{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/204/2040389.htm","path":"chr/ecf/204/2040389.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/204/2040389.htm","text":"\u00a7\u00a726\u201336. That the Son is the Co-existing Word, argued from the New Testament. Texts from the Old Testament continued; especially Ps. cx. 3. Besides, the Word in Old Testament may be Son in New, as Spirit in Old Testament is Paraclete in New. Objection from Acts x. 36; answered by parallels, such as 1 Cor. i. 5. Lev. ix. 7. &c. Necessity of the Word\u2019s taking flesh, viz. to sanctify, yet without destroying, the flesh.\n26. But that the Son has no beginning of being, but before He was made man was ever with the Father, John makes clear in his first Epistle, writing thus: \u2018That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life; and the Life was manifested, and we have seen it; and we bear witness and declare unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us 3387 .\u2019 While he says here that \u2018the Life,\u2019 not \u2018became,\u2019 but \u2018was with the Father,\u2019 in the end of his Epistle he says the Son is the Life, writing, \u2018And we are in Him that is True, even in His Son, Jesus Christ; this is the True God and Eternal Life 3388 .\u2019 But if the Son is the Life, and the Life was with the Father, and if the Son was with the Father, and the same Evangelist says, \u2018And the Word was with God 3389 ,\u2019 the Son must be the Word, which is ever with the Father. And as the \u2018Son\u2019 is \u2018Word,\u2019 so \u2018God\u2019 must be \u2018the Father.\u2019 Moreover, the Son, according to John, is not merely \u2018God\u2019 but \u2018True God;\u2019 for according to the same Evangelist, \u2018And the Word was God;\u2019 and the Son said, \u2018I am the Life 3390 .\u2019 Therefore the Son is the Word and Life which is with the Father. And again, what is said in the same John, \u2018The Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father 3391 ,\u2019 shews that the Son was ever. For whom John calls Son, Him David mentions in the Psalm as God\u2019s Hand 3392 , saying, \u2018Why stretchest Thou not forth Thy Right Hand out of Thy bosom 3393 ?\u2019 Therefore if the Hand is in p. 444 the bosom, and the Son in the bosom, the Son will be the Hand, and the Hand will be the Son, through whom the Father made all things; for it is written, \u2018Thy Hand made all these things,\u2019 and \u2018He led out His people with His Hand 3394 ;\u2019 therefore through the Son. And if \u2018this is the changing of the Right Hand of the Most Highest,\u2019 and again, \u2018Unto the end, concerning the things that shall be changed, a song for My Well-beloved 3395 ;\u2019 the Well-beloved then is the Hand that was changed; concerning whom the Divine Voice also says, \u2018This is My Beloved Son.\u2019 This \u2018My Hand\u2019 then is equivalent to \u2018This My Son.\u2019\n27. But since there are ill-instructed men who, while resisting the doctrine of a Son, think little of the words, \u2018From the womb before the morning star I begat Thee 3396 ;\u2019 as if this referred to His relation to Mary, alleging that He was born of Mary \u2018before the morning star,\u2019 for that to say \u2018womb\u2019 could not refer to His relation towards God, we must say a few words here. If then, because the \u2018womb\u2019 is human, therefore it is foreign to God, plainly \u2018heart\u2019 too has a human meaning 3397 , for that which has heart has womb also. Since then both are human, we must deny both, or seek to explain both. Now as a word is from the heart, so is an offspring from the womb; and as when the heart of God is spoken of, we do not conceive of it as human, so if Scripture says \u2018from the womb,\u2019 we must not take it in a corporeal sense. For it is usual with divine Scripture to speak and signify in the way of man what is above man. Thus speaking of the creation it says, \u2018Thy hands made me and fashioned me,\u2019 and, \u2018Thy hand made all these things,\u2019 and, \u2018He commanded and they were created 3398 .\u2019 Suitable then is its language about everything; attributing to the Son \u2018propriety\u2019 and \u2018genuineness,\u2019 and to the creation \u2018the beginning of being.\u2019 For the one God makes and creates; but Him He begets from Himself, Word or Wisdom. Now \u2018womb\u2019 and \u2018heart\u2019 plainly declare the proper and the genuine; for we too have this from the womb; but our works we make by the hand.\n28. What means then, say they, \u2018Before the morning star?\u2019 I would answer, that if \u2018Before the morning star\u2019 shews that His birth from Mary was wonderful, many others besides have been born before the rising of the star. What then is said so wonderful in His instance, that He should record it as some choice prerogative 3399 , when it is common to many? Next, to beget differs from bringing forth; for begetting involves the primary foundation, but to bring forth is nothing else than the production of what exists. If then the term belongs to the body, let it be observed that He did not then receive a beginning of coming to be when he was evangelized to the shepherds by night, but when the Angel spoke to the Virgin. And that was not night, for this is not said; on the contrary, it was night when He issued from the womb. This difference Scripture makes, and says on the one hand that He was begotten before the morning star, and on the other speaks of His proceeding from the womb, as in the twenty-first Psalm, \u2018Thou art he that drew Me from the womb 3400 .\u2019 Besides, He did not say, \u2018before the rising of the morning star,\u2019 but simply \u2018before the morning star.\u2019 If then the phrase must be taken of the body, then either the body must be before Adam, for the stars were before Adam, or we have to investigate the sense of the letter. And this John enables us to do, who says in the Apocalypse, \u2018I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they who make broad their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever maketh and loveth a lie. I Jesus have sent My Angel, to testify these things in the Churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst, Come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely 3401 .\u2019 If then \u2018the Offspring of David\u2019 be the \u2018Bright and Morning Star,\u2019 it is plain that the flesh of the Saviour is called \u2018the Morning Star,\u2019 which the Offspring from God preceded; so that the sense of the Psalm is this, \u2018I have begotten Thee from Myself before Thy appearance in the flesh;\u2019 for \u2018before the Morning Star\u2019 is equivalent to \u2018before the Incarnation of the Word.\u2019\n29. Thus in the Old also, statements are plainly made concerning the Son; at the same time it is superfluous to argue the point; for if what is not stated in the Old is of later date, let them who are thus disputatious, say where in the Old is mention made of the Spirit, the Paraclete? for of the Holy Spirit there is mention, but nowhere of the Paraclete. Is then the Holy Spirit one, and the Paraclete another, and the Paraclete the later, as not mentioned in the Old? but far be it to say that the Spirit is later, or to p. 445 distinguish the Holy Ghost as one and the Paraclete as another; for the Spirit is one and the same, then and now hallowing and comforting those who are His recipients; as one and the same Word and Son led even then to adoption of sons those who were worthy 3402 . For sons under the Old were made such through no other than the Son. For unless even before Mary there were a Son who was of God, how is He before all, when they are sons before Him? and how also \u2018First-born,\u2019 if He comes second after many? But neither is the Paraclete second, for He was before all, nor the Son later; for \u2018in the beginning was the Word 3403 .\u2019 And as the Spirit and Paraclete are the same, so the Son and Word are the same; and as the Saviour says concerning the Spirit, \u2018But the Paraclete which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name 3404 ,\u2019 speaking of One and Same, and not distinguishing, so John describes similarly when he says, \u2018And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of one Only-begotten from the Father 3405 .\u2019 For here too he does not distinguish but witnesses the identity. And as the Paraclete is not one and the Holy Ghost another, but one and the same, so Word is not one, and Son another, but the Word is Only-Begotten; for He says not the glory of the flesh itself, but of the Word. He then who dares distinguish between Word and Son, let him distinguish between Spirit and Paraclete; but if the Spirit cannot be distinguished, so neither can the Word, being also Son and Wisdom and Power. Moreover, the word \u2018Well-beloved\u2019 even the Greeks who are skilful in phrases know to be equivalent with \u2018Only-begotten.\u2019 For Homer speaks thus of Telemachus, who was the only-begotten of Ulysses, in the second book of the Odyssey:\nO\u2019er the wide earth, dear youth, why seek to run,\nAn only child, a well-beloved 3406 son?\nHe whom you mourn, divine Ulysses, fell\nFar from his country, where the strangers dwell.\nTherefore he who is the only son of his father is called well-beloved.\n30. Some of the followers of the Samosatene, distinguishing the Word from the Son, pretend that the Son is Christ, and the Word another; and they ground this upon Peter\u2019s words in the Acts, which he spoke well, but they explain badly 3407 . It is this: \u2018The Word He sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; this is Lord of all 3408 .\u2019 For they say that since the Word spoke through Christ, as in the instance of the Prophets, \u2018Thus saith the Lord,\u2019 the prophet was one and the Lord another. But to this it is parallel to oppose the words in the first to the Corinthians, \u2018waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end unblameable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ 3409 .\u2019 For as one Christ does not confirm the day of another Christ, but He Himself confirms in His own day those who wait for Him, so the Father sent the Word made flesh, that being made man He might preach by means of Himself. And therefore he straightway adds, \u2018This is Lord of all;\u2019 but Lord of all is the Word.\n31. \u2018And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar and offer thy sin-offering, and thy burnt-offering, and make an atonement for thyself and for the people; and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them, as the Lord commanded Moses 3410 .\u2019 See now here, though Moses be one, Moses himself speaks as if about another Moses, \u2018as the Lord commanded Moses.\u2019 In like manner then, if the blessed Peter speak of the Divine Word also, as sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, it is not necessary to understand that the Word is one and Christ another, but that they were one and the same by reason of the uniting which took place in His divine and loving condescension and becoming man. And even if He be considered in two ways 3411 , still it is without any division of the Word, as when the inspired John says, \u2018And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us 3412 .\u2019 What then is said well and rightly 3413 by the blessed Peter, the followers of the Samosatene, understanding badly and wrongly, stand not in the truth. For Christ is understood in both ways in Divine Scripture, as when it says Christ \u2018God\u2019s power and God\u2019s wisdom 3414 .\u2019 If then Peter says that the Word was sent through Jesus Christ unto the children of Israel, let him be understood to mean, that the Word incarnate has appeared to the children of Israel, so that it may correspond to \u2018And the Word became flesh.\u2019 But if they understand it otherwise, and, while confessing the Word to be divine, as He is, separate from Him the Man that He has taken, with which also we believe that He is made one, saying that He has been sent through Jesus Christ, they are, without knowing it, contradicting themselves. For those who in this place separate the divine Word from the divine Incarnation, have, it seems, a degraded notion of the doctrine of His having become flesh, and entertain Gentile thoughts, as they do, conceiving that the divine Incarnation is an alteration of the Word. But it is not so; perish the thought.\n32. For in the same way that John here preaches that incomprehensible union. \u2018the p. 446 mortal being swallowed up of life 3415 ,\u2019 nay, of Him who is Very Life (as the Lord said to Martha, \u2018I am the Life 3416 \u2019), so when the blessed Peter says that through Jesus Christ the Word was sent, he implies the divine union also. For as when a man heard \u2018The Word became flesh,\u2019 he would not think that the Word ceased to be, which is absurd, as has been said before, so also hearing of the Word which has been united to the flesh, let him understand the divine mystery one and simple. More clearly however and indisputably than all reasoning does what was said by the Archangel to the Bearer of God herself, shew the oneness of the Divine Word and Man. For he says, \u2018The Holy Ghost shall come 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 3417 .\u2019 Irrationally then do the followers of the Samosatene separate the Word who is clearly declared to be made one with the Man from Mary. He is not therefore sent through that Man; but He rather in Him sent, saying, \u2018Go ye, teach all nations 3418 .