The humble sayings belong to the Son's poverty, not his divinity
The treatise opens by naming its target: those who misuse the humble sayings about the Son to deny his equality with the Father, and it begins answering their proof-texts.
Those who want to understand the divine Scriptures with evil craft try to drag the human words of the Son of God's poverty into service to establish their own blasphemy. Yet all the precision of Christianity is found in these lowly words and deeds. If they had been able to hear the blessed Paul writing to the Corinthians—"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9)—they would never have dared to say that the Son is unlike the Father, if they had understood what the manner of his poverty is and what the power of his cross is. That is why the same Paul says elsewhere: "So that you may have strength to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:18-19). For this reason he speaks boldly in writing about his poverty and his sufferings, saying: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). And again: "I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). And: "If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). And now these people, if they had known the divine Scriptures, would not have dared to blaspheme the Creator of all things as a creature or a thing made.
They bring forward, saying: How can he be like the Father, or from the Father's being, when it is written, "Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself" (John 5:26)? There is a superiority, they say, of the one who gives over the one who receives. And: "Why do you call me good?" he says. "No one is good except one, God" (Mark 10:18). And again: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). And again: "Concerning the last day no one knows, not even the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32). And again: "The one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world" (John 10:36). And again: "The one whom the Father raised from the dead." How then, they say, can the one who is raised from the dead be like or consubstantial with the one who raised him? We have set out these few from among many, so that when these are resolved, the rest may also be readily understood. We ought therefore to explain their force as far as we are able.
When the blessed Paul says that the Father raised his Son from the dead, John explains to us that Jesus said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). But he was speaking, it says, about the temple of his body (John 2:21). It is clear, then, to those who pay attention, that when the body is raised, the Son is said by Paul to have been raised from the dead; for the things of his body are said with reference to his person. So also when he says, "The Father gave life to the Son," the life must be understood as given to the flesh.
Greek
ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΕΙΑΣ, ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΣΑΡΚΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ ΛΟΓΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΑΡΕΙΑΝΩΝ. Οἱ κακοτέχνως τὰς θείας Γραφὰς βουλόμενοι νοεῖν, τὰ ἀνθρώπινα ῥήματα τῆς πτωχείας τοῦ Υἱοῦ 985 τοῦ Θεοῦ παράγειν βούλονται πρὸς τὸ συστῆσαι τὴν ἑαυτῶν βλασφημίαν. Πᾶσα δὲ ἀκρίβεια τοῦ Χριστιανισμοῦ ἐν τοῖς εὐτελέσι ῥήμασι καὶ πράγμασιν εὑρίσκεται. Εἰ οὖν ἠδύναντο ἀκούειν τοῦ μακαρίου Παύλου γράφοντος πρὸς Κορινθίους· Γινώσκετε γὰρ τὴν χάριν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὅτι δι' ἡμᾶς ἐπτώχευσε πλούσιος ὢν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς τῇ ἐκείνου πτωχείᾳ πλουτήσωμεν· οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἀνόμοιον τῷ Πατρὶ τὸν Υἱὸν ἐτόλμησαν εἰπεῖν· εἴπερ ἔγνωσαν, τίς ὁ τρόπος τῆς πτωχείας αὐτοῦ, καὶ τίς ἡ δύναμις τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ. Ὅθεν καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ λέγει ὁ αὐτὸς Παῦλος· Ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβεῖν σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις, τί τὸ πλάτος, καὶ μῆκος, καὶ βάθος, καὶ ὕψος, γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀγάπην τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ Θεοῦ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐγγράφως ἐν τῇ πτωχεία αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῖς παθήμασι παῤῥησιάζεται λέγων· Ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι, εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, δι' οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγὼ τῷ κόσμῳ· καὶ πάλιν· Οὐδὲν ἔκρινα εἰδέναι ἐν ὑμῖν, εἰ μὴ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, καὶ τοῦτον ἐσταυρωμένον· καὶ, Εἰ ἔγνωσαν, οὐκ ἂν τὸν Κύριον τῆς δόξης ἐσταύρωσαν. Καὶ νῦν οὗτοι, εἰ ἔγνωσαν τὰς θείας Γραφὰς, οὐκ ἂν τὸν Κτίστην τῶν ἁπάντων κτίσμα ἢ δημιούργημα βλασφημῆσαι ἐτόλμησαν. Παράγουσι γὰρ ἡμῖν, λέγοντες· Πῶς δύναται ὅμοιος, ἢ ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς οὐσίας εἶναι, ὁπότε γέγραπται· Ὥσπερ ὁ Πατὴρ ἔχει ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, οὕτως ἔδωκε καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ ζωὴν ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ; ὑπεροχή ἐστι, φησὶ, τοῦ διδόντος παρὰ τὸν λαμβάνοντα· καὶ, Τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; φησίν· οὐδεὶς ἀγαθὸς, εἰ μὴ εἷς ὁ Θεός· καὶ πάλιν· Θεέ μου, Θεέ μου, ἱνατί με ἐγκατέλιπες; καὶ αὖθις· Περὶ τῆς ἡμέρας τῆς ἐσχάτης οὐδεὶς οἶδεν, οὐδὲ ὁ Υἱὸς, εἰ μὴ ὁ Πατήρ· καὶ πάλιν· Ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ ἡγίασε, καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον· καὶ πάλιν· Ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν. Πῶς οὖν, φασὶν, ὅμοιος εἶναι δύναται ἢ ὁμοούσιος ὁ ἐγειρόμενος ἐκ νεκρῶν τῷ ἐγείραντι αὐτόν; Ταῦτα δὲ ἀπὸ πολλῶν ὀλίγα παρεθέμεθα, ὅπως, τούτων λυθέντων, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ εὐχερῶς νοηθῇ. Ὀφείλομεν οὖν ἡμεῖς κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν τὴν δύναμιν 988 αὐτῶν ἐξηγήσασθαι. Ὅταν οὖν λέγει ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, Ὁ Πατὴρ ἤγειρε τὸν Υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐκ νεκρῶν, Ἰωάννης ἡμῖν διηγεῖται, ὅτι ἔλεγεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν. Ἔλεγε δὲ, φησὶ, περὶ τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ. Δῆλον οὖν ἐστι τοῖς προσέχουσιν, ὅτι, τοῦ σώματος ἐγειρομένου, ὁ Υἱὸς λέγεται παρὰ τῷ Παύλῳ ἐγηγέρθαι ἐκ νεκρῶν· τὰ γὰρ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ αὐτοῦ πρόσωπον λέγεται. Οὕτως οὖν καὶ ὅταν λέγῃ, Ζωὴν ἔδωκεν ὁ Πατὴρ τῷ Υἱῷ, τῇ σαρκὶ δεδομένην τὴν ζωὴν νοητέον.