2. О Сыне

We have learned to believe both in one God and in one Son, born before the ages. We do not affirm that, as Valentinus fables, there is another Only Begotten, another the Word, another Christ, and another Jesus. Also, we do not call our Lord Jesus Christ a creature, as Arius and Eunomius blaspheme, because the Divine Scripture calls Him the Only Begotten; if He is created, then He is not the only begotten, but creation and all parts of creation are fellow creatures with Him. If He is the only begotten, then He has nothing in common with created beings. And that the Son is the only begotten, the Only Begotten Himself taught this, saying: “God so loved the world, for He gave His only Son to eat, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16), and in a few words: “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned: but he who does not believe is already condemned, for he has not faith in the name of the Only Begotten Son.” God" (John 3:18). The Evangelist said this: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14); because the nature of the flesh did not diminish the dignity of the Divinity, but the Word clothed with flesh also revealed in Himself the nobility of the Father. And the Evangelist also says: “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, is the one who confesses” (John 1:18). And the Baptist cries out: “He who believes in the Son will have eternal life: but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). And all the Apostles call Him the most sincere and true Son of God. The Father himself, having spoken twice from heaven, showed the sincerity of the birth; for he said: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17, Matt. 17:5). And what do I say about the Baptist, about the Evangelist, about the other Apostles and about the God of all? – Even the father of lies, the devil, did not dare to call Him anything else, but before entering the battle he said: “If you are the Son of God” (Matthew 4:6); the defeated one, having found out who He is, without hesitation cries out: “What do we and You,... Son of God! Thou hast come... to torment us before the time” (Matthew 8:29); and in Philippi he called Him the Most High and God, for he said: “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim” to you “the way of salvation” (Acts 16:17); “slaves” he called the Apostles of Christ, having learned this from them themselves, for he heard that the divine Paul said and wrote so. For he says: “Paul is the servant of Jesus Christ, he is called an Apostle” (Rom. 1:1); “Paul and Timothy are servants of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:1). If the teacher of lies himself, yielding to the lightning light of truth, calls Him the Son, and the Most High, and the Son of God, then those who dare to call the Son a creature strive to refute the very name of the Father. And that divine men also call the Son the Most High, you can hear about this in Zechariah, who says to his son: “And you, as a child, were called the Prophet of the Most High: for you went before the face of the Lord, prepared His ways” (Luke 1:76). The great John preceded not God and the Father, but the Only Begotten Son; and John himself is a witness of this; for when asked if He was the Christ, he said: “I am not the Christ, but I am sent before Him” (John 3:28). And the godly David says to the Son: “Let them know that Your name is Lord.” You are the only Highest throughout the whole earth” (Ps. 82:19). For if the Son is Lord, and according to the word of the divine Apostle, “there is one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6), “and one Lord, one faith” (Eph. 4:5), then the Son, since He is Lord, is also the Most High. But we said a lot about this in spite of Arius and Eunomius, when our speech addressed them. Therefore, let us move on to the present teaching and show that one and the same, as we have been taught, is the Lord, and the Only Begotten, and God the Word, and the Savior, and Jesus. We bring to light Peter, who was the first to confirm these names, because the first of the Apostles, asked by the Savior: “But whom you say that I am” (Matthew 16:15), answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). And the divine evangelist John calls the One and the Same the eternal Word, and the Only Begotten Son, and the Creator of all, and Christ Jesus. For he says: “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), and this expresses eternity, because what existed in the beginning, obviously, always existed. And he did not say: in the beginning it came into being, or: in the beginning it was created, but: “in the beginning it was.” It teaches what exactly “be” is; for he added: “and the Word is to God, and God is the Word.” Then he returns to what was said before and says: “This man from time immemorial is unto God” (John 1:2). And just as by the commonality of the name he showed those who are of the same essence, so with the words “God to God” he made it possible