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Epistula ad Epictetum

A letter of the blessed Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, to Epictetus, bishop of Corinth.

I for my part thought that all the idle talk of all heretics whatsoever had been stopped by the synod that was held in Nicaea; for the faith confessed there by the Fathers in accordance with the divine Scriptures is sufficient for the overthrow of all impiety, and for the establishment of the pious faith in Christ. For this reason, indeed, even now when various synods have been held in Gaul and Spain and in great Rome, all who assembled—being moved as if by one spirit—unanimously anathematized those who were still hiding and holding the opinions of Arius, I mean Auxentius in Milan, and Ursacius, and Valens, and Gaius from Pannonia; and they wrote everywhere, because such men invent for themselves names of synods, that no synod in the catholic church should be named except only the one that took place in Nicaea, it being a trophy over every heresy, but especially the Arian, on account of which the synod was then particularly convened. How then, after so many things, do some still attempt to dispute or to question? If, then, they are from the Arians, it is no wonder if they slander what was written against them, just as the Greeks, hearing that "the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands," consider the teaching about the divine cross foolishness. But if those who wish to refute by questioning are from among those who seem to believe correctly and to love what was declared by the fathers, they do nothing other than, according to what is written, "give their neighbor a murky subversion to drink," and they dispute about words for no useful purpose, except for the ruin of the simple.

2 But I write these things thus, having come across the memoranda of proceedings from your God-fearingness, which ought not even to have been written, so that not even a memory of them might exist for those who come after. For who has ever heard such things? Who is the one who taught or learned them? For "out of Zion shall go forth the law of God, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem"; but from where did these things come forth? What Hades has belched forth the saying that the body from Mary is consubstantial with the Godhead of the Word? Or that the Word has been changed into flesh and bones and hair and a whole body, and has been altered from His own nature? And who has heard in the church, or at all from Christians, that the Lord has worn a body by adoption and not by nature? Or who has been so impious as to say and at the same time to think that the Godhead Itself, which is consubstantial with the Father, was circumcised and became imperfect from being perfect, and that what was nailed to the wood was not the body, but the very creative essence of Wisdom? And who, hearing that the Word did not fashion for Himself a passible body from Mary, but from His own essence, would say that the one saying these things is a Christian? And who invented this unlawful impiety, so as even to come to the thought and to say that he who says the Lord's body is from Mary no longer thinks of a Trinity, but a Quaternity in the Godhead? So that for this reason those so disposed say that the flesh which the Savior put on from Mary is of the essence of the Trinity; and from where again have some belched forth an impiety equal to the aforesaid, so as to say that the body is not more recent than the Godhead of the Word, but has been co-eternal with Him always, since it was constituted from the essence of Wisdom? And how did those who are called Christians dare to doubt whether the Lord who came forth from Mary is Son of God in essence and nature, but according to the flesh is from the seed of David, and from the flesh of the holy Mary? Who then have become so bold as to say that Christ

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Epistula ad Epictetum

Τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀθανασίου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Ἀλεξανδρείας ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Ἐπίκτητον ἐπίσκοπον Κορίνθου.

Ἐγὼ μὲν ἐνόμιζον πᾶσαν ματαιολογίαν πάντων, ὅσοι δηποτοῦν εἰσιν αἱρετικοί, πεπαῦσθαι ἐκ τῆς γενομένης ἐν Νικαίᾳ συνόδου· ἡ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ παρὰ τῶν πατέρων κατὰ τὰς θείας γραφὰς ὁμολογηθεῖσα πίστις αὐτάρκης ἐστὶ πρὸς ἀνατροπὴν μὲν πάσης ἀσεβείας, πρὸς σύ στασιν δὲ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς ἐν Χριστῷ πίστεως. διὰ τοῦτο γοῦν καὶ νῦν διαφόρων γενομένων συνόδων ἔν τε τῇ Γαλλίᾳ καὶ Σπανίᾳ καὶ τῇ μεγάλῃ Ῥώμῃ πάντες οἱ συνελθόντες τοὺς μὲν ἔτι κρυπτομένους καὶ φρονοῦν τας τὰ Ἀρείου, Αὐξέντιον δὴ λέγω τὸν ἐν Μεδιολάνῳ, καὶ Οὐρσάκιον, καὶ Οὐάλεντα, καὶ Γάϊον ἀπὸ τῆς Παννονίας, παμψηφεὶ ὡς ἀφ' ἑνὸς πνεύματος κινούμενοι ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἔγραψάν τε πανταχοῦ, διὰ τὸ τοὺς τοιούτους ἐπινοεῖν ἑαυτοῖς ὀνόματα συνόδων, μηδεμίαν ἐν τῇ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ σύνοδον ὀνομάζεσθαι, εἰ μὴ μόνην τὴν ἐν Νικαίᾳ γενομένην, τρόπαιον οὖσαν πάσης μὲν αἱρέσεως, ἐξαιρέτως δὲ τῆς Ἀρειανῆς, δι' ἣν μάλιστα καὶ ἡ σύνοδος τότε συνήχθη. πῶς τοίνυν ἔτι μετὰ τοσαῦτα ἀμφισβητεῖν ἢ ζητεῖν τινες ἐπιχειροῦσιν; εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐκ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν εἰσιν, οὐδὲν θαυμαστόν, εἰ τὰ καθ' ἑαυτῶν γραφέντα διαβάλλουσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ Ἕλληνες, ἀκούοντες τὰ εἴδωλα τῶν ἐθνῶν ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον ἔργα χειρῶν ἀνθρώπων, μωρίαν ἡγοῦνται τὴν περὶ τοῦ θείου σταυροῦ διδασκαλίαν, εἰ δὲ τῶν δοκούντων ὀρθῶς πιστεύειν καὶ ἀγαπᾶν τὰ δηλωθέντα παρὰ τῶν πατέρων εἰσὶν οἱ διὰ τοῦ ζητεῖν ἀνασκευάζειν θέλοντες, οὐδὲν ἕτερον ποιοῦσιν ἢ κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, τὸν μὲν πλη σίον ποτίζουσιν ἀνατροπὴν θολεράν, λογομαχοῦσι δὲ ἐπ' οὐδενὶ χρησίμῳ ἢ ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ τῶν ἀκεραίων.

2 ταῦτα δὲ οὕτω γράφω ἐντυχὼν τοῖς παρὰ τῆς σῆς θεοσεβείας πραχθεῖσιν ὑπομνήμασιν, ἃ μηδὲ γραφῆναι ὤφελον, ἵνα μηδὲ μνήμη τις τούτων τοῖς μετὰ ταῦτα γένηται. τίς γὰρ ἤκουσε τοιαῦτα πώποτε; τίς ὁ διδάξας ἢ μαθών; ἐκ μὲν γὰρ Σιὼν ἐξελεύσεται νόμος θεοῦ καὶ λόγος κυρίου ἐξ Ἱερουσαλήμ· ταῦτα δὲ πόθεν ἐξῆλθεν; ποῖος Ἅιδης ἠρεύξατο ὁμοούσιον εἰπεῖν τὸ ἐκ Μαρίας σῶμα τῇ τοῦ λόγου θεότητι; ἢ ὅτι ὁ λόγος εἰς σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα καὶ τρίχας καὶ ὅλον σῶμα μετα βέβληται, καὶ ἠλλάγη τῆς ἰδίας φύσεως; τίς δὲ ἤκουσεν ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ ἢ ὅλως παρὰ Χριστιανῶν, ὅτι θέσει καὶ οὐ φύσει σῶμα πεφόρηκεν ὁ κύριος; ἢ τίς τοσοῦτον ἠσέβησεν, ὥστε εἰπεῖν ἅμα καὶ φρονεῖν, ὅτι ἡ θεότης αὐτὴ ἡ ὁμοούσιος τῷ πατρὶ περιετμήθη καὶ ἀτελὴς ἐκ τελείου γέγονεν, καὶ τὸ ἐν ξύλῳ καθηλούμενον οὐκ ἦν τὸ σῶμα, ἀλλ' αὐτὴ ἡ δημιουργὸς οὐσία τῆς σοφίας; τίς δὲ ἀκούων, ὅτι οὐκ ἐκ Μαρίας, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ οὐσίας μετεποίησεν ἑαυτῷ σῶμα παθητὸν ὁ λόγος, εἴποι ἂν Χριστιανὸν τὸν λέγοντα ταῦτα; τίς δὲ τὴν ἀθέμιτον ταύτην ἐπενόησεν ἀσέβειαν, ὥστε κἂν εἰς ἐνθύμησιν ἐλθεῖν καὶ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ὁ λέγων ἐκ Μαρίας εἶναι τὸ κυριακὸν σῶμα οὐκέτι τριάδα, ἀλλὰ τετράδα ἐν τῇ θεότητι φρονεῖ; ὡς διὰ τοῦτο τοὺς οὕτω διακειμένους τῆς οὐσίας τῆς τριάδος εἶναι λέγειν τὴν σάρκα, ἣν ἐνεδύσατο ἐκ Μαρίας ὁ σωτήρ· πόθεν δὲ πάλιν ἠρεύξαντό τινες ἴσην ἀσέβειαν τοῖς προειρημένοις, ὥστε εἰπεῖν μὴ νεώτερον εἶναι τὸ σῶμα τῆς τοῦ λόγου θεότητος, ἀλλὰ συναΐ διον αὐτῷ διὰ παντὸς γεγενῆσθαι, ἐπειδὴ ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τῆς σοφίας συνέ στη; πῶς δὲ καὶ ἀμφιβάλλειν ἐτόλμησαν οἱ λεγόμενοι Χριστιανοί, εἰ ὁ ἐκ Μαρίας προελθὼν κύριος υἱὸς μὲν τῇ οὐσίᾳ καὶ φύσει τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν, τὸ δὲ κατὰ σάρκα ἐκ σπέρματός ἐστι ∆αβίδ, σαρκὸς δὲ τῆς ἁγίας Μαρίας· τίνες δὲ ἄρα οὕτω τολμηροὶ γεγόνασιν, ὥστε εἰπεῖν τὸν Χριστὸν