\u2019\n33. And this is usual with Scripture 3419 , to express itself in inartificial and simple phrases. For so also in Numbers we shall find, Moses said to Raguel the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses; for there was not one Moses who spoke, and another whose father-in-law was Raguel, but Moses was one. And if in like manner the Word of God is called Wisdom and Power and Right-Hand and Arm and the like, and if in His love to man He has become one with us, putting on our first-fruits and blended with it, therefore the other titles also have, as was natural, become the Word\u2019s portions. For that John has said, that in the beginning was the Word, and He with God and Himself God, and all things through Him, and without Him nothing made, shews clearly that even man is the formation of God the Word. If then after taking him, when enfeebled 3420 , into Himself, He renews him again through that sure renewal unto endless permanence, and therefore is made one with him in order to raise him to a diviner lot, how can we possibly say that the Word was sent through the Man who was from Mary, and reckon Him, the Lord of Apostles, with the other Apostles, I mean prophets, who were sent by Him? And how can Christ be called a mere man? on the contrary, being made one with the Word, He is with reason called Christ and Son of God, the prophet having long since loudly and clearly ascribed the Father\u2019s subsistence to Him, and said, \u2018And I will send My Son Christ 3421 ,\u2019 and in the Jordan, \u2018This is My Well-beloved Son.\u2019 For when He had fulfilled His promise, He shewed, as was suitable, that He was He whom He said He had sent.\n34. Let us then consider Christ in both ways, the divine Word made one in Mary with Him which is from Mary. For in her womb the Word fashioned for Himself His house, as at the beginning He formed Adam from the earth; or rather more divinely, concerning whom Solomon too says openly, knowing that the Word was also called Wisdom, \u2018Wisdom builded herself an house 3422 ;\u2019 which the Apostle interprets when he says, \u2018Which house are we 3423 ,\u2019 and elsewhere calls us a temple, as far as it is fitting to God to inhabit a temple, of which the image, made of stones, He by Solomon commanded the ancient people to build; whence, on the appearance of the Truth, the image ceased. For when the ruthless men wished to prove the image to be the truth, and to destroy that true habitation which we surely believe His union with us to be, He threatened them not; but knowing that their crime was against themselves, He says to them, \u2018Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up 3424 ,\u2019 He, our Saviour, surely shewing thereby that the things about which men busy themselves, carry their dissolution with them. For unless the Lord had built the house, and kept the city, in vain did the builders toil, and the keepers watch 3425 . And so the works of the Jews are undone, for they were a shadow; but the Church is firmly established; it is \u2018founded on the rock,\u2019 and \u2018the gates of hades shall not prevail against it 3426 .\u2019 Theirs 3427 it was to say, \u2018Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God 3428 ?\u2019 and their disciple is the Samosatene; whence to his followers with reason does he teach his heresy. But \u2018we did not so learn Christ, if so be that we heard\u2019 Him, and were taught from Him, \u2018putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,\u2019 and taking up \u2018the new, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 3429 .\u2019 Let Christ then in both ways be religiously considered.\n35. But if Scripture often calls even the body by the name of Christ, as in the blessed Peter\u2019s words to Cornelius, when he teaches him of \u2018Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost,\u2019 and again to the Jews, \u2018Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God for you 3430 ,\u2019 and again the blessed Paul to the Athenians, \u2018By that Man, whom He p. 447 ordained, giving assurance to all men, in that He raised Him from the dead 3431 \u2019 (for we find the appointment and the mission often synonymous with the anointing; from which any one who will may learn, that there is no discordance in the words of the sacred writers, but that they but give various names to the union of God the Word with the Man from Mary, sometimes as anointing, sometimes as mission, sometimes as appointment), it follows that what the blessed Peter says is right 3432 , and he proclaims in purity the Godhead of the Only begotten, without separating the subsistence of God the Word from the Man from Mary (perish the thought! for how should he, who had heard in so many ways, \u2018I and the Father are one,\u2019 and \u2018He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father 3433 ?)\u2019 In which Man, after the resurrection also, when the doors were shut, we know of His coming to the whole band 3434 of the Apostles, and dispersing all that was hard to believe in it by His words, \u2018Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have 3435 .\u2019 And He did not say, \u2018This,\u2019 or \u2018this Man which I have taken to Me,\u2019 but \u2018Me.\u2019 Wherefore the Samosatene will gain no allowance, being refuted by so many arguments for the union of God the Word, nay by God the Word Himself, who now brings the news to all, and assures them by eating, and permitting to them that handling of Him which then took place. For certainly he who gives food to others, and they who give him, touch hands. For \u2018they gave Him,\u2019 Scripture says, \u2018a piece of a broiled fish and of an honey-comb, and\u2019 when He had \u2018eaten before them, He took the remains and gave to them 3436 .\u2019 See now, though not as Thomas was allowed, yet by another way, He afforded to them full assurance, in being touched by them; but if you would now see the scars, learn from Thomas. \u2018Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side, and reach hither thy finger and behold My hands 3437 ;\u2019 so says God the Word, speaking of His own 3438 side and hands, and of Himself as whole man and God together, first affording to the Saints even perception of the Word through the body 3439 , as we may consider, by entering when the doors were shut; and next standing near them in the body and affording full assurance. So much may be conveniently said for confirmation of the faithful, and correction of the unbelieving.\n36. And so let Paul of Samosata also stand corrected on hearing the divine voice of Him who said \u2018My body,\u2019 not \u2018Christ besides Me who am the Word,\u2019 but \u2018Him 3440 with Me, and Me with Him.\u2019 For I the Word am the chrism, and that which has the chrism from Me is the Man 3441 ; not then without Me could He be called Christ, but being with Me and I in Him. Therefore the mention of the mission of the Word shews the uniting which took place with Jesus, born of Mary, Whose Name means Saviour, not by reason of anything else, but from the Man\u2019s being made one with God the Word. This passage has the same meaning as \u2018the Father that sent Me,\u2019 and \u2018I came not of Myself, but the Father sent Me 3442 .\u2019 For he has given the name of mission 3443 to the uniting with the Man, with Whom the Invisible nature might be known to men, through the visible. For God changes not place, like us who are hidden in places, when in the fashion of our littleness He displays Himself in His existence in the flesh; for how should He, who fills the heaven and the earth? but on account of the presence in the flesh the just have spoken of His mission. Therefore God the Word Himself is Christ from Mary, God and Man; not some other Christ but One and the Same; He before ages from the Father, He too in the last times from the Virgin; invisible 3444 before even to the holy powers of heaven, visible now because of His being one with the Man who is visible; seen, I say, not in His invisible Godhead but in the operation 3445 of the Godhead through the human body and whole Man, which He has renewed by its appropriation to Himself. To Him be the adoration and the worship, who was before, and now is, and ever shall be, even to all ages. Amen.\n1 John 1:1, 2.\n443:3388 443:3389 443:3390 443:3391 443:3392 443:3393\nPs. lxxiv. 11, LXX.\n444:3394 444:3395\nPs. lxxvii. 10, LXX.; xlv. title.\n444:3396\nPsa. 110.3, LXX.\n444:3397 444:3398\nPs. cxix. 73; cxlviii. 5.\n444:3399 444:3400 444:3401 445:3402 445:3403 445:3404 445:3405 445:3406\n\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10& 241\u00b7\u03bd \u1f00\u03b3\u03b1\u03c0\u03b7\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2, line 365.\n445:3407 445:3408 445:3409\n1 Cor. 1:7, 8.\n445:3410 445:3411 445:3412 445:3413 445:3414 446:3415 446:3416 446:3417 446:3418 446:3419 446:3420 446:3421\nVid. 2 Esd. 7:28, 29, Acts 3:20.\n446:3422 446:3423 446:3424 446:3425\nVid. Ps. cxxvii. 1.\n446:3426\nVid. Matt. 7:25, Matt. 16:18.\n446:3427\n\u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, John x. 33\n446:3428\nDe Decr. 1; Or. i. 4, iii. 27; de Syn. 50.\n446:3429 446:3430\nActs x. 38; ii. 22.\n447:3431 447:3432 447:3433\nJohn x. 30; xiv. 9.\n447:3434 447:3435 447:3436\nLuke 24:42, 43, vid. Wetstein in loc.\n447:3437 447:3438 447:3439\nVid. 1 John i. 1\n447:3440\ni.e. \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03a7\u03c1. vid. Matt. xxvi. 26.\n447:3441 447:3442\nJohn vi. 44, viii. 42.\n447:3443 447:3444 447:3445","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. IV: Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.): Sections 26-36","type":"page"}