Oration IV Against the Arians

Contents

Reading pages: 1–14 · 15–24 · 25–36

1. 1The author argues that there is one origin of the Godhead, from which the Word is by nature Son, a Word with real substance and not a mere sound.
2. 2The author argues that the Son is neither a quality in God nor a mere name, but a real offspring from the Father, two with him yet one.
3. 3The author argues that the Word must be from God himself, and so is distinct from the Father yet one with him, and warns against making the Word merely attached to God.
4. 4The author argues against the Arians that God's own Word and Wisdom cannot be something other than Christ, who is the only-begotten Son through whom God works.
5. 5The author contrasts creatures, who are “attached” and “joined” to God from outside, with the Son, who is one with the Father and in him.
6. 6The author explains that Christ, as mediator, takes our weaknesses to the Father and receives God's gifts as man, so that they pass to us.
7. 7The author explains that Christ receives the Father's gifts and exaltation as man for us, and gives thanks for them as his own.
8. 8The author shows that the Arians and their opponents who deny the Son's subsistence each contradict themselves.
9. 9The author explains John 10:30: Father and Son are two, yet one in Godhead, the Son being of one substance with the Father, against both division and Sabellius.
10. 10The author answers the charge of teaching two gods: Father and Son are two, yet one God, like fire and its radiance.
11. 11The author argues that those who say the Word was put forth for creation, like the Arians who say he was created for us, make the Word depend on us and God inactive before.
12. 12The author argues that the idea of the Word going forth from God for creation and returning at the end would make God change and creation come and go without end.
13. 13The author traces the idea of the unity “broadening” into a trinity to the Stoics and shows that it implies change in God and leads to Sabellianism.
14. 14The author argues from Paul's and Noah's use of “broaden” that broadening leaves a thing the same, so a unity broadened into a trinity would still be the Father alone, with absurd consequences.
15. 15The author reports three views that separate the Word from the Son and argues that the Word, being from God, must always be the Son of the Father.
16. 16The author argues that if the Word and the Son were different, the Son, who alone is in the Father's bosom and knows the Father, would be greater than the Word; and John 10 shows that the Son speaks of oneness with the Father.
17. 17The author explains that in John 10:30–38 Jesus refutes both Sabellius and Arius, and that the sayings of unity with the Father are spoken by the Son.
18. 18The author shows from John 3:16–19 and John 12 that the one who came to save the world and who is the light is the only-begotten Son.
19. 19The author argues from John 1 and John 14 that the world was made through the Son as through the Word, so the Son and the Word are one and the same, existing before the world.
20. 20The author refutes the view that the man Jesus, not the Word, is the Son, showing that the Son existed before Abraham and made the world.
21. 21The author argues from the command to believe in the Son and from baptism into Father, Son, and Spirit that the Word is the Son, and refutes the view that Word and man together are the Son.
22. 22The author argues that God is our Father only because his own Son dwells in us, and that the Word was Son before the incarnation, since the ancients were already called sons.
23. 23The author argues that if the Word became Son only at the incarnation, no one could have known the Father before, and rejects the claim that the Son is later because the Old Testament speaks of the Word.
24. 24The author lists Old Testament texts about the Son (Ps 2, 9, 45, 110; Isa 5; Prov 8; Dan 3) and argues that “beloved” means “only-begotten,” so that the Word is always Son.
25. 25The author rejects both Arius and Sabellius, and shows that the Sabellian image of one Father “broadened” into Son and Spirit makes the incarnation, baptism, and creation merely temporary.
26. 26The author argues from 1 John and the Gospel that the Son is the eternal life and Word that was with the Father, and identifies the “hand” of God in the Psalms with the Son.
27. 27The author answers those who refer Ps 110:3 (“from the womb”) to Mary: like “heart,” “womb” is used of God figuratively and signifies the Son's genuine birth from the Father.
28. 28The author argues that “before the morning star” cannot refer to Christ's birth from Mary, and, from Rev 22:16, takes the morning star to be the incarnate Christ, so the begetting precedes the incarnation.
29. 29The author argues that, as the Holy Spirit and the Paraclete are one though “Paraclete” is not in the Old Testament, so the Word and the Son are one; and he shows from Homer that “beloved” means “only son.”
30. 30The author answers followers of Paul of Samosata who used Acts 10:36 to separate the Word from Christ, arguing that the Word himself, made flesh, preached.
31. 31The author uses Moses' speaking of himself in the third person (Lev 9:7) to show that Peter's words do not make the Word and Christ two, and says that separating them betrays a pagan idea of the incarnation as change.
32. 32The author appeals to the annunciation (Luke 1:35) to show that the Word is united to the man born of Mary, so that the Word was not sent through another but himself sent the apostles.
33. 33The author argues that Scripture speaks simply, as when Moses is named twice in one sentence, and that the Word, united to our humanity, rightly bears the names Christ and Son, and is not a prophet sent through a man.
34. 34The author teaches that Christ is the divine Word united with the humanity formed in Mary, the true temple of which Solomon's was an image, and calls Paul of Samosata a disciple of those who objected that Jesus made himself God.
35. 35The author shows that Scripture calls the man from Mary “Christ” because of his union with the Word, and that the risen Lord's words “touch me” prove that the Word and his body are one subject.
36. 36The author concludes that the “sending” of the Word means his union with the man Jesus: God the Word is himself the Christ from Mary, one and the same, God and man.