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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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39 Pages
Page 18
14. 'Has then the passage no meaning?' for this, like a swarm of gnats, they are droning about us [840] . No surely, it is not without meaning, but has a very apposite one; for it is true to say that the Son was created too, but this took place when He became man; for creation belongs to man. And any one may find this sense duly given in the divine oracles, who, instead of accounting their study a secondary matter, investigates the time and characters [841] , and the object, and thus studies and ponders what he reads. Now as to the season spoken of, he will find for certain that, whereas the Lord always is, at length in fulness of the ages He became man; and whereas He is Son of God, He became Son of man also. And as to the object he will understand, that, wishing to annul our death, He took on Himself a body from the Virgin Mary; that by offering this unto the Father a sacrifice for all, He might deliver us all, who by fear of death were all our life through subject to bondage [842] . And as to the character, it is indeed the Saviour's, but is said of Him when He took a body and said, 'The Lord created me a beginning of His ways unto His works [843] .' For as it properly belongs to God's Son to be everlasting. and in the Father's bosom, so on His becoming man, the words befitted Him, 'The Lord created me.' For then it is said of Him, as also that He hungered, and thirsted, and asked where Lazarus lay, and suffered, and rose again [844] . And as, when we hear of Him as Lord and God and true Light, we understand Him as being from the Father, so on hearing, 'The Lord created,' and 'Servant,' and 'He suffered,' we shall justly ascribe this, not to the Godhead, for it is irrelevant, but we must interpret it by that flesh which He bore for our sakes: for to it these things are proper, and this flesh was none other's than the Word's. And if we wish to know the object attained by this, we shall find it to be as follows: that the Word was made flesh in order to offer up this body for all, and that we partaking of His Spirit, might be deified [845] , a gift which we could not otherwise have gained than by His clothing Himself in our created body [846] , for hence we derive our name of "men of God" and "men in Christ." But as we, by receiving the Spirit, do not lose our own proper substance, so the Lord, when made man for us, and bearing a body, was no less God; for He was not lessened by the envelopment of the body, but rather deified it and rendered it immortal [847] .
[840] peribombousin. So in ad Afros. 5. init. And Sent. D. S:19. perierchontai peribombountes. And Gregory Nyssen. contr. Eun. viii. p. 234 C. hos an tous apeirous tais platonikais kalliphoniai peribombeseien. vid. also perierchontai hos hoi kantharoi. Orat. iii. fin.
[841] prosopa. vid. Orat. i. S:54. ii. S:8. Sent. D. 4. not persons, but characters; which must also be considered the meaning of the word, contr. Apoll. ii. 2. and 10; though it there approximates (even in phrase, ouk en diairesei prosopon) to its ecclesiastical use, which seems to have been later. Yet persona occurs in Tertull. in Prax. 27; it may be questioned, however, whether in any genuine Greek treatise till the Apollinarians.
[842] Heb. ii. 15.
[843] Prov. viii. 22.
[844] Sent. D. 9. Orat. 3, S:S:26-41.
[845] [See de Incar. S:54. 3, and note.]
[846] Orat. 2, S:70.
[847] Cf. Orat. ii. 6. [See also de Incar. S:17.]
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/defence-nicene-definition.asp?pg=18
