of three hypostases is declared sound and orthodox. Wherefore, from the hypostases mentioned in this work, there is not the slightest suspicion of A spuriousness.
IV. A matter of still less difficulty is the claim brought forward to ascribe this book to Apollinaris, namely, that the flesh of Christ is very often used here for his humanity. For what is more frequent than such a synecdoche, both in the Scriptures and among the Fathers, and in Athanasius himself? There is no need for us to linger on the citing of examples, as the matter is perfectly obvious. Regarding the term *sarcophoros* [flesh-bearer], we admit that it was used by Apollinarists, as Gregory Nazianzen testifies, *Orat.* 54, p. 748, yet it does not follow from this that the term was either suspect or forbidden: for holy Fathers used it: Ignatius, *Epist. ad Smyrnæos*, ch. 5; where he says that those who do not confess the Lord to be *sarcophoros* are blaspheming; Clement of Alexandria, *Strom.* v, p. 562, "the Word having become *sarcophoros*," and *Pædagog.* iii, p. 215, "the Word to be *sarcophoros*." Hesychius likewise, or whoever else it may be, in *De fine mundi*, speaking of Christ, calls him *sarcophoros*, as does Constantine the Great in *Orat. ad sacrum cœtum*, quoting from the Sibyl. B Indeed, Athanasius himself, although he may not otherwise have used the word *sarcophoros*, yet very frequently says that Christ "bore flesh," which sounds almost the same, and means absolutely the same thing: thus above in *Vita Antonii*, no. 5, and elsewhere very often. Add to these that Christ is called in this little work, no. 8, "perfect man," that is, complete, which everyone knows how much it abhors the opinion of Apollinaris. Also, no. 11, it is said that Christ was in all things like us except sin, and elsewhere that there are two wills in Christ, namely, the divine and the human, which are entirely repugnant to the heresy of the Apollinarists.
V. Furthermore, this book is proven to be by Athanasius by the testimonies of Theodoret and Gelasius, who more than once cite passages extracted from here under the name of Athanasius, as we have noted in their proper places. And although in such a forest of Scripture passages as is gathered here, the stylus of Athanasius can scarcely be distinguished, yet if anyone compares this book with *Epist.* 1 and 3 *ad Serapionem*, he will find such a kinship between these treatises that he will recognize the hand of Athanasius in both without any difficulty.
VI. Furthermore, although the invincible defender of the Word here attacks the Anomœans most of all, he nevertheless discusses many dogmas of the Faith on the occasion: namely, concerning the deity of the Holy Spirit, concerning His equality with the Father and the Son, concerning the procession of the same from the Father and the Son, when he says that the Son in the Father is the fount of the Holy Spirit; concerning the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection; concerning the truth of the body of Christ in the Eucharist, when he affirms that we take the flesh of the Lord, which is conceived of the life-giving Spirit; and very many other things, which we leave to the diligence of the reader to observe.
VII. Otherwise, we judge that this work was published in the times of the Anomœans. There is nothing certain about the year; we believe, however, that it can conveniently be placed after the year 365, at which time that heresy was spreading.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, ON THE INCARNATION OF THE GOD-WORD, AND AGAINST THE ARIANS
S. P. N. ATHANASII ARCHIEPISCOPI ALEXANDRIÆ, DE INCARNATIONE DEI VERBI, ET CONTRA ARIANOS
1. Those who interpret the divine Scriptures craftily and perversely wish to derive words concerning the poverty of the Son of the only-begotten Word of God’s becoming man and against the Arian, concerning the human words of the poverty of the Son of the only-begotten Word of God’s becoming man and against Apollinaris.
A they wish to bring forward in order to establish their own blasphemy. But the entire accuracy of Christianity is found in these lowly words and deeds. If, therefore, they could have listened to the blessed Paul writing to the Corinthians: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor, being rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich," they would never have dared to call the Son unlike the Father, if they had known what the manner of his poverty is, and what the power of his cross is. Hence the same Paul also says elsewhere: "That you may be able to comprehend B with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God." For this reason, he boldly speaks in writing concerning his poverty and his sufferings, saying: "But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world"; and again: "I judged not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified"; and: "If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." And now these men, if they had known the divine Scriptures, would never have broken out into such blasphemies as to say that the Creator of all things is a creature or a handiwork. For they artfully distort Scripture when they say: "How can the Son be like the Father or be from his substance, since it is written: 'As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself'?" By this, they say, excellence C is denoted, of the giver over the receiver; and: "Why do you call me good?" he says; "no one is good except one, God"; and again: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and again: "Concerning that last day no one knows, not even the Son, but the Father"; and again: "Whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world"; and again: "Whom the Father raised from the dead." How then, they say, can he who is raised from the dead be like or consubstantial with the one who raises him?
2. We have brought forward these few points from many, so that, once these are solved, the rest may also be easily understood. It is therefore our duty, as far as possible, to D understand his power.
A Let us explain the meaning of these. When therefore the blessed Paul says: "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." He said, he adds, concerning the temple of his body. It is therefore clear to those who pay attention that, the body being raised, the Son is said by Paul to have been raised from the dead; for the things that belong to his body are said of his person. Thus, therefore, and when he says, "The Father gave life to the Son," we must understand the life as given to the flesh. For if he himself is life, how can life receive life? And B if he himself promises, saying: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish for ever"; and if he himself is the wisdom of God, and if he himself made every age, how is it said: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature"? And if the Father made all things through his own Word and Son, it is clear that he also performed the resurrection of his body through him. Through him, therefore, he raises him, and through him he gives him life. He is raised indeed according to the flesh as a man, and he receives life as a man, being found in fashion as a man. And yet he himself is the one who raises his own temple, as God, and gives life to his own flesh. C When therefore he says again, "Him whom the Father sanctified, and sent into the world," elsewhere he says: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth"; and when he says: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" he speaks from our person; because, "taking the form of a servant, and being born in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," etc. And as Isaiah says: "He took our infirmities, and is in pain for us." Not for himself, therefore, is he afflicted with sorrows, but for us; and it is not he who was forsaken by God, but we, and it is for our sake D that he came into the world. And when he says: "Wherefore God also highly exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name," he speaks concerning the temple, which is his body.
A For the Most High is not exalted; but the flesh of the Most High is exalted, and to the flesh of the Most High he granted the name which is above every name. And the Word of God did not receive by grace the being called God, but his flesh was deified along with him. For he did not say that the Word became God, but the Word was God. "The Word of God," he says, "was always," and this same God became flesh, that his flesh might become the God-Word; just as Thomas also, having touched his flesh, cried out: "My Lord and my God," confessing both together. Likewise, also, John wrote: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our B hands have handled, of the Word of life." It is manifest, therefore, that the Son and Word of the Father was touched in the flesh, and the divine Scripture has handed down that both together, the Word of life, were touched. And when he says: "The Holy Spirit was not yet (given), because Jesus was not yet glorified," he speaks of his flesh, which was not yet glorified. For the Lord of glory is not glorified, but the flesh of the Lord of glory; this receives glory as it ascends with him into heaven. Whence also the Spirit of adoption was not yet in men, because the first-fruits taken from us had not yet ascended into heaven.
4. Therefore when Scripture says that the Son received (glory), and the Son was glorified, it speaks on account of his humanity, C and not on account of his divinity. And when it says: "My Father, who sent me, is greater than I," because he became man, he calls the Father greater than himself. But being the Word of the Father, he is equal to him. For "I," he says, "and the Father are one," and "He who has seen me has seen the Father." And he does not have it by robbery that he is equal to the Father, but he is equal and consubstantial with the Father according to nature, because he was begotten from the Father's substance. And when the Apostle says: "That in Christ dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily," it is to be understood that all the fullness of the divinity dwells in his D flesh. And when he says: "Who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," elsewhere he says: "Even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself up for it."
A For he did not come that he, being the immortal God, might save himself, but that he might save those who were dead; and he did not suffer for himself, but for us. Therefore, he took upon himself our lowliness and our poverty, that he might bestow upon us his riches. For his passion is our impassibility, and his death is our immortality; his tears are our joy, and his burial is our resurrection, and his baptism is our sanctification. For concerning them, he says: "I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." And his bruise is our healing: "For by his bruise we are healed" (Isa. LIII, 5). And his chastisement is our peace: "For the chastisement of our peace was upon him," that is, for our peace he is chastised; and his ignominy is our glory. Whence, for our sake, he asks for glory with these words: "Glorify me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (Joan. XVII, 5). For we are they who are glorified in him. And his descent is our ascent, according to that which is written: "He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephes. II, 6); and that: "That he might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephes. II, 7). B And when, upon the cross, he says: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luc. XXIII, 46), he commends all men to the Father through himself, even those who are made alive in him. For they are his members, and the many members are one body, which is the Church, just as the blessed Paul writes to the Galatians: "For you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galat. III, 28). Therefore, he commends all in himself.
6. So also when he says: "The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways" (Prov. VIII, 22), he speaks of the Church, which is founded in him. For the Maker of all things is not a creature or a work, C but the work is renewed in the Maker, according to that which is said by Paul: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephes. II, 10). And as he says again: "That it might be made known now to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness, and access in confidence through
A his faith. And he says again: "According as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love; having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself." And he speaks again regarding the two peoples: "That he might create the two in himself into one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity in himself."
7. And when he says: "Why do you call me good? There is none good except one, that is, God," he numbered himself among men according to his flesh when he said this, and spoke to the mind of him who had approached him. For that man thought him to be only a man and not God, and his reply is directed to this mindset: "If, indeed," he says, "you think me a man and not God, do not call me good; for no one is good." For being good does not belong to human nature, but to God. And he adds: "You know the commandments?" And upon his saying: "Which ones?" he said: "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, and so on." He answered, saying: "All these I have kept from my youth; what do I still lack?" He said to him: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and taking up your cross, follow me." By these things, therefore, he showed that being good also pertains to him; for how can he who does not follow the Good inherit eternal life? And when he says regarding the last day, that "No one knows, not even the Son, except the Father," he speaks in a human manner. For if he knows the Father, how could he be ignorant of the last day? For "No one knows the Father," he says, "except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him." And if the Holy Spirit knows all the things of God, how is the Son ignorant of the day C which he himself created? And if the ages and the times were made through him, it is clear that the last day is also found within those ages and times, and it is impossible that he himself should be ignorant of it.
A 8. Whichever humble words are spoken by the Lord belong to his poverty (that is, to his humanity), so that we may be enriched in him, and not so that we might, on account of such words, blaspheme against the Son of God. For this reason the Son of God became the Son of man, so that the sons of men, that is, of Adam, might be made sons of God. For the Word, who was begotten from above from the Father in an ineffable, unspeakable, incomprehensible, and eternal manner, is himself begotten in time from below from the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, so that those who had been born first from below might be born a second time from above, that is, from God. Therefore, he has a mother only on earth, and we have a Father only in heaven. And for this reason he calls himself the Son of man, so that men might call God Father in the heavens. "Our Father," he says, "who art in heaven." Just as we, therefore, who were servants of God, have been made sons of God, so the Master of servants became a mortal son of his own servant, that is, of Adam, so that the sons of Adam, being mortal, might become sons of God, according to that which is said: "He gave them power to become the sons of God." B Whence the Son of God also tastes death on account of his carnal father, so that the sons of man might become partakers of the life of God, on account of God, his Father according to the Spirit. He, therefore, is by nature the Son of God: we, however, are so by grace. And again, he indeed by dispensation and for our sake was made the son of Adam; we, however, are by nature the sons of Adam. Whence he says: "I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God." For God is his Father, as I said above, by nature; but he is ours by grace. And he became his God by dispensation, inasmuch as he was made man, whereas he is our Master and God by nature. C And for this reason the Word and Son of the Father, having been united to the flesh, became flesh, a perfect man, so that men, being united to the Spirit, might become one Spirit. He, therefore, is God bearing flesh, and we are men bearing the Spirit. For having taken the first-fruits from the substance of men, that is, from the seed of Adam (which substance is the form of a servant), D
A he gave to us from the substance of the Father the first-fruits of the Holy Spirit, that we might all be made sons of God, in the likeness of the Son of God. He, therefore, being the true and by nature Son of God, bears us all, that we all may bear the one God.
9. It is impious, therefore, to call the Spirit of God a creature, since all Scripture, both Old and New, enumerates and glorifies Him together with the Father and the Son, because He is of the same divinity, power, and substance; just as the Lord Himself says: "He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (Jo. VII, 38, 39). This He said concerning the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive; as also in Joel, He says from the person of the Father: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel II, 28). B And for this reason He breathes Him into the face of the apostles, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jo. XX, 22); that we may learn that the Spirit which is given to the disciples is from the fulness of the Godhead. For in Christ, He says, dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Coloss. II, 9), that is, in His flesh; just as John the Baptist also says: "Of his fulness we all have received" (Jo. I, 16). For the Holy Spirit was seen to descend and remain upon Him in bodily form, that is, as a dove. For in us dwell the first-fruits and the earnest of the Godhead, but in Christ dwells the whole fulness of the Godhead. And let no one imagine that He received it as not having it before; for He Himself was sending it from above, C as God, and He Himself was receiving it below, as man. From Himself, therefore, it descended into Himself, from His divinity into His humanity. And Isaiah indeed cries out from the person of the Father, saying these words: "Thus saith the Lord thy God, who made thee and formed thee from the womb: Fear not, my child Jacob, and my beloved Israel, whom I have chosen; for I will give water in thirst to those who walk in the waterless land; and I will put my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessings upon thy children" (Isa. XLIV, 2, 3). In the Gospel, however, the Son promises that He will give water to those who walk in thirst, when He speaks thus to the Samaritan woman concerning the Holy Spirit: "If thou didst know the gift of God, and who it is"
that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." And a little later He says to her: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." A And for this reason David, singing to God, says: "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light" (Ps. XXXV, 10); for he knew that the Son is with God the Father the fountain of the Holy Spirit.
10. And through Jeremiah the Son says: "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. II, 13). And when the seraphim glorify God, saying thrice: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth" (Isa. VI, 3), they glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And for this reason, just as we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, so also B in the name of the Holy Spirit, and we become sons of God, not gods. For the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the Lord Sabaoth. For there is one Godhead and one God in three hypostases. And for this reason, what the Father said in Isaiah, John says that the Son said; while in the Acts, Paul says that it was the Holy Spirit who spoke. For Isaiah speaks thus: "I saw the Lord Sabaoth, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up; and the house was filled C with the glory of him, and the seraphim stood round about him: each one had six wings, and each one six wings; and with twain they covered the faces, and with twain they covered the feet, and with twain they did fly. And one cried to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, the heaven and all the earth is full of his glory" (Isa. VI, 1-3). And a little later the same: "I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people? And I said: Behold, I am here, send me. And he said to me: Go to this people, and say: Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; D and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people hath waxed gross; and au-
- A dience they have heard heavily, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Now the evangelist John says: Therefore the Jews could not believe in Jesus, because Isaiah said: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. And these things Isaiah said, when he saw His glory, that is to say, the Son’s; so that the Son also is Lord Sabaoth. For Lord Sabaoth is interpreted as Lord of hosts; but the Lord of hosts Himself is the King of glory, as David the King said: and the Lord of glory B is the crucified Christ, according to Paul. And as David said: The Lord feedeth me, and I shall want nothing; and elsewhere: Thou that feedest Israel, attend, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep, thou that sittest upon the cherubim, show thyself. But in the Gospels the Son says: I am the good shepherd; He is therefore the One who sits upon the cherubim, who feeds Israel. And Paul in the Acts says that the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah those things which Isaiah himself had said, that the Lord Sabaoth spoke to me. The Father, therefore, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord Sabaoth.
11. And when Scripture says of the Father: He created all things, visible and invisible; elsewhere the same Scripture teaches us that they were created through the Son. For the Father did not create some things, and the Son others; but whatever the Father does, He does through His own power, which is the Son; for all things were made through Him. Thus, therefore, when the Son says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; He was speaking, it says, concerning His own body; another Scripture says that the Father raised C His Son from the dead; and it speaks rightly: for He raised the flesh of His Son through His own Word and Son. And we do not say the body is by nature the Son of God, but the body of the Son and of God.
A Since therefore the body is raised, the Son is understood to have been raised from the dead. For this reason we say that, according to the flesh, He also died, and was buried, and was raised from the dead; but according to the Spirit, He was even then in heaven and on earth and everywhere. Since, therefore, having been previously rich—that is, God—He later became poor—that is, man—and was made like us in all things except sin, for this reason He receives life as a man, though He possesses life, for He is Himself the Life; yet He receives it for our sake, and as a man He was advancing in wisdom and age, He who is the eternal Power and Wisdom of God; and as a man He is sanctified, He who is Holy and in no need of sanctification. For concerning them, He says, "I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." And as man, He is exalted, having received the name which is above every name, which He always has by nature. For the Word, He says, was God. B Therefore, whatever Scripture says the Son received on account of His body, it says of that body which is the firstfruits of the Church; for, He says, Christ is the firstfruits. When therefore the firstfruits had received the name which is above every name, the whole lump was raised and made to sit together by that same power, according to the saying: "And He raised us up and made us sit together." And for this reason, men received the grace to be called gods and sons of God. Therefore, the Lord first raised His own body from the dead and exalted it in Himself; thereafter He will raise the members of His body, to bestow upon them all things, as God, which He Himself as man received. C He therefore bestows life upon Himself, He Himself sanctifies Himself, He Himself exalts Himself. When, therefore, He says that the Father has sanctified Him, and raised Him, and given Him the name which is above every name, and also bestowed life upon Him, it is manifest that the Father does all things through Him. Through Him, therefore, He raises Him, and through Him He sanctifies Him, and through Him He exalts Him, and through Him bestows life upon Him. And when He commends His spirit into the hands of the Father, He commends Himself to God as man, that He might commend all men to God. For He Himself is the hand and the very hands of the Father. And when He says: "Before all the hills He begets me," D He speaks from the person of the Church, which, having been created before, is afterward begotten of God. For this reason, that which is in the Proverb is placed first,
A "The Lord created me," and lastly that: "He begot me."
13. And when Scripture speaks of the Father: "Has not one God created us?" it speaks likewise concerning the Son, that "through him all things were created." The same things B are also said regarding the Holy Spirit: "You shall take away," He says, "their breath, and they shall fail, and they shall return to their dust. You shall send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth." And when the Son says to Peter concerning the Father: "Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven," He speaks the same things concerning Himself: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." C Similarly, also, concerning the Holy Spirit, Paul says: "But to us God has revealed them through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one has known the things of God except the Spirit of God." Therefore, just as the spirit of a man is not separated from his humanity and substance, so also the Spirit of God is not foreign to His divinity and substance.
And when D the Lord says in Isaiah: "I have begotten and exalted children; but they have rejected me," in the Gospel He says: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And again: "The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, but you do not know from where he comes or where he goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." And at the beginning of the Gospel, John says: "But as many as received him, he gave them power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Therefore, as many as were born of the Holy Spirit, these were born of God. And as many as were baptized into Christ, these were baptized into the Father and the Holy Spirit. And again, when Peter says to Ananias: "Why has Satan filled your heart, for you to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? You have not lied to men, but to God." Therefore, he who has lied to the Holy Spirit has lied to God, who dwells in men through His Spirit. For where the Spirit of God is, there is God. "For by this," He says, "we know that God abides in us, because He has given us of His Spirit."
A
14. And when Scripture says that the Holy Spirit spoke in the prophets, the blessed Paul says elsewhere that the Father spoke in the prophets: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." And elsewhere he says that the Son speaks: "Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me?" And the Son called the Spirit the One who speaks in the apostles: "When," He says, "they shall deliver you up to the councils, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." And sometimes the Apostle says that the bodies of the faithful are the temple of the Holy Spirit, at other times that their members are the members of Christ, and at other times that they themselves are the temple of the Father: "For ye," he says, "are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." And, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." And again, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" For if any man is the temple of the Spirit, this man is the temple of the Son and of the Father; for where the Spirit of God dwells, there God dwells. And, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." In like manner He says also concerning the Spirit, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." And Paul writes to the Corinthians: "But the Spirit giveth life." You see that the works which are the Father's, the Scripture says are also the Son's, and the Holy Spirit's; as the Apostle also taught in these words: "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all." And after he said that the Father works all in all, C having added a few words, he says that the Spirit...
is the one who works all in all. All these A things, he says, one and the same Spirit works, dividing them to each individually as he wills.
15. And when the blessed Paul teaches concerning the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is the pledge of the inheritance, David says that the Lord is that inheritance; for he says, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup." And elsewhere he says, "I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living." But Jeremiah says, "He who formed all things, He is the inheritance of Jacob; the Lord is His name." Since, therefore, the prophets B call the Lord the inheritance of the saints, Paul said that the Holy Spirit is the inheritance; for he says, "In whom also, having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the pledge of our inheritance." Just as Moses also was sealed in his face by the Holy Spirit when he received the law from God, and no one of the children of Israel could look steadfastly upon him; for the light of the Lord’s countenance was impressed upon him, as it is written in the Gospel: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." For God is light; and likewise the Son also is light, because He is of the same substance as the true light, just as Isaiah also speaks: "And the light of Israel shall be as fire, and will sanctify him in a burning flame." In the Gospel, however, John the Baptist says concerning the C Lord: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." And elsewhere He calls the Lord the one who sanctifies; "I am the Lord who sanctifies them." And when Scripture calls God fire, "Our God is a consuming fire," it speaks likewise also of the Holy Spirit: that "cloven tongues like as of fire appeared to the apostles, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." For as many as bear the Spirit of God, bear light; and those who bear light have put on Christ; and those who have put on Christ have put on the Father. For it is necessary that this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. For those who bear the Spirit of God, bear incorruptibility; for God is incorruptibility.
B 16. And since David says: *Who will show us good things* (Ps. IV, 6)? he speaks concerning the Holy Spirit; and elsewhere he has said: *The Lord will not deprive those who walk in innocence of good things* (Ps. LXXXIII, 15). And Matthew speaks thus concerning the Father: *If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him* (Matth. VII, 11)? But Luke, in relating it in the same way, explains what those good things are, saying: *If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him* (Luc. XI, 13)? For unless the Holy Spirit were of the substance of Him who alone is good, He would never have been called good, since the Lord Himself prevents Himself from being called good, in so far as He had become man, saying: *Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone* (Marc. X, 18). But Scripture does not refuse to call the Holy Spirit good, according to David who says: *Your good Spirit shall guide me in the land of uprightness* (Ps. CXLIII, 10). And when again the Lord says of Himself: *I am the living bread which came down from heaven* (Joan. VI, 51); elsewhere He calls the Holy Spirit celestial bread, saying: *Give us this day our supersubstantial bread* (Matth. VI, 11). For He taught us in our prayer, in the present age, to ask for the supersubstantial bread, that is, the future one, the firstfruits of which we have in the present life, while we are made partakers of the flesh of the Lord: as He Himself said: *And the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world* (Joan. VI, 51). For the flesh of the Lord is a life-giving Spirit, because it was conceived from the life-giving Spirit. For *that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit* (Joan. III, 6). C 17. And when Jeremiah says of God, that He Himself led Israel in the desert: *And you did not say, where is the Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us in the desert* (Jerem. II, 6)? Isaiah says that the Holy Spirit was the guide of Israel in the desert: whom one may hear speaking thus: *He led them through the deep, as a horse in the desert, and they were not weary, and as cattle*
as beasts through the plain. And the Spirit descended from the Lord, and guided them. But to the Corinthians the Apostle writes that Christ was the guide: "For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." And when Paul says that he was called by God: "God," he says, "who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles." Writing to the Romans, he says that they were called by Christ: "Among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ." And the Holy Spirit has said that he called Paul and Barnabas to preach Christ to the Gentiles. And the miraculous thing is that, while Jesus commands Paul in the temple, "Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles," and while Paul writes to the Galatians, "Paul an apostle not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead," and a little later, "But I make known to you, brethren, this gospel, that it is not according to man; for neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ"; the Holy Spirit is shown B sending both Paul and Barnabas to preach Christ to the Gentiles.
18. At times the prophets speak from the person of the Father, as when God says in the Psalms: "Once I have sworn in my holy one, if I shall lie to David, his seed shall remain for ever, and his throne as the sun before me"; and again: "Of the fruit of your loins I will set upon your throne." And as Peter said: "David therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him by an oath that of the fruit of his loins he would seat Christ according to the flesh upon his throne." At other times he speaks from the person of the Son, as when Isaiah says: "Thus says the Lord: Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles. Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: because I am he, the very one who speaks, I am present." And at other times from the person of the Holy Spirit, as when the prophet Agabus says: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose girdle C is this...
A And again, Paul writes to Timothy: "The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith." And again: "The Spirit said to Philip: Go near and join yourself to this chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch." And the prophet Ezekiel, indeed, accusing the old people, said: "And they provoked me with all these things, says the Lord." But Paul writes to the new people: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." And David, indeed, says concerning the Jews: "And they provoked God in the desert." But Isaiah says concerning them: "They, however, were disobedient and provoked the Holy Spirit, and He was turned B to be an enemy to them." And Stephen says in the Acts: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did." And when Paul says concerning the Father: "God who justifies, who is there to condemn?" he says the same things likewise concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit: "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." And the Lord says to Satan concerning Himself: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." And Peter said to Sapphira: "How is it that it has been agreed between you to test the Spirit of the Lord?"
19. And God, indeed, is that which contains and fills all things, as He also says through Isaiah: "I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord." Likewise, Paul also writes concerning the Son: "He who descended is the same as He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things." And David says the same things also concerning the Holy Spirit: "Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your face?" But in his saying: "Where shall I go from your Spirit?" he makes it clear to us that the Holy Spirit is also the one who fills all things. And "Where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present."
And who has entered into hell, A except the Son who rose from the dead? And when Stephen says in the Acts: *The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham*; Paul says the same things concerning the Son: *For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory*. Similarly also David says: *The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory*. For there is one glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. *My glory*, the Scripture says, *I will not give to another*; for the Son is not a second God, but the Word of the one and only God, acknowledged as God in the Father, just as the Father is acknowledged as God in the Son, just as (63) Isaiah also says, acknowledging the Son with the Father: *They shall worship you and pray in you, because God is in you, and besides you there is no God. For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Savior.* All those who oppose him shall be ashamed and confounded. And those oppose him (64) who do not confess him and his Spirit to be of the same essence as the Father, and who do not believe that besides him there is no God, and those who are ashamed of his passion and poverty. For no one can know God, unless he confesses with the apostle Thomas (65) him who was crucified and rose from the dead as Lord and God, who says to his disciples: *If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; and from now on you know him, and have seen him.* Philip says to him: *Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.* Jesus says to him: *Have I been with you so long, and have you not known me? Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father. And how do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me (66)? The words that I speak, I do not speak on my own authority; but my Father who dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father (67), and the Father is in me. If not, believe me for the sake of the works themselves.* Now it was the work of God the Father (68) to cast out demons; but he said he casts out demons in the Holy Spirit: *If I*, he says, *cast out demons by the Spirit of God*. Concerning which Luke says (69): *But if I cast out demons by the finger of God*. For sometimes Scripture calls Christ the arm of the Father, B but the Holy Spirit the finger of God. Sometimes it calls the Son of God the Word, but the Holy Spirit the breathing of God. C D
A 20. And again the Apostle says: *When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have brought to nought all principality and all power and virtue. For he must reign, until he put all enemies under his feet. And the enemy death shall be destroyed last: for he hath put all things under his feet.* But when he says, *that all things are put under him, it is manifest, that he is excepted, who subjected all things to him. And when all things shall be subjected to him, then the Son also himself shall be subject to him that subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.* He speaks concerning the subjection of the world, which is subjected in his flesh. For concerning his divine kingdom, Daniel spoke using these words: *And his kingdom shall have no end.* Just as Luke says the angel Gabriel spoke to the Virgin B concerning the Lord: *And he shall reign,* he says, *for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.* But the Apostle says his kingdom is to have an end. For he must reign, he says, until he put all enemies under his feet. Likewise also David: *The Lord said to my Lord,* he says, *Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool.* Therefore, what he says, *sit*, signifies the beginning: and what he says, *until thy enemies be placed*, indicates the end. But when all things shall have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also shall be subject to him who subjected all things to him: *that God may be all in all*: that is, when we have all been found subjected to the Son, and been found his members, and have been made in him sons of God—*for you,* he says, *are one in Christ Jesus*; then he himself shall be subjected for us to the Father, C as the head for its members. For as long as all his members were not yet subject, he himself, who is their head, was not subject to the Father, while he was awaiting his own members. But if he had been one of the subject ones, he would have been subject to the Father from the beginning, and would not have done this at the end. For it is we who are in him who are subjected to the Father; and it is we who reign in him, until our enemies are placed under our feet. For because of our enemies, the Lord of the heavens was made in our likeness: and received that human throne of David his father, according to the flesh, so that he might rebuild and re-
Astore it. That, when it is restored, we all may reign in him, and he may deliver the human kingdom, once set aright, to the Father, that God may be all in all, reigning through him, as through the Word of God, after he has reigned through him, as through a human Savior.
21. And when Peter says: *Let all the house of Israel know that God hath made both Lord and Christ this same Jesus, whom you have crucified* (Act. II, 36); he does not speak concerning his divinity, that he made him both Lord and Christ, but concerning his humanity, which is the whole Church, which rules and reigns in him after he was crucified; and which is anointed for the kingdom of the heavens, that it may reign with him, who emptied himself for its sake, and took it up through the servile form. For the Word and the Son of God was always Lord and God: and not after the crucifixion was he made Lord and Christ: but, as I said before, his divinity made his humanity Lord and Christ. And when he says: *Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done* (Matth. XXVI, 39); and, *The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak* (Ibid. 41; Marc. XIV, 38); he shows two wills here: the one human, which is of the flesh; the other divine, which is of God. For the human [[will]], on account of the weakness of the flesh, shrinks from the passion; but his divine will is willing. And just as Peter, having heard about the passion, was afraid and said: *Be it far from thee, Lord* (Matth. XVI, 22); but the Lord, rebuking him, says: *Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men* (Ibid. 23); so here too it is understood: for having become in the likeness of men, he shrinks from the passion, as a man; but being God, and existing as impassible according to his divine substance, he gladly accepted the passion and
A lives by his own power.
