Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa · §6 · Athanasius of Alexandria

The Son is like the Father by substance, not by virtue

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Athanasius continues his argument against the Arians, showing from Scripture and reason that the Son's likeness to the Father belongs to his substance, not to acquired virtue.

But a changeable thing cannot be like the unchangeable God, any more than a created thing can be like its creator. That is why the holy man, considering our condition, said, 'O God, who will be made like you?' (Psalm 82:2 (83:2)), and, 'Who is like you among the gods, O Lord?' (Exodus 15:11). He calls 'gods' those who were created but became partakers of the Word, as the Lord himself said: 'If he called them gods to whom the Word of God came' (John 10:35). But things that partake cannot be the same as, or like, the thing they partake of. About himself, then, he said, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30), because created things are not like that.

So let those who put forward Ariminum answer this: can a created substance say, 'Whatever I see the Father doing, these things I also do' (John 5:19)? For created things are made, and do not make; otherwise they would have made themselves. Indeed, if, as they say, the Son is a creature and the Father makes him, then the Son would certainly have made himself too, since he is able to do what the Father does, as he himself said. But such a thing is absurd and utterly incoherent, for no one can make himself.

Again, let them say whether created things can say, 'All things that the Father has are mine' (John 16:15). The Father has the creating, the fashioning, the eternal, the being almighty, the unchangeable. But created things cannot have the fashioning, for they are created; nor the eternal, for they have a beginning of being; nor the almighty and unchangeable, for they are ruled and of a changeable nature, as the Scriptures say. Therefore, if these things belong to the Son, they are his not from virtue, as we said, but clearly from his substance, as the council said: he is not from another substance, but from the Father's, whose own these things also are. And what belongs to the Father's substance, and is offspring from it—what could it be, or how could anyone name it, except consubstantial? For what one sees in the Father, one sees also in the Son; and in the Son not by participation, but according to substance. And this is what 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30) means, and 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9).

Besides this, it is good to show their folly from another point as well. If likeness follows from virtue, from willing and not willing, and from improvement of character, then according to you the Son is like the Father. But these things belong to quality. Clearly, then, you are saying that God is composite, made of quality and substance. And who will put up with you saying these things? For God, who composed all things into being, is not composite, nor is he like the things that came into being through the Word—may it never be! His substance is simple, in which there is no quality, nor, as James said, 'any variation or shadow of turning' (James 1:17). Therefore, if it is shown that the Son's likeness is not from virtue—for there is no quality in God, nor in the Son—then clearly he belongs to the substance. And this you will certainly confess, unless understanding has utterly perished in you.

