was not called Only-begotten, we could imagine that He
was the first-born of creatures, as being a creature. But since He is
called both first-born and Only-begotten, both senses must be preserved in His
case. We say that He is first-born of all creation since both He Himself is
of God and creation is of God, but as He Himself is born alone and timelessly
of the essence of God the Father, He may with reason be called Only-begotten
Son, first-born and not first-created. For the creation was not brought into
being out of the essence of the Father, but by His will out of nothing. And
He is called First-born among many brethren, for although being
Only-begotten, He was also born of a mother. Since, indeed, He participated
just as we ourselves do in blood and flesh and became man, while we too
through Him became sons of God, being adopted through the baptism, He Who is
by nature Son of God became first-born amongst us who were made by adoption
and grace sons of God, and stand to Him in the relation of brothers. Wherefore
He said, I ascend unto My Father and your Father. He did not say "our
Father," but "My Father," clearly in the sense of Father by nature, and "your
Father," in the sense of Father by grace. And "My God and your God." He did
not say "our God," but "My God:" and if you distinguish with subtle thought
that which is seen from that which is thought, also "your God," as Maker and
Lord.
CHAPTER IX.
Concerning Faith and Baptism.
We confess one baptism for the remission of sins and for life eternal. For
baptism declares the Lord's death. We are indeed "buried with the Lord through
baptism," as saith the divine Apostle. So then, as our Lord died once for
all, we also must be baptized once for all, and baptized according to the Word
of the Lord, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, being taught the confession in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Those, then, who, after having been baptized into Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and having been taught that there is one divine nature in three
subsistences, are rebaptized, these, as the divine Apostle says, crucify the
Christ afresh. For it is impossible, he saith, for those who were once
enlightened, &c., to renew them again unto repentance: seeing they crucify to
themselves the Christ afresh, and put Him to an open shame. But those who
were not bap-
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tized into the Holy Trinity, these must be baptized again. For although the
divine ApoStle says: Into Christ and into His death were we baptized, he
does not mean that the invocation of baptism must be in these words, but that
baptism is an image of the death of Christ. For by the three immersions,
baptism signifies the three days of our Lord's entombment. The baptism then
into Christ means that believers are baptized into Him. We could not believe
in Christ if we were not taught confession in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For Christ is the Son of the Living God, Whom the Father anointed with the
Holy Spirit: in the words of the divine David, Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And Isaiah also
speaking in the person of the Lord says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He hath anointed me. Christ, however, taught His own disciples the
invocation and said, Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. For since Christ made us for incorruption,
and we transgressed His saving command. He condemned us to the corruption of
death in order that that which is evil should not be immortal, and when in His
compassion He stooped to His servants and became like us, He redeemed us from
corruption through His own passion. He caused the fountain of remission to
well forth for us out of His holy and immaculate side, water for our
regeneration, and the washing away of sin and corruption; and blood to drink
as the hostage of life eternal. And He laid on us the command to be born again
of water and of the Spirit, through prayer and invocation, the Holy Spirit
drawing nigh unto the water. For since man's nature is twofold, consisting
of soul and body, He bestowed on us a twofold purification, of water and of
the Spirit the Spirit renewing that part in us which is after His image and
likeness, and the water by the grace of the Spirit cleansing the body from sin
and delivering it from corruption, the water indeed expressing the image of
death, but the Spirit affording the earnest of life.
For from the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters, and anew the Scripture witnesseth that water has the power of
purification. In the time of Noah God washed away the sin of the world by
water. By water every impure person is purified, according to the law,
even the very garments being washed with water. Elias shewed forth the grace
of the Spirit mingled with the water when he burned the holocaust by pouring
on water. And almost everything is purified by water according to the law:
for the things of sight are symbols of the things of thought. The
regeneration, however, takes place in the spirit: for faith has the power of
making us sons (of God), creatures as we are, by the Spirit, and of leading
us into our original blessedness.
The remission of sins, therefore, is granted alike to all through baptism:
but the grace of the Spirit is proportional to the faith and previous
purification. Now, indeed, we receive the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit
through baptism, and the second birth is for us the beginning and seal and
security and illumination s of another life.
It behoves as, then, with all our strength to steadfastly keep ourselves
pure from filthy works, that we may not, like the dog returning to his
vomit, make ourselves again the slaves of sin. For faith apart from works
is dead, and so likewise are works apart from faith. For the true faith is
attested by works.
Now we are baptized into the Holy Trinity because those things which
are baptized have need of the Holy Trinity for their maintenance and
continuance, and the three subsistences cannot be otherwise than present, the
one with the other. For the Holy Trinity is indivisible.
The first baptism was that of the flood for the eradication of sin. The
second was through the sea and the cloud: for the cloud is the symbol of
the Spirit and the sea of the water. The third baptism was that of the Law:
for every impure person washed himself with water, and even washed his
garments, and so entered into the camp. The fourth was that of John,
being preliminary and leading those who were baptized to repent-once, that
they might believe in Christ: I,
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certainly return unto thee at this time hereafter, and Sarah thy wife shall
have a son ; and afterwards the Lord said to Him, I will not conceal from
Abraham My servant the things that I will do ; and again, Moreover the Lord
said, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is filled up, and their sins are exceeding
great. Then after long discourse, which for the sake of brevity shall be
omitted, Abraham, distressed at the destruction which awaited the innocent as
well as the guilty, said, In no wise wilt Thou, Who judgest the earth, execute
this judgment. And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within
the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Afterwards when
the warning to Lot, Abraham's brother, was ended, the Scripture says, And the
Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire f rom the Lord out
of heaven ; and, after a while, And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said,
and did unto Sarah as He had spoken, and Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a
son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And
afterwards, when the handmaid with her son had been driven from Abraham's
house, and was dreading lest her child should die in the wilderness for want
of water, the same Scripture says, And the Lord God heard the voice of the
lad, where he was, and the Angel of God child to Hagar out of heaven, and said
unto her, What is it, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad
from the place where he is. Arise, and take the lad, and hold his hand, for I
will make him a great nation.
26. What blind faithlessness it is, what dulness of an unbelieving heart,
what headstrong impiety, to abide in ignorance of all this, or else to know
and yet neglect it! Assuredly it is written for the very purpose that error or
oblivion may not hinder the recognition of the truth. If, as we shall prove,
it is impossible to escape knowledge of the facts, then it must be nothing
less than blasphemy to deny them. This record begins with the speech of the
Angel to Hagar, His promise to multiply Ishmael into a great nation and to
give him a countless offspring. She listens, and by her confession reveals
that He is Lord and God. The story begins with His appearance as the Angel of
God; at its termination He stands confessed as God Himself. Thus He Who, while
He executes the ministry of declaring the great counsel is God's Angel, is
Himself in name and nature God. The name corresponds to the nature; the nature
is not falsified to make it conform to the name. Again, God speaks to Abraham
of this same matter; he is told that Ishmael has already received a blessing,
and shall be increased into a nation; I have blessed him, God says. This is no
change from the Person indicated before; He shews that it was He Who had
already given the blessing. The Scripture has obviously been consistent
throughout in its progress from mystery to clear revelation; it began with the
Angel of God, and proceeds to reveal that it was God Himself Who had spoken in
this same matter.
27. The course of the Divine narrative is accompanied by a progressive
development of doctrine. In the passage which we have discussed God speaks to
Abraham, and promises that Sarah shall bear a son. Afterwards three men stand
by him; he worships One and acknowledges Him as Lord. After this worship and
acknowledgment by Abraham, the One promises that He will return hereafter at
the same season, and that then Sarah shall have her son. This One again is
seen by Abraham in the guise of a man, and salutes him with the same promise.
The change is one of name only; Abraham's acknowledgment in each ease is the
same. It was a Man whom he saw, yet Abraham worshipped Him as Lord; he beheld,
no doubt, in a mystery the coming Incarnation. Faith so strong has not missed
its recognition; the Lord says in the Gospel, Your father Abraham rejoiced to
see My day; and he saw it, and was glad. To continue the history; the Man
Whom he saw promised that He would return at the same season. Mark the
fulfilment of the promise, remembering meanwhile that it was a Man Who made
it. What says the Scripture? And the Lord visited Sarah. So this Man is the
Lord, fulfilling His own promise. What follows next? And God did unto Sarah as
He had said. The narrative calls His words those of a Man, relates that Sarah
was visited by the Lord, proclaims that the result was the work of God. You
are sure that it was a Man who spoke, for Abraham not only heard, but saw Him.
Can you be less certain that He was God, when the same Scripture, which had
called Him Man, confesses Him God? For its words are, And Sarah conceived, and
bare Abraham a son in his old age, and at the set time of which God had spoken
to him. But it was the Man who had promised that He would come. Believe that
He was nothing more than man; unless, in fact, He Who came was God and Lord.
Connect the incidents. It was, confessedly, the Man who promised that He would
come that Sarah might con-
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and omnipotence and truth and wisdom and justice, he will find all things
smooth and even, and the way straight. But without faith it is impossible to
be saved. For it is by faith that all things, both human and spiritual, are
sustained. For without faith neither does the farmer cut his furrow, nor
does the merchant commit his life to the raging waves of the sea on a small
piece of wood, nor are marriages contracted nor any other step in life taken.
By faith we consider that all things were brought out of nothing into being by
God's power. And we direct all things, both divine and human, by faith.
Further, faith is assent free from all meddlesome inquisitiveness.
Every action, therefore, and performance of miracles by Christ are most
great and divine and marvellous: but the most marvellous of all is His
precious Cross. For no other thing has subdued death, expiated the sin of the
first parent, despoiled Hades, bestowed the resurrection, granted the power
to us of contemning the present and even death itself, prepared the return to
our former blessedness, opened the gates of Paradise, given our nature a
seat at the right hand of God, and made us the children and heirs of God,
save the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For by the Cross s all things have
been made right. So many of us, the apostle says, as were baptized into
Christ, were baptized into His death, and as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Further Christ is the power of
God and the wisdom of God. Lo! the death of Christ, that is, the Cross,
clothed us with the enhypostatic wisdom and power of God. And the power of God
is the Word of the Cross, either because God's might, that is, the victory
over death, has been revealed to us by it, or because, just as the four
extremities of the Cross are held fast and bound together by the bolt in the
middle, so also by God's power the height and the depth, the length and the
breadth, that is, every creature visible and invisible, is maintained.
This was given to us as a sign on our forehead, just as the circumcision
was given to Israel: for by it we believers are separated and distinguished
from unbelievers. This is the shield and weapon against, and trophy over, the
devil. This is the seal that the destroyer may not touch you, as saith the
Scripture. This is the resurrection of those lying in death, the support of
the standing, the staff of the weak, the rod of the flock, the safe conduct of
the earnest, the perfection of those that press forwards, the salvation of
soul and body, the aversion of all things evil, the patron of all things good,
the taking away of sin, the plant of resurrection, the tree of eternal life.
So, then, this same truly precious and august tree, on which Christ
hath offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sakes, is to be worshipped as
sanctified by contact with His holy body and blood; likewise the nails, the
spear, the clothes, His sacred tabernacles which are the manger, the cave,
Golgotha, which bringeth salvation, the tomb which giveth life, Sion, the
chief stronghold of the churches and the like, are to be worshipped. In the
words of David, the father of God, We shall go into His tabernacles, we
shall worship at the place where His feet stood. And that it is the Cross
that is meant is made clear by what follows, Arise, O Lord, into Thy Rest .
For the resurrection comes after the Cross. For if of those things which we
love, house and couch and garment, are to be longed after, how much the rather
should we long after that which belonged to God, our Saviour, by means of
which we are in truth saved.
Moreover we worship even the image of the precious and life-giving Cross,
although made of another tree, not honouring the tree (God forbid) but the
image as a symbol of Christ. For He said to His disciples, admonishing them,
Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, meaning the Cross.
And so also the angel of the resurrection said to the woman, Ye seek Jesus of
Nazareth which was crucified. And the Apostle said, We preach Christ
crucified. For there are many Christs and many Jesuses, but one crucified.
He does not say speared but crucified. It behoves us, then, to worship the
sign of Christ. For wherever the sign may be, there also will He be. But it
does not behove us to worship the material of which the image of the Cross is
composed, even though it be gold or precious stones, after it is destroyed, if
that should happen. Everything, therefore, that is dedicated to God we
worship, conferring the adoration on Him.
The tree of life which was planted by God in Paradise pre-figured this
precious Cross.
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For since death was by a tree, it was fitting that life and resurrection
should be bestowed by a tree. Jacob, when He worshipped the top of Joseph's
staff, was the first to image the Cross, and when he blessed his sons with
crossed hands he made most clearly the sign of the cross. Likewise also
did Moses' rod, when it smote the sea in the figure of the cross and saved
Israel, while it overwhelmed Pharaoh in the depths; likewise also the hands
stretched out crosswise and routing Amalek; and the bitter water made sweet by
a tree, and the rock rent and pouring forth streams of water, and the rod
that meant for Aaron the dignity of the high priesthood: and the serpent
lifted in triumph on a tree as though it were dead, the tree bringing
salvation to those who in faith saw their enemy dead, just as Christ was
nailed to the tree in the flesh of sin which yet knew no sin. The mighty
Moses cried, You will see your life hanging on the tree before your eyes,
and Isaiah likewise, I have spread out my hands all the day unto a faithless
and rebellious people. But may we who worship this obtain a part in
Christ the crucified. Amen.
CHAPTER XII.
Concerning Worship towards the East.
It is not without reason or by chance that we worship towards the East.
But seeing that we are composed of a visible and an invisible nature, that is
to say, of a nature partly of spirit and partly of sense, we render also a
twofold worship to the Creator; just as we sing both with our spirit and our
bodily lips, and are baptized with both water and Spirit, and are united with
the Lord in a twofold manner, being sharers in the mysteries and in the grace
of the Spirit.
Since, therefore, God is spiritual light, and Christ is called in
the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness and Dayspring, the East is the
direction that must be assigned to His worship. For everything good must be
assigned to Him from Whom every good thing arises. Indeed the divine David
also says, Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the
Lord: to Him that rideth upon the Heavens of heavens towards the East.
Moreover the Scripture also says, And God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there He put the man whom He had formed: and when he had transgressed
His command He expelled him and made him to dwell over against the delights of
Paradises, which clearly is the West. So, then, we worship God seeking and
striving after our old fatherland. Moreover the tent of Moses had its veil
and mercy seat towards the East. Also the tribe of Judah as the most
precious pitched their camp on the East. Also in the celebrated temple of
Solomon the Gate of the Lord was placed eastward. Moreover Christ, when He
hung on the Cross, had His face turned towards the West, and so we worship,
striving after Him. And when He was received again into Heaven He was borne
towards the East, and thus His apostles worship Him, and thus He will come
again in the way in which they beheld Him going towards Heaven; as the Lord
Himself said, As the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto
the West, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be.
So, then, in expectation of His coming we worship towards the East. But
this tradition of the apostles is unwritten. For much that has been handed
down to us by tradition is unwritten.
CHAPTER XIII.
Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries
of the Lord.
God Who is good and altogether good and more than good, Who is goodness
throughout, by reason of the exceeding riches of His goodness did not suffer
Himself, that is His nature, only to be good, with no other to participate
therein, but because of this He made first the spiritual and heavenly powers:
next the visible and sensible universe: next man with his spiritual and
sentient nature. All things, therefore, which he made, share in His goodness
in respect of their existence. For He Himself is existence to all, since all
things that are, are in Him, not only because it was He that brought them
out of nothing into being, but because His energy preserves and maintains all
that He made: and in especial the living creatures. For both in that they
exist and in that they
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enjoy life they share in His goodness. But in truth those of them that have
reason have a still greater share in that, both because of what has been
already said and also because of the very reason which they possess. For they
are somehow more dearly akin to Him, even though He is incomparably higher
than they.
Man, however, being endowed with reason and free will, received the power
of continuous union with God through his own choice, if indeed he should abide
in goodness, that is in obedience to his Maker. Since, however, he
transgressed the command of his Creator and became liable to death and
corruption, the Creator and Maker of our race, because of His bowels of
compassion, took on our likeness, becoming man in all things but without sin,
and was united to our nature. For since He bestowed on us His own image and
His own spirit and we did not keep them safe, He took Himself a share in our
poor and weak nature, in order that He might cleanse us and make us
incorruptible, and establish us once more as partakers of His divinity.
For it was fitting that not only the first-fruits of our nature should
partake in the higher good but every man who wished it, and that a second
birth should take place and that the nourishment should be new and suitable to
the birth and thus the measure of perfection be attained. Through His birth,
that is, His incarnation, and baptism and passion and resurrection, He
delivered our nature from the sin of our first parent and death and
corruption, and became the first-fruits of the resurrection, and made Himself
the way and image and pattern, in order that we, too, following in His
footsteps, may become by adoption what He is Himself by nature, sons and
heirs of God and joint heirs with Him. He gave us therefore, as I said, a
second birth in order that, just as we who are born of Adam are in his image
and are the heirs of the curse and corruption, so also being born of Him we
may be in His likeness and heirs of His incorruption and blessing and
glory.
Now seeing that this Adam is spiritual, it was meet that both the birth
and likewise the food should be spiritual too, but since we are of a double
and compound nature, it is meet that both the birth should be double and
likewise the food compound. We were therefore given a birth by water and
Spirit: I mean, by the holy baptism: and the food is the very bread of
life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came down from heaven. For when He was
about to take on Himself a voluntary death for our sakes, on the night on
which He gave Himself up, He laid a new covenant on His holy disciples and
apostles, and through them on all who believe on Him. In the upper chamber,
then, of holy and illustrious Sion, after He had eaten the ancient Passover
with His disciples and had fulfilled the ancient covenant, He washed His
disciples' feet in token of the holy baptism. Then having broken bread He
gave it to them saying, Take, eat, this is My body broken for you for the
remission of sins. Likewise also He took the cup of wine and water and gave
it to them saying, Drink ye all of it:
for this is My blood, the blood of the New Testament which is shed for you for
the remission of sins. This do ye in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat
this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the death of the Son of man and
confess His resurrection until He come.
If then the Word of God is quick and energising, and the Lord did all
that He willed; if He said, Let there be light and there was light, let
there be a firmament and there was a firmament; if the heavens were
established by the Word of the Lord and all the host of them by the breath of
His mouth; if the heaven and the earth, water and fire and air and the
whole glory of these, and, in sooth, this most noble creature, man, were
perfected by the Word of the Lord; if God the Word of His own will became man
and the pure and undefiled blood of the holy and ever-virginal One made His
flesh without the aid of seed, can He not then make the bread His body and
the wine and water His blood? He said in the beginning, Let the earth bring
forth grass, and even until this present day, when the rain comes it brings
forth its proper fruits, urged on and strengthened by the divine command. God
said, This is My body, and This is My blood, and this do ye in remembrance of
Me. And so it is at His omnipotent command until He come: for it was in this
sense that He said until He come: and the overshadowing power of the Holy
Spirit becomes through the invocation the rain to this new tillage. For
just as God made all that He made by the energy of the Holy Spirit, so also
now the energy of the
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Spirit performs those things that are supernatural and which it is not
possible to comprehend unless by faith alone. How shall this be, said the holy
Virgin, seeing I know not a man? And the archangel Gabriel answered her: The
Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee. And now you ask, how the bread became Christ's body and
the wine and water Christ's blood. And I say unto thee, "The Holy Spirit is
present and does those things which surpass reason and thought."
Further, bread and wine s are employed: for God knoweth man's infirmity:
for in general man turns away discontentedly from what is not well-worn by
custom: and so with His usual indulgence H e performs His supernatural works
through familiar objects: and just as, in the case of baptism, since it is
man's custom to wash himself with water and anoint himself with oil, He
connected the grace of the Spirit with the oil and the water and made it the
water of regeneration, in like manner since it is man's custom to eat and to
drink water and wine, He connected His divinity with these and made them
His body and blood in order that we may rise to what is supernatural through
what is familiar and natural.
The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with
divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens descends,
but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's body and
blood. But if you enquire how this happens, it is enough for you to learn
that it was through the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord took on Himself flesh
that subsisted in Him and was born of the holy Mother of God through the
Spirit. And we know nothing further save that the Word of God is true and
energises and is omnipotent, but the manner of this cannot be searched out.
But one can put it well thus, that just as in nature the bread by the eating
and the wine and the water by the drinking are changed into the body and blood
of the eater and drinker, and do not become a different body from the
former one, so the bread of the table and the wine and water are
supernaturally changed by the invocation and presence of the Holy Spirit into
the body and blood of Christ, and are not two but one and the same.
Wherefore to those who partake worthily with faith, it is for the
remission of sins and for life everlasting and for the safeguarding of soul
and body; but to those who partake unworthily without faith, it is for
chastisement and punishment, just as also the death of the Lord became to
those who believe life and incorruption for the enjoyment of eternal
blessedness, while to those who do not believe and to the murderers of the
Lord it is for everlasting chastisement and punishment.
The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of
Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself: for the Lord has
said, "This is My body," not, this is a figure of My body: and "My blood,"
not, a figure of My blood. And on a previous occasion He had said to the Jews,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life
in you. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. And again,
He that eateth Me, shall live.
Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us
draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. Let
us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is twofold.
Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands held in the
form of the cross s let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us
apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order
that the fire of the longing, that is in us, with the additional heat derived
from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that
we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire. Isaiah
saw the coal. But coal is not plain wood but wood united with fire: in like
manner also the bread of the communion is not plain bread but bread united
with divinity. But a body s which is united with divinity is not one nature,
but has one nature belonging to the body and another belonging to the divinity
that is united to it, so that the compound is not one nature but two.
With bread and wine Melchisedek, the priest of the most high God, received
Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the Gentiles. That table
pre-imaged this mystical table, just as that priest was a type and image of
Christ, the true high-priest. For thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchisedek. Of this
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bread the show-bread was an image. This surely is that pure and bloodless
sacrifice which the Lord through the prophet said is offered to Him from the
rising to the setting of the sun.
The body and blood of Christ are making for the support of our soul and
body, without being consumed or suffering corruption, not making for the
draught (God forbid!) but for our being and preservation, a protection against
all kinds of injury, a purging from all uncleanness: should one receive base
gold, they purify it by the critical burning lest in the future we be
condemned with this world. They purify from diseases and all kinds of
calamities; according to the words of the divine Apostles, For if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. This
too is what he says, So that he that partaketh of the body and blood of Christ
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Being purified by
this, we are united to the body of Christ and to His Spirit and become the
body of Christ.
This bread is the first-fruits of the future bread which is
epio?sios, i.e. necessary for existence. For the word
epio?sion signifies either the future, that is Him Who is for a
future age, or else Him of Whom we partake for the preservation of our
essence. Whether then it is in this sense or that, it is fitting to speak so
of the Lord's body. For the Lord's flesh is life-giving spirit because it was
conceived of the life-giving Spirit. For what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
But I do not say this to take away the nature of the body, but I wish to make
clear its life-giving and divine power.
But if some persons called the bread and the wine antitypes of the body
and blood of the Lord, as did the divinely inspired Basil, they said so not
after the consecration but before the consecration, so calling the offering
itself.
Participation is spoken of; for through it we partake of the divinity of
Jesus. Communion, too, is spoken of, and it is an actual communion, because
through it we have communion with Christ and share in His flesh and His
divinity: yea, we have communion and are united with one another through it.
For since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one
blood, and members one of another, being of one body with Christ.
With all our strength, therefore, let us beware lest we receive communion
from or grant it to heretics; Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, saith
the Lord, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest we become
partakers in their dishonour and condemnation. For if trojan is in truth with
Christ and with one another, we are assuredly voluntarily united also with all
those who partake with us. For this union is effected voluntarily and not
against our inclination. For we are all one body because we partake of the one
bread, as the divine Apostle says.
Further, antitypes of future things are spoken of, not as though they were
not in reality Christ's body and blood, but that now through them we partake
of Christ's divinity, while then we shall partake mentally through the
vision alone.
CHAPTER XIV.
Concerning our Lord's genealogy and concerning the holy Mother of God.
Concerning the holy and much-lauded ever-virgin one, Mary, the Mother of
God, we have said something in the preceding chapters, bringing forward what
was most opportune, viz., that strictly and truly she is and is called the
Mother of God. Now let us fill up the blanks. For she being pre-ordained by
the eternal prescient counsel of God and imaged forth and proclaimed in
diverse images and discourses of the prophets through the Holy Spirit, sprang
at the pre-determined time from the root of David, according to the promises
that were made to him. For the lord hath sworn, He saith in truth to David, He
will not turn from it: of the fruit of Thy body will I set upon Thy throne.
And again, Once have I sworn by My holiness, that I will not lie unto David.
His seed shall endure for ever, and His throne as the sun before Me. It shall
be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.
And Isaiah says: And there shall come out a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a
branch shall grow out of his roots.
But that Joseph is descended from the tribe of David is expressly
demonstrated by Matthew and Luke, the most holy evangelists. But Matthew
derives Joseph from David through Solomon, while Luke does so through Nathan;
while over the holy Virgin's origin both pass in silence.
One ought to remember that it was not the custom of the Hebrews nor of the
divine Scripture to give genealogies of women; and
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the law was to prevent one tribe seeking wives from another. And so since
Joseph was descended from the tribe of David and was a just man (for this the
divine Gospel testifies), he would not have espoused the holy Virgin contrary
to the law; he would not have taken her unless she had been of the same
tribe. It was sufficient, therefore, to demonstrate the descent of Joseph.
One ought also to observe this, that the law was that when a man died
without seed, this maws brother should take to wife the wife of the dead man
and raise up seed to his brother. The offspring, therefore, belonged by
nature to the second, that is, to him that begat it, but by law to the dead.
Born then of the line of Nathan, the son of David, Levi begat Melchi
and Panther: Panther begat Barpanther, so called. This Barpanther begat
Joachim: Joachim begat the holy Mother of God. And of the line of
Solomon, the son of David, Mathan had a wife of whom he begat Jacob. Now on
the death of Mathan, Melchi, of the tribe of Nathan, the son of Levi and
brother of Panther, married the wife of Mathan, Jacob's mother, of whom he
begat Heli. Therefore Jacob and Hell became brothers on tile mother's side,
Jacob being of the tribe of Solomon and Heli of the tribe of Nathan. Then Heli
of the tribe of Nathan died childless, and Jacob his brother, of the tribe of
Solomon, took his wife and raised up seed to his brother and begat Joseph.
Joseph, therefore, is by nature the son of Jacob, of the line of Solomon, but
by law he is the son of Hell of the line of Nathan.
Joachim then took to wife that revered and praiseworthy woman, Anna.
But just as the earlier Anna, who was barren, bore Samuel by prayer and by
promise, so also this Anna by supplication and promise from God bare the
Mother of God in order that she might not even in this be behind the matrons
of fame. Accordingly it was grace (for this is the interpretation of Anna)
that bore the lady: (for she became truly the Lady of all created things in
becoming the Mother of the Creator). Further, Joachim was born in the house
of the Probatica, and was brought up to the temple. Then planted in the
House of God and increased by the Spirit, like a fruitful olive tree, she
became the home of every virtue, turning her mind away from every secular and
carnal desire, and thus keeping her soul as well as her hotly virginal, as was
meet for her who was to receive God into her bosom: for as He is holy, He
finds rest among the holy. Thus, therefore, she strove after holiness, and
was declared a holy and wonderful temple fit for the most high God.
Moreover, since the enemy of our salvation was keeping a watchful eye on
virgins, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, Behold a virgin shall
conceive and bare a Son and shall call His name Emmanuel, which is, being
interpreted, 'God with us,' in order that he who taketh the wise in their
own craftiness may deceive him who always glorieth in his wisdom, the
maiden is given in marriage to Joseph by the priests, a new book to him who is
versed in letters: but the marriage was both the protection of the virgin
and the delusion of him who was keeping a watchful eye on virgins. But when
the fulness of time was come, the messenger of the Lord was sent to her, with
the good news of our Lord's conception. And thus she conceived the Son of God,
the hypostatic power of the Father, not of the will of the flesh nor of the
will of man, that is to say, by connection and seed, but by the good
pleasure of the Father and co-operation of the Holy Spirit. She ministered to
the Creator in that He was created, to the Fashioner in that He was fashioned,
and to the Son of God and God in that He was made flesh and became man from
her pure and immaculate flesh and blood, satisfying the debt of the first
mother. For just as the latter was formed from Adam without connection, so
also did the former bring forth the new Adam, who was brought forth in
accordance with the laws of parturition and above the nature of generation.
For He who was of the Father, yet without mother, was born of woman
without a father's co-operation. And so far as He was born of woman, His birth
was in accordance with the laws of parturition, while so far as He had no
father, His birth was above the nature of generation: and in that it was at
the usual time (for He was born on the completion of the ninth month when the
tenth was just beginning), His birth was in accordance with the laws of
parturition, while in that it was painless it was above the laws of
generation. For, as pleasure did not precede
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it, pain did not follow it, according to the prophet who says, Before she
travailed, she brought forth, and again, before her pain came she was
delivered of a man-child. The Son of God incarnate, therefore, was born of
her, not a divinely-inspired man but God incarnate not a prophet anointed
with energy but by the presence of the anointing One in His completeness, so
that the Anointer became man and the Anointed God, not by a change of nature
but by union in subsistence. For the Anointer and the Anointed were one and
the same, anointing in the capacity of God Himself as man. Must there not
therefore be a Mother of God who bore God incarnate? Assuredly she who played
the part of the Creator's servant and mother is in all strictness and truth in
reality God's Mother and Lady and Queen over all created things. But just as
He who was conceived kept her who conceived still virgin, in like manner also
He who was born preserved her virginity intact, only passing through her and
keeping her closed. The conception, indeed, was through the sense of
hearing, but the birth through the usual path by which children come, although
some tell tales of His birth through the side of the Mother of God. For it was
not impossible for Him to have come by this gate, without injuring her seal in
any
way.
The ever-virgin One thus remains even after the birth still virgin, having
never at any time up till death consorted with a man. For although it is
written, And knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born Son,
yet note that he who is first-begotten is first-born even if he is
only-begotten. For the word "first-born" means that he was born first but does
not at all suggest the birth of others. And the word "till" signifies the
limit of the appointed time but does not exclude the time thereafter. For the
Lord says, And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,
not meaning thereby that He will be separated from us after the completion of
the age. The divine apostle, indeed, says, And so shall we ever be with the
Lord, meaning after the general resurrection.
For could it be possible that she, who had borne God and from experience
of the subsequent events had come to know the miracle, should receive the
embrace of a man. God forbid! It is not the part of a chaste mind to think
such thoughts, far less to commit such acts
But this blessed woman, who was deemed worthy of gifts that are
supernatural, suffered those pains, which she escaped at the birth, in the
hour of the passion, enduring from motherly sympathy the rending of the
bowels, and when she beheld Him, Whom she knew to be God by the manner of His
generation, killed as a malefactor, her thoughts pierced her as a sword, and
this is the meaning of this verse: Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own
saul also. But the joy of the resurrection transforms the pain,
proclaiming Him, Who died in the flesh, to be God.
CHAPTER XV.
Concerning the honour due to the Saints and their remains.
To the saints honour must be paid as friends of Christ, as sons and heirs
of God: in the words of John the theologian and evangelist, As many as
received Him, to them gave He power to became sons of God. So that they are
no longer servants, but sons: and if sons, also heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ: and the Lord in the holy Gospels says to His apostles,
Ye are My friends. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant
knoweth not what his lord doeth. And further, if the Creator and Lord of
all things is called also King of Kings and Lord of Lords and God of Gods,
surely also the saints are gods and lords and kings. For of these God is and
is called God and Lord and King. For I am the God of Abraham, He said to
Moses, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And God made Moses a god to
Pharaoh. Now I mean gods and kings and lords not in nature, but as rulers
and masters of their passions, and as preserving a truthful likeness to the
divine image according to which they were made (for the image of a king is
also called king), and as being united to God of their own free-will and
receiving Him as an indweller and becoming by grace through participation with
Him what He is Himself by nature. Surely, then, the worshippers and friends
and sons of God are to be held in honour? For the honour shewn to the most
thoughtful of fellow-servants is a proof of good feeling towards the common
Master.
These are made treasuries and pure habitations of God: For I will dwell in
them,
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said God, and walk in them, and I will be their God. The divine Scripture
likewise saith that the souls of the just are in God's hand and death
cannot lay hold of them. For death is rather the sleep of the saints than
their death. For they travailed in this life and shall to the end, and
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. What then, is
more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is Life and Light, and
those who are in God's hand are in life and light.
Further, that God dwelt even in their bodies in spiritual wise, the
Apostle tells us, saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the
Holy Spirit dwelling in you?, and The Lord is that Spirit, and If any
one destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy. Surely, then, we must
ascribe honour to the living temples of God, the living tabernacles of God.
These while they lived stood with confidence before God.
The Master Christ made the remains of the saints to be fountains of
salvation to us, pouring forth manifold blessings and abounding in oil of
sweet fragrance: and let no one disbelieve this. For if water burst in the
desert from the steep and solid rock at God's will and from the jaw-bone of
an ass to quench Samson's thirst, is it incredible that fragrant oil should
burst forth from the martyrs' remains? By no means, at least to those who know
the power of God and the honour which He accords His saints.
In the law every one who toucheth a dead body was considered impure,
but these are not dead. For from the time when He that is Himself life and the
Author of life was reckoned among the dead, we do not call those dead who have
fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and in faith on Him. For how
could a dead body work miracles? How, therefore, are demons driven off by
them, diseases dispelled, sick persons made well, the blind restored to sight,
lepers purified, temptations and troubles overcome, and how does every good
gift from the Father of lights come down through them to those who pray
with sure faith? How much labour would you not undergo to find a patron to
introduce you to a mortal king and speak to him on your behalf? Are not those,
then, worthy of honour who are the patrons of the whole race, and make
intercession to God for us? Yea, verily, we ought to give honour to them by
raising temples to God in their name, bringing them fruit-offerings, honouring
their memories and taking spiritual delight in them, in order that the joy of
those who call on us may be ours, that in our attempts at worship we may not
on the contrary cause them offence. For those who worship God will take
pleasure in those things whereby God is worshipped, while His shield-bearers
will be wrath at those things wherewith God is wroth. In psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, in contrition and in pity for the needy, let us
believers worship the saints, as God also is most worshipped in such wise.
Let us raise monuments to them and visible images, and let us ourselves
become, through imitation of their virtues, living monuments and images of
them. Let us give honour to her who bore God as being strictly and truly the
Mother of God. Let us honour also the prophet John as forerunner and
baptist, as apostle and martyr, For among them that are born of women there
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, as saith the Lord, and he
became the first to proclaim the Kingdom. Let us honour the apostles as the
Lord's brothers, who saw Him face to face and ministered to His passion, for
whom God the Father did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of His Son, first apostles, second prophets, third pastors end
teachers. Let us also honour the martyrs of the Lord chosen out of every
class, as soldiers of Christ who have drunk His cup and were then baptized
with the baptism of His life-bringing death, to be partakers of His passion
and glory: of whom the leader is Stephen, the first deacon of Christ and
apostle and first martyr. Also let us honour our holy fathers, the
God-possessed ascetics, whose struggle was the longer and more toilsome one of
the conscience: who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts and in mountains and
in dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was not worthy. Let us
honour those who were prophets before grace, the patriarchs anti just men who
foretold the Lord's coming. Let us carefully review the life of these men, and
let us emulate their faith and love and hope and zeal and way of life, and
endurance of sufferings and patience even to blood, in order that we may be
sharers with them in their crowns of glory.
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CHAPTER XVI.
Concerning Images.
But since some find fault with us for worshipping and honouring the
image of our Saviour and that of our Lady, and those, too, of the rest of the
saints and servants of Christ, let them remember that in the beginning God
created man after His own image. On what grounds, then, do we shew
reverence to each other unless because we are made after God's image? For as
Basil, that much-versed expounder of divine things, says, the honour given to
the image passes over to the prototype. Now a prototype is that which is
imaged, from which the derivative is obtained. Why was it that the Mosaic
people honoured on all hands the tabernacle which bore an image and type of
heavenly things, or rather of the whole creation? God indeed said to Moses,
Look that thou make them after their pattern which was shewed thee in the
mount. The Cherubim, too, which o'ershadow the mercy seat, are they not the
work of men's hands? What, further, is the celebrated temple at Jerusalem?
Is it not hand-made and fashioned by the skill of men?
Moreover the divine Scripture blames those who worship graven images, but
also those who sacrifice to demons. The Greeks sacrificed and the Jews also
sacrificed: but the Greeks to demons and the Jews to God. And the sacrifice of
the Greeks was rejected and condemned, but the sacrifice of the just was very
acceptable to God. For Noah sacrificed, and God smelled a sweet savour,
receiving the fragrance of the right choice and good-will towards Him. And so
the graven images of the Greeks, since they were images of deities, were
rejected and forbidden.
But besides this who can make an imitation of the invisible, incorporeal,
uncircumscribed, formless God? Therefore to give form to the Deity is the
height of folly and impiety. And hence it is that in the Old Testament the use
of images was not common. But after God in His bowels of pity became in
truth man for our salvation, not as He was seen by Abraham in the semblance of
a man, nor as He was seen by the prophets, but in being truly man, and after
He lived upon the earth and dwelt among men, worked miracles, suffered, was
crucified, rose again and was taken back to Heaven, since all these things
actually took place and were seen by men, they were written for the
remembrance and instruction of us who were not alive at that time in order
that though we saw not, we may still, hearing and believing, obtain the
blessing of the Lord. But seeing that not every one has a knowledge of letters
nor time for reading, the Fathers gave their sanction to depicting these
events on images as being acts of great heroism, in order that they should
form a concise memorial of them. Often, doubtless, when we have not the Lord's
passion in mind and see the image of Christ's crucifixion, His saving passion
is brought back to remembrance, and we fall down and worship not the material
but that which is imaged: just as we do not worship the material of which the
Gospels are made, nor the material of the Cross, but that which these typify.
For wherein does the cross, that typifies the Lord, differ from a cross that
does not do so? It is just the same also in the case of the Mother of the
Lord. For the honour which we give to her is referred to Him Who was made of
her incarnate. And similarly also the brave acts of holy men stir us up to be
brave and to emulate and imitate their valour and to glorify God. For as we
said, the honour that is given to the best of fellow-servants is a proof of
good-will towards our common Lady, and the honour rendered to the image passes
over to the prototype. But this is an unwritten tradition, just as is
also the worshipping towards the East and the worship of the Cross, and very
many other similar things.
A certain tale, too, is told, how that when Augarus was king over
the city of the Edessenes, he sent a portrait painter to paint a likeness of
the Lord, and when the painter could not paint because of the brightness that
shone from His countenance, the Lord Himself put a garment over His own divine
and life-giving face and impressed on it an image of Himself and sent this to
Augarus, to satisfy thus his desire.
Moreover that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten, Paul, the
Apostle of the Gentiles, tells us in these words: Therefore, brethren, stand
fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught of us, whether by word
or by epistle. And to the Corinthians he writes, Now I praise you,
brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the traditions as I have
delivered them to you."
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CHAPTER XVII.
Concerning Scripture.
It is one and the same God Whom both the Old and the New Testament
proclaim, Who is praised and glorified in the Trinity: I am come, saith the
Lord, not to destroy life law but to fulfil it. For He Himself worked out
our salvation for which all Scripture and all mystery exists. And again,
Search the Scriptures for they are they that testify of Me. And the Apostle
says, God, Who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son. Through the Holy Spirit, therefore, both the law
and the prophets, the evangelists and apostles and pastors and teachers,
spake.
All Scripture, then, is given by inspiration of God and is also assuredly
profitable. Wherefore to search the Scriptures is a work most fair and most
profitable for souls. For just as the tree planted by the channels of waters,
so also the soul watered by the divine Scripture is enriched and gives fruit
in its season, viz. orthodox belief, and is adorned with evergreen leafage,
I mean, actions pleasing to God. For through the Holy Scriptures we are
trained to action that is pleasing to God, and untroubled contemplation. For
in these we find both exhortation to every virtue and dissuasion from every
vice. If, therefore, we are lovers of learning, we shall also be learned in
many things. For by care and toil and the grace of God the Giver, all things
are accomplished. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh
findeth, and to hint that knocketh it shall be opened. Wherefore let us
knock at that very fair garden of the Scriptures, so fragrant and sweet and
blooming, with its varied sounds of spiritual and divinely-inspired birds
ringing all round our ears, laying hold of our hearts, comforting the mourner,
pacifying the angry and filling him with joy everlasting: which sets our mind
on the gold-gleaming, brilliant back of the divine dove, whose bright
pinions bear up to the only-begotten Son and Heir of the Husbandman of that
spiritual Vineyard and bring us through Him to the Father of Lights. But
let us not knock carelessly but rather zealously and constantly: lest knocking
we grow weary. For thus it will be opened to us. If we read once or twice and
do not understand what we read, let us not grow weary, but let us persist, let
us talk much, let us enquire. For ask thy Father, he saith, and He will shew
thee: thy elders and they will tell thee. For there is not in every man
that knowledge. Let us draw of the fountain of the garden perennial and
purest waters springing into life eternal. Here let us luxuriate, let us
revel insatiate: for the Scriptures possess inexhaustible grace. But if we are
able to pluck anything profitable from outside sources, there is nothing to
forbid that. Let us become tried money-dealers, heaping up the true and pure
gold and discarding the spurious. Let us keep the fairest sayings but let us
throw to the dogs absurd gods and strange myths: for we might prevail most
mightily against them through themselves.
Observe, further, that there are two and twenty books of the Old
Testament, one for each letter of the Hebrew tongue. For there are twenty-two
letters of which five are double, and so they come to be twenty-seven. For the
letters Caph, Mere, Nun, Pe, Sade are double. And thus the number of the
books in this way is twenty-two, but is found to be twenty-seven because of
the double character of five. For Ruth is joined on to Judges, and the Hebrews
count them one book: the first and second books of Kings are counted one: and
so are the third and fourth books of Kings: and also the first and second of
Paraleipomena: and the first and second of Esdra. In this way, then, the books
are collected together in four Pentateuchs and two others remain over, to form
thus the canonical books. Five of them are of the Law, viz. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. This which is the code of the Law,
constitutes the first Pentateuch. Then comes another Pentateuch, the so-called
Grapheia, or as they are called by some, the Hagiographa, which are the
following: Jesus the Son of Nave, Judges along with Ruth, first and second
Kings, which are one book, third and fourth Kings, which are one book, and the
two books of the Paraleipomena which are one book. This is the second
Pentateuch. The third Pentateuch is the books in verse, viz. Job, Psalms,
Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes of Solomon and the Song of Songs of Solomon.
The fourth Pentateuch is the Prophetical books, viz the twelve prophets
constituting one book, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Then come the two
books of Esdra made into one, and Esther. There
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are also the Panaretus, that is the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of
Jesus, which was published in Hebrew by the father of Sirach, and afterwards
translated into Greek by his grandson, Jesus, the Son of Sirach. These are
virtuous and noble, but are not counted nor were they placed in the ark.
The New Testament contains four gospels, that according to Matthew, that
according to Mark, that according to Luke, that according to John: the Acts of
the Holy Apostles by Luke the Evangelist: seven catholic epistles, viz. one of
James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude: fourteen letters of the
Apostle Paul: the Revelation of John the Evangelist: the Canons of the holy
apostles, by Clement.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Regarding the things said concerning Christ.
The things said concerning Christ fall into four generic modes. For some
fit Him even before the incarnation, others in the union, others after the
union, and others after the resurrection. Also of those that refer to the
period before the incarnation there are six modes: for some of them declare
the union of nature and the identity in essence with the Father, as this, I
and My Father are one: also this, He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father: and this, Who being in the form of God, and so forth. Others
declare the perfection of subsistence, as these, Son of God, and the Express
Image of His person, and Messenger of great counsel, Wonderful
Counsellor, and the like.
Again, others declare the indwelling of the subsistences in one
another, as, I am in the Father and the Father in Me; and the inseparable
foundation, as, for instance, the Word, Wisdom, Power, Effulgence. For the
word is inseparably established in the mind (and it is the essential mind that
I mean), and so also is wisdom, and power in him that is powerful, and
effulgence in the light, all springing forth from these.
And others make known the fact of His origin from the Father as cause,
for instance My Father is greater than I. For from Him He derives both His
being and all that He has: His being was by generative and not by creative
means, as, I came forth from the Father and am come, and I live by the
Father. But all that He hath is not His by free gift or by teaching, but in
a causal sense, as, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the
Father do. For if the Father is not, neither is the Son. For the Son is of
the Father and in the Father and with the Father, and not after the Father.
In like manner also what He doeth is of Him and with Him. For there is one and
the same, not similar but the same, will and energy and power in the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
Moreover, other things are said as though the Father's good-will was
fulfilled through His energy, and not as through an instrument or a
servant, but as through His essential and hypostatic Word and Wisdom and
Power, because but one action is observed in Father and Son, as for
example, All things were made by Him, and He sent His Word and healed
them, and That they may believe that Than hast sent Me.
Some, again, have a prophetic sense, and of these some are in the future
tense: for instance, He shall come openly, and this from Zechariah, Behold,
thy King cometh unto thee, and this from Micah, Behold, the Lord cometh out
of His place and will came down and tread upon the high places of the
earth. But others, though future, are put in the past tense, as, for
instance, This is our God: Therefore He was seen upon the earth and dwell
among men, and The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways for His
works, and Wherefore God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows, and such like.
The things said, then, that refer to the period before the union will be
applicable to Him even after the union: but those that refer to the period
after the union will not be applicable at all before the union, unless indeed
in a prophetic sense, as we said. Those that refer to the time of the union
have three modes. For when our discourse dears with the higher aspect, we
speak of the deification of the flesh, and His assumption of the Word and
exceeding exaltation, and so forth, making manifest the riches that are added
to the flesh tram the union and natural conjunction with the most high God the
Word. And when our discourse deals with the lower aspect, we speak of the
incarnation of God the Word, His becoming man, His emptying of Himself, His
poverty, His humility. For these and such like are imposed upon the Word and
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God through His admixture with humanity. When again we keep both sides in view
at the same time, we speak of union, community, anointing, natural
conjunction, conformation and the like. The former two modes, then, have their
reason in this third mode. For through the union it is made clear what either
has obtained from the intimate junction with and permeation through the other.
For through the union in subsistence the flesh is said to be deified and to
become God and to be equally God with the Word; and God the Word is said to be
made flesh, and to become man, and is called creature and last: not in the
sense that the two natures are converted into one compound nature (for it is
not possible for the opposite natural qualities to exist at the same time in
one nature), but in the sense that the two natures are united in
subsistence and permeate one another without confusion or transmutation The
permeation moreover did not come of the flesh but of the divinity: for it
is impossible that the flesh should permeate through the divinity: but the
divine nature once permeating through the flesh gave also to the flesh the
same ineffable power of permeation; and this indeed is what we call union.
Note, too, that in the case of the first and second modes of those that
belong to the period of the union, reciprocation is observed. For when we
speak about the flesh, we use the terms deification and assumption of the Word
and exceeding exaltation and anointing. For these are derived from divinity,
but are observed in connection with the flesh. And when we speak about the
Word, we use the terms emptying, incarnation, becoming man, humility and the
like: and these, as we said, are imposed on the Word and God through the
flesh. For He endured these things in person of His own free-will.
Of the things that refer to the period after the union there are three
modes. The first declares His divine nature, as, I am in the Father and the
Father in Me, and I and the Father are one: and all those things which
are affirmed of Him before His assumption of humanity, these will be affirmed
of Him even after His assumption of humanity, with this exception, that He did
not assume the flesh and its natural properties.
The second declares His human nature, as, Now ye seek to kill Me, a man
that hath told you the truth, and Even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, and the like.
Further, of the statements made and written about Christ the Saviour after
the manner of men, whether they deal with sayings or actions, there are six
modes. For some of them were done or said naturally in accordance with the
incarnation; for instance, His birth from a virgin, His growth and progress
with age, His hunger, thirst, weariness, fear, sleep, piercing with nails,
death and all such like natural and innocent passions. For in all these
there is a mixture of the divine and human, although they are held to belong
in reality to the body, the divine suffering none of these, but procuring
through them our salvation.
Others are of the nature of ascription, as Christ's question, Where
have ye laid Lazarus? His running to the fig-tree, His shrinking, that is,
His drawing back, His praying, and His making as though He would have gone He
in need of these or similar things, but only because His form was that of a
man as necessity and expediency demanded. For example, the praying was to
shew that He is not opposed to God, for He gives honour to the Father as the
cause of Himself: and the question was not put in ignorance but to shew
that He is in truth man as well as God; and the drawing back is to teach us
not to be impetuous nor to give ourselves up.
Others again are said in the manner of association and relation, as,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? and He hath made Him to be sin
for us, Who knew no sin, and being made a curse for us; also, Then shall
the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him. For
neither as God nor as man was He ever forsaken by the Father, nor did He
become sin or a curse, nor did He require to be made subject to the Father.
For as God He is equal to the Father and not opposed to Him nor subjected to
Him; and as God, He was never at any time disobedient to His Begetter to make
it necessary for Him to make Him subject. Appropriating, then, our person
and ranking Himself with us, He used these words. For we are bound in the
fetters of sin and the curse as faithless and disobedient, and therefore
forsaken.
Others are said by reason of distinction in thought. For if you divide in
thought things that are inseparable in actual truth, to cut the flesh from the
Word, the terms
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'servant' and 'ignorant' are used of Him, for indeed He was of a subject and
ignorant nature, and except that it was united with God the Word, His flesh
was servile and ignorant. But because of the union in subsistence with God
the Word it was neither servile nor ignorant. In this way, too, He called the
Father His God.
Others again are for the purpose of revealing Him to us and strengthening
our faith, as, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had
with Thee, before the world was. For He Himself was glorified and is
glorified, but His glory was not manifested nor confirmed to us. Also that
which the apostle said, Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to
the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. For by the
miracles and the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit it was
manifested and confirmed to the world that He is the Son of God. And this
too, The Child grew in wisdom and grace.
Others again have reference to His appropriation of the personal life of
the Jews, in numbering Himself among the Jews, as He saith to the Samaritan
woman, Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship, far salvation is
of the Jews.
