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Translated by Bl. Jackson.
St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 25
3. If I must give my own view, it is this. The phrase "like in essence," [1879] if it be read with the addition "without any difference," [1880] I accept as conveying the same sense as the homoousion, in accordance with the sound meaning of the homoousion. Being of this mind the Fathers at Nicaea spoke of the Only-begotten as "Light of Light," "Very God of very God," and so on, and then consistently added the homoousion. It is impossible for any one to entertain the idea of variableness of light in relation to light, of truth in relation to truth, nor of the essence of the Only begotten in relation to that of the Father. If, then, the phrase be accepted in this sense, I have no objection to it. But if any one cuts off the qualification "without any difference" from the word "like," as was done at Constantinople, [1881] then I regard the phrase with suspicion, as derogatory to the dignity of the Only-begotten. We are frequently accustomed to entertain the idea of "likeness" in the case of indistinct resemblances, coming anything but close to the originals. I am myself for the homoousion, as being less open to improper interpretation. But why, my dear sir, should you not pay me a visit, that we may talk of these high topics face to face, instead of committing them to lifeless letters,--especially when I have determined not to publish my views? And pray do not adopt, to me, the words of Diogenes to Alexander, that "it is as far from you to me as from me to you." I am almost obliged by ill-health to remain like the plants, in one place; moreover I hold "the living unknown" [1882] to be one of the chief goods. You, I am told, are in good health; you have made yourself a citizen of the world, and you might consider in coming to see me that you are coming home. It is quite right for you, a man of action, to have crowds and towns in which to show your good deeds. For me, quiet is the best aid for the contemplation and mental exercise whereby I cling to God. This quiet I cultivate in abundance in my retreat, with the aid of its giver, God. Yet if you cannot but court the great, and despise me who lie low upon the ground, then write, and in this way make my life a happier one.
[1879] homoion kat' ousian
[1880] aparallaktos.
[1881] i.e. at the Acacian council of Constantinople in 360, at which fifty bishops accepted the creed of Arminum as revised at Nike, proscribing ousia and hupostasis, and pronounced the Son to be "like the Father, as say the Holy Scriptures." cf. Theod. II. xvi. and Soc. II. xli. In 366 Semiarian deputies from the council of Lampsacus represented to Liberius at Rome that kata panta homoios and homoousios were equivalent.
[1882] lathe biosas is quoted by Theodoret in Ep. lxii. as a saying of "one of the men once called wise." It is attributed to Epicurus. Horace imitates it in Ep. I. xvii. 10: "Nec vixit male qui natus moriensque fefellit." So Ovid, Tristia III. iv. 25: "crede mihi; bene qui latuit, bene vixit," and Eurip., Iph. in Aul. 17: Zelo se, geron, Zelo d' andron hos akindunon Bion exeperas' agnos aklees. Plutarch has an essay on the question, ei kalos e& 176;retai to lathe biosas.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/basil/letters.asp?pg=25
