Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa · §5 · Athanasius of Alexandria

The Fathers' terms are ancient and scriptural; the Arians' slogans are the real unwritten innovations

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Athanasius is defending the Nicene term 'consubstantial' against the Arian objection that it is not a scriptural word, and is about to show that the Arians' own slogans are the true unwritten innovations.

And so at last they wrote more clearly and concisely that the Son is consubstantial with the Father; for all that had been said before carries this meaning. And their grumbling that these words are unwritten is shown by their own conduct to be empty, since they committed impiety from unwritten words. For 'from nothing' and 'there was when he was not' are unwritten, yet they complain that they were condemned from unwritten words understood with reverence. They, as being from dung, truly spoke from the earth; but the bishops did not invent the words for themselves—they had the testimony from the Fathers, and so they wrote. For ancient bishops of great Rome and of our own city, writing nearly one hundred and thirty years before, censured those who said the Son was a thing made and not consubstantial with the Father. And Eusebius, who became bishop of Caesarea, knew this: formerly he sided with the Arian heresy, but later he signed at the council in Nicaea itself, and he wrote to his own people affirming that we know that some of the ancient learned and distinguished bishops and writers used the term 'consubstantial' for the divinity of the Father and the Son.

Why then do they still name Ariminum, where they were deposed? Why do they reject the council in Nicaea, where their own Fathers signed and confessed that the Son is from the substance and consubstantial with the Father? Why do they run about? For they are fighting not only against the bishops who gathered at Nicaea, but also against their own great bishops, and against their own people at last. Whose heirs and successors are they then? How can they call those men Fathers whose confession, written so well and in apostolic fashion, they do not accept? For if they think they can contradict it, let them speak—or rather, let them answer, so that they may be caught in their own trap and exposed—whether they believe the Son when he says, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30), and, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). Yes, they might say, since it is written, we believe.

But if they are asked to say how they are one, and how the one who has seen the Son has also seen the Father, they will surely say, 'Through likeness'—unless they have completely collapsed into the company of those who think like them and are called Anomoeans. But if they are asked again, 'How is he like?' they will boldly say, 'By perfect virtue and harmony, in willing the same as the Father and not willing what the Father does not will.' But let them learn that one who is made like God by virtue and by willing has a choice that can also turn and change. The Word is not like that—unless he is like us only in part and in our manner, because he is not like according to substance. These things belong to us, created things whose nature is created. For we too, although we cannot become like God in substance, nevertheless, as we improve in virtue, we imitate God, since the Lord grants this and says, 'Be merciful, as your Father is merciful' (Luke 6:36), and 'Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48). But no one would deny that created things are changeable: angels transgressed, Adam disobeyed, and all things need the grace of the Word.

