259
you were sending also to those whom you promised. But now a greater care for greater things has come upon us, for which we have no other such partner and protector to call upon among men now living as the one whom God has granted to us, precise in both knowledge and speech, and at the same time accessible. Since, therefore, those who are confusing everything and have filled the world with arguments and questions have cast out the name of "substance" as foreign to the divine oracles, deign to indicate to us both how the Fathers used it and whether you have found it nowhere in Scripture. For they spit upon the "epiousion" bread and the "periousion" people and anything of that sort as having nothing in common. Then, moreover, concerning the "homoousios" itself (on account of which I believe they are contriving these things, profoundly slandering "substance" in order to leave no room for "homoousios") be pleased to explain to us more fully what meaning it has and how it might be soundly said of those for whom neither a common superior genus is considered, nor a pre-existing underlying matter, nor a division of the first into the second. How then one ought to say that the Son is "homoousios" with the Father, without falling into any of the aforementioned concepts, please articulate to us more fully. For we have supposed that whatever the substance of the Father is assumed to be, this of absolute necessity the substance of the Son must also be taken to be. So that if one should say the substance of the Father is light intelligible, eternal, unbegotten, he will say the substance of the Only-begotten is also light intelligible, eternal, begotten. And to such a concept, the term "unvaryingly like" seems to me to be more fitting than that of "homoousios." For light to light, having no difference in the more and the less, is not the same, because each is in its own circumscription of substance, but to be precisely and unvaryingly like in substance would, I think, be rightly said. Whether, therefore, one ought to discuss these concepts or to take up other, greater ones, as a wise physician (for we have revealed to you the things in our heart) heal what is sick, support what is unsound, and in every way strengthen us. I greet the brethren with your reverence and I ask to pray with you on our behalf, that we may be saved. Our companion Gregory, having chosen the life with his parents, is with them. May you be kept in good health for a very long time for us, benefiting us both by your prayers and by your knowledge.
362. APOLLINARIUS TO BASIL
362.1 You believe in a God-loving manner and you inquire in a learning-loving manner, and on our part eagerness is owed on account of love, even if ability in speech should not follow, both because of our own deficiency and the transcendent nature of the subject. One substance is not said only numerically, as you say, and that which is in one circumscription, but also specifically of two men and of any other whatsoever of those unified according to genus, so that in this way both two and more can be the same according to substance, just as all of us men are one Adam, and David the son of David is the same as he, just as you rightly say the Son is that according to substance which the Father is. For in no other way would the Son be God, since the Father is confessed as the one and only God, just as Adam is the one progenitor of men and David is the one founder of the royal line. In this way indeed the suspicion of there being one superior genus or one underlying matter for the Father and the Son will be removed, when we take up the progenitor-like property of the highest principle and the genera from progenitors in relation to the only-begotten offspring from the one principle. For such things come into a likeness only in a measured way. Inasmuch as there is no one genus superior to Adam as formed by God and to us as born of man, but he himself is the beginning of men; nor is there a common matter for him and for us, but he himself is the basis of all men. Nor indeed of the
259
