Message to Maxim the Philosopher

“Epistle to Maxim the Philosopher” (5 chapters) was written by St. Athanasius the Great in 371-372. and is devoted to Christological issues. Maximus the Philosopher is probably the one who later sought the episcopal see in Constantinople, wrote St. Athanasius regarding various heretics: some denied that Christ is God, others said that the Word descended on man, but did not become man, and still others, finally, saw in Christ a man born naturally. The saint refutes these misconceptions: he proves that the crucified Christ is the Lord of glory Himself, that everyone should worship Him as the true God, and that in the actions of Christ Divine glory and power are revealed simultaneously with human weakness. *The title of the work in Greek is Ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς Μάξιμον φιλόσοφον. *The title of the work in Latin is Epistula ad Maximum philosophum. 1) Having read what you wrote today, I praised your reverence, and being extremely amazed at the recklessness of “not understanding the things they say or the things they affirm” (1 Tim. 1:7), I actually decided to remain silent. For to answer about something that is so obvious and more luminous than the light itself means nothing more than giving lawless people a reason for shamelessness. This is how we were taught by the Savior. For Pilate, after he washed his hands and gave way to the slander of the Jews of that time, the Lord no longer answered, but admonished his wife, so that not by word, but by the manifestation of power, they would believe that the one being judged is God. Neither responding to Caiaphas’s vanity, the Lord led everyone to knowledge with His promise (Matthew 26:63,64). So I, too, having hesitated for a long time and looking at the verbal dispute of shameless people, was barely moved by your zeal for the truth, and did not say anything beyond what you wrote, so that the enemy, thereby becoming convinced that he was disputing, “finally kept his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking flattery” (Psalm 33:14). And, oh, if only such people would no longer blaspheme Him who was nailed to the tree, saying to the Jews passing by at that time: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40, Luke 23:35)! If in this case they are not ashamed, then you should be ashamed, remembering the Apostolic commandment: “Deny a heretic according to the first and second punishment, knowing that such a one has become corrupt, and sins, and is self-condemned” (Tit. 3, 10, 11). For if those who dare to do this are either pagans or Judaizers; then let them, like the Jews, regard the cross of Christ as a temptation, and like the pagans, as madness (1 Cor. 1:23). But if they pretend to be Christians, then let them know that the crucified Christ is the “Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8), that He is “God’s power and God’s wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:24). 2) And if they doubt that He is God; then let them be ashamed of Thomas, who touched the Crucified One and calls Him Lord and God (John 20:28); let them fear the Lord himself, who, after washing the feet of the disciples, says: “Ye speak of Me, Teacher and Lord: and ye say well, for I am” (John 13:13). But in the same body in which he washed his feet, “you yourself bore our sins in your body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). It is also testified that He is the Lord of creation; because the sun withheld its rays, the earth shook, the stones disintegrated, and the crucifiers themselves confessed that the crucified “is truly the Son of God” (Matthew 27:51,54). And the visible body was not the body of man, but of God; in this body, when He was crucified, He raised the dead. Therefore, this daring idea of ​​theirs is not good, as if the Word of God was to some holy person (and so it was in each of the Prophets and other saints); let the idea be rejected that the Word is born each time and then dies. This is not how we should understand about the Lord; Let this not happen! On the contrary, “in one way to the end of the ages, to the sweeping away of sin” (Heb. 9:26), the Word became flesh, and from the Virgin Mary came man in our likeness, just as the Lord said to the Jews: “Now you seek to kill Me, the man who told you the truth” (John 8:40)? And we are adored, not partaking of the body of any person, but receiving the body of ourselves Words. 3) Подивился я и тому, как дерзнули они даже подумать только, будто бы Слово сделалось человеком по естественному порядку. If this were so, then the memory of Mary would be honored in vain. Nature does not know a virgin who gives birth without a husband. Посему-то Он, истинный Бог и по естеству Отчее Слово и Отчая Премудрость, по благоволению Отца сделался человеком телесно ради нашего спасения, чтобы Ему, имея, что принести за нас, спасти всех нас, «елицы страхом смерти чрез все житие повинни быше работе» ( Евр. 2, 15 ). Не какой-либо человек предал себя за нас (потому что всякий человек повинен смерти, по сказанному в лице Адама всем: «земля еси и в землю отидеши» ( Быт 3, 19 ), и не другая какая-либо из тварей предала себя (потому что всякая тварь предполагается изменяемою); но само Слово принесло за нас собственное Свое тело, чтобы не в человека была вера и не на человека упование, но чтобы иметь нам веру в самого Бога – Слово. И действительно, когда сделался Он и человеком, видим «славу Его, славу яко единородного от Отца, исполнь благодати и истины» ( Иоан. 1, 14 ). For whatever He endured in the body, He magnified all of it as God. He hungered with the flesh, but fed the hungry with God. And if anyone is tempted by bodily actions, let him be convinced of what God is doing. According to humanity, He asks where Lazarus lies; Divinely resurrects him. Therefore, let no one laugh at calling Him a child, pointing to His growth over the years, to what He ate, drank, and suffered, so that, by denying what is proper to the body, He would not completely reject His coming for our sake. And just as He did not become a man in a natural order, so, having taken upon Himself a body, He should have shown what was inherent in the body, so that the Manichaean dream would not prevail. And also, acting bodily, He should not have hidden what was inherent in the Divinity, so that Samosatsky would not have a reason to call Him a man, and, moreover, another from God the Word. 4) Having understood this, let the infidel know that although He was a baby in a manger, the Magi submitted to Him, from whom He received worship; and although he came to Egypt as a youth, he nevertheless rendered the hand-made idols ineffective; and he who was crucified by the flesh raised up the dead, who had been dead for a long time; He showed everyone that He endured everything not for His own sake, but for our sake, so that we, having clothed ourselves with dispassion and incorruptibility through His sufferings, would remain in eternal life. 5) I outlined this to you briefly, borrowing, as I said before, from what you wrote, and adding nothing of my own, but only recalling the divine cross, so that the despisers, having come to their senses by what tempted them, would worship the Crucified One. You openly convince the infidels. It may be that in some way they will come from ignorance to knowledge and rightly believe. And although what you wrote is enough, it is not bad to add this as a reminder to those who are curious, not so that they are ashamed, as if they were accused of insolence, but so that, as those who received the reminder, they do not forget the truth. May what was confessed by the Fathers at Nicaea be in full force. For this is rightful and this is sufficient to overthrow all ungodly heresies, especially the Arian heresy, which blasphemes the Word of God, and as a result of this, of necessity, ungodly against His Holy Spirit. Greet all righteous people. And you are greeted by all who are with us. You might be interested in: