the Word being creator. Let them cease from this point on to interpret the divine Scriptures falsely, and let them not be a scandal to the simpler brethren; but if they wish, let them too change their minds, and no longer serve the creature instead of God, who created all things. But if they desire to persist in their impieties, let them be satisfied to bear the consequences alone among themselves, and let them gnash their teeth like their father the devil, since the faith of the catholic Church recognizes the Word of God as the creator and artificer of all things. And we know that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." We worship Him having become man for our salvation, not as an equal having come to be in an equal body, but as the Lord who took the form of a servant, and as the artificer and creator having come to be in a created being, so that B by freeing all things in Himself, He might bring the world to the Father, and make peace for all things, both those in heaven and those on earth. For thus do we acknowledge His paternal divinity, and we worship His corporeal presence, even if the Arians burst asunder. Greet all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for your health and that you remain mindful of us before the Lord, most beloved and truly most desired, if there is need for these things to be read to Hieracas the presbyter.
ADMONITION TO THE EPISTLE OF SAINT ATHANASIUS TO MAXIMUS THE PHILOSOPHER
I. About this same time saint Athanasius’s response to Maximus the philosopher was given, to whom there is also an epistle to Adelphius: concerning which, as it happens, manifold opinions were arising regarding the Incarnation of the Lord. Therefore, by this epistle, the holy doctor approves what Maximus had written to him against certain heretics—some of whom, that is, denied that Christ was true God; others surmised that the Word, as in former times, had come upon some man, and was not truly made man Himself; while others still thought that He had become man by the common order of nature. Athanasius briefly disputes against those errors, saying that he himself had borrowed what he says from the letters of Maximus, and that he deemed nothing needed to be added, but only to remember the cross, so that those who, from the things which the Lord did and suffered as man, deny that He is God, might, with their opinion changed, now adore the Crucified. We have seen elsewhere that Athanasius, while arguing against the Arians, shows that the Word truly became man, and not, as in former times, that He came upon some holy man: which error he also expressly refutes above in the Epistle to Epictetus.
II. This Maximus the philosopher, to whom saint Athanasius sends the epistle, appears to be none other than that Alexandrian whose praises Gregory Nazianzen celebrates in his 23rd oration, in whose name, as Jerome narrates in his *Catalogue of ecclesiastical writers*, some later suppressed it and wrote in the false name of Hero, because, forsooth, the same Gregory in another place inveighs against him most vehemently: "As if it were not permitted," says Jerome, "to both praise and vituperate the same man according to the time." However, Gregory testifies that Maximus was accustomed to dispute against the Gentiles and the heretics, as is clear from these words of his: "Confuse both the superstition of the Greeks..."
as before, and their godless polytheism, and their ancient and recent gods, and their shameful myths... and likewise break the assaults of the rising heresies, and with as much greater fervor as you have suffered." These things surely apply excellently to the Maximus to whom Athanasius writes, who had suffered for the faith of Christ. Saint Jerome also records in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers that this same Maximus wrote an eminent book, *On the Faith*, against the Arians, and presented it to Gratian at Milan.
TO OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO MAXIMUS THE PHILOSOPHER
To my beloved and truly most-desired son Maximus the philosopher, Athanasius sends greetings in the Lord.
1. Having read what you have recently written, I have approved of your piety; but since I was greatly astonished at the rashness of those men who understand neither what they say nor of whom they affirm these things, I had determined to remain altogether silent. For to answer regarding matters so evident and clearer than the light itself is nothing other than to provide an opportunity for impudence to such wicked men. And this we have learned from the Savior himself. For after Pilate had washed his hands and had acknowledged the calumny of the Jews of that time, the Lord no longer answered him, but rather warned his wife through a vision, so that he who was being judged might be believed to be God not by words, but by power. And just as he did not answer Caiaphas regarding his trifles, yet he himself brought all to the knowledge of himself through his promise. For much time, therefore, I delayed, and seeing the logomachy of the shameless, I was with difficulty compelled by your own zeal for the truth, and I have dictated nothing more than what was written by you, so that if the adversary has resisted these, he may henceforth, being convinced by them, "keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile." And would that such men might no longer, with the Jews who were passing by at that time, reproach him who was hanging upon the wood, saying, "If he is the Son of God, let him save himself." But if they are not humbled even in this way, do you, mindful of the apostolic precept, "avoid a heretical man after a first and second warning," knowing that such a one is subverted and sins, being condemned by his own judgment. For if they are Gentiles or from the number of those who Judaize who dare such things, those...
A let them consider the cross of Christ a stumbling block, as do the Greeks, or foolishness; but if they pretend to be Christians, let them learn that the Christ who was crucified is the Lord of glory, and the power of God and the wisdom of God.
2. And if they doubt that He is also God, let them fear Thomas, who handled the crucified One with his hands and affirmed that He is Lord and God. And let them fear the Lord Himself, who, after washing the feet of the disciples, said: "You call me Lord and teacher, and you speak well; for I am." B In the body in which He was when He washed their feet, in that same body He bore our sins to the wood. And He was witnessed to as the Master of creation, as the sun drew back its rays, and the earth trembled, and the rocks were rent, and the executioners themselves recognized that the One crucified was truly the Son of God. For the body that was seen was not that of just any man, but of God, and while He was in it and being crucified, He raised the dead. Therefore, that daring claim of theirs is not to be endured, which says that the Word of God came to some holy man (for this occurred in each of the prophets and other holy men), lest He appear to be born and die again and again. C But it is not so; God forbid! But once, at the end of the ages, for the taking away of sin, the Word Himself became flesh and came forth from the Virgin Mary, a man according to our likeness, just as He also said to the Jews: "Why do you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth?" We do not become gods by partaking of the body of some other person, but by receiving the body of the Word Himself.
3. Certainly, it also seems wonderful to me how they have dared even to think that He was made man by the common order of nature. For if it were so, the mention of Mary would be superfluous. For nature has no knowledge of a virgin giving birth without the union of a man. Therefore, with the Father’s approval, He, being true God and by nature the Word and wisdom of the Father, D became man in the flesh for the sake of our salvation, in order that, having something to offer on our behalf, He might save all of us who, by the fear of death, were subject to slavery throughout our whole lives. For no other man gave himself for us, since every man was liable to death, according to what was said to all in Adam: "You are earth, and to earth you shall return." Nor could any other created thing do this, since all creation is subject to change. But the Word Himself offered His own body for us, so that our faith and hope might not be in a man, but that we might have our faith in God the Word Himself. Indeed, when He was made man, we behold His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace.