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and preaching that which is co-eternal, having written, as was said above: “who being the radiance of the glory of the Father” he added: “and the express image of His substance.” 16.28 And again to the Colossians and to the Hebrews he wrote: “who is the image of the invisible God.” 16.29 And in the Gospel according to John the Son, showing that His own essence was sealed with the Father's express image, said: “for on him God the Father has set his seal.” 16.30 since the seal clearly co-exists with the archetype and is of equal form, and in itself showing perfectly and truly the unity of nature of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For the seal, like the express image, signifies that which is similar and unadulterated. 16.31 since it is time to say that the Father is not unbegotten and incomparable, if indeed He is imaged and characterized by one who is created and dissimilar. 16.32 Not understanding correctly these divine oracles that need no interpretation, but twisting them and fighting against the words of God with human thoughts, they claim: “God is one thing and the image of God another, just as a man is one thing and the image of a man another.” 16.33 And in a certain way they liken the living and active God the Word to a motionless image. But in essence and in all things He is the most unerring and eternal image of the Father, and not according to form and shape, like a molded or carved statue that is breathless and not self-moving, nor according to appearance and color, like an artificial and imitative voiceless icon. For these are not according to nature, nor indeed in all other things do they reveal the prototype. 16.34 For a son of man is an image of the substance of his own father; but it happens that he differs in age or appearance or opinion or power or rank or both or even something else. 16.35 But God the Word unchangeably and precisely in all things naturally and eternally images the simple and uncompounded and unvaried paternal divinity. 16.36 For it is not permitted to think, that He is in some respect an image of God and in some respect differs; 16.36 nor indeed does He become an image of the "incomparable"; nor can the true and archetypal and greater and self-determining and incomparable appear through that which is dissimilar or lesser or subordinate; nor, again, can the natural form of the creator be perceived through the creature. 16.37 For neither does one nature display the other in itself. 16.38 But the Father is also found to have become without substance, when the heretics do not grant that He has the express image of His substance. 16.39 But neither does the invisible and uncompounded and unformed God have such an imitative image as they present. 16.40 And what they say is clearly refuted by the following addition: “He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.” 16.41 And concerning a natural image Moses also teaches thus: “Adam begat Seth according to his form.” And Seth was not necessarily of a different substance from Adam, and yet he called the form the image and likeness of the substance. 16.42 But also concerning man, he says, it is written, that he is “the image and glory of God.” 16.43 But nowhere, O you men, is man or any other creature written to be “the radiance of the glory of God and the express image of His substance.” 16.44 It is one thing for man to be an image of God, that is, the thing made of the maker, as a stool of the carpenter—for Solomon says: “The creator is seen in proportion to his creatures”—and it is another to be the radiance of glory and the express image of substance, according to what is conformed and of the same substance and co-eternal, being substantial and most true. 16.45 For He says: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” But he who has seen a man has not seen God, just as he who has looked upon the stool has not seen the carpenter. 16.46 But it is also necessary that the image of the only invisible God be itself only invisible and not the visible man who is in the image. 16.47 Therefore, the Son is not like another: for it is written: “Who among the sons of God will be likened to the Lord?” nor is he unlike his own Father; “For I,” he says, “and the Father are one.” 16.48 but those who have the notion of a created image concerning him
