TO OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, EPISTLE
A To all those everywhere who live the monastic life, and are established in the faith of God, and are sanctified in Christ, and say, "Behold, we have left all, and followed thee," to these beloved and most longed-for brothers, much greeting in the Lord.
1. Having been many times urged by you, I have at length written in few words concerning the things which we and the Church have suffered, and, as far as I had the power, I have refuted the detestable heresy of the Ariomanites, and shown how far it is alienated from the truth. But what I have experienced in writing, I have thought it necessary to declare to your piety, so that from this you might learn how truly the blessed Apostle has said: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" and that you might forgive me, who am a man weak by nature. For as much as I strove to write and to apply my mind to understand the divinity of the Word, by so much did the knowledge recede far from me; and I knew myself to be as far from attaining it as I thought I had grasped it. For not even what I thought I understood was I able to write; and indeed what I was writing was less than even the small shadow of truth that had occurred to my mind.
2. Seeing, therefore, that it is written in the Ecclesiastes: "I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me, beyond what it was; and a deep depth, who shall find it?" and that in the Psalms: "Thy knowledge is become wonderful from me; it is strengthened, I cannot attain to it"; and that Solomon says: "It is the glory of God to conceal a word," I have often intended to stop and to cease from writing: in this way B C D
I have forced myself to write a little, and I have sent these things to your piety. A For even if, as is the understanding of the truth, it is now far from us because of the infirmity of the flesh, nevertheless it is possible, as the Preacher himself said, to know the foolishness of the wicked, and having found it, to say that it is more bitter than death. On this account, therefore, knowing this and being able to find it, I have written; knowing that for the faithful, the conviction of impiety is a sufficient knowledge for piety. For even if it is not possible to grasp what God is, it is yet possible to say what He is not. We know, for instance, that He is not as a man, and that it is not lawful to imagine anything of created things in Him. B So too, must one think concerning the Son of God: even if we are by nature far from being able to comprehend Him, it is possible and easy to refute those things which are brought forward by the heretics, and to say that these things are not the Son of God, nor is it lawful even to think about His divinity such things as those men say, much less to utter them through our lips.
3. Thus, therefore, as I was able, I have written; but you, beloved, receive these things not as having a perfect explanation concerning the divinity of the Word, but as only refuting the impiety of the Christ-fighters, and as also offering to those who wish it an occasion for the pious and sound faith in Christ. If anything has been omitted (and I think that all things have been omitted), forgive me with a pure conscience, and only approve the boldness of my intention for the sake of piety. For the perfect confutation of the heresy of the Arians, the judgment regarding the death of Arius that came from the Lord, which you have already learned from others, is sufficient. For what the holy God has determined, who shall scatter? And if the Lord C has condemned, who shall justify? For who, from such a sign as this, does not recognize that the heresy is hateful to God, even if it has men for its patrons? When, therefore, you have read these things, pray for us, and exhort one another to do this; but return these things to us immediately; and do not give the copy to anyone at all, nor transcribe it for yourselves, but as proven moneychangers, let the reading of these suffice you, repeated often if you please. For it is not safe for the writings of us who stammer and are unlearned to reach posterity. Salute one another in love, and all who come to you in piety and faith. For if anyone, as the Apostle said, does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. D