487

having abolished the law of commandments in decrees.” and it is not possible to keep the commandment of the Lord, unless the love of God precedes it, “for if you love me,” he says, “you will keep my commandments,” nor for the eyes or the heart to be enlightened, unless the commandment gives light, “for the commandment of the Lord,” he says, “is clear, enlightening the eyes,” nor to utter a word of truth, unless one has Christ speaking in him, according to the one who says, “if you seek proof of Christ speaking in me,” or rather not only speaking, but also showing mercy. “For,” he says, “let your mercy and your salvation come upon me, and I will answer those who reproach me with a word”; which would not be possible, unless one “seeks out the judgments.” For of those not so disposed, the shame in reproaches is but a pretense, so that they cannot say, “take from me reproach and contempt”; but the word is taken away from the mouth of truth; so that there is nothing more for the one praying than to say, “do not take the word of truth from my mouth.” 30. But when does this happen? When one does not keep the law always; when one does not walk in broadness. “For the heart must be enlarged,” if one is to contain Christ “walking within,” whose glory not men, but the heavens declare, “for the heavens declare the glory of God,” or rather the Father himself, saying, “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Whom it is not possible to confess, if one should “speak injustice on high” against his3.305 neighbor, if one should confess† himself to be in the order and name of the antichrists, having departed from the order and name of the Christians, about whom it has been said, “do not touch my anointed ones.” “For who,” he says, “is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This,” he says, “is the antichrist; for he who denies the Son does not have the Father, but he who confesses the Son also confesses the Father. Therefore, what you have heard from the beginning,’ he says, ‘let this remain in you. And if,’ he says, ‘what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father’.” And we will remain, when we confess before God and the elect angels, but also before kings, and are not ashamed, “for I spoke,” he says, “of your testimonies before kings, and was not ashamed,” that he is Son of God, God from God, one from one, only-begotten from the unbegotten, the exceptional offspring of the one who begot, and the Son is worthy of the one without beginning, the ineffable interpreter of the ineffable, the Word and wisdom and power of the one who is beyond wisdom and power, beyond what a tongue can utter, beyond what a mind can conceive; a perfect and abiding offspring, from one who is perfect and abides in sameness, not an effluence from the Father, nor cut off and divided, but impassibly and wholly proceeding from the one who has lost nothing of what he had. And that the Son is and is called Word, yet he is not understood as a voice of the Father nor a utterance. For he subsists in himself and is active, and through him are all things and in him are all things; just as, being himself wisdom, he is not understood as a thought of the Father, nor a movement of the governing principle and an activity, but an offspring similar to the Father and perfecting the character of the Father. For this one the Father, God, has sealed, and he does not exist in another, nor does he not subsist in himself, but he is an active offspring and has made this universe and ever preserves it. These things are sufficient to free us from the error of the Greeks and from the self-willed worship of the Jews and from heretical false belief. 31. But since some, by twisting the meaning of words found in the scriptures and interpreting them otherwise than is proper, and understanding neither the power of the words nor the nature of the things,3.306 dare to set aside the divinity of the Son, stumbling at the word of creation which is found in Proverbs, “for the Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works” whom it is necessary with the spirit the

487

νόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐν δόγμασι καταργήσας.» καὶ οὔτε τηρεῖν ἔστι τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ κυρίου, μὴ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦ προηγουμένης «ἐὰν γὰρ ἀγαπᾶτέ με», φησί, «τὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς ἐμὰς τηρήσετε», οὔτε φωτισθῆναι τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς οὐδὲ τὴν καρδίαν, μὴ τῆς ἐντολῆς φωτιζούσης «ἐντολή, γάρ φησι, κυρίου τηλαυγὴς φωτίζουσα ὀφθαλμούς», ἀλλ' οὐδὲ λόγον ἀληθείας προέσθαι, εἰ μή τις ἔχει Χριστὸν ἐν ἑαυτῷ λαλοῦντα, κατὰ τὸν λέγοντα «εἰ δοκιμὴν ζητεῖτε τοῦ ἐν ἐμοὶ λαλοῦντος Χριστοῦ», μᾶλλον δὲ οὐ λαλοῦντος μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐλεοῦντος. «ἔλθοι, γάρ φησι, τὸ ἔλεός σου καὶ τὸ σωτήριόν σου ἐπ' ἐμέ, καὶ ἀποκριθήσομαι τοῖς ὀνειδίζουσί μοι λόγον»· ὅπερ οὐκ ἂν ὑπάρξειεν, εἰ μή τις «τὰ δικαιώματα ἐκζητήσει». τῶν γὰρ μὴ οὕτω διακειμένων ἢ ἐπὶ σχήματος ἡ ἐν τοῖς ὀνείδεσιν αἰσχύνη, ὡς μὴ δύνασθαι λέγειν «περίελε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ ὄνειδος καὶ ἐξουδένωσιν»· περιαιρεῖται δὲ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τῆς ἀληθείας ὁ λόγος· ὡς μηδὲν εἶναι πλέον τῷ εὐχομένῳ ἢ τὸ «μὴ περιέλῃς λόγον ἀληθείας ἐκ τοῦ στόματός μου». 30. Πότε δὲ τοῦτο γίνεται; ὅταν μὴ φυλάξῃ τις τὸν νόμον διὰ παντός· ὅταν μὴ πορευθῇ τις ἐν πλατυσμῷ. «πλατυνθῆναι γὰρ δεῖ τὴν καρδίαν», εἰ μέλλοι τις Χριστὸν «ἐμπεριπατοῦντα» χωρεῖν, οὗ τὴν δόξαν οὐκ ἄνθρωποι, ἀλλ' οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται «οὐρανοὶ γὰρ διηγοῦνται δόξαν θεοῦ», μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ πατήρ, λέγων «οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν ᾧ ηὐδόκησα». ὃν οὐκ ἔστιν ὁμολογῆσαι, εἴ τις «εἰς ὕψος ἀδικίαν λαλοίη» πρὸς τὸν πλησίον αὐ3.305 τοῦ, εἴ τις εἰς τὴν ἀντιχρίστων τάξιν καὶ ἐπωνυμίαν ἑαυτὸν † ὁμολογήσειεν, ἀποστὰς τῆς τάξεως καὶ ἐπωνυμίας τῶν Χριστιανῶν, περὶ ὧν εἴρηται «μὴ ἅψησθε τῶν χριστῶν μου». «τίς, γάρ φησιν, ὁ ψευδόμενος, εἰ μὴ ὁ ἀρνούμενος ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστὸς οὐκ ἔστιν; οὗτος, φησίν, ὁ ἀντίχριστος· ὁ γὰρ ἀρνούμενος τὸν υἱὸν οὐδὲ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει, ὁ δὲ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ὁμολογεῖ. ὅπερ οὖν, φησίν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἠκούσατε, τοῦτο μενέτω ἐν ὑμῖν. καὶ ἐάν, φησί, μένῃ ἐν ὑμῖν ὅπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἠκούσατε, καὶ ὑμεῖς ἐν τῷ υἱῷ μενεῖτε καὶ τῷ πατρί». μενοῦμεν δέ, ὅταν ἐνώπιον θεοῦ καὶ ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων ὁμολογήσωμεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐνώπιον βασιλέων, καὶ μὴ αἰσχυνώμεθα «ἐλάλουν, γάρ φησιν, ἐν τοῖς μαρτυρίοις σου ἐναντίον βασιλέων, καὶ οὐκ ᾐσχυνόμην», ὅτι υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, θεὸς ἐκ θεοῦ, εἷς ἐξ ἑνός, ἐξ ἀγεννήτου μονογενής, ἐξαίρετον γέννημα τοῦ γεγεννηκότος καὶ ἄξιος ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνάρχου, τοῦ ἀδιηγήτου ἑρμηνεὺς ἀδιήγητος, λόγος καὶ σοφία καὶ δύναμις τοῦ ὑπὲρ σοφίαν καὶ δύναμιν, ὑπὲρ ὃ φθέγξασθαι δύναται γλῶττα, ὑπὲρ ὃ κινῆσαι διάνοια· γέννημα τέλειόν τε καὶ μένον, ἐκ τελείου καὶ μένοντος ἐν ταυτότητι, οὐκ ἀπορρεῦσαν ἐκ πατρός, οὐδὲ ἀποτμηθέν τε καὶ διαιρεθέν, ἀλλ' ἀπαθῶς καὶ ὁλοκλήρως προελθὸν ἐκ τοῦ μηδὲν ἀποβεβληκότος ὧν εἶχε. καὶ ὅτι λόγος ἔστι τε καὶ λέγεται ὁ υἱός, οὐ μὴν φωνὴ τοῦ πατρὸς οὐδὲ ῥῆμα νοεῖται. ὑφέστηκε γὰρ καθ' ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἐνεργεῖ, καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα· ὥσπερ καὶ σοφία ὁ αὐτὸς ὢν οὐκ ἐνθύμημα τοῦ πατρὸς νοεῖται, οὔτε κίνησις τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ καὶ ἐνέργεια, ἀλλὰ γέννημα ὅμοιόν τε τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τὸν χαρακτῆρα τοῦ πατρὸς ἀκριβοῦν. τοῦτον γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ἐσφράγισεν, ὁ θεός, καὶ οὐχ ἑτέρῳ μὲν ἐνυπάρχει, οὐχ ὑφέστηκε δὲ καθ' ἑαυτόν, ἀλλὰ γέννημά ἐστιν ἐνεργητικὸν καὶ πεποιηκὸς τόδε τὸ πᾶν καὶ φυλάττον ἀεί. ταῦτα ἱκανὰ καὶ τῆς Ἑλλήνων πλάνης ἡμᾶς καὶ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς ἐθελοθρησκείας ἐλευθερῶσαι καὶ τῆς αἱρετικῆς κακοδοξίας. 31. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῶν ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς κειμένων λέξεων τὸν νοῦν παρατρέποντές τινες καὶ ἑτέρως ἢ προσῆκεν ἑρμηνεύοντες, καὶ μήτε τῶν ῥημάτων τὴν δύναμιν μήτε τῶν πραγμάτων τὴν φύσιν κατανοοῦν3.306 τες τολμῶσιν ἀθετεῖν τὴν θεότητα τοῦ υἱοῦ, προσκόπτοντες τῇ λέξει τῆς κτίσεως τῇ ἐμφερομένῃ ταῖς Παροιμίαις «κύριος γὰρ ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ» οὓς δέον τῷ πνεύματι τῷ