The third mode is one which declares the one subsistence and brings out
the dual nature: for instance, And I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me,
even he shall live by Me. And this: I go to My Father and ye see Me no
more. And this: They would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. And
this: And no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven, and such like.
Again of the affirmations that refer to the period after the resurrection
some are suitable to God, as, Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, for here 'Son' is clearly used as God; also
this, And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, and
other similar ones. For He is with us as God. Others are suitable to man, as,
They held Him by the feet, and There they will see Me, and so forth.
Further, of those referring to the period after the Resurrection that are
suitable to man there are different modes. For some did actually take place,
yet not according to nature, but according to dispensation, in order to
confirm the fact that the very body, which suffered, rose again; such are the
weals, the eating and the drinking after the resurrection. Others took place
actually and naturally, as changing from place to place without trouble and
passing in through closed gates. Others have the character of simulation,
as, He made as though He would have gone further. Others are appropriate to
the double nature, as, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and
our God, and The King of Glory shall carte in, and He sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on High. Finally others are to be understood as
though He were ranking Himself with us, in the manner of separation in pure
thought, as, My God and your God.
Those then that are sublime must be assigned to the divine nature, which
is superior to passion and body: and those that are humble must be ascribed to
the human nature; and those that are common must be attributed to the
compound, that is, the one Christ, Who is God and man. And it should be
understood that both belong to one and the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. For if
we know what is proper to each, and perceive that both are performed by one
and the same, we shall have the true faith and shall not go astray. And from
all these the difference between the united natures is recognised, and the
fact that, as the most godly Cyril says, they are not identical in the
natural quality of their divinity and humanity. But yet there is but one Son
and Christ and Lord: and as He is one, He has also but one person, the unity
in subsistence being in nowise broken up into parts by the recognition of the
difference of the natures.
CHAPTER XIX.
That God is not the cause of evils.
It is to be observed that it is the custom in the Holy Scripture to
speak of God's permission as His energy, as when the apostle says in the
Epistle to the Romans, Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? And for
this reason, that He Himself makes this or that. For He is Himself alone the
Maker of all things; yet it is not He Himself that fashions noble or ignoble
things, but the personal choice of
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each one. And this is manifest from what the same Apostle says in the
Second Epistle to Timothy, In a great house there are not only vessels of gold
and of silver, but also of wood and of earth: and some to honour and some to
dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel
unto honour sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every
good work. And it is evident that the purification must be voluntary: for
if a man, he saith, purge himself. And the consequent antistrophe responds,
"If a man purge not himself he will be a vessel to dishonour, unmeet for the
master's use and fit only to be broken in pieces." Wherefore this passage that
we have quoted and this, God hath concluded them all in unbelief, and this,
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and
ears that they should not hear, all these must be understood not as though
God Himself were energising, but as though God were permitting, both because
of free-will and because goodness knows no compulsion.
His permission, therefore, is usually spoken of in the Holy Scripture as
His energy and work. Nay, even when He says that God creates evil things, and
that there is no evil in a city that the Lord hath not done, he does not mean
by these words that the Lord is the cause of evil, but the word 'evil'
is used in two ways, with two meanings. For sometimes it means what is evil by
nature, and this is the opposite of virtue and the will of God: and sometimes
it means that which is evil and oppressive to our sensation, that is to say,
afflictions and calamities. Now these are seemingly evil because they are
painful, but in reality are good. For to those who understand they became
ambassadors of conversion and salvation. The Scripture says that of these God
is the Author.
It is, moreover, to be observed that of these, too, we are the cause: for
involuntary evils are the offspring of voluntary ones.
This also should be recognised, that it is usual in the Scriptures for
some things that ought to be considered as effects to be stated in a causal
sense, as, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy
sight, that Than mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and prevail when
Thou judgest. For the sinner did not sin in order that God might prevail,
nor again did God require our sin in order that He might by it be revealed as
victor. For above comparison He wins the victor's prize against all, even
against those who are sinless, being Maker, incomprehensible, uncreated, and
possessing natural and not adventitious glory. But it is because when we sin
God is not unjust in His anger against us; and when He pardons the penitent He
is shewn victor over our wickedness. But it is not for this that we sin, but
because the thing so turns out. It is just as if one were sitting at work and
a friend stood near by, and one said, My friend came in order that I might do
no work that day. The friend, however, was not present in order that the man
should do no work, but such was the result. For being occupied with receiving
his friend he did not work. These things, too, are spoken of as effects
because affairs so turned out. Moreover, God does not wish that He alone
should be just, but that all should, so far as possible, be made like unto
Him.
CHAPTER XX.
That there are not two Kingdoms.
That there are not two kingdoms, one good and one bad, we shall see
from this. For good and evil are opposed to one another and mutually
destructive, and cannot exist in one another or with one another. Each of
them, therefore, in its own division will belong to the whole, and first
they will he circumscribed, not by the whole alone but also each of them by
part of the whole.
Next I ask, who it is that assigns to each its place. For they will
not affirm that they have come to a friendly agreement with, or been
reconciled to, one another. For evil is not evil when it is at peace with, and
reconciled to, goodness, nor is goodness good when it is on amicable terms
with evil. But if He Who has marked off to each of these its own sphere of
action is something different from them, He must the rather be God.
One of two things indeed is necessary, either that they come in contact
with and destroy one another, or that there exists some intermediate place
where neither goodness nor evil exists, separating both from one another, like
a partition. And so there will be no longer two but three kingdoms.
Again, one of these alternatives is necessary, either that they are at
peace, which is quite incompatible with evil (for that which is at peace is
not evil), or they are at strife, which
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is incompatible with goodness (for that which is at strife is not perfectly
good), or the evil is at strife and the good does not retaliate, but is
destroyed by the evil, or they are ever in trouble and distress, which is
not a mark of goodness. There is, therefore, but one kingdom, delivered from
all evil.
But if this is so, they say, whence comes evil? For it is quite
impossible that evil should originate from goodness. We answer then, that evil
is nothing else than absence of goodness and a lapsing from what is natural
into what is unnatural: for nothing evil is natural. For all things,
whatsoever God made, are very good, so far as they were made: if,
therefore, they remain just as they were created, they are very good, but when
they voluntarily depart from what is natural and turn to what is unnatural,
they slip into evil.
By nature, therefore, all things are servants of the Creator and obey Him.
Whenever, then, any of His creatures voluntarily rebels and becomes
disobedient to his Maker, he introduces evil into himself. For evil is not any
essence nor a property of essence, but an accident, that is, a voluntary
deviation from what is natural into what is unnatural, which is sin.
Whence, then, comes sin? It is an invention of the free-will of the
devil. Is the devil, then, evil? In so far as he was brought into existence he
is not evil but good. For he was created by his Maker a bright and very
brilliant angel, endowed with free-will as being rational. But he voluntarily
departed from the virtue that is natural and came into the darkness of evil,
being far removed from God, Who alone is good and can give life and light. For
from Him every good thing derives its goodness, and so far as it is separated
from Him in will (for it is not in place), it falls into evil.
CHAPTER XXI.
The purpose for which God in His foreknowledge created
persons who would sin and not repent.
God in His goodness brought what exists into being out of nothing, and
has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. If, therefore, they were
not to exist in the future, they would neither be evil in the future nor would
they be foreknown. For knowledge is of what exists and foreknowledge is of
what will surely exist in the future. For simple being comes first and then
good or evil being. But if the very existence of those, who through the
goodness of God are in the future to exist, were to be prevented by the fact
that they were to become evil of their own choice, evil would have prevailed
over the goodness of God. Wherefore God makes all His works good, but each
becomes of its own choice good or evil. Although, then, the Lord said, Goad
were it for that man that he had never been barn, He said it in
condemnation not of His own creation but of the evil which His own creation
had acquired by his own choice and through his own heedlessness. For the
heedlessness that marks man's judgment made His Creator's beneficence of no
profit to him. It is just as if any one, when he had obtained riches and
dominion from a king, were to lord it over his benefactor, who, when he has
worsted him, will punish him as he deserves, if he should see him keeping hold
of the sovereignty to the end.
CHAPTER XXII.
Concerning the law of God and the law of sin.
The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that which
God wishes is good. Moreover the precept, which teaches this, is law, that we,
holding by it, may walk in light: and the transgression of this precept is
sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of the devil and
our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it. And this, too, is called
law.
And so the law of God, settling in our mind, draws it towards itself and
pricks our conscience. And our conscience, too, is called a law of our mind.
Further, the assault of the wicked one, that is the law of sin, settling in
the members of our flesh, makes its assault upon us through it. For by once
voluntarily transgressing the law of God and receiving the assault of the
wicked one, we gave entrance to it, being sold by ourselves to sin. Wherefore
our body is readily impelled to it. And so the savour and perception of sin
that is stored up in our body, that is to say, lust and pleasure of the body,
is law in the members of our flesh.
Therefore the law of my mind, that is, the conscience, sympathises with
the law of God, that is, the precept, and makes that its will. But the law of
sin, that is to say, the assault
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made through the law that is in our members, or through the lust and
inclination and movement of the body and of the irrational part of the soul,
is in opposition to the law of my mind, that is to conscience, and takes me
captive (even though I make the law of God my will and set my love on it, and
make not sin my will), by reason of commixture: and through the softness of
pleasure and the lust of the body and of the irrational part of the soul, as I
said, it leads me astray and induces me to become the servant of sin. But what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (for He assumed flesh but not sin)
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but in the Spirit. For the
Spirit helpeth our infirmities and affordeth power to the law of our mind,
against the law that is in our members. For the verse, we know not what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession with
groanings that cannot be uttered, itself teacheth us what to pray for.
Hence it is impossible to carry out the precepts of the Lord except by
patience and prayer.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Against the Jews on the question Sabbath.
The seventh day is called the Sabbath and signifies rest. For in it God
rested from all His works, as the divine Scripture says: and so the number
of the days goes up to seven and then circles back again and begins at the
first. This is the precious number with the Jews. God having ordained that it
should be held in honour, and that in no chance fashion but with the
imposition of most heavy penalties for the transgression. And it was not in
a simple fashion that He ordained this, but for certain reasons understood
mystically by the spiritual and clear-sighted.
So far, indeed, as I in my ignorance know, to begin with inferior and more
dense things, God, knowing the denseness of the Israelites and their carnal
love and propensity towards matter in everything, made this law: first, in
order that the servant and the cattle should rest as it is written, for the
righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: next, in order that when
they take their ease from the distraction of material things, they may gather
together unto God, spending the whole of the seventh day in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs and the study of the divine Scriptures and resting in God.
For when the law did not exist and there was no divinely-inspired
Scripture, the Sabbath was not consecrated to God. But when the
divinely-inspired Scripture was given by Moses, the Sabbath was consecrated to
God in order that on it they, who do not dedicate their whole life to God, and
who do not make their desire subservient to the as though to a Father, but are
like foolish servants, may on that day talk much concerning the exercise of
it, and may abstract a small, truly a most insignificant, portion of their
life for the service of God, and this from fear of the chastisements and
punishments which threaten transgressors. For the law is not made for a
righteous man but for the unrighteous. Moses, of a truth, was the first to
abide fasting with God for forty days and again for another forty, and thus
doubtless to afflict himself with hunger on the Sabbaths although the law
forbade self-affliction on the Sabbath. But if they should object that this
took place before the law, what will they say about Elias the Thesbite who
accomplished a journey of forty days on one meal? For he, by thus
afflicting himself on the Sabbaths not only with hunger but with the forty
days' journeying, broke the Sabbath: and yet God, Who gave the law, was not
wroth with him but shewed Himself to him on Choreb as a reward for his virtue.
And what will they say about Daniel? Did he not spend three weeks without
food? And again, did not all Israel circumcise the child on the Sabbath, if
it happened to be the eighth day after birth? And do they not hold the
great fast which the law enjoins if it falls on the Sabbath? And further,
do not the priests and the Levites profane the Sabbath in the works of the
tabernacle and yet are held blameless? Yea, if an ox should fall into a pit
on the Sabbath, he who draws it forth is blameless, while he who neglects to
do so is condemned. And did not all the Israelites compass the walls of
Jericho bearing the Ark of God for seven days, in which assuredly the Sabbath
was included. As I said, therefore, for the purpose of
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securing leisure to worship God in order that they might, both servant and
beast of burden, devote a very small share to Him and be at rest, the
observance of the Sabbath was devised for the carnal that were still childish
and in the bonds of the elements of the world, and unable to conceive of
anything beyond the body and the letter. But when the fulness of the time was
come, God sent forth His Only-begotten Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. For to as many of us as received Him, He gave power to become sons
of God, even to them that believe on Him. So that we are no longer servants
but sons: no longer under the law but under grace: no longer do we serve
God in part from fear, but we are bound to dedicate to Him the whole span of
our life, and cause that servant, I mean wrath and desire, to cease from sin
and bid it devote itself to the service of God, always directing our whole
desire towards God and arming our wrath against the enemies of God: and
likewise we hinder that beast of burden, that is the body, from the servitude
of sin, and urge it forwards to assist to the uttermost the divine precepts.
These are the things which the spiritual law of Christ enjoins on us and
those who observe that become superior to the law of Moses. For when that
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away:
and when the covering of the law, that is, the veil, is rent asunder through
the crucifixion of the Saviour, and the Spirit shines forth with tongues of
fire, the letter shall be done away with, bodily things shall come to an end,
the law of servitude shall be fulfilled, and the law of liberty be bestowed
on us. Yea we shall celebrate the perfect rest of bureau nature, I mean the
day after the resurrection, on which the Lord Jesus, the Author of Life and
our Saviour, shall lead us into the heritage promised to those who serve God
in the spirit, a heritage into which He entered Himself as our forerunner
after He rose from the dead, and whereon, the gates of Heaven being opened to
Him, He took His seat in bodily form at the right hand of the Father, where
those who keep the spiritual law shall also come.
What belongs to us, therefore, who walk by the spirit and not by the
letter, is the complete abandonment of carnal things, the spiritual service
and communion with God. For circumcision is the abandonment of carnal pleasure
and of whatever is superfluous and unnecessary. For the foreskin is nothing
else than the skin which it superfluous to the organ of lust. And, indeed,
every pleasure which does not arise from God nor is in God is superfluous to
pleasure: and of that the foreskin is the type. The Sabbath, moreover, is the
cessation from sin; so that both things happen to be one, and so both
together, when observed by those who are spiritual, do not bring about any
breach of the law at all.
Further, observe that the number seven denotes all the present time, as
the most wise Solomon says, to give a portion to seven and also to eight.
And David, the divine singer when he composed the eighth psalm, sang of the
future restoration after the resurrection from the dead. Since the Law,
therefore, enjoined that the seventh day should be spent in rest from carnal
things and devoted to spiritual things, it was a mystic indication to the true
Israelite who had a mind to see God, that he should through all time offer
himself to God and rise higher than carnal things.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Concerning Virginity.
Carnal men abuse virginity, and the pleasure-loving bring forward the
following verse in proof, Cursed be every one that raiseth not up seed in
Israel. But we, made confident by God the Word that was made flesh of the
Virgin, answer that virginity was implanted in man's nature from above and in
the beginning. For man was formed of virgin soil. From Adam alone was Eve
created. In Paradise virginity held sway. Indeed, Divine Scripture tells that
both Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. But after their
transgression they knew that they were naked, and in their shame they sewed
aprons for themselves. And when, after the transgression, Adam heard, dust
thou art and unto dust shalt thou return, when death entered into the world
by reason of the transgression, then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived
and bare seed. So that to prevent the wearing out and destruction of the
race by death, marriage was devised that the race of men may be preserved
through the procreation of children.
But they will perhaps ask, what then is the meaning of "male and
female," and "Be fruitful and multiply?" In answer we shall say that "Be
fruitful and multiply" does not
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altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had
power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept
unbroken to the end. But God, Who knoweth all things before they have
existence, knowing in His foreknowledge that they would fall into
transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and
made "male and female," and bade them "be fruitful and multiply." Let us,
then, proceed on our way and see the glories of virginity: and this also
includes chastity.
Noah when he was commanded to enter the ark and was entrusted with the
preservation of the seed of the world received this command, Go in, saith the
Lord, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives. He separated
them from their wives in order that with purity they might escape the flood
and that shipwreck of the whole world. After the cessation of the flood,
however, He said, Go forth of the ark, thou and thy sons, and thy wife, and
thy sons' wives. Lo, again, marriage is granted for the sake of the
multiplication of the race. Next, Elias, the fire-breathing charioteer and
sojourner in heaven did not embrace celibacy, and yet was not his virtue
attested by his super-human ascension? Who closed the heavens? Who raised
the dead? Who divided Jordan? Was it not the virginal Elias? And did not
Elisha, his disciple, after he had given proof of equal virtue, ask and obtain
as an inheritance a double portion of the grace of the Spirit? What of the
three youths? Did they not by practising virginity become mightier than fire,
their bodies through virginity being made proof against the fire? And was
it not Daniel's body that was so hardened by virginity that the wild beasts'
teeth could not fasten in it. Did not God, when He wished the Israelites to
see Him, bid them purify the body? Did not the priests purify themselves
and so approach the temple's shrine and offer victims? And did not the law
call chastity the great vow?
The precept of the law, therefore, is to be taken in a more spiritual
sense. For there is spiritual seed which is conceived through the love and
fear of God in the spiritual womb, travailing and bringing forth the spirit of
salvation. And in this sense must be understood this verse: Blessed is he who
hath seed in Zion and posterity in Jerusalem. For does it mean that, although
he be a whoremonger and a drunkard and an idolater, he is still blessed if
only he hath seed in Sion and posterity in Jerusalem? No one in his senses
will say this.
Virginity is the rule of life among the angels, the property of all
incorporeal nature. This we say without speaking ill of marriage: God forbid!
(for we know that the Lord blessed marriage by His presence, and we know
him who said, Marriage is and the bed undefiled), but knowing that
virginity is better than marriage, however good. For among the virtues,
equally as among the vices, there are higher and lower grades. We know that
all mortals after the first parents of the race are the offspring of marriage.
For the first parents were the work of virginity and not of marriage. But
celibacy is, as we said, an imitation of the angels. Wherefore virginity is as
much more honourable than marriage, as the angel is higher than man. But why
do I say angel? Christ Himself is the glory of virginity, who was not
only-begotten of the Father without beginning or emission or connection, but
also became man in our image, being made flesh for our sakes of the Virgin
without connection, and manifesting in Himself the true and perfect virginity.
Wherefore, although He did not enjoin that on us by law (for as He said, all
men cannot receive this saying), yet in actual fact He taught us that and
gave us strength for it. For it is surely clear to every one that virginity
now is flourishing among men.
Good indeed is the procreation of children enjoined by the law, and good
is marriage on account of fornications, for it does away with these, and by
lawful intercourse does not permit the madness of desire to he caromed into
unlawful acts. Good is marriage for those who have no continence: but that
virginity is better which increases the fruitfulness of the soul and offers to
God the seasonable fruit of prayer. Marriage is honourable and the bed
undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
CHAPTER XXV.
Concerning the Circumcision.
The Circumcision was given to Abraham before the law, after the
blessings, after the promise, as a sign separating him and his offspring and
his household from the Gentiles with whom he lived. And this is evident,
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for when the Israelites passed forty years alone by themselves in the desert,
having no intercourse with any other race, all that were horn in the desert
were uncircumcised: but when Joshua led them across Jordan, they were
circumcised, and a second law of circumcision was instituted. For in Abraham's
time the law of circumcision was given, and for the forty years in the desert
it fell into abeyance. And again for the second time God gave the law of
Circumcision to Joshua, after the crossing of Jordan, according as it is
written in the book of Joshua, the son of Nun: At that time the Lord said unto
Joshua, Make thee knives of stone from the sharp rock, and assemble and
circumcise the sons of Israel a second time; and a little later: For the
children of Israel walked forty and two years in the wilderness of
Battaris, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of
Egypt, were uncircumcised, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto
whom the Lord sware that He would not shew them the goad land, which the Lord
swore unto their fathers that He would give them, a land that floweth with
milk and honey. And their children, whom He raised up in their stead, them
Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not
circumcised them by the way. So that the circumcision was a sign, dividing
Israel from the Gentiles with whom they dwelt.
It was, moreover, a figure of baptism. For just as the circumcision
does not cut off a useful member of the body but only a useless superfluity,
so by the holy baptism we are circumcised from sin, and sin clearly is, so to
speak, the superfluous part of desire and not useful desire. For it is quite
impossible that any one should have no desire at all nor ever experience the
taste of pleasure. But the useless part of pleasure, that is to say, useless
desire and pleasure, it is this that is sin from which holy baptism
circumcises us, giving us as a token the precious cross on the brow, not to
divide us from the Gentiles (for all the nations received baptism and were
sealed with the sign of the Cross), but to distinguish in each nation the
faithful from the Faithless. Wherefore, when the truth is revealed,
circumcision is a senseless figure and shade. So circumcision is now
superfluous and contrary to holy baptism. For he who is circumcised is a
debtor to do the whale law. Further, the Lord was circumcised that He might
fulfil the law: and He fulfilled the whole law and observed the Sabbath that
He might fulfil and establish the law. Moreover after He was baptized and
the Holy Spirit had appeared to men, descending on Him in the form of a dove,
from that time the spiritual service and conduct of life and the Kingdom of
Heaven was preached.
CHAPTER XXVI. Concerning the Antichrist.
It should be known that the Antichrist is bound to come. Every one,
therefore, who confesses not that the Son of God came in the flesh and is
perfect God and became perfect man, after being God, is Antichrist. But in
a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age is
called Antichrist. First, then, it is requisite that the Gospel should be
preached among all nations, as the Lord said, and then he will come to
refute the impious Jews. For the Lord said to them: I am come in My Father's
name and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will
receive. And the apostle says, Because they received not the love of the
truth that they might be saved, for this cause Gad shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The Jews
accordingly did not receive the Lord Jesus Christ who was the Son of God and
God, but receive the impostor who calls himself God. For that he will
assume the name of God, the angel teaches Daniel, saying these words, Neither
shall he regard the God of his fathers. And the apostle says: Let no man
deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son, of perdition:
who opposeth and exalleth himself above all that is called Gad or that is
worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that
he is God; in the temple of God he said; not our temple, but the old Jewish
temple. For he will come not to us but to the Jews: not for Christ or the
things of Christ: wherefore he is called Antichrist.
First, therefore, it is necessary that the Gospel should be preached among
all nations: And then shall that wicked one be
revealed, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish, whom the Lord shall consume with the word of His mouth and
shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. The devil himself,
therefore does not become man in the way that the Lord was made man. God
forbid! but he becomes man as the offspring of fornication and receiveth all
the energy of Satan. For God, foreknowing the strangeness of the choice that
he would make, allows the devil to take up his abode in him.
He is, therefore, as we said, the offspring of fornication and is nurtured
in secret, and on a sudden he rises up and rebels and assumes rule. And in the
beginning of his rule, or rather tyranny, he assumes the role of sanctity.
But when he becomes master he persecutes the Church of God and displays all
his wickedness. But he will come with signs and lying wonders, fictitious
and not real, and he will deceive and lead away from the living God those
whose mind rests on an unsound and unstable foundation, so that even the elect
shall, if it be possible, be made to stumble.
But Enoch and Elias the Thesbite shall be sent and shall turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children, that is, the synagogue to our Lord Jesus
Christ and the preaching of the apostles: and they will be destroyed by him.
And the Lord shall come out of heaven, just as the holy apostles beheld Him
going into heaven perfect God and perfect man, with glory and power, and will
destroy the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, with the breath of His
mouth. Let no one, therefore, look for the Lord to come from earth, but out
of Heaven, as He himself has made sure.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Concerning the Resurrection.
We believe also in the resurrection of the dead. For there will be in
truth, there will be, a resurrection of the dead, and by resurrection we mean
resurrection of bodies. For resurrection is the second state of that which
has fallen. For the souls are immortal, and hence how can they rise again? For
if they define death as the separation of soul and body, resurrection surely
is the re-union of soul and body, and the second state of the living creature
that has suffered dissolution and downfall. It is, then, this very body,
which is corruptible and liable to dissolution, that will rise again
incorruptible. For He, who made it in the beginning of the sand of the earth,
does not lack the power to raise it up again after it has been dissolved again
and returned to the earth from which it was taken, in accordance with the
reversal of the Creator's judgment.
For if there is no resurrection, let us eat and drink: let us pursue a
life of pleasure and enjoyment. If there is no resurrection, wherein do we
differ from the irrational brutes? If there is no resurrection, let us hold
the wild beasts of the field happy who have a life free from sorrow. If there
is no resurrection, neither is there any God nor Providence, but all things
are driven and borne along of themselves. For observe how we see most
righteous men suffering hunger and injustice and receiving no help in the
present life, while sinners and unrighteous men abound in riches and every
delight. And who in his senses would take this for the work of a righteous
judgment or a wise providence? There must be, therefore, there must be, a
resurrection. For God is just and is the rewarder of those who submit
patiently to Him. Wherefore if it is the soul alone that engages in the
contests of virtue, it is also the soul alone that will receive the crown. And
if it were the soul alone that revels in pleasures, it would also be the soul
alone that would be justly punished. But since the soul does not pursue either
virtue or vice separate from the body, both together will obtain that which is
their just due.
Nay, the divine Scripture bears witness that there will be a resurrection
of the body. God in truth says to Moses after the flood, Even as the green
herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is
the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will
I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of
every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's
blood, for his blood his own shall be shed, for in the image of God made I
man. How will He require the blood of man at the hand of every beast,
unless because the bodies of dead men will rise again? For not for man will
the beasts die.
And again to Moses, I am the God of Abra-
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ham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead
(that is, those who are dead and will be no more), but of the living,
whose souls indeed live in His hand, but whose bodies will again come to
life through the resurrection. And David, sire of the Divine, says to God,
Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. See how
he speaks about bodies. Then he subjoins this, Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit,
they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the earth.
Further Isaiah says: The dead shall rise again, and they that are in the
graves shall awake. And it is clear that the souls do not lie in the
graves, but the bodies.
And again, the blessed Ezekiel says: And it was as I prophesied, and
behold a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone, each to its
own joint: and when I beheld, lo, the sinews came up upon them and the flesh
grew and rose up on them and the skin covered them above. And later he
teaches how the spirits came back when they were bidden.
And divine Daniel also says: And at that time shall Michael stand up, the
great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be
a time of trouble, such trouble as never was since there was a nation on the
earth even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered,
every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake: some to everlasting life and some to
shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament, and out of the multitude of the just shall shine
like stars into the ages and beyond. The words, many of them that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, clearly shew that there will be a
resurrection of bodies. For no one surely would say that the souls sleep in
the dust of the earth.
Moreover, even the Lord in the holy Gospels clearly allows that there is a
resurrection of the bodies. For they that are in the graves, He says, shall
hear His voice and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of
damnation. Now no one in his senses would ever say that the souls are in
the graves.
But it was not only by word, but also by deed, that the Lord revealed the
resurrection of the bodies. First He raised up Lazarus, even after he had been
dead four days, and was stinking. For He did not raise the soul without the
body, but the body along with the soul: and not another body but the very one
that was corrupt. For how could the resurrection of the dead man have been
known or believed if it had not been established by his characteristic
properties? But it was in fact to make the divinity of His own nature manifest
and to confirm the belief in His own and our resurrection, that He raised up
Lazarus who was destined once more to die. And the Lord became Himself the
first-fruits of the perfect resurrection that is no longer subject to death
Wherefore also the divine Apostle Paul said: If the dead rise not, then is not
Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, our faith is vain: we are jet in
our sins. And, Now, is Christ risen from the dead and become the
first-fruits of them that slept, and the first-born pyre the dead; and
again, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. Even so, he said, as Christ
rose again. Moreover, that the resurrection of the Lord was the union of
uncorrupted body and soul (for it was these that had been divided) is
manifest: for He said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up. And the holy Gospel is a trustworthy witness that He spoke of His own
body. Handle Me and see, the Lord said to His own disciples when they were
thinking that they saw a spirit, that it is I Myself, and that I am not
changed: for a spirit hath not flesh or bones, as ye see Me have. And
when He had said this He shewed them His hands
and His side, and stretched them forward for Thomas to touch. Is not this
sufficient to establish belief in the resurrection of bodies?
Again the divine apostle says, For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And again: It is
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sawn in weakness, it
is raised in power: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown
a natural body (that is to say, crass and mortal), it is raised a spiritual
body, such as was our Lord's body after the resurrection which passed
through closed doors, was unwearying, had no need of food, or sleep, or drink.
For they will be, saith the Lord, as the angels of God: there will no
longer be marriage nor procreation of children. The divine apostle, in truth,
says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence
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also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Who shall change our vile body
that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body: not meaning change
into another form (God forbid!), but rather the change from corruption into
incorruption.
But some one will say, How are the dead raised up? Oh, what disbelief! Oh,
what folly! Will He, Who at His solitary will changed earth into body, Who
commanded the little drop of seed to grow in the mother's womb and become in
the end this varied and manifold organ of the body, not the rather raise up
again at His solitary will that which was and is dissolved? And with what body
do they come? Thou fool, if thy hardness will not permit you to believe the
words of God, at least believe His works. For that which thou sowest is not
quickened except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that
body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other
grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his
own body. Behold, therefore, how the seed is buried in the furrows as in
tombs. Who is it that giveth them roots and stalk and leaves and ears and the
most delicate beards? Is it not the Maker of the universe? Is it not at the
bidding of Him Who hath contrived all things? Believe, therefore, in this
wise, even that the resurrection of the dead will come to pass at the divine
will and sign. For He has power that is able to keep pace with His will.
We shall therefore rise again, our souls being once more united with our
bodies, now made incorruptible and having put off corruption, and we shall
stand beside the awful judgment-seat of Christ: and the devil and his demons
and the man that is his, that is the Antichrist and the impious and the
sinful, will be given over to everlasting fire: not material fire like our
fire, but such fire as God would know. But those who have done good will shine
forth as the sun with the angels into life eternal, with our Lord Jesus
Christ, ever seeing Him and being in His sight and deriving unceasing joy from
Him, praising Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit throughout the limitless
ages of ages. Amen.