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καὶ τὸ συνάναρχον κηρύττων, γράψας, ὡς ἀνωτέρω ἐλέχθη· «ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης τοῦ πατρός» ἐπήγαγεν· «καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ». 16.28 καὶ πάλιν πρὸς Κολοσσαεῖς καὶ πρὸς Ἑβραίους ἐπέστειλεν· «ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου». 16.29 καὶ ἐν τῷ κατὰ Ἰωάννην δὲ εὐαγγελίῳ ὁ υἱὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ οὐσίαν πατρικῷ χαρακτῆρι ἐσφραγίσθαι παριστῶν εἶπεν· «τοῦτον γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ἐσφράγισεν ὁ θεός». 16.30 συνυφεστηκυίας δὲ δηλονότι τῆς σφραγίδος τῷ ἀρχετύπῳ καὶ ἰσοτύπου οὔσης, καὶ ἐν ἑαυτῇ δὲ δεικνυούσης τελείως καὶ ἀληθῶς τὴν πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου μονάδα τῆς φύσεως. ἡ γὰρ σφραγίς, ὡς καὶ ὁ χαρακτήρ, τὸ ὅμοιον καὶ ἀνόθευτον σημαίνει. 16.31 ἐπεὶ καιρὸς εἰπεῖν καὶ τὸν πατέρα μὴ ἀγενήτως καὶ ἀσυγκρίτως ἔχειν, εἴπερ ἐξεικονίζεται καὶ χαρακτηρίζεται ὑπὸ γενητοῦ καὶ ἀνομοίου. 16.32 Τὰ θεῖα ταῦτα καὶ ἑρμηνείας ἀνεπιδεᾶ λόγια μὴ συνέντες ὀρθῶς, διαστρέφοντες δὲ καὶ ἀνθρωπίνοις νοήμασι μαχόμενοι τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ ῥήμασι φάσκουσιν· «ἄλλο θεὸς καὶ ἄλλο εἰκὼν θεοῦ, ὡς ἄλλο ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἄλλο εἰκὼν ἀνθρώ που.» 16.33 καὶ τρόπον τινὰ εἰκόνι ἀκινήτῳ τὸν ζῶντα καὶ ἐνεργὸν θεὸν λόγον ἀπεικάζουσιν. κατ' οὐσίαν δὲ καὶ κατὰ πάντα εἰκών ἐστιν ἀπλανεστάτη καὶ ἄναρχος τοῦ πατρός, καὶ οὐ κατὰ μορφὴν καὶ σχῆμα, ὡς ὁ πλαστουργηθεὶς ἢ γεγλυμμένος ἄπνους καὶ οὐκ αὐτοκίνητος ἀνδριάς, οὐδὲ κατὰ εἶδος καὶ χρῶμα, ὡς ἡ τεχνητὴ καὶ μιμητὴ ἄφωνος εἰκών. ταῦτα γὰρ οὐδὲ κατὰ φύσιν, οὐδὲ μὴν εἰς ὅλα τὰ ἄλλα ἐκφαίνουσιν τὸν πρωτότυπον. 16.34 καὶ υἱὸς μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρώπου εἰκὼν οὐσίας τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ πατρός ἐστιν· ἀλλὰ συμβαίνει παραλλάττειν ἡλικίαν ἢ εἶδος ἢ γνώμην ἢ δύναμιν ἢ ἀξίαν ἢ τὰ συναμφότερα ἢ καί τι ἕτερον. 16.35 ὁ δὲ θεὸς λόγος ἀπαραλλάκτως καὶ ἀπηκριβωμένως εἰς ὅλα τὴν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἀσύνθετον καὶ ἀποίκιλον πατρικὴν θεότητα φυσικῶς καὶ ἀνάρχως ἐξεικονίζει. 16.36 Οὐδὲ γὰρ νοεῖν ἐξόν, ὡς κατά τι θεοῦ εἰκὼν καὶ παρά τι παραλλάττει· 16.36 οὐδὲ μὴν γίνεται «ἀσυγκρίτου» εἰκών· οὐδὲ δύναται διὰ τοῦ ἀνομοίου ἢ μικροτέρου ἢ ὑπεξουσίου τὸ ἀληθὲς καὶ ἀρχέτυπον καὶ μεῖζον καὶ αὐτεξούσιον καὶ ἀσύγκριτον φαίνεσθαι· οὐδ' αὖ διὰ τοῦ κτίσματος ἡ φυσικὴ μορφὴ τοῦ κτίσαντος κατανοεῖσθαι. 16.37 Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ ἄλλη φύσις τὴν ἑτέραν ἐν ἑαυτῇ ἐπιδείκνυσιν. 16.38 Ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ εὑρίσκεται ἀνυπόστατος γεγενῆσθαι, ὅτε αἱρετικοὶ τὸν χαρακτῆρα οὐ διδόασιν ἔχειν αὐτὸν τῆς ὑποστάσεως. 16.39 ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ὁ ἀόρατος καὶ ἀσύνθετος καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος θεὸς εἰκόνα ἔχει οἵαν ἐκεῖνοι ἐμφαίνουσι μιμητικήν. 16.40 Παραλύει δὲ τὰ ἐκείνων σαφῶς καὶ ἡ ἐπαγωγὴ ἔχουσα· «οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ». 16.41 περὶ δὲ φυσικῆς εἰκόνος ὑφηγεῖται καὶ Μωϋσῆς οὑτωσί· «ἐγέννησεν Ἀδὰμ τὸν Σὴθ κατὰ τὴν ἰδέαν αὐτοῦ». οὐκ ἦν δὲ ἑτεροούσιος ἀναγκαίως ὁ Σὴθ τῷ Ἀδάμ, καὶ ὅμως ἰδέαν τὴν εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν τῆς οὐσίας ἐκάλεσεν. 16.42 _̓Αλλὰ καὶ περὶ ἀνθρώπου, φησίν, γέγραπται, ὅτι ἐστίν «εἰκὼν καὶ δόξα θεοῦ». 16.43 ἀλλ' οὐδαμοῦ, ὦ οὗτοι, ἄνθρωπος ἢ ἄλλο ποίημα γέγραπται εἶναι «ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως». 16.44 ἄλλο δέ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπον εἰκόνα εἶναι θεοῦ, τουτέστιν τὸ τεχνηθὲν τοῦ τεχνησαμένου, ὡς δίφρος τοῦ τέκτονος Σολομὼν γὰρ λέγει· «ἀναλόγως τῶν κτισμάτων ὁ γενεσιουργὸς θεωρεῖται», καὶ ἄλλο ἐστὶν κατὰ τὸ σύμμορφον καὶ ταυτούσιον καὶ συνάναρχον ἀπαύγασμα εἶναι δόξης καὶ χαρακτῆρα ὑποστάσεως ἐνυπόστατον καὶ ἀψευδέστατον. 16.45 φησὶν γάρ· «ὁ ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ ἑώρακε τὸν πατέρα». ὁ δὲ ἑωρακὼς ἄνθρωπον οὐχ ἑώρακεν τὸν θεόν, ὡς ὁ θεασάμενος τὸν δίφρον οὐχ ἑώρακε τὸν τέκτονα. 16.46 ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνάγκη τοῦ μόνου ἀοράτου θεοῦ μόνην ἀόρατον εἶναι ἐκείνην τὴν εἰκόνα καὶ οὐ τὸν κατ' εἰκόνα ὁρατὸν ἄνθρωπον. 16.47 Οὔτε οὖν ἄλλῳ ὅμοιός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός: γράφει γάρ· «τίς ὁμοιωθήσεται τῷ κυρίῳ ἐν υἱοῖς θεοῦ;» οὔτε τῷ ἑαυτοῦ πατρὶ ἀνόμοιος· «ἐγὼ γάρ», φησίν, «καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν». 16.48 οἱ δὲ κτιστῆς εἰκόνος ἔννοιαν ἐπὶ αὐτοῦ