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OF OUR HOLY AND GREAT FATHER

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

PRESBYTER AND HEGUMEN

OF THE MONASTERY OF SAINT MAMAS OF XEROKERKOS.

THE BOOK OF THEOLOGICAL WORKS

THE FIRST THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE (13)

And against those who posit 'the first' of the Father.

To speak or utter things concerning God, and to investigate the things pertaining to Him, and to make the ineffable effable, and to suggest that things incomprehensible to all are comprehensible, would be a sign of a rash and audacious soul. And this is suffered not only by as many as dare to say anything from themselves concerning God, but also by as many as memorize and meddle with what was spoken long ago against heretics by the divinely-inspired theologians and handed down in writing, not so that they might reap some spiritual benefit, but so that they might be admired by their hearers at drinking parties and councils and be acclaimed as theologians; which grieves me the more and makes me distressed, when I consider the dreadfulness of the undertaking and the judgment laid up for the audacious. What things they say, daring against the divine! In this alone, he says, is the Father greater than the Son, in that He is the cause of the Son's existence. And the counter-argument: How (14) do you say the Father is greater than the Son? Because, he says, the Father is greater than the Son, but I say this instead of 'first'; for He is from the Father. These things are of their new empty chatter and unintelligent theology, since they are ignorant of the cause for which these things were said by the theologians against heretics; for being unable to understand the power of what has been written, they intrude into what is void and affirm the things they say as if they were certain and true and so. To them, it is fitting that we, not from ourselves, but initiated into the mysteries by Him who teaches man knowledge, and persuaded by the Spirit who inspires from above, should speak thus.

If, O you men, the all-holy Trinity, which brought all things into being out of non-being, was, and is, and ever shall be undivided, who taught, who conceived of measures and degrees, first and second, greater and lesser, within it? Who set these things forth concerning what is unseen and unknown and in every way uninterpretable and incomprehensible? For things that are ever united and ever exist in the same way cannot be first with respect to one another. But if you wish to call the Father first with respect to the Son, as the One from whom He was begotten, and on this account rather also greater, I say to you also that the Son is first with respect to the Father; for if He had not been begotten, the Father would not have been named Father. But if you place the Father before the Son at all and name Him first as the cause of the Son's begetting, I reject [the idea of His] being the cause of the Son.

For you give the suspicion that the Son was not before He was begotten, and was begotten willing or unwilling, and by the Father's will or unwillingness, and knew that He was begotten and how, or not at all.

Do you see into how many absurdities, not to say blasphemies, we fall from such discussions. Either, then, flee from saying the Father is first with respect to the Son, and

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ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ

ΣΥΜΕΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΝΕΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΥ

ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΗΓΟΥΜΕΝΟΥ

ΜΟΝΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΜΑΝΤΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΞΗΡΟΚΕΡΚΟΥ.

ΒΙΒΛΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΩΝ

ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ (13)

Καί κατά τῶν τιθεμένων τό πρῶτον ἐπί τοῦ Πατρός.

Τό περί Θεοῦ λέγειν ἤ φθέγγεσθαι καί τά κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἐρευνᾶν καί τά ἀνέκφορα ποιεῖν ἔκφορα καί τά πᾶσιν ἀκατάληπτα ὡς καταληπτά ὑπεμφαίνειν τολμηρᾶς ἄν εἴη καί αὐθαδοῦς ψυχῆς ἔνδειγμα. Καί τοῦτο πάσχουσιν οὐχ ὅσοι ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν τι λέγειν τολμῶσι μόνον περί Θεοῦ, ἀλλά καί ὅσοι τά πρός αἱρετικούς πάλαι λαληθέντα παρά τῶν θεσπεσίων θεολόγων καί γραφῇ παραδοθέντα ἀποστηθίζουσί τε καί πολυπραγμονοῦσιν, οὐχ ἵνα πνευματικήν τινά ὠφέλειαν καρπώσωνται, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα θαυμάζωνται παρά τῶν ἀκουόντων ἐν πότοις καί συνεδρίοις καί θεολόγοι ἐπιφημίζωνται· ὅ καί μᾶλλον λυπεῖ με καί ἐν ἀδημονίᾳ ποιεῖ, ἐννοοῦντα τό φρικτόν τοῦ ἐγχειρήματος καί τό τοῖς τολμητίαις ἀποκείμενον κρῖμα. Οἷα δέ φασι τῶν θείων κατατολμῶντες! Κατά τοῦτο, φησί, μόνον μείζων ὁ Πατήρ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, καθ᾿ ὅ αἴτιός ἐστι τῆς ὑπάρξεως τοῦ Υἱοῦ. Καί ἡ ἀνθυποφορά· μείζονα τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα πῶς (14) φῄς; Ὅτι δή, φησί, μείζων ὁ Πατήρ τοῦ Υἱοῦ λέγω δέ ἀντί τοῦ πρῶτος · ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός γάρ. Ταῦτα τῆς καινῆς κενοφωνίας αὐτῶν καί ἀσυνέτου θεολογίας, τήν αἰτίαν δι᾿ ἥν ταῦτα πρός τῶν θεολόγων ἐλέχθησαν πρός αἱρετικούς ἀγνοούντων· τήν γάρ δύναμιν τῶν γεγραμμένων νοῆσαι μή ἱκανῶς ἔχοντες, κενεμβατοῦσιν καί ἅ λέγουσιν ὡς βέβαια καί ἀληθῆ καί οὕτως ἔχοντα διαβεβαιοῦνται. Πρός οὕς εἰκότως οὐκ ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ διδάσκοντος ἄνθρωπον γνῶσιν μυσταγωγούμενοι, τῷ ὑπηχοῦντι ἄνωθεν πειθόμενοι Πνεύματι, εἴπωμεν ὧδε.

Εἰ ἀδιαίρετος ἦν, ὦ οὗτοι, καί ἔστι καί ἔσται ἀεί ἡ παναγία Τριάς, ἡ τό πᾶν ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος παραγαγοῦσα, τίς ἐδίδαξε, τίς ἐνενόησε μέτρα καί βαθμούς, πρῶτον καί δεύτερον, μεῖζον καί ἔλαττον ἐν αὐτῇ; Τίς τοῖς ἀθεάτοις καί ἀγνώστοις καί πάντῃ ἀνερμηνεύτοις καί ἀκατανοήτοις ταῦτα ἐξέθετο; Τά γάρ ἀεί ἡνωμένα καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ὄντα, ἀλλήλων πρῶτα εἶναι οὐ δύνανται. Εἰ δέ πρῶτον βούλει σύ τόν Πατέρα εἰπεῖν τοῦ Υἱοῦ, ὡς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντος, καί κατά τοῦτο μᾶλλον καί μείζονα, λέγω σοι κἀγώ πρῶτον εἶναι τοῦ Πατρός τόν Υἱόν· εἰ μή γάρ οὗτος ἐγεννήθη, οὐκ ἄν πατήρ ὁ Πατήρ ὠνομάζετο. Εἰ δέ προτάσσεις ὅλως τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα καί πρῶτον αὐτόν ὡς αἴτιον τῆς τοῦ Υἱοῦ γεννήσεως ὀνομάζεις, καί τό εἶναι τοῦ Υἱοῦ αἴτιον ἀποβάλλομαι.

Ὑπόνοιαν γάρ παρέχεις ὅτι οὐκ ἦν ὁ Υἱός πρό τοῦ γεννηθῆναι, καί θέλων ἐγεννήθη ἤ μή θέλων, καί θέλοντος τοῦ Πατρός ἤ μή θέλοντος, καί ἔγνω ὅτι ἐγεννήθη καί πῶς ἤ οὐδαμῶς.

Ὁρᾷς εἰς ὅσας ἀτοπίας, ἵνα μή λέγω βλασφημίας, ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων ἐμπίπτομεν συζητήσεων. Ἤ τοίνυν τό πρῶτον λέγειν τοῦ Υἱοῦ τόν Πατέρα ἀπόδραθι, καί