ἔπεμπες καὶ οἷς ὑπισχνοῦ. Νῦν δὲ μείζων ἡμῖν ὑπὲρ μειζόνων ἡ φροντὶς προσελήλυθεν, εἰς ἣν οὐδένα ἕτερον ἔχομεν ἐν τοῖς νῦν ἀνθρώποις τοιοῦτον κοινωνὸν καὶ προστάτην ἐπικαλέσασθαι ὁποῖόν σε καὶ ἐν γνώσει καὶ ἐν λόγῳ ἀκριβῆ τε ὁμοῦ καὶ εὐπρόσιτον ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῖν ἐδωρήσατο. Ἐπεὶ οὖν οἱ πάντα φύροντες καὶ λόγων καὶ ζητημάτων τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐμπλή σαντες τὸ τῆς οὐσίας ὄνομα ὡς ἀλλότριον τῶν θείων λογίων ἐξέβαλον, καταξίωσον ἡμῖν σημᾶναι ὅπως τε οἱ Πατέρες αὐτῷ ἐχρήσαντο καὶ εἰ μηδαμοῦ εὗρες ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ κείμε νον. Τὸν γὰρ ἐπιούσιον ἄρτον καὶ τὸν λαὸν τὸν περιούσιον καὶ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον ὡς οὐδὲν ἔχοντα κοινὸν διαπτύουσιν. Ἔπειτα μέντοι καὶ περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ὁμοουσίου (οὗ ἕνεκεν ἡγοῦμαι ταῦτα κατασκευάζειν αὐτοὺς βαθέως τὴν οὐσίαν διαβάλλοντας ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδεμίαν χώραν τῷ ὁμοουσίῳ κατα λιπεῖν) διαλαβεῖν ἡμῖν πλατύτερον βουλήθητι τίνα τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχει καὶ πῶς ἂν ὑγιῶς λέγοιτο ἐφ' ὧν οὔτε γένος κοινὸν ὑπερκείμενον θεωρεῖται οὔτε ὑλικὸν ὑποκείμενον προϋπάρχον, οὐκ ἀπομερισμὸς τοῦ προτέρου εἰς τὸ δεύτε ρον. Πῶς οὖν χρὴ λέγειν ὁμοούσιον τὸν Υἱὸν τῷ Πατρὶ εἰς μηδεμίαν ἔννοιαν τῶν εἰρημένων καταπίπτοντας θέλησον ἡμῖν πλατύτερον διαρθρῶσαι. Ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ ὑπειλήφαμεν· ὅπερ ἂν εἶναι καθ' ὑπόθεσιν ἡ τοῦ Πατρὸς οὐσία ληφθῇ, τοῦτο εἶναι πάντως ἀναγκαῖον καὶ τὴν τοῦ Υἱοῦ λαμβάνεσ θαι. Ὥστε εἰ φῶς νοητόν, ἀΐδιον, ἀγέννητον τὴν τοῦ Πατρὸς οὐσίαν τις λέγοι, φῶς νοητόν, ἀΐδιον, γεννητὸν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Μονογενοῦς οὐσίαν ἐρεῖ. Πρὸς δὲ τὴν τοιαύτην ἔννοιαν δοκεῖ μοι ἡ τοῦ ἀπαραλλάκτως ὁμοίου φωνὴ μᾶλλον ἤπερ ἡ τοῦ ὁμοουσίου ἁρμόττειν. Φῶς γὰρ φωτὶ μηδεμίαν ἐν τῷ μᾶλλον καὶ ἧττον τὴν διαφορὰν ἔχον ταὐτὸν μὲν οὐκ εἶναι, διότι ἐν ἰδίᾳ περιγραφῇ τῆς οὐσίας ἐστὶν ἑκάτερον, ὅμοιον δὲ κατ' οὐσίαν ἀκριβῶς καὶ ἀπαραλλάκτως ὀρθῶς ἂν οἶμαι λέγεσθαι. Εἴτε οὖν ταύτας χρὴ διαλέγεσθαι τὰς ἐννοίας εἴτε ἑτέρας μείζους ἀντιλαβεῖν, ὡς σοφὸς ἰατρὸς (καὶ γὰρ ἐξεφήναμέν σοι τὰ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ) τὸ μὲν ἀρρωστοῦν ἴασαι, τὸ δὲ σαθρὸν ὑποστήριξον, παντὶ δὲ τρόπῳ βεβαίω σον ἡμᾶς. Τοὺς μετὰ τῆς εὐλαβείας σου ἀδελφοὺς ἀσπάζο μαι καὶ ἀξιῶ μετὰ σοῦ εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἵνα σωθῶμεν. Ὁ ἑταῖρος Γρηγόριος τὸν μετὰ τῶν γονέων ἑλόμενος βίον αὐτοῖς σύνεστιν. Ὑγιαίνων ἐπὶ πλεῖστον φυλαχθείης ἡμῖν ὠφελῶν ἡμᾶς καὶ ταῖς εὐχαῖς καὶ τῇ γνώσει.
362.τ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΩ ΑΠΟΛΙΝΑΡΙΟΣ
362.1 Φιλοθέως πιστεύεις καὶ φιλολόγως ζητεῖς, καὶ παρ' ἡμῶν τὸ πρόθυμον
ὀφείλεται διὰ τὴν ἀγάπην, εἰ καὶ τὸ ἱκανὸν τῷ λόγῳ μὴ ἕποιτο διά τε τὸ ἡμέτερον ἐνδεὲς καὶ τὸ τοῦ πράγ ματος ὑπερφυές. Οὐσία μία οὐκ ἀριθμῷ μόνον λέγεται, ὥσπερ λέγεις, καὶ τὸ ἐν μιᾷ περιγραφῇ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἰδίως ἀνθρώπων δύο καὶ ἄλλου ὁτουοῦν τῶν κατὰ γένος ἑνιζομέ νων, ὥστε ταύτῃ γε καὶ δύο καὶ πλείονα ταὐτὸν εἶναι κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν, καθὸ καὶ πάντες ἄνθρωποι Ἀδάμ ἐσμεν εἷς ὄντες καὶ ∆αβὶδ ὁ τοῦ ∆αβὶδ υἱὸς ὡς ταὐτὸν ὢν ἐκείνῳ, καθὰ καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν λέγεις καλῶς τοῦτο εἶναι κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ὅπερ ὁ Πατήρ. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἑτέρως ἂν ἦν Θεὸς ὁ Υἱός, ἑνὸς ὁμολογουμένου καὶ μόνου Θεοῦ τοῦ Πατρός, ὥς που καὶ εἷς Ἀδὰμ ὁ ἀνθρώπων γενάρχης καὶ εἷς ∆αβὶδ ὁ τοῦ βασιλείου γένους ἀρχηγέτης. Ταύτῃ γέ τοι καὶ ἓν εἶναι γένος ὑπερκείμενον ἢ μίαν ὕλην ὑποκειμένην ἐπὶ Πατρὸς καὶ Υἱοῦ περιαιρεθήσεται τῶν ὑπονοιῶν, ὅταν τὴν γεναρχι κὴν παραλάβωμεν ἰδιότητα τῆς ἀνωτάτω ἀρχῆς καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῶν γενάρχων γένη πρὸς τὸ ἐκ τῆς μιᾶς ἀρχῆς μονογενὲς γέννημα. Μετρίως γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰς ὁμοίωσιν ἔρχεται. Καθὸ μηδὲ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ὡς θεοπλάστου καὶ ἡμῶν ὡς ἀνθρωπογεννήτων ἓν ὑπέρκειται γένος, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἀνθρώπων ἀρχή· μήτε ὕλη κοινὴ αὐτοῦ τε καὶ ἡμῶν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἡ πάντων ἀνθρώπων ὑπόθεσις. Μήτε μὴν τοῦ