[ Eidos ]

 [ Enos ontos eidous theotetos ], says Athan. Syn. § 52. The word [ eidos ], face, cast of countenance, assemblage of features, is generally applied to the Son, and is synonymous with hypostasis ; but it is remarkable that here as elsewhere it is almost synonymous with [ ousia ] or [ physis ]. Indeed in one sense nature, substance, and hypostasis, are all synonymous, i.e. as one and all denoting the Una Res, which is Almighty God. They differed, in that the word hypostasis regards the One God as He is the Son. The apparent confusion is useful then as reminding us of this great truth, that God is One; vid. infr. art. [ Mia physis ].

 In Orat. iii. § 6, first the Son s [ eidos ] is the [ eidos ] of the Father, then the Son is the [ eidos ] of the Father s Godhead, and then in the Son is the [ eidos ] of the Father. These expressions are equivalent, if Father and Son are, Each separately, [ holos theos ]. S. Greg. Naz. uses the word [ opisthia ], (Exod. xxxiii. 23, which forms a contrast to [ eidos ],) for the Divine Works. Orat. 28. 3.

 Vid. also in Gen. xxxii. 30, 31, Sept., where it is translated face, in Vulg., though in John v. 37 species. vid. Justin Tryph. 126. In Orat. iii. § 15, [ eidos ] is also used in composition for kind. Athan. says as above, there is but one face of Godhead; yet the word is used of the Son as synonymous with image.  It would seem as if there were a certain class of words, all expressive of the One Divine Substance, which admit of more appropriate application, either ordinarily or under circumstances, to This or That Divine Person who is also that One Substance. Thus Being is more descriptive of the Father as the [ pege theotetos ], and He is said to be the Being of the Son; yet the Son is really the One Supreme Being also. On the other hand the word form, [ morphe ], and face, [ eidos ], are rather descriptive of the Divine Substance in the Person of the Son, and He is called the form and the face of the Father, yet there is but one Form and Face of God, who is at once Each of Three Persons; while Spirit is appropriated to the Third Person, though God is a Spirit. Thus again S. Hippolytus says [ ek [ton patros] dunamis logos ], yet shortly before, after mentioning the Two Persons, he adds, [ dumamin de mian ]. contr. Noet. 7 and 11. And thus the word Subsistence, [ hypostasis ], which expresses the One Divine Substance, has been found more appropriate to express that Substance viewed personally. Other words may be used correlatively of either Father or Son; thus the Father is the Life of the Son, the Son the Life of the Father; or, again, the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father. Others in common, as the Father s Godhead is the Son s, [ he patrike huiou theotes ], as indeed the word [ ousia ] itself. Other words on the contrary express the Substance in This or That Person only, as Word,  Image, etc. The word [ eidos ] also occurs Orat. i. 20. Ep. Æg. 17. contr. Sabell. Greg. 8 and 12.