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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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11 Pages
Page 7
6. The Nicene test not unscriptural in sense, nor a novelty.
Such was the corrupt mind of the Arians. But here too the Bishops, beholding their craftiness, collected from the Scriptures the figures of brightness, of the river and the well, and of the relation of the express Image to the Subsistence, and the texts, 'in thy light shall we see light [3746] ,' and 'I and the Father are one [3747] .' And lastly they wrote more plainly, and concisely, that the Son was coessential with the Father; for all the above passages signify this. And their murmuring, that the phrases are unscriptural, is exposed as vain by themselves, for they have uttered their impieties in unscriptural terms: (for such are 'of nothing' and 'there was a time when He was not'), while yet they find fault because they were condemned by unscriptural terms pious in meaning. While they, like men sprung from a dunghill, verily 'spoke of the earth [3748] ,' the Bishops, not having invented their phrases for themselves, but having testimony from their Fathers, wrote as they did. For ancient bishops, of the Great Rome and of our city, some 130 years ago, wrote [3749] and censured those who said that the Son was a creature and not coessential with the Father. And Eusebius knew this, who was bishop of Caesarea, and at first an accomplice [3750] of the Arian heresy; but afterwards, having signed at the Council of Nicaea, wrote to his own people affirming as follows: 'we know that certain eloquent and distinguished bishops and writers even of ancient date used the word "coessential" with reference to the Godhead of the Father and the Son.'
[3746] Ps. xxxvi. 9.
[3747] John x. 30.
[3748] John iii. 31.
[3749] See de Syn. S:43, and de Sent. Dionys. 18, 19, also supr. p. 76.
[3750] But see Socrates, ii. 21, and D.C.B. ii. p. 347.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/ad-afros-epistola-synodica.asp?pg=7
