Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

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Page 48

As Eunomius made ingenerateness the essence of the Divine, so, with the object of establishing the contrast between Father and Son, he represented the being begotten to indicate the essence of the Son. [332] God, said Eunomius, being ingenerate, could never admit of generation. This statement, Basil points out, may be understood in either of two ways. It may mean that ingenerate nature cannot be subjected to generation. It may mean that ingenerate nature cannot generate. Eunomius, he says, really means the latter, while he makes converts of the multitude on the lines of the former. Eunomius makes his real meaning evident by what he adds to his dictum, for, after saying "could never admit of generation," he goes on, "so as to impart His own proper nature to the begotten." [333] As in relation to the Father, so now in relation to the Son, Basil objects to the term. Why "begotten"? [334] Where did he get this word? From what teaching? From what prophet? Basil nowhere finds the Son called "begotten" in Scripture. [335] We read that the Father begat, but nowhere that the Son was a begotten thing. "Unto us a child is born, [336] unto us a Son is given." [337] But His name is not begotten thing but "angel of great counsel." [338] If this word had indicated the essence of the Son, no other word would have been revealed by the Spirit. [339] Why, if God begat, may we not call that which was begotten a thing begotten? It is a terrible thing for us to coin names for Him to Whom God has given a "name which is above every name." [340] We must not add to or take from what is delivered to us by the Spirit. [341] Things are not made for names, but names for things. [342]

[332] to gennema. Id. ii. 6.

[333] Id. i. 16.

[334] gennema, i.e., "thing begotten;" the distinction between this substantive and the scriptural adjective monogenes must be borne in mind.

[335] Id. ii. 6.

[336] LXX., egennethe.

[337] Is. ix. 6.

[338] Id. LXX.

[339] Id. ii. 7.

[340] Phil. ii. 9.

[341] Id. ii. 8.

[342] Id. ii. 4.

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