to see the difference of Persons. The Evangelist repeatedly called this God to God both the Only Begotten Son and Jesus Christ. And the wise Paul says this: “When the end of the year had come, God sent His Son, begotten of a woman, to be under the law: that He might redeem those under the law, that we might receive sonship” (Gal. 4:4-5); and again: “When God was pleased, who chose me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me” (Gal. 1:15-16). One can also find thousands of similar sayings in which the Apostles call the One and the Same Christ, the eternal Son, and co-eternal with the Father. Teaching this, the same teacher Paul shows that the Son of God is the first Creator of the ages; for he says: “In the last days of these words he spoke to us in the Son, whom he made an heir for all, in whom also he made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2). Because those who do not want to imagine the divine think divinely that it is impossible for the One who is from God to be co-eternal with God, because, holding the unreasonable opinion that the divine nature is subject to the law of human nature, they assumed that the Father is older than the Son; then the divine Apostle, by means of a certain similarity, clearly shows that the Only Begotten Son is both from God and co-eternal with God; because he called Him “the radiance of glory” (Heb. 1:3), and the radiance comes from fire and coexists with fire. Along with fire comes radiance, and with the sun comes ray; for as the sun is swift, so are the rays, but the originator of the rays is the sun, and the originator of the radiance is fire; because the sun does not come from rays, but rays are born from the sun, and radiance comes from fire. Thus, the Only Begotten Son, although born from the Father, is coexistent with the Begotten, like a word to the mind, like a radiance to fire, like a ray to the sun. But the word, radiance, ray are not independent in themselves; they have independence in that from which they originated. And God - the Word, the radiance of glory, is not some dependent power of the Father, but a living, independent Hypostasis in itself; because it is called not just the Word, but God the Word, and there is not only “the radiance of glory,” but also “the image of the Hypostasis.” since the Divine could not be clearly depicted by one likeness, we recognize this to some extent from many likenesses. And the Apostle, having said: “the radiance of glory,” teaches co-eternity; and having said: “the image of the Hypostasis,” as it shows the exact similarity, it also teaches the differences of the Hypostases, calling it the Word, depicting the impassivity of birth. So that when we hear about the Son, we do not fall into human conjecture and think that the Creator of all things was born like us, the Evangelist called Him the Word, teaching this that this birth is free from all passion; because our mind, giving birth to a word, has no need to communicate with a woman, does not tolerate any section or flow, but, being perfect, produces a perfect word. Therefore, through this we learn the impassivity of the birth and eternity of the Only Begotten. And that the Son is equal in power to the One who gave birth and is similar and equal to Him in everything, this is not difficult to learn from the teaching of the Lord Himself. For he says: “My Father is working hitherto, and I am working” (John 5:17); and: “As the Father raises the dead and lives, so the Son also lives what he wants” (John 5:21); and: “everything that the Father has is Mine” (John 16:15); and: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:10); and “seeing Me, in the form of the Father” (John 14:9). With these sayings the Lord clearly showed the indistinguishable similarity; because Philip, who asked to show the Father, pointed to Himself, teaching that He Himself is a living image of the One who gave birth, clearly showing in Himself the features of the One who gave birth. Therefore he said to Philip: “I have been with you only a while, and have you not known Me, Philip?” (John 14:9) That is, looking at Me, you still want to see the Father. This means you did not know Me. And if he knew Me, he would not want to see the Father; because the Father is contemplated in Me. That’s why he added: “seeing Me, seeing the Father.” Here he called contemplation of faith a vision. “I have only been with you for so long,” says the Lord, “and you have not known Me, Philip.” He did not say: he did not see, but he says: “I did not know.” For Philip saw the visible things, but did not behold the invisible Godhead; which is why he is accused of not knowing the Son exactly and therefore desiring to see the Father. But if we present evidence against every heresy, we will fill not just ten or twenty books with denunciation. We have already written twelve words against these heresies, and in addition to this we have now shown the purpose of moral and other theology and teaching. You might be interested in: