10. Now the so-called gods of the Greeks, unworthy the name, are faithful neither in their essence nor in their promises; for the same are not everywhere, nay, the local deities come to nought in course of time, and undergo a natural dissolution; wherefore the Word cries out against them, that faith is not strong in them,' but they are waters that fail,' and there is no faith in them.' But the God of all, being one really and indeed and true, is faithful, who is ever the same, and says, See now, that I, even I am He,' and I change not [2264] ;' and therefore His Son is faithful,' being ever the same and unchanging, deceiving neither in His essence nor in His promise;--as again says the Apostle writing to the Thessalonians, Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it [2265] ;' for in doing what He promises, He is faithful to His words.' And he thus writes to the Hebrews as to the word's meaning unchangeable;' If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself [2266] .' Therefore reasonably the Apostle, discoursing concerning the bodily presence of the Word, says, an Apostle and faithful to Him that made Him,' shewing us that, even when made man, Jesus Christ' is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever [2267] ' is unchangeable. And as the Apostle makes mention in his Epistle of His being made man when mentioning His High Priesthood, so too he kept no long silence about His Godhead, but rather mentions it forthwith, furnishing to us a safeguard on every side, and most of all when he speaks of His humility, that we may forthwith know His loftiness and His majesty which is the Father's. For instance, he says, Moses as a servant, but Christ as a Son [2268] ;' and the former faithful in his house,' and the latter over the house,' as having Himself built it, and being its Lord and Framer, and as God sanctifying it. For Moses, a man by nature, became faithful, in believing God who spoke to Him by His Word; but [2269] the Word was not as one of things originate in a body, nor as creature in creature, but as God in flesh [2270] , and Framer of all and Builder in that which was built by Him. And men are clothed in flesh in order to be and to subsist; but the Word of God was made man in order to sanctify the flesh, and, though He was Lord, was in the form of a servant; for the whole creature is the Word's servant, which by Him came to be, and was made.
11. Hence it holds that the Apostle's expression, He made,' does not prove that the Word is made, but that body, which He took like ours; and in consequence He is called our brother, as having become man. But if it has been shewn, that, even though the word made' be referred to the Very Word, it is used for begat,' what further perverse expedient will they be able to fall upon, now that the present discussion has cleared up the word in every point of view, and shewn that the Son is not a work, but in Essence indeed the Father's offspring, while in the Economy, according to the good pleasure [2271] of the Father, He was on our behalf made, and consists as man? For this reason then it is said by the Apostle, Who was faithful to Him that made Him;' and in the Proverbs, even creation is spoken of. For so long as we are confessing that He became man, there is no question about saying, as was observed before, whether He became,' or He has been made,' or created,' or formed,' or servant,' or son of an handmaid,' or son of man,' or was constituted,' or took His journey,' or bridegroom,' or brother's son,' or brother.' All these terms happen to be proper to man's constitution; and such as these do not designate the Essence of the Word, but that He has become man.
[2210] kuliomenoi, Orat. iii. 16.
[2211] Prov. viii. 22. Cf. i. 53 and infr. 19-72.
[2212] Heb. iii. 2.
[2213] Vid. infr. note on 35.
[2214] Cf. Rom. xi. 32
[2215] ton nun 'Ioudaion, means literally the Jews of this day,' as here and Orat. i. 8. 10. 38. Orat. ii. 1. b. iii. 28. c. But elsewhere this and similar phrases as distinctly mean the Arians, being used in contrast to the Jews. Their likeness to the Jews is drawn out, Orat. iii. 27. de Decr. i.
[2216] erotontes emanthanon; and so mathon edidasken, Orat. iii. 9. de Decr. 7. supr. p. 13, note a.
[2217] John i. 14.
[2218] Acts ii. 36.
[2219] Prov. viii. 22.
[2220] Heb. i. 4.
[2221] Phil. ii. 7.
[2222] Heb. iii. 1, 2; Sent. D. 11.
