Against Eunomius 2.559–3.571

who thinks he proves that the Spirit is subject to the Father because the Spirit is not Father of the Only-begotten. By what necessity is such a thing established, that if he is not father he must certainly be subjected? If it had been shown that father and tyrant are the same in meaning, it would follow, tyranny being understood of the father, that the Spirit is said to be subjected to the one who excels in authority. But if through “father” only the relation to the son is understood, and no tyrannical or authoritative thought is introduced by this word, how does it follow from the Spirit’s not being Father of the Son that he is subjected? “Nor made equal with the Son,” he says. How does he say this? For being unchangeable and wholly incapable of evil and always remaining the same in the good shows no variation in the Son and the Spirit. For the Spirit’s incorruptibility is equally estranged from corruption, and what is good by nature is likewise separated from its contrary, and what is perfect in every good likewise lacks nothing more. And the inspired Scripture teaches us to say all these things of the Spirit, attesting to the Spirit “good” and “wise” and “incorruptible” and “immortal,” and all the lofty thoughts and names befitting God. If, then, he is lessened in none of these, in what does Eunomius measure out the inequality of Son and Spirit? “For the Son is only-begotten,” he says, “having no brother of the same kind.” But that the Only-begotten must not be conceived with brothers we have treated in the discussion of the firstborn of all creation. What this man has now maliciously thrown into the statement, however, should not be passed over unexamined. For while the doctrine of the church proclaims one power and goodness and substance and glory and all such things in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, except the difference according to the hypostases, this man, when he wishes to make the substance of the Only-begotten common with creation, calls him firstborn of all creation with respect to his existence before the ages, declaring by this word that all things conceived in creation are the Lord’s brothers; for the firstborn is certainly firstborn not of those of another kind but of those of the same kind. But when he splits the Spirit off from union with the Son, he calls him Only-begotten, having no brother of the same kind, not so as to think of him without brothers, but so as to establish by this that the Spirit is foreign in substance. That the Holy Spirit is not to be called a brother we have learned from Scripture; but that the Spirit must not be called of the same kind as the Son is shown nowhere from the divine words. For if the life-giving power in Father and Son is shown in the Holy Spirit too, according to the Gospel’s word; if incorruptibility and unchangeability and being incapable of all evil, if goodness and uprightness and governing, and working all things in all as he wills, if all such things can be seen alike in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, how is it possible through identity in these to conceive difference of kind? So the word of godliness agrees that one must not see any brotherhood about the Only-begotten; but that the Spirit is not of the same kind as the Son, the upright with the upright, the good with the good, the life-giving with the life-giving, this has clearly been shown, from the sequence of the argument, to belong to heretical malice. What, then, of the Spirit’s majesty is cut down by these words? For among the thoughts befitting God there is nothing that can produce excess or deficiency; and since all of them are applied equally to the Son and the Spirit by Holy Scripture, in what does he see the inequality? He could not say. But he brings forward his impiety against the Holy Spirit bare, unproved, and dependent on no consequence.

“Nor ranked with anything else,” he says; “for he has surpassed all the works made through the Son, in origin and nature and glory and knowledge, as the first and mightiest work of the Only-begotten, greatest and most beautiful.” The uneducated and vulgar character of the wording I will leave to others to ridicule, judging it unbecoming to the gray hair of age to reproach with lack of education in words one who is impious toward the worshiped Word. But this I will add to the examination: if the Spirit “has surpassed all the works of the works of the Son” (I will use his solecistic and senseless expression, or rather, to make the thought clearer, I will present it in my own words), if he excels all the things that have come to be from the Son, the Holy Spirit is not ranked with the rest of creation.

And if he has the advantage, as Eunomius says, by coming to be before the others, one must necessarily confess that in the rest of creation too the things that come first in the order of origin are more honorable than those that follow. But the nature of the irrational animals existed before the formation of man; so by this he will certainly make out the irrational substance to be more honorable than the rational. So too Cain will be shown, according to Eunomius’s argument, to be better than Abel, since he was earlier in time by birth. So too the nature of the stars will be shown lesser and inferior to all the things that grow from the earth; for these sprang up from the earth on the third of the days, while the great lights and all the stars are recorded by Moses to have come to be on the fourth. But no one is so senseless as to reckon the earthly grass more honorable than the heavenly wonders because of seniority in time, or to give Cain the prize against Abel, or to subject man, who came to be after them, to the irrational animals. So what this man says has no sense: that because the Spirit came to be before the others, he has a nature more honorable than those that came to be after.

Let us see also what sort of things he bestows on the glory of the Spirit, he who has parted him from fellowship with the Son. “For he too being one,” he says, “and first and only, and excelling all the works of the Son in substance and natural dignity, accomplishing every activity and teaching according to the Son’s good pleasure, sent by him and receiving from him, announcing to those who are taught, and guiding into the truth.” He says that the Holy Spirit accomplishes every activity and teaching. What activity? That which both the Father and the Son work, according to the Lord’s word, he who is working human salvation until now, or some other besides this? For if he works those things, he certainly has the same power and nature as he, and difference of kind from God has no place in such a one. For as, if something worked the works of fire, shining and heating alike, it is certainly fire, so if the Spirit does the works of the Father, he is certainly confessed to be of the same nature as he. But if he works something other than our salvation and shows his activity toward something contrary, he will thereby be shown to be of another nature and substance. But the Word himself testifies that the Spirit gives life like the Father and the Son. So by the identity of the works it is shown that the Spirit is certainly not estranged from the nature of the Father and of the Son. And that the Spirit accomplishes the activity and teaching of the Father according to the Son’s good pleasure we do not dispute; for the fellowship of nature testifies that there is one will of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. So, if the Holy Spirit wills what pleases the Son, the fellowship of will clearly presents the unity of substance. But “sent,” he says, “by him, and receiving from him, and announcing to those who are taught, and guiding into the truth.” If he had not said these things beforehand about the Spirit, the hearer would certainly have thought they were said about one of the human teachers. For being sent is the same as being dispatched, and having nothing of one’s own but receiving from the grace of the sender, and ministering the words to those who are taught, and guiding the erring into the truth. For all these belong also to present shepherds and teachers: to be sent, to receive, to announce, to teach, to set forth the truth; and these are what Eunomius bestows on the Holy Spirit. And having said before these, “he too is one and first and only, and excelling all,” if he had stopped his statement there, he would have appeared an advocate of the doctrines of truth. For truly one is he who is contemplated inseparably in the One, and first he who is in the first, and only he who is in the only. For as the spirit of a man that is in him, and the man himself, are one man, so too the Spirit of God that is in him, and God himself, would properly be named one God, first and only, since he cannot be separated from him in whom he is. But now, by adding “excelling all the works of the Son,” he has shown his blasphemous statement to be a muddy overturning of itself, granting to him who blows where he wills and works all things in all a preference in comparison with the rest of the works. Let us see also what he has added to these: “Sanctifying the saints,” he says. Whoever says this of the Father and of the Son will speak truly.

For in those in whom the Holy One comes to be, he makes them holy, as the Good One too makes them good; and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are holy and good, as has been shown. “Initiating,” he says, “those who approach the mystery.” This is well said of Apollos, who watered what Paul planted. For the Apostle plants by instruction, and Apollos waters by baptizing, bringing those catechized by Paul to the mystery through the mystical rebirth. So he puts the one who perfects human beings through baptism in equal honor with Apollos. “Distributing,” he says, “every gift.” With this we too agree; for everything that is good is a share of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. “Working together with the faithful,” he says, “for the understanding and contemplation of what has been ordained.” By not adding by whom it was ordained, he has made his statement ambiguous, whether it is right or otherwise. But we will attach what is said to godliness by a small addition. For since, whether a word of wisdom, or a word of knowledge, or faith, or helping, or guidance, or anything else is written among the things that save us, the one and same Spirit works all these, distributing to each individually as he wills, for this reason we do not reject Eunomius’s statement, when he says that the Spirit works with the faithful for the understanding and contemplation of what has been ordained, by the Spirit himself, since all good teachings have been ordained for us by him. “Echoing to those who pray,” he says. It would be foolish to refute the sense of this phrase in earnest, since the ridiculous and senseless character of the expression is plain at once to everyone alike. For who is so deranged and out of his mind as to wait to learn from us that the Holy Spirit is not a bell or an empty jar, echoing and vibrating at the voice of the one who prays as at a blow? “Leading to what is profitable,” he says. This the Father and the Son do alike. For “he leads Joseph like a sheep,” and “he led his people like sheep”; and “the good Spirit leads us in a level land.” “Strengthening for godliness,” he says. David says it is God’s work to strengthen a person in godliness: “For you are my strength and my refuge,” says the Prophet; and “the Lord is the strength of his people”; and “he will give power and strength to his people.” So, if these words are said in the prophet’s sense, they are a testimony to the Godhead of the Spirit; but if they oppose the prophecy, the blasphemy is convicted by this very thing, that by his statement he holds opinions contrary to the holy prophets. Then he says, “enlightening souls with the light of knowledge.” The word of godliness ascribes this grace to Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For he is named illumination by David, and from there the light of knowledge comes to those who are enlightened. Likewise the cleansing of thoughts is proper, as the word says, to the power of the Lord; for the radiance of the glory and the character of the hypostasis made purification of our sins. And driving away the demons, which Eunomius says is proper to the Spirit, this too the only-begotten God, who says to the demon, “I command you,” attests to the power of the Spirit, saying, “But if I cast out the demons by the Spirit of God.” So the destruction of demons is not a lowering of the Spirit’s glory but a demonstration of his divine and surpassing power. “Healing the sick,” he says, “curing the infirm, comforting the afflicted, raising up those who stumble, restoring the weary.” These are the words of those who are reverent about the Holy Spirit; for no one would ascribe the working of each of these to anyone but God. If, then, the heresy affirms that what belongs to no one to do but God alone is worked by the power of the Spirit, we have for the things we strive for the testimony of our enemies too. How does the Prophet seek healing from God, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled”? It is to God that Isaiah says, “The dew from you is healing to them.” And the prophecy testifies that the turning of those who stray is God’s work: “They wandered in the wilderness in a waterless place,” it says, and it added, “and he led them in a straight way, to go to a city of habitation”; and, “When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion.” Likewise the comforting of the afflicted is referred to God, for Paul says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comforts us in all our affliction.” And the Prophet says in the person of God, “In affliction you called on me, and I rescued you.”

And the raising up of those who stumble is referred by Scripture in countless ways to the power of the Lord: “I was pushed and overturned so as to fall, and the Lord helped me”; and “When he falls he will not be dashed down, for the Lord supports his hand”; and “The Lord raises up those who are dashed down.” And the restoring of the weary contains the confession of God’s loving-kindness, if indeed this man too understood what we learned from the prophecy, as the word says: “You laid afflictions on our backs; you made men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, and you brought us out into refreshment.” Up to this point, then, the majesty of the Spirit is proved through the testimony of enemies; but in what follows the purity of godliness is again defiled by the heretical mud. For he says of the Spirit, “prompting those who contend.” This carries the charge of the utmost folly and impiety. For in the stadiums some preside over the games for those who are going to display athletic strength; others, surpassing the rest in power and skill, compete for victory, stripping for contests against one another; and the rest, divided in their goodwill toward the contestants, as each has zeal and affection for one of the athletes, call out prompts at the time of the grappling, either to foresee harm, or to remember a wrestling hold, or to keep oneself from being thrown by skill. Consider, then, from what has been said, in what rank Eunomius places the Holy Spirit. In the stadiums some preside over the games, some judge the lawful contest, some contend, and some prompt the contestants, who are admitted to be far inferior to the athletes; Eunomius sees the Holy Spirit as one of the spectators from the crowd, or one of those who attend the athletes, who neither presides over the games, nor judges the victory, nor contends against the adversary, but by prompting contributes nothing to the victory. For he neither contends alongside nor instills the power for it, but only wishes that the one he favors may not be shown second to his adversaries. And Paul contends against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places; but the Spirit of power does not strengthen the athletes, nor distribute the gifts to the athletes, dividing to each individually as he wills, but has power only so far as prompting those who grapple!

Again, he says, “emboldening the fainthearted.” Here he follows, in his own statement, his preceding blasphemy against the Spirit, but the truth reveals itself even through the enemy’s mouth. For it belongs to no one else but God alone to put courage into the fainthearted, God who says to the fearful, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid”; as the Prophet says, “For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” And the Master himself says to the fearful, “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid”; and “Why are you fearful, you of little faith?”; and “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid”; and again, “Take heart, I have overcome the world.” So even against Eunomius’s will godliness shows itself through the hostile voice itself. And the next statement agrees with the preceding: “Caring for all,” he says, “and bringing every care and providence.” For truly it belongs to God alone to care and take thought for all, as the great David says: “I am poor and needy; the Lord will take thought for me.” But if the remainder has been rattled out without sense, as noise, in empty words, let no one blame us, seeing him in most things feeble and untrained in any sensible thought. For what he means by “for the onward leading of the better disposed and the guarding of the more faithful,” neither he himself could say, nor those who senselessly admire his work. In Christ Jesus, to whom be the glory and the might for ever and ever. Amen.

For one who competes lawfully, the end of the labours in the contests is either that the opponent, giving up on the labours altogether, willingly yields the victory to the one who has prevailed, or that he is thrown three times according to the athletic rule; and by this the victor, at the judgment of those who award the prize, receives the glory of the crown through a splendid proclamation. Since, then, Eunomius, already thrown twice in the preceding books, does not yet concede to the truth the prize of victory over falsehood, but for a third time again, through his writing, dusts himself for the bout against godliness in his familiar wrestling-school of falsehood, having strengthened himself for the contests on behalf of deceit, of necessity the word of truth now too rises up through us to overthrow falsehood, having set its hopes on the one who gives victory and presides over the contest, and at the same time drawing strength from the very malice of the opponent’s holds. For we confess without shame that we have neither prepared any speech whetted by rhetoric for the contests, nor do we put forward the cleverness of dialectical sharpness as an ally against our opponents, a cleverness which among the inexperienced often turns even the truth into a suspicion of falsehood. But there is one power of the word within us against falsehood. First, the true Word himself, the strength of our word … [the book of Proverbs] commands that one first become wise through preliminary training, and only then take in the instruction that comes from the Proverb. For it says that the words of prudence disclose their aim through a turning. For what is not understood directly needs some turning to grasp what is hidden. And just as Paul announced that he would change his voice when he was about to transfer the history into a figurative contemplation, so here the disclosure of hidden things is called by Solomon a turning of the word, since the beauty of the thoughts cannot be perceived unless one turns what shows on the surface of the word the other way and sees the hidden radiance of the thought. It is as happens with the feather with which the peacock adorns its tail. One who looks at the back of the feather despises it altogether as a cheap sight, because it is without beauty and shapeless. But if someone turns it over and shows its other face, he sees nature’s many-coloured painting: the half-circle shining in purple dye at the centre, and the golden haze around the circle, girded and gleaming at its edge with many-hued rainbows. Since, then, there is no beauty on the surface of the wording (for “all the glory of the king’s daughter,” it says, “is within,” shining out in golden thoughts with a hidden adornment), Solomon of necessity sets before those who read this book the turning of the word, so that through it they may understand “a parable and a dark saying, words of the wise and riddles.” Since this proverbial teaching contains such things, no one of sound mind will accept anything put forward from this book without examination and contemplation, even if it is as clear and familiar as can be at first sight. For beneath even what seems obvious there lies some contemplation by way of the higher sense. And if the plain parts of this Scripture necessarily call for a more detailed examination, how much more those in which much is unclear and hard to perceive on an immediate understanding? Let us, then, examine from the context of the words in that passage whether reading what stands beside it yields anything clear. The passage first portrays Wisdom, speaking certain sayings in her own person; and the lover of learning surely knows what is said there: Wisdom makes counsel her dwelling and calls on knowledge and understanding, and says that she has strength and prudence as her possession; she herself is named understanding; she walks in the ways of righteousness and goes about in the midst of the paths of justice. She says that through her kings reign, potentates write righteousness, and tyrants rule their own land. That no reasonable person accepts any of these statements without examination, in their ready meaning, is clear to everyone. For if kings are advanced to power through her, and tyranny has its strength from her, wisdom must necessarily appear to us as a maker of tyrants and take upon herself the blame of those who have wielded royal power wickedly. But we know as kings those who are truly advanced by wisdom to the rule that has no end, the poor in spirit, whose possession is the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord, who is the Wisdom of the Gospel, promises. Such too we recognize as the potentates: those who hold power over the passions, those not enslaved to the power of sin, who write righteousness in their own life as on a tablet. So too the praiseworthy tyranny, having changed the democracy of the passions into the monarchy of the mind with the alliance of wisdom, enslaves what wrongly bolts toward freedom: I mean all bodily and earthly ways of thinking.