Greek

Καὶ λευκότερον λοιπὸν καὶ συντόμως ἔγραψαν ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρὶ τὸν Υἱόν· τὰ γὰρ προειρημένα πάντα ταύτην ἔχει τὴν σημασίαν. Καὶ ὁ γογγυσμὸς αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἄγραφοί εἰσιν αἱ λέξεις, ἐλέγχεται παρ' αὐτῶν μάταιος, ἐξ ἀγράφων ἀσεβήσαντες· ἄγραφα δὲ τὸ, Ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, καὶ τὸ, Ἦν ποτε, ὅτε οὐκ ἦν· αἰτιῶνται, ὅτι ἐξ ἀγράφων μετ' εὐσεβείας νοουμένων λέξεων κατεκρίθησαν. Αὐτοὶ μὲν ὡς ἐκ κοπρίας ὄντες, ἐλάλησαν ἀληθῶς ἀπὸ γῆς· οἱ δὲ ἐπίσκοποι, οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς εὑρόντες τὰς λέξεις, ἀλλ' ἐκ Πατέρων ἔχοντες τὴν μαρτυρίαν, οὕτως ἔγρα ψαν. Ἐπίσκοποι γὰρ ἀρχαῖοι πρὸ ἐτῶν ἐγγύς που ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα τῆς μεγάλης Ῥώμης καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας πόλεως γράφοντες ᾐτιάσαντο τοὺς ποίημα λέγοντας τὸν Υἱὸν καὶ μὴ ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί· καὶ τοῦτο ἐγίνωσκεν Εὐσέβιος ὁ γενόμενος ἐπίσκοπος τῆς Καισαρείας, πρότερον μὲν συντρέχων τῇ Ἀρειανῇ αἱρέσει, ὕστερον δὲ ὑπογράψας ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἐν Νικαίᾳ συνόδῳ, ἔγραψε τοῖς ἰδίοις διαβεβαιούμενος, ὅτι καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν τινας λογίους καὶ ἐπιφανεῖς ἐπισκόπους καὶ συγγραφέας, ἔγνωμεν ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ θεότητος τῷ τοῦ ὁμοουσίου χρησαμένους ὀνόματι. Τί οὖν ἔτι τὴν Ἀρίμηνον ὀνομάζουσιν, ἐν ᾗ καθῃρέθησαν; Τί παραιτοῦνται τὴν ἐν Νικαίᾳ σύνοδον, ἐν ᾗ καὶ οἱ Πατέρες αὐτῶν ὑπέγραψαν, καὶ ὡμολόγησαν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας καὶ ὁμοούσιον εἶναι τὸν Υἱὸν τῷ Πατρί; τί περιτρέχουσιν; οὐ γὰρ πρὸς μό νους τοὺς ἐν Νικαίᾳ ἐπισκόπους συνελθόντας, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἑαυτῶν μεγάλους ἐπισκόπους, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἰδίους λοιπὸν μάχονται. Τίνων οὖν εἰσι κληρονόμοι καὶ διάδοχοι; πῶς δύνανται λέγειν Πα τέρας τούτους, ὧν οὐκ ἀποδέχονται τὴν ὁμολογίαν τὴν καλῶς καὶ ἀποστολικῶς γραφεῖσαν; Ἐπεὶ, εἰ νομίζουσιν ἀντιλέγειν δύνασθαι, εἰπάτωσαν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀποκρινάσθωσαν, ἵνα καὶ ἑαυτοῖς περιπίπτοντες ἐλεγχθῶσιν, εἰ πιστεύουσι λέγοντι τῷ Υἱῷ· Ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν· καὶ, Ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ ἑώρακε τὸν Πατέρα; Ναὶ, εἴποιεν ἂν, ἐπειδὴ γέγραπται, πιστεύομεν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ Πῶς ἕν εἰσι, καὶ πῶς ὁ ἑωρακὼς τὸν Υἱὸν ἑώρακε καὶ τὸν Πατέρα, ἐὰν ἐρωτηθῶσιν εἰπεῖν, πάντως που φήσουσι, Δι' ὁμοιότητα· εἰ μὴ τέλεον συμπεπτώκασι τοῖς ἀδελφὰ φρονοῦσιν αὐτοῖς, καὶ λεγομένοις Ἀνομοίοις. Ἀλλ' ἐὰν πάλιν ἐρωτηθῶσι, Πῶς ὅμοιος; ἀποθρασυνόμενοι φήσουσιν· Ἀρετῇ τελείᾳ καὶ συμφωνίᾳ τὸ αὐτὸ θέλειν τῷ Πατρὶ, καὶ μὴ θέλειν ὅπερ ὁ Πατὴρ οὐ θέλει. Ἀλλὰ μαθέτωσαν, ὅτι ἐξ ἀρετῆς καὶ τοῦ θέλειν ὁμοιούμενος τῷ Θεῷ, ἔχει μὲν καὶ τοῦ τρέπεσθαι τὴν προαίρεσιν· οὐκ ἔστι δὲ οὕτως ὁ Λόγος, εἰ μὴ ἄρα ἐκ μέρους καὶ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὅμοιος, ὅτι μὴ καὶ κατ' οὐ σίαν ὅμοιός ἐστι. Ταῦτα δὲ ἴδια ἡμῶν τῶν γενητῶν καὶ κτιστὴν ἐχόντων τὴν φύσιν. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς, καίτοι μὴ δυνάμενοι ὅμοιοι κατ' οὐσίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ γενέ σθαι, ὅμως, ἐξ ἀρετῆς βελτιούμενοι, μιμούμεθα τὸν Θεὸν, χαρισαμένου καὶ τοῦτο τοῦ Κυρίου, καὶ λέγοντος· Γίνεσθε οἰκτίρμονες, ὡς ὁ Πατὴρ ὑμῶν οἰκτίρμων ἐστί. Γίνεσθε τέλειοι, ὡς ὁ Πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος τέλειός ἐστι. Τρεπτὰ δὲ τὰ γενητὰ, οὐκ ἄν τις ἀρνήσαιτο, ἀγγέλων μὲν παραβάντων, τοῦ δὲ Ἀδὰμ παρακούσαντος, καὶ πάντων δεομένων τῆς τοῦ Λόγου χάριτος.

About this text

Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 293/298–373) was bishop of Alexandria and principal author of this letter.

Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 293/298–373) was bishop of Alexandria and principal author of this letter. He writes together with the bishops of Egypt and Libya to the bishops of Africa after Damasus became bishop of Rome. They write to warn them against appeal to the Council of Ariminum instead of Nicaea and to confirm the sufficiency of the Nicene faith.

The context is an effort in the West, especially in Africa, to treat Ariminum as the final settlement of the faith and to set aside Nicaea, while Auxentius remains in Milan spreading the Arian heresy. The letter argues that Nicaea alone is the sufficient ecumenical council received from Christ, the apostles and the Fathers, that Ariminum was contrived through rivalry and force and its leaders were deposed, and that the Nicene terms from the substance and consubstantial exclude Arian evasion. The reader meets Damasus of Rome, Emperor Constantius who ordered Ariminum, Ursacius, Valens and Eudoxius condemned at Ariminum with Demophilus present there, Auxentius with his associate Gregory, and Eusebius of Caesarea. The words of the Arian opponents are quoted from their slogans to be answered, alongside quotations of Scripture and of the Nicene Fathers.

To follow the reasoning, note that consubstantial means the Son shares the same substance with the Father, that actual being is used here as the same as substance, and that radiance and imprint describe the Son in relation to the Father. The rejected Arian slogans appear as from nothing and there was when he was not, with the Son wrongly called a creature or thing made unlike created things. Passages are cited by Septuagint names and Greek Psalm numbers, with modern equivalents noted, while New Testament books keep standard names. Gregory appears only as associate of Auxentius, and Damasus appears through his synodal letter on the sound faith.

No published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Migne PG text (Aegean University Digital Patrology, via (Greek)
Also checked Migne PG 26, archive.org scan patrologiae_cursus_completus_gr_vol_026 (Greek machine-read text) (Greek · check (same print; machine-read text compared word by word))

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