Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Generation of Christ

In sanctam Christi generationem

A HOMILY ON THE HOLY NATIVITY OF CHRIST.

Let the generation of Christ that is proper and first and peculiar to His divinity be honored with silence; or rather, let us command our very thoughts not to seek those things nor to be overly curious. For where no time, no age intervened, no manner has been conceived, no spectator was present, no one is to narrate, how can the mind imagine? And how will the tongue serve the thoughts? But there was a Father, and the Son was begotten. Do not say, "When?"; but pass over the question. Do not ask, "How?"; for the answer is impossible. For "when" is a matter of time; and "how" causes a slip towards the bodily modes of generation. I can say from Scripture, that He is as radiance from glory, and as an image from the archetype. But yet, since such a reasoned answer does not stop the busy curiosity of your thoughts, I take refuge in the ineffable nature of the glory, and I confess that the manner of the divine generation is inconceivable to thoughts 31.1460 and unspeakable by human words. Do not say: "If He was begotten, He was not"; nor seize upon inexperienced minds with malice of words, corrupting the truth with examples from here below, and defiling theology. He was begotten, I said, so that I might show His origin and His cause, not so that I might prove the Only-Begotten to be later in time. And let not your mind tread on empty air, transcending to ages older than the Son, ages which neither exist, nor have come into being.

For how can created things be older than the one who made them? But indeed I have unwittingly, what I was avoiding, been carried into this very topic automatically by the sequence of my discourse. Let us leave, therefore, the discussions concerning that eternal and ineffable generation, remembering this, that the mind is less than the realities, and speech in turn is inferior to the things conceived. One must consider, then, how great is the fall from the truth to speech; since the mind is unable to attain to the nature of incomprehensible things, and it is impossible to find a nature of speech that is equal to things that are in any way conceived. God on earth, God among men, not lawgiving through fire and trumpet and a smoking mountain, or darkness, and a storm terrifying the souls of the hearers, but conversing gently and kindly with His kinsmen through a body. God in the flesh; not working at intervals as in the prophets, but having acquired humanity as connatural and united to Himself, and through His own kindred flesh leading all humanity back to Himself. "How then," one says, "did the luminary come to all through one?" In what way was the divinity in the flesh? As fire in iron; not by transition, but by impartation. For the fire does not run out to the iron, but remaining in place, it imparts to it its own power, which is neither diminished by the imparting, and it fills the whole of that which partakes of it. In this very way also God the Word was neither moved from Himself, "And tabernacled among us;" nor did He undergo change, "And the Word became flesh;" nor was heaven bereft of the One who holds it together, while the earth in its own bosom received the Heavenly One.

Do not conceive a fall of the divinity; for it does not pass from place to place as bodies do; nor imagine the divinity to have been altered, having changed 31.1461 into flesh; for the immortal is unchangeable. "How then," one says, "was God the Word not filled with bodily weakness?" We say, just as the fire does not partake of the properties of the iron. The iron is black and cold; but nevertheless when heated it takes on the form of fire, itself becoming bright, not blackening the fire, and

In sanctam Christi generationem

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΑΓΙΑΝ ΤΟΥ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΓΕΝΝΗΣΙΝ.

Χριστοῦ γέννησις ἡ μὲν οἰκεία καὶ πρώτη καὶ ἰδία αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος σιωπῇ τιμάσθω· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ταῖς ἐννοίαις ἡμῶν μὴ ζητεῖν ἐκεῖνα μηδὲ πολυπραγμονεῖν ἐπιτάξωμεν. Ὅπου γὰρ οὐ χρόνος, οὐκ αἰὼν ἐμεσίτευσεν, οὐ τρόπος ἐπινενόηται, οὐ θεατὴς παρῆν, οὐχ ὁ διηγούμενός ἐστι, πῶς φαντασθῇ ὁ νοῦς; πῶς δὲ ὑπηρετήσει ταῖς διανοίαις ἡ γλῶσσα; Ἀλλὰ Πατὴρ ἦν, καὶ Υἱὸς ἐγεννήθη. Μὴ εἴπῃς, Πότε; ἀλλὰ παράδραμε τὸ ἐπερώτημα. Μὴ ἐπιζητήσῃς, Πῶς; ἀδύνατος γὰρ ἡ ἀπόκρισις. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ, πότε, χρονικόν· τὸ δὲ, πῶς, ὄλι σθον ἐμποιεῖ πρὸς τοὺς σωματικοὺς τῆς γεννήσεως τρόπους. Ἔχω εἰπεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς Γραφῆς, ὅτι ὡς ἀπαύγασμα ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης, καὶ ὡς εἰκὼν ἀπὸ τοῦ πρωτοτύπου. Ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐπειδὴ οὐχ ἵστησί σου τὴν πολυπραγμοσύνην τῶν λογισμῶν ὁ τοιοῦτος λόγος τῆς ἀποκρίσεως, ἐπὶ τὸ ἄῤῥητον καταφεύγω τῆς δόξης, καὶ ὁμολογῶ ἀνεπινόητον εἶναι λογισμοῖς 31.1460 καὶ ἄφατον ῥήμασιν ἀνθρωπίνοις τὸν τρόπον τῆς θείας γεννήσεως. Μὴ λέγε· Εἰ ἐγεννήθη, οὐκ ἦν· μηδὲ συνάρπαζε κακουργίᾳ ῥημάτων διανοίας ἀπει ροκάλους, ἐκ τῶν ὧδε παραδειγμάτων διαλυμαινό μενος τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ τὴν θεολογίαν καταῤῥυπαί νων. Ἐγεννήθη, εἶπον, ἵνα τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸν αἴτιον ἀποδείξω, οὐχ ἵνα χρόνου ὕστερον τὸν Μονογενῆ ἀπελέγξω. Σοῦ δὲ μὴ κενεμβατείτω ὁ νοῦς, εἰς αἰῶνας ὑπερβαίνων πρεσβυτέρους τοῦ Υἱοῦ, τοὺς οὔτε ὄντας, οὔτε γενομένους.

