Epistle to the Bishop and Confessor Adelphius, against the Arians

“Epistle to the Bishop and Confessor Adelphius, against the Arians” (8 chapters) written by St. Athanasius the Great in 371-372. and is devoted to Christological issues. Bishop and confessor Adelphius told St. Athanasius that some of the heretics reproach the Orthodox that, while worshiping Christ, Whom, however, they recognize as a true and perfect man, they worship the creature, and they themselves rejected the worship of the body of the Savior. The saint condemns these heretics and proves that we must worship Christ - God and man, and this does not mean worshiping a creature, but the Word made man. He who dishonors the church dishonors the Lord in the church, and he who separates the Word from the body rejects the grace given in him. *The title of the work in Greek is Ἐπιστολὴ πρὸς ̓Αδέλφιον. *The title of the work in Latin is Epistula ad Adelphium episcopum et confessorem. 1) Having read what was written by your piety, we truly praised your pious faith in Christ, and first of all we glorified God, who gave you such grace - both to preserve the right understanding, and, to the best of your ability, to recognize the wiles of the devil; but they also marveled at the evil of the heretics, noting that they had fallen into the great depths of wickedness, and therefore had lost all feeling and had a completely corrupt mind. And this enterprise of theirs is both a devilish suggestion and an imitation of the lawless Jews. Just as those, denounced everywhere, came up with excuses against themselves, just to deny the Lord, and brought upon themselves what was predicted by the Prophets: so these heretics, seeing that everywhere they are being given over to shame, seeing that their heresy has become vile for everyone, become inventors of evils, so that, without ceasing their struggle with the truth, they can be in the true sense fighters against Christ. For where did this evil come from for them? How did they even dare to utter this new blasphemy against the Savior? But the wicked, as can be seen, is something evil, and is truly “unskilled in the faith” (2 Tim. 3:8). For these heretics, at first denying the Divinity of the only begotten Son of God, showed at least the appearance that they recognized His coming in the flesh; Now, gradually falling deeper and deeper, they have abandoned this opinion of theirs, and have become complete atheists, so that they do not recognize Him as God, and do not believe that He became a man. And if they believed, they would not say what your piety wrote against them. 2) Therefore, you, beloved and truly desired, having exposed such people, admonished them and reprimanded them, acted in accordance with church tradition and with pious faith in the Lord. since they, excited by their father the devil, “not knowing, below the understanding, - according to what is written, but - walk in darkness” (Psalm 82:5); then let them know from your reverence that such their evilness is characteristic of Valentinus, Marcion and Manichaeus, of whom some introduced imaginary things instead of reality, while others, dividing the indivisible, denied that “the Word became flesh and dwelt in us” (John 1:14). Why, holding on to their thoughts, do they not inherit their names? For it is right for them to have the names of those who contain evil faith, and to be called Valentinians, Marcionites and Manichaeans. In this case, shamed by the stench of names, perhaps they will be able to understand to what depths of wickedness they have fallen. And although justice would require not to respond to these heretics, according to the Apostolic Council: “A man who is a heretic is repulsed by the first and second punishment, knowing that he who has become corrupted sins and is self-condemned” (Tit. 3, 10, 11), especially since the Prophet speaks of such: “The holy fool... the holy fool will speak, and his heart will understand in vain” (Isa. 32, 6): however, since, like their leader, they also walk like lions, looking for “whom they may devour” from among the simple-minded people (1 Peter 5, 8); then it became necessary for us to write it down to your reverence, so that the brethren, again taught by your admonition, would condemn their idle talk to greater condemnation. 3) We worship not creatures; Let this not happen! This misconception is common to pagans and Arians. On the contrary, we worship the Lord of creation, the Word of God incarnate. If the flesh itself is a part of creatures, then it has become God's body. And we worship such a body, not as the body itself, without separating it from the Word, and wanting to worship the Word, we do not imagine Him as being distant from the flesh; but, according to what was said above, knowing that “the Word became flesh,” we recognize this Word appearing in the flesh as God. Therefore, who would be so foolish as to say to the Lord: “step away from the body and I will worship You?” Or who will be so wicked that, because of the body, he will say to Him with the foolish Jews: “Why, “Thou, this man, created God for Thyself” (John 10:33) The leper is not like that; he worshiped God who was in the body, knew that it was God, saying: “Lord, if you will, you can cleanse me” (Matt. 8:2): He did not consider the Word of God to be a creature, because of the flesh, and did not despise the flesh in which the Word was clothed, because He is the Creator of all creation, but as in the created church, he worshiped the Creator of all things, and was cleansed. So the bleeding woman, believing and touching only the holy vestment, was healed. And the sea, foaming with the waves, listened to the Word incarnate and the storm subsided. And the Word healed the man who was blind from birth by spitting on the flesh. And what is most important and extraordinary is when the Lord was nailed to the cross itself (which, perhaps, tempted the wicked); since there was a body on the cross of the Lord, and in the body was the Word, the sun darkened, “the earth shook, the stone was disintegrated, the veil of the church was rent, ... and many bodies of the fallen saints rose up” (Matt. 27, 51, 52). 4) It was so; and no one reasoned, as the Arians now dare, whether the Word incarnate should be obeyed? Looking at Man, they recognized Him as their Creator; hearing the human voice, they did not say, because of human nature, that the Word is a creature; but they trembled all the more, and nevertheless they recognized that It was speaking from the holy church. Therefore, how is it that the wicked are not afraid that, “as if they had not tried to have God in their minds,” they will be betrayed “into an unskilled mind, to do inappropriate things” (Rom. 1:28)? For the creature does not worship the creature, and it did not refuse, because of the flesh, to worship its Lord, but it saw its Creator in the body; and “in the name of Jesus” Christ bowed and “every knee will bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (although this is displeasing to the Arians) “to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10, 11). The flesh did not bring disgrace to the Word; Let this not happen! on the contrary, she herself is even more glorified by the Word. And because the Son, “in the form of God,” took upon Himself “the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6–7), His Divinity was not diminished; but on the contrary, He became even more the deliverer of all flesh and every creature. And if God sent His Son, born of a woman, then this does not bring us shame, but rather glory and great grace. For He became man in order to deify us in Himself; became man from a woman and was born from a Virgin, in order to take upon Himself our birth guilty of sin, and for us to become a holy generation, “partakers of the Divine nature,” as blessed Peter wrote (2 Peter 1:4). And “what is weak in the law, in which your flesh was weak, God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and about sin, judge sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). 5) Therefore, are not those who are ungrateful and not worthy of all disgust who either humiliate this flesh, received by the Word, in order to free all people and raise everyone from the dead and deliver from sin, or for the sake of this flesh they slander the Son of God, that He is a work or a creature? They almost cry out to God like this: “Do not send Your only begotten Son in the flesh; may He not accept flesh from the Virgin, and may He not deliver us from death and sin; We do not want Him to appear in the body and accept death for us; We do not want the Word to become flesh and in it to intercede for us to come closer to You, and for us to dwell in the heavenly abodes. Let the gates of heaven be closed, and let not Thy Word renew the way to heaven for us with the veil of His flesh (Heb. 10:20). They pronounce such speeches with devilish insolence, which is why they invented hostility for themselves. For those who refuse to worship the Word made flesh remain ungrateful to His incarnation; Those who separate the Word from the flesh do not recognize that deliverance from sin and the cessation of death have been accomplished. Where will these wicked find separately the flesh that the Savior assumed, so that they dare to say to them: “We do not worship the Lord with the flesh, but separate the body, and serve the only Lord.” Blessed Stephen saw the Lord in heaven “standing at the right hand” (Acts 7:55). The angels said to the disciples: “He will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). And the Lord himself, calling to the Father, said: “I will, that where I am, they also will always be with Me” (John 17:24). And in general, if the flesh is inseparable from the Word, then is it not necessary for these heretics to put aside their error, and finally worship the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and cast out those who do not worship and do not serve the Word, who appeared in the flesh, everywhere, and classify them not among Christians, but among pagans and Jews? 6) Such is their madness, such is their audacity, as we said above; and we have the right faith, borrowed from the Apostolic teaching and paternal tradition, confirmed by the Old and New Testaments; because the Prophets say: “after” Thy Word and “Thy truth” (Psalm 42:3); and: “Behold, the Virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel, as it is said: God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). What does this mean if not the birth of God in the flesh? The apostolic tradition teaches when blessed Peter says: “Christ suffered for us in the flesh” (1 Peter 4:1), and Paul writes: “waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself food for us, that He might deliver us from all sin, and purify Himself a chosen people, zealous for good deeds” (Tit. 2, 13, 14). Therefore, how did He “give Himself food for us” if He did not bear flesh on Himself? Having brought it, he gave it to Himself for us, and, having perceived death in it, “he will abolish the power of death, ... the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, we always give thanks in the name of Jesus Christ, and we will not take away the grace He has shown in us; because the appearance of the Savior in the flesh became the redemptive price from death and the salvation of all creation. Therefore, beloved and most desired, let this serve as a reminder to those who love the Lord; and those who imitate Judas and left the Lord to follow Caiaphas, let them understand this, if they only want, if they only come to shame, and realize that when we worship the Lord in the flesh, we worship, as we said before, not the creature, but the Creator, clothed in a created body. 7) But it is desirable for us that your reverence would ask them the following question: when the Israelites were commanded to ascend to Jerusalem to worship in the church of the Lord, where there were the ark and above it the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the purification; then, in doing this, did the Israelites do good or bad? If they did something bad, then why were those who disregarded this law punished? For it is written: if anyone humbles himself and does not rise up, he will be consumed from among men (Deut. 17:12). And if they did well and pleased God with it; Then the vile Arians, the most vile of all heresies, are not worthy to perish many times over because, approving the ancient people for the honor given to the church, they do not want to worship the Lord who is in the flesh, as in the church? But the ancient church, like a canopy, was built of stones and gold; and when the Truth itself came, then what was typical ceased, and according to the Lord’s word, there was not left in him “one stone upon another that would not be destroyed” (Matthew 24:2). However, looking at the church of stones, speaking in this church, the Lord was not considered a creature, did not despise the church, and did not move away from it to worship, but, entering it, lawfully served the God who spoke from the church. And when this is so, then why is the all-holy and truly all-honored body of the Lord, about which the Archangel Gabriel preached, which was formed by the Holy Spirit, and which became the robe of the Word, unworshipable? Having stretched out his bodily hand, the Word raised up “burning fire” (Matthew 8:14). Having uttered a human voice, It raised Lazarus from the dead. And also, stretching out his hands on the cross, he overthrew “the prince of the power of the air, who is now working in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), and made the path to heaven clear for us. 8) So, whoever dishonors the church dishonors the Lord in the church; and whoever separates the Word from the body will take away the grace given to us in it. And let not the most wicked Arians regard the Word as a creature, because the body is created, and let them not slander His body, because the Word is not a creature. For their wickedness is amazing; They mix everything up and throw it into disorder, inventing all sorts of pretexts in order to classify the Creator among the creatures. But let them hear: if the Word were a creature, He would not have taken upon Himself a commercial body in order to give life to it. For what help will there be for creatures from a creature that itself has a need for salvation? But since the Word, being the Creator, itself became the Creator of creatures; then at the end of the ages It put on created things, so that He, as the Creator, could again renew and recreate it. Just as creatures were not created by creation, so creation would never have been saved by creature if the Word were not the Creator. Therefore, let them not interpret the divine Scriptures falsely, and let them not seduce the simple-minded brethren. But if they want, let them repent themselves and no longer serve creatures more than God who created all things. And if they wish to remain in their wickedness, then let some revel in it and, like their father the devil, gnash their teeth, because the faith of the universal Church knows the Word of God - the Creator and Creator of all, and we know that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God” (John 1:1) And He, who became man for our salvation, we worship, not as an equal, in equal to the body that appeared, but as the Lord, who took on the form of a slave, the Creator and Creator, who appeared in creation, so that, having freed “all things” in it, he would bring the world to the Father, and pacify “all things, ... in heaven and on earth” (Col. 1, 20). For in the same way we recognize His Father’s Divinity, and we worship His appearance in the flesh, even if the Arians were torn from frustration. Greet all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you, beloved and truly desired, will be healthy and remember us before the Lord. If necessary, read this to Presbyter Hierax. 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