[2223] By laubanontes par' auton to lemma, accepting the proposition they offer,' he means that he is engaged in going through certain texts brought against the Catholic view, instead of bringing his own proofs, vid. Orat. i. 37. Yet after all it is commonly his way, as here, to start with some general exposition of the Catholic doctrine which the Arian sense of the text in question opposes, and thus to create a prejudice or proof against the latter. vid. Orat. i. 10. 38. 40. init. 53. d. ii. 5. 12. init. 32-34. 35. 44. init. which refers to the whole discussion, 18-43. 73. 77. iii. 18. init. 36. init. 42. 54. 51. init. &c. On the other hand he makes the ecclesiastical sense the rule of interpretation, touto [to skopo, the general drift of Scripture doctrine] hosper kanoni chresamenoi prosechomen te anagnosei tes theopneustou graphes, iii. 28. fin. This illustrates what he means when he says that certain texts have a good,' pious,' orthodox' sense, i.e. they can be interpreted (in spite, if so be, of appearances) in harmony with the Regula Fidei. vid. infr. §43, note; also notes on 35. and iii. 58.
[2224] §22, note.
[2225] i.e. in any true sense of the word image;' or, so that He may be accounted the aparallaktos eikon of the Father, vid. de Syn. 23, note 1. The ancient Fathers consider, that the Divine Sonship is the very consequence (so to speak) of the necessity that exists, that One who is Infinite Perfection should subsist again in a Perfect Image of Himself, which is the doctrine to which Athan. goes on to allude, and the idea of which (he says) is prior to that of creation. A redundatio in imaginem is synonymous with a generatio Filii. Cf. Thomassin, de Trin. 19. 1.
[2226] For karpogonos he ousia, de Decr. 15. n. 9. gennetikos, Orat. iii. 66. iv. 4. fin. agonos. i. 14. fin. Sent. Dion. 15. 19. he phusike gonimotes, Damasc. F. O. i. 8. p. 133. akarpos, Cyr. Thes. p. 45. Epiph. Hær. 65 p. 609. b. Vid. the gennesis and the ktisis contrasted together Orat. i. 29. de Decr. 11. n. 6, de Syn. 51, n. 4. The doctrine in the text is shortly expressed, infr. Orat. iv. 4 fin. ei agonos kai anenergetos
[2227] Orat. iii. 59, &c.
[2228] Orat. iii. 63. c.
[2229] enousios, infr. 28.
[2230] §1, note 13.
[2231] 1 Kings i. 19.
[2232] ver. 26.
[2233] Ps. cxvi. 16.
[2234] pollakis apololenai dikaioi, vid. infr. §28.
[2235] Prov. xx. 23.
[2236] Apol. c. Ar. 36.
[2237] Is. xxxviii. 19, LXX.
[2238] 2 Kings xx. 18; Is. xxxix. 7.
[2239] Gen. iv. 1, and infr. 44. note on Qanâ.
[2240] Gen. xlviii. 5, LXX.
[2241] Job i. 2, LXX.
[2242] Cf. Deut. xxi. 15; vid. Lev. xxv. 21, LXX.
[2243] Serap. ii. 6. b.
[2244] That is, while the style of Scripture justifies us in thus interpreting the word made,' doctrinal truth obliges us to do so. He considers the Regula Fidei the principle of interpretation, and accordingly he goes on at once to apply it. vid. supr. §1, note 13.
[2245] lexeidia, Orat. iii. 59. a Sent. D. 4. c.
[2246] Orat. iii. 62 init. infr. §22, note.
[2247] Ps. civ. 24; John i. 3.
[2248] Eccles. xii. 14.
[2249] Combines Greek of Deut. xxxii. 4 and Ex. xxxiv. 6; cf. Rev. iii. 14.
[2250] 1 Cor. x. 13.
[2251] Ps. cxlv. 14. LXX.
[2252] 1 Tim. v. 16.
[2253] Tit. iii. 8, &c.
[2254] atreptos kai me alloioumenos; vid. supr. de Decr. 14. it was the tendency of Arianism to consider that in the Incarnation some such change actually was undergone by the Word, as they had from the first maintained in the abstract was possible; that whereas He was in nature treptos, He was in fact alloioumenos. This was implied in the doctrine that His superhuman nature supplied the place of a soul in His manhood. Hence the semi-Arian Sirmian Creed anathematizes those who said, ton logon tropen hupomemenekota, vid. De Syn. 27. 12). This doctrine connected them with the Apollinarian and Eutychian Schools, to the former of which Athan. compares them, contr. Apoll. i. 12. while, as opposing the latter, Theodoret entities his first Dialogue Atreptos
[2255] Exod. xxix. 5.
[2256] anergastou ges is an allusion to Adam's formation from the ground; and so Irenæus, Hær. iii. 21. fin. and many later fathers.
[2257] This is one of those distinct and luminous protests by anticipation against Nestorianism, which in consequence may be abused to the purpose of the opposite heresy. Such expressions as peritithemenos ten estheta, ekalupteto, endusamenos soma, were familiar with the Apollinarians, against whom S. Athanasius is, if possible, even more decided. Theodoret objects Hær. v. 11. p. 422. to the word prokalumma, as applied to our Lord's manhood, as implying that He had no soul; vid. also Naz. Ep. 102. fin. (ed. 1840). In Naz. Ep. 101. p. 90. parapetasma is used to denote an Apollinarian idea. Such expressions were taken to imply that Christ was not in nature man, only in some sense human; not a substance, but an appearance; yet pseudo-Athan. contr. Sabell. Greg. 4. has parapepetasmenen and kalumma, ibid. init. S. Cyril. Hieros. katapetasma, Catech. xii. 26. xiii. 32. after Hebr. x. 20. and Athan. ad Adelph. 5. e. Theodor. parapetasma, Eran. i. p. 22. and prokalumma, ibid. p. 23. and adv. Gent. vi. p. 877. and stole, Eran. 1. c. S. Leo has caro Christi velamen, Ep. 59. p. 979. vid. also Serm. 22. p. 70. Serm. 25. p. 84.
[2258] he logos esti. cf. i. 43. Orat. ii. 74. e. iii. 38 init. 39. b. 41 init. 45 init. 52. b. iv. 23. f.
[2259] The Arians considered that our Lord's Priesthood preceded His Incarnation, and belonged to His Divine Nature, and was in consequence the token of an inferior divinity. The notice of it therefore in this text did but confirm them in their interpretation of the words made, &c. For the Arians, vid. Epiph. Hær. 69, 37. Eusebius too had distinctly declared, Qui videbatur, erat agnus Dei; qui occultabatur sacerdos Dei. advers. Sabell. i. p. 2. b. vid. also Demonst. i. 10. p. 38. iv. 16. p. 193. v. 3. p. 223. contr. Marc. pp. 8 and 9. 66. 74. 95. Even S. Cyril of Jerusalem makes a similar admission, Catech. x. 14. Nay S. Ambrose calls the Word, plenum justitiæ sacerdotalis, de fug. sæc. 3. 14. S. Clement Alex. before them speaks once or twice of the logos archiereus, e.g. Strom. ii. 9 fin. and Philo still earlier uses similar language, de Profug. p. 466. (whom S. Ambrose follows), de Somniis p. 597. vid. Thomassin. de Incarn. x. 9. Nestorius on the other hand maintained that the Man Christ Jesus was the Priest, relying on the text which has given rise to this note; Cyril, adv. Nest. p. 64. and Augustine and Fulgentius may be taken to countenance him, de Consens. and Evang. i. 6. ad Thrasim. iii. 30. The Catholic doctrine is, that the Divine Word is Priest in and according to His manhood. vid. the parallel use of prototokos, infr. 62-64. As He is called Prophet and even Apostle for His humanity,' says S. Cyril Alex. so also Priest.' Glaph. ii. p. 58. and so Epiph. loc. cit. Thomassin loc. cit. makes a distinction between a divine Priesthood or Mediatorship, such as the Word may be said to sustain between the Father and all creatures, and an earthly one for the sake of sinners. vid. also Huet Origenian. ii. 3. §4, 5. For the history of the controversy among Protestants as to the Nature to which His Mediatorship belongs, vid. Petav. Incarn. xii. 3. 4. [Herzog-Plitt Art. Stancar.]
[2260] [One of the few passages in which Ath. glances at the Arian Christology. A long note is omitted here on the subject of Or. i. 8, note 3.]
[2261] Heb. ii. 14-18; iii. 2.
[2262] Or, answer, vid. infr. iii. 27.
[2263] 1 Pet. iv. 19.
[2264] Vid. Jer. ix. 3. and xv. 18; Deut. xxxii. 20, LXX.; ib. xxxii. 39; Mal. iii. 6.
[2265] 1 Thess. v. 24.
[2266] 2 Tim. ii. 13.