Greek

Τρεπτὸν δὲ ἀτρέπτου ὄντος τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐκ ἂν εἴη ὅμοιον· ὥσπερ οὐδὲ τὸ κτισθὲν τοῦ κτίσαντος. Διὰ τοῦτο περὶ μὲν ἡμῶν σκοπῶν ὁ ἅγιος ἔλε γεν· Ὁ Θεὸς, τίς ὁμοιωθήσεταί σοι; καὶ, Τίς ὅμοιός σοι ἐν θεοῖς, Κύριε; θεοὺς λέγων, τοὺς κτισθέντας μὲν, μετόχους δὲ γενομένους τοῦ Λόγου, ὡς αὐτὸς εἶπεν· Εἰ ἐκείνους θεοὺς εἶπε, πρὸς οὓς ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐγένετο. Τὰ δὲ μετέχοντα οὐκ ἂν εἴη τὰ αὐτὰ οὐδὲ ὅμοια τοῦ μετεχομένου. Περὶ ἑαυτοῦ γοῦν ἔλεγεν· Ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν, ὡς τῶν γενητῶν μὴ ὄντων οὕτως. Ἐπεὶ ἀποκρινάσθωσαν οἱ τὴν Ἀρίμηνον προτείνοντες, εἰ κτιστὴ οὐσία δύναται εἰπεῖν· Ἃ βλέπω τὸν Πατέρα ποιοῦντα, ταῦτα κἀγὼ ποιῶ. Ποιούμενα γάρ ἐστι τὰ γενητὰ, καὶ οὐ ποιοῦντα· εἰ δὲ μή γε, καὶ ἑαυτὰ ἐποί ησαν. Ἀμέλει εἰ, ὡς λέγουσι, κτίσμα ἐστὶν ὁ Υἱὸς, καὶ ποιεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ Πατὴρ, πάντως ἂν ἐποίησε καὶ ἑαυ τὸν ὁ Υἱὸς, δυνάμενος ποιεῖν ἃ ποιεῖ ὁ Πατὴρ, ὡς εἶπεν αὐτός· ἀλλ' ἄτοπον καὶ λίαν ἀσύστατόν ἐστι τὸ τοιοῦτον· ποιεῖν γὰρ ἑαυτὸν οὐδεὶς δύναται. Πάλιν δὲ εἰπάτωσαν, εἰ δύναται τὰ γενητὰ εἰπεῖν· Πάντα, ὅσα ἔχει ὁ Πατὴρ, ἐμά ἐστιν; Ἔχει δὲ τὸ κτίζειν, τὸ δημιουργεῖν, τὸ ἀΐδιον, τὸ εἶναι παντοκράτωρ, τὸ ἄτρεπτον. Τὰ δὲ γενητὰ οὐ δύναται ἔχειν τὸ δημιουργεῖν· κτιστὰ γάρ ἐστιν· οὐδὲ τὸ ἀΐδιον· ἀρχὴν γὰρ ἔχει τοῦ εἶναι· οὐδὲ τὸ παντοκράτωρ καὶ ἄτρεπτον· κρατούμενα γὰρ καὶ τρεπτῆς φύσεώς ἐστιν, ὥσπερ αἱ Γραφαὶ λέγουσιν. Οὐκοῦν εἰ ταῦτα τοῦ Υἱοῦ ἐστιν, οὐκ ἐξ ἀρετῆς, ὡς εἴπομεν, ἀλλὰ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ ἐστι δηλονότι, ὡς εἶπεν ἡ σύνοδος· οὐκ ἐξ ἄλλης οὐσίας ἐστὶν, ἀλλὰ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἧς ἐστι καὶ ταῦτα ἴδια· τὸ δὲ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς οὐσίας ἴδιον, καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς γέννημα, τί ἂν εἴη, ἢ πῶς ἄν τις ὀνομάσειεν αὐτὸ, ἢ ὁμοούσιον; ἃ γὰρ βλέπει τις ἐν τῷ Πατρὶ, ταῦτα βλέπει καὶ ἐν τῷ Υἱῷ· Υἱῷ δὲ οὐκ ἐκ μετουσίας, ἀλλὰ κατ' οὐσίαν. Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν· Ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ Πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν, καὶ, Ὁ ἐμὲ ἑωρακὼς ἑώρακε τὸν Πατέρα. Ἄλλως τε καὶ ἐκ τούτου πάλιν καλὸν δεικνύναι τὴν ἀφροσύνην αὐτῶν· εἰ ἐξ ἀρετῆς ἕπεται τὸ θέλειν καὶ τὸ μὴ θέλειν, καὶ τρόπων βελτίωσις, ὅμοιος καθ' ὑμᾶς ὁ Υἱός ἐστι τῷ Πατρί· ταῦτα δὲ ποιότητος ἴδια· δηλονότι σύνθετον τὸν Θεὸν ἐκ ποιότητος καὶ οὐσίας λέγετε. Καὶ τίς ὑμῶν ἀνέξεται ταῦτα λεγόντων· οὐ γὰρ σύνθετος ὁ Θεὸς ὁ τὰ πάντα εἰς τὸ εἶναι συντεθεικὼς, οὐδὲ τοιοῦτος, οἷά ἐστι τὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ διὰ τοῦ Λόγου γενόμενα, μὴ γένοιτο! Ἁπλῆ γάρ ἐστιν οὐσία, ἐν ᾗ οὐκ ἔνι ποιότης, οὐδὲ, ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Ἰάκωβος, Παραλλαγή τις ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα. Οὐκοῦν εἰ δείκνυται οὐκ ἐξ ἀρετῆς· οὐ γὰρ ποιότης ἐν τῷ Θεῷ, οὔτε ἐν τῷ Υἱῷ· δηλονότι τῆς οὐσίας ἴδιος ἂν εἴη· καὶ τοῦτο πάντως ὁμολογήσετε, εἰ μὴ τέλεον τὸ νοεῖν ἀπώλετο ἐν ὑμῖν.

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.

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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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