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Letter to Constantia Augusta

Letter of Eusebius to Constantia the Empress.

Since you have written about a certain image, supposedly of Christ, wishing that this image be sent to you by us; what image do you mean and what kind is this, which you say is the image of Christ? I do not know what has moved you to command that an image of our Savior be painted. What sort of image of Christ are you seeking? Is it the true and unchangeable one, which bears His characteristics in its nature; or the one which He took up for our sakes, when He put on the form of a servant? For the Word of God and God, having taken the form of a servant, in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin, as the divine Apostle says. Thus having redeemed us with his precious blood from the old bitterness and demonic slavery, he set us free. Since, therefore, two forms are presented in Him, I do not suppose you are seeking the form of God, having once been taught by Him that no one has known the Father, except the Son, nor could anyone ever know the Son worthily, except only the Father who begot him ....

But you are surely seeking the form of a servant, and of the flesh with which He was clothed for our sakes. But we have learned that this too has been mingled with the glory of divinity, and that the mortal has been swallowed up by life. And it is not at all wonderful if, after His ascent into heaven, He has appeared to be something of this sort, since even while the God-Word still lived among men, promising to the chosen of His disciples a vision of His kingdom, He changed the form of a servant, and showed that very form upon the mountain to be beyond human nature; when His face shone like the sun, and His garments like the light. Who then would be able to portray with dead and lifeless colors and shades the shining and flashing rays of such worth and glory, when not even the divine disciples could endure to look upon Him when He appeared in this manner, but fell on their faces, confessing that the sight was unbearable for them? If, therefore, His form in the flesh then received such power, changed by the divinity dwelling within it, what must be said, when He stripped off mortality, and washed away corruption, and transformed the appearance of the form of a servant into the glory of the Lord and God, after the victory over death, and after the ascent into the heavens, and after the session on the royal throne at the right hand of the Father, after the rest in the unnameable and ineffable bosoms of the Father, into which the heavenly powers sang praises as He ascended and was restored, saying: Lift up your gates, O you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.

Therefore, the form of a servant, having become such, has been wholly and completely changed into his ineffable and indescribable light, a light befitting the God-Word Himself, which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man. How then could one attain the impossible? And how could one paint an image of a form so wondrous and incomprehensible, if indeed one should still call the divine and intelligible substance a form? Unless, like the unbelieving gentiles, one were to depict things in no way resembling Him, like a painter painting nothing that is a likeness. For such are they also, making idols, when they wish to fashion and represent either a God, as they think, or some hero as they would say, or something of that sort, being able to paint nothing similar, nor even close, but they sketch strange things, drawing human-like shapes.

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Epistula ad Constantiam Augustam

Εὐσεβίου ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Κωνσταντίαν τὴν βασίλισσαν.

Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ περί τινος εἰκόνος ὡς δὴ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γέγραφας, εἰκόνα βουλομένη σοι ταύτην ὑφ' ἡμῶν πεμφθῆναι· τίνα λέγεις καὶ ποίαν ταύτην, ἣν φῂς τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰκόνα; Οὐκ οἶδα πόθεν αὐτὴ ὁρμηθεῖσα τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διαγράψαι εἰκόνα προστάττεις. Ποίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰκόνα ἐπιζητεῖς; Πότερον τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ ἀμετάλλακτον, καὶ φύσει τοὺς αὐτοῦ χαρακτῆρας φέρουσαν· ἢ ταύτην ἣν δι' ἡμᾶς ἀνείληφεν, τῆς τοῦ δούλου μορφῆς περιθέμενος τὸ σχῆμα; Ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος καὶ Θεὸς, μορφὴν δούλου λαβὼν, ἐν ὁμοιώματι σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας τὴν ἁμαρτίαν κατέκρινεν, ᾗ φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος. Οὕτως ἡμᾶς τῆς παλαιᾶς πικρίας καὶ δαιμονικῆς δουλείας τῷ τιμίῳ αἵματι λυτρωσάμενος ἀπηλευθέρωσεν. ∆ύο οὖν μορφῶν αὐτῷ παρισταμένων, περὶ μὲν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ μορφῆς οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ἡγοῦμαί σε ζητεῖν, ἅπαξ παρ' αὐτοῦ παιδευομένην, ὅτι οὔτε τὸν Πατέρα τις ἔγνω, εἰ μὴ ὁ Υἱὸς, οὐδ' αὐτὸν Υἱὸν γνοίη ποτέ τις ἐπαξίως, εἰ μὴ μόνος ὁ γεννήσας αὐτὸν Πατήρ ....

Ἀλλὰ γὰρ πάντως τῆς τοῦ δούλου μορφῆς ἐπιζητεῖς, καὶ οὗ δι' ἡμᾶς περιεβλήθη σαρκίου. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο τῇ δόξῃ τῆς θεότητος ἀνακεχρᾶσθαι μεμαθήκαμεν, καὶ καταπεπόσθαι τὸ θνητὸν ὑπὸ τῆς ζωῆς. Καὶ οὔ τί που θαυμαστὸν, εἰ μετὰ τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον τοιοῦτόν που πέφηνεν, ὁπότε καὶ ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἔτι βιοτεύων ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος, τοῖς ἐγκρίτοις τῶν ἑαυτοῦ λόγων προαῤῥαβωνιζόμενος τὴν θέαν τῆς αὑτοῦ βασιλείας, μεταβαλὼν τὴν τοῦ δούλου μορφὴν, αὐτὴν ἐκείνην ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν ἐπιδέδεικται· ὅτε τὸ μὲν πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἀπήστραψεν ὡς ὁ ἥλιος, τὰ δὲ ἱμάτια ὡς τὸ φῶς. Τίς οὖν τῆς τοσαύτης ἀξίας τε καὶ δόξης τὰς ἀποστιλβούσας, καὶ ἀπαστραπτούσας μαρμαρυγὰς οἷός τε ἂν εἴη καταχαράξαι νεκροῖς καὶ ἀψύχοις χρώμασι καὶ σκιογραφίαις, ὁπότε μηδὲ ἐμβλέψαι αὐτῷ, τοῦτον ὀφθέντι τὸν τρόπον, οἱ θεσπέσιοι ὑπέμειναν μαθηταὶ, οἵ γε ἔπεσον ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, ἀφόρητον αὐτοῖς τὸ θεώμενον ὁμολογήσαντες; Εἰ δ' οὖν τότε ἡ ἐν σαρκὶ αὐτοῦ μορφὴ τοσαύτης ἔλαχε δυνάμεως, πρὸς τῆς ἐνοικούσης αὐτῇ θεότητος 20.1548 μεταβληθεῖσα, τί χρὴ λέγειν, ὅτε τὴν θνητότητα ἀποδὺς, καὶ τὴν φθορὰν ἀπονιψάμενος, τῆς τοῦ δούλου μορφῆς τὸ εἶδος εἰς τὴν τοῦ δεσπότου καὶ Θεοῦ δόξαν μετεσκευάσατο, μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου νίκην, καὶ μετὰ τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον, καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ βασιλικῷ θρόνῳ ἀμφὶ τὰ δεξιὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἵδρυσιν, μετὰ τὴν ἐν τοῖς ἀκατονομάστοις καὶ ἀῤῥήτοις κόλποις τοῦ Πατρὸς ἀνάπαυσιν, εἰς ἣν ἀνιόντα καὶ ἀποκαθισάμενον αἱ οὐράνιαι δυνάμεις ἀνηυφήμουν, λέγουσαι· Ἄρατε πύλας, οἱ ἄρχοντες, ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐπάρθητε, πύλαι αἰώνιοι, καὶ εἰσελεύσεται ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης.

Οὐκοῦν καὶ ἡ τοῦ δούλου μορφὴ ἐν τοιούτοις γινομένη, ἐξόλων ὅλη μεταβέβληται ἐπὶ φῶς αὐτοῦ ἄῤῥητον καὶ ἀνεκδιήγητον, αὐτῷ τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῳ πρέπον φῶς, ὅπερ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδεν, καὶ οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσεν, καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη. Πῶς οὖν τις τῶν ἀδυνάτων ἐφίκοιτο; Πῶς δὲ τῆς οὕτω θαυμαστῆς, καὶ ἀλήπτου μορφῆς, εἴ γε χρὴ μορφὴν ἔτι καλεῖν τὴν ἔνθεον καὶ νοερὰν οὐσίαν, εἰκόνα τις ζωγραφήσειεν; Εἰ μὴ τοῖς ἀπίστοις ἔθνεσιν ὁμοίως τὰ μηδαμῆ μηδαμῶς ἐοικότα ἑαυτῷ τις ἀναζωγραφήσειεν, ὥσπερ γραφεὺς μηδὲν ἐοικότα γράφων. Τοιοίδε γᾶρ κἀκεῖνοι ἀνειδωλοποιοῦντες ἤ ποτε Θεὸν, ὡς ἡγοῦνται, ἤ τινα ὡς ἂν φαῖεν ἡρώων, ἤ τι τῶν τοιούτων πλάττειν καὶ ἀπεικάζειν ἐθέλοιεν, οὐδὲν ὅμοιον, οὐδὲ ἐγγὺς, οἷοί τε ὄντες γράφειν, ἀλλόκοτα σκιογραφοῦσιν, ἀνδρείκελα σχήματα διαχαράττοντες.