Πῶς γὰρ πρεσβύτερα δύναται εἶναι τὰ ποιήματα τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτά; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἔλαθον, ὃ ἀπέφυγον, εἰς τοῦτο αὐ τομάτως ἐκ τῆς τοῦ λόγου ἀκολουθίας συνενεχθείς. Καταλείπωμεν οὖν τοὺς λόγους τοὺς περὶ τῆς ἀϊδίου ἐκείνης καὶ ἀῤῥήτου γεννήσεως, ἐκεῖνο ἐν θυμηθέντες, ὅτι ὁ μὲν νοῦς τῶν πραγμάτων ἐλάτ των, ὁ δὲ λόγος τῶν νοουμένων πάλιν καταδεέστερος. Σκοπεῖν οὖν χρὴ ὁπόσον τί ἐστι τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀλη θείας ἐπὶ τὸν λόγον ἀπόπτωμα· εἴπερ ὁ μὲν νοῦς προσβῆναι τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀκαταλήπτων ἀδυνατεῖ, λόγου δὲ φύσιν τοῖς ὁπωσοῦν νοηθεῖσιν εὑρεῖν παρ ισουμένην ἀμήχανον. Θεὸς ἐπὶ γῆς, Θεὸς ἐν ἀν θρώποις, οὐ διὰ πυρὸς καὶ σάλπιγγος καὶ ὄρους καπνιζομένου, ἢ γνόφου, καὶ θυέλλης ἐκδειματούσης τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀκροωμένων νομοθετῶν, ἀλλὰ διὰ σώματος ἡμέρως καὶ προσηνῶς τοῖς ὁμογενέσι δια λεγόμενος. Θεὸς ἐν σαρκί· οὐκ ἐκ διαλειμμάτων ἐνεργῶν ὡς ἐν τοῖς προφήταις, ἀλλὰ συμφυῆ ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα καὶ ἡνωμένην κατακτη σάμενος, καὶ διὰ τῆς συγγενοῦς ἡμῶν σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπανάγων πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα. Πῶς οὖν δι' ἑνὸς, φησὶν, εἰς πάντας ἦλθε τὸ λαμ πτήριον; Τίνα τρόπον ἐν σαρκὶ ἡ θεότης; Ὡς τὸ πῦρ ἐν σιδήρῳ· οὐ μεταβατικῶς, ἀλλὰ μεταδοτι κῶς. Οὐ γὰρ ἐκτρέχει τὸ πῦρ πρὸς τὸν σίδηρον, μένον δὲ κατὰ χώραν, μεταδίδωσιν αὐτῷ τῆς οἰκείας δυνάμεως, ὅπερ οὔτε ἐλαττοῦται τῇ μεταδόσει, καὶ ὅλον πληροῖ ἑαυτοῦ τὸ μετέχον. Κατὰ τοῦτο δὴ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος οὔτε ἐκινήθη ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, «Καὶ ἐσκήνω σεν ἐν ἡμῖν·» οὔτε τροπὴν ὑπέμεινε, «Καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο·» οὔτε ὁ οὐρανὸς ἔρημος ἦν τοῦ συν έχοντος, καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις κόλποις τὸν οὐράνιον ὑπεδέχετο.

Μὴ κατάπτωσιν τῆς θεότητος ἐννοήσῃς· οὐ γὰρ μεταβαίνει ἐκ τόπου εἰς τόπον ὡς τὰ σώματα· μηδὲ φαντασθῇς ἠλλοιῶσθαι τὴν θεότητα μεταβλη 31.1461 θεῖσαν εἰς σάρκα· ἄτρεπτον γὰρ τὸ ἀθάνατον. Πῶς οὖν, φησὶ, τῆς σωματικῆς ἀσθενείας ὁ Θεὸς Λό γος οὐκ ἀνεπλήσθη; Φαμὲν, ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ πῦρ τῶν τοῦ σιδήρου ἰδιωμάτων μεταλαμβάνει. Μέλας ὁ σίδηρος καὶ ψυχρός· ἀλλ' ὅμως πυρακτωθεὶς τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς μορφὴν ὑποδύεται, αὐτὸς λαμπρυνόμενος, οὐχὶ μελαίνων τὸ πῦρ, καὶ