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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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39 Pages
Page 21
17. O that they would consent to confess the truth from this their own statement! for if they once grant that God produces words, they plainly know Him to be a Father; and acknowledging this, let them consider that, while they are loth to ascribe one Word to God, they are imagining that He is Father of many; and while they are loth to say that there is no Word of God at all, yet they do not confess that He is the Son of God,--which is ignorance of the truth, and inexperience in divine Scripture. For if God is Father of a word at all, wherefore is not He that is begotten a Son? And again, who should be Son of God, but His Word? For there are not many words, or each would be imperfect, but one is the Word, that He only may be perfect, and because, God being one, His Image too must be one, which is the Son. For the Son of God, as may be learnt from the divine oracles themselves, is Himself the Word of God, and the Wisdom, and the Image, and the Hand, and the Power; for God's offspring is one, and of the generation from the Father these titles are tokens [863] . For if you say the Son, you have declared what is from the Father by nature; and if you think of the Word, you are thinking again of what is from Him, and what is inseparable; and, speaking of Wisdom, again you mean just as much, what is not from without, but from Him and in Him; and if you name the Power and the Hand, again you speak of what is proper to essence; and, speaking of the Image, you signify the Son; for what else is like God but the offspring from Him? Doubtless the things, which came to be through the Word, these are 'founded in Wisdom' and what are 'founded in Wisdom,' these are all made by the Hand, and came to be through the Son. And we have proof of this, not from external sources, but from the Scriptures; for God Himself says by Isaiah the Prophet; 'My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens [864] .' And again, 'And I will cover thee in the shadow of My Hand, by which I planted the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth [865] .' And David being taught this, and knowing that the Lord's Hand was nothing else than Wisdom, says in the Psalm, 'In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy creation [866] .' Solomon also received the same from God, and said, 'The Lord by wisdom founded the earth [867] ,' and John, knowing that the Word was the Hand and the Wisdom, thus preached, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made [868] .' And the Apostle, seeing that the Hand and the Wisdom and the Word was nothing else than the Son, says, 'God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the ages [869] .' And again, 'There is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him [870] .' And knowing also that the Word, the Wisdom, the Son Himself was the Image of the Father, he says in the Epistle to the Colossians, 'Giving thanks to God and the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption, even the remission of sins; who is the Image of the Invisible God, the First-born of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [871] .' For as all things are created by the Word, so, because He is the Image, are they also created in Him [872] . And thus anyone who directs his thoughts to the Lord, will avoid stumbling upon the stone of offence, but rather will go forward to the brightness in the light of truth; for this is really the doctrine of truth, though these contentious men burst with spite [873] , neither religious toward God, nor abashed at their confutation.
[863] All the titles of the Son of God are consistent with each other, and variously represent one and the same Person. 'Son' and 'Word,' denote His derivation; 'Word' and 'Image,' His Similitude; 'Word' and 'Wisdom,' His immateriality; 'Wisdom' and 'Hand,' His coexistence. 'If He is not Son, neither is He Image' Orat. ii. S:2. 'How is there Word and Wisdom, unless He be a proper offspring of His substance? ii. S:22. Vid. also Orat. i. S:20. 21. and at great length Orat. iv. S:20, &c. vid. also Naz. Orat. 30. n. 20. Basil. contr. Eunom. i. 18. Hilar. de Trin. vii. 11. August. in Joan. xlviii. 6. and in Psalm. xliv. (xlv.) 5.
[864] Is. xlviii. 13.
[865] Is. li. 16.
[866] Ps. civ. 24.
[867] Prov. iii. 19.
[868] John i. 1-3.
[869] Heb. i. 1, 2.
[870] 1 Cor. viii. 6.
[871] Col. i. 12-17
[872] Vid. a beautiful passage, contr. Gent. 42, &c. Again, of men, de Incarn. 3. 3; also Orat. ii. 78. where he speaks of Wisdom as being infused into the world on its creation, that it might possess 'a type and semblance of its Image.'
[873] diar&191;agosin, and so Serap. ii. fin. diar&191;egnuontai. de Syn. 34. diar&191;eguosin heautous. Orat. ii. S:23. sparattetosan heautous. Orat. ii. S:64. trizeto tous odontas. Sent. D. 16.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/defence-nicene-definition.asp?pg=21