22. And when the Lord says in the Gospel according to John: *This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ*; the same John elsewhere calls the Son true God: *For we know*, he says, *that the Son of God has come; and he has given us understanding, that we may know the true God, and we are in the true God, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and life eternal*. Therefore, the Son is the true God, both before he became man, and after he became the mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus. For this is what he says: *and him whom he sent, Jesus Christ*, who is united to the Father according to the Spirit, but to us according to the flesh, and thus became mediator between God and men; B who is not only man, but is also the same God, as Jeremiah likewise says: *This is our God, and none other shall be reckoned against him. He has discovered every way of knowledge, and has given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved*. After this he was seen on the earth, and conversed with men. When, however, did he converse with men, if not when he was born with them of a woman, was an infant with them, grew with them, and ate with them? And elsewhere it is said: *His heart is deep above all; and he is man, and who shall know him?* Similarly Isaiah says: *A child is born to us, and a son is given to us.* C D
whose sovereignty is established upon his shoulder.* And his name is called A Messenger of Great Counsel, wonderful, counselor, mighty God, potentate, prince of peace, father of the coming age. And elsewhere he says: *Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb,* and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us. God, therefore, is he who was born of the Virgin, and became man from Mary the Theotokos. And again elsewhere he says: *And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty.* For he had seen him before this in his divine and most glorious form, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, when also the seraphim B glorified him, saying: *Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Sabaoth.* And after this he sees him having taken the form of a servant, and having become in the likeness of man. For this reason he says: *We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was dishonored, and failing more than all the sons of men. A man in the rank of a sufferer, and knowing how to bear infirmity.* Because his face was turned away; he was dishonored and not esteemed; *this one bears our infirmities, and suffers pain for us.* And we accounted him to be in labor, and in a stroke, and in affliction. *But he was wounded for our sins,* C and was made weak for our iniquities. And elsewhere he says concerning him: *Behold our God renders judgment, and he will recompense. He himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then the lame man shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be clear.* And again elsewhere he says: *Not an angel, nor a messenger,* but the Lord himself has saved us. And David says: *Mother Zion will say, A man, and a man is born in her, and the Most High himself has founded her.* For that man who is born in her is himself the Most High, as he also says in another Psalm: D *And let them know that thy name is Lord; thou alone art Most High over all the earth.* We have described these things in part, so that, as the Apostle says, we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every
by the craft of men, in subtlety for the circumventing of error. A And David says: "Mother Sion shall say, 'A man and a man was born in her, and the Most High Himself founded her.'" For this man who was born in her, He Himself is the Most High, as B in another psalm he says: "And let them know that Thy name is Lord; Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth." We have written these things in part, in order that, as the Apostle said, we may be no longer children, tossed about and carried about with every wind of doctrine, C by the sleight of men, in craftiness unto the method of error.
NOTICE TO THE EPISTLE TO THE BISHOPS OF AFRICA
I. It has long been observed by the learned Baronius that it is a mistake to think that the Africans—to whom this epistle is sent—were Cyrenaicans; a point which is indeed most clearly refuted by this very passage, namely number 10, where Athanasius says that this epistle was sent and subscribed to, not by himself alone, but by all the bishops of Egypt and the Libyas. For when he mentions the Libyas, in numbers 1 and 10, he indicates without doubt both Libyas, the Cyrenaic or Pentapolitan and the Marmaric, and whatever territory, under the name of Libya, extends from Cyrenaica to Egypt; both of which were then under the patriarchate of Alexandria. And indeed, Athanasius is accustomed, when writing synodical epistles from Alexandria, to join Libya and Pentapolis or Cyrenaica with Egypt, as on page 99. Finally, where he enumerates ecclesiastical provinces, he always distinguishes Africa from Libya and Pentapolis or Cyrenaica, as can be seen above on pages 97 and 157, and in the subscriptions of Sardica; so that it is most certain that by the name "Africa" here, and elsewhere, is designated the western coast, in which Carthage was situated.
II. Furthermore, the reason why the Africans were given this epistle by Athanasius and other bishops is clear from the outset; for they were warned not to obey men who, burning with a desire to abrogate the Nicene faith, were leaving no stone unturned in order to give force to those things which were falsely claimed to have been issued at Ariminum, although in truth they had been written D and proposed at Nice in Thrace. After this, the Nicene synod is commended in this epistle, both for its piety and for the multitude of bishops who gathered to celebrate it, which is shown to be superior to the various Arian conventicles in several respects. Then the history of the events at the Nicene synod is woven, for the purpose of maintaining the word *homoousion*; and finally, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is defended in a few words. It is a singular detail that is recounted towards the end, that the Egyptian and Libyan bishops were joined by such a tight bond of charity that, when some were absent, those who were present would subscribe in their stead.
III. In what year this epistle was written does not at all appear among the writers of that age; a recent author assigned the year 371 to it, to whom, however, we shall reluctantly assent, though he is most skilled, because he assigns that synod to a time too late for the other works which Athanasius produced until his death to have been able to obtain a sufficient span of time. Wherefore, we think it can more conveniently be assigned to about the year 369, as is argued more fully in the Life of Athanasius.