Oration on “The Lord Created Me” · §4 · Eustathius of Antioch

The impassible Wisdom and the exposure of Eusebius at Nicaea

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Eustathius is closing his treatise by arguing that the divine Wisdom cannot be defiled by the crucifixion of its temple, then recounting how Eusebius's written statement was exposed as blasphemy at the Council of Nicaea.

The highest Wisdom is not shut up and contained inside bodily masses, the way wet and dry materials are locked inside vessels and are contained by their containers rather than containing them. Instead, Wisdom is a divine and inexpressible power. It encompasses and strengthens both the innermost and outermost parts of the temple, and extending beyond from there, it holds all masses together at once by containing them.

If the sun, which is a visible body and perceptible to the senses, endures so many and such great assaults everywhere on earth without changing its order or feeling a small or great blow, do we suppose that the incorporeal Wisdom is defiled and changes its nature if its temple is nailed to a cross, or undergoes dissolution, or sustains a wound, or receives corruption? No: the temple suffers, but the undefiled substance remains altogether unstained in its dignity.

From here I will now proceed to what was done. What then? Since a very great council assembled at Nicaea for these reasons, some two hundred and seventy in number gathered together (I cannot write the exact figure because of the crowd's great size, since I did not investigate this with complete diligence), when the manner of the faith was being examined, the written statement of Eusebius was put forward as clear proof of blasphemy. When it was read before everyone, it immediately brought immeasurable disaster to those who heard it because of its deviation, and caused irreparable shame to the one who wrote it.

When the cabal of Eusebius and his party was clearly convicted, and the lawless document was torn up before the eyes of all, certain men acting by arrangement, putting forward the name of peace, silenced all those accustomed to speak most excellently. The Arians, fearing that they might be expelled from so great a council assembled in one place, leaped forward and anathematized the condemned doctrine, signing with their own hands in agreed documents. Having seized the presiding seats through the greatest possible maneuvering, when they ought to have submitted, they now secretly and now openly promote the opinions that had been voted down, plotting against those who refute them with various schemes. Wanting to make their weed-like plantings secure, they fear the officials, and in this way they make war on the heralds of piety. But we do not believe that godless men can ever prevail over the divine. For even if they grow strong again, they will be defeated again, according to the prophet Isaiah of august voice.

Greek

Οὐ γὰρ εἴσω τῶν σωματικῶν ὄγκων ἡ ἀνωτάτω Σοφία καθειργμένη περιέχεται, καθάπερ αἱ τῶν ὑγρῶν καὶ ξηρῶν ὕλαι τῶν μὲν ἀγγείων εἴσω

κατακλείονται, περιέχονται δὲ μᾶλλον ἢ περιέχουσι τὰς θήκας. Ἀλλὰ θεία τις οὖσα καὶ ἀνέκφραστος δύναμις, τὰ δ' ἐνδοτάτω καὶ ἐξωτάτω τοῦ νεὼ περιλαμβάνουσα κραταιοῖ, κἀντεῦθεν ἐπέκεινα διήκουσα, πάντας ὁμοῦ τοὺς ὄγκους κρατεῖ περιέχουσα. 31 Εἰ δ' ὁ ἥλιος, σῶμα ὢν ὁρατὸν, καὶ αἰσθήσει καταληπτὸν, τοσαύτας καὶ τοιαύτας πανταχοῦ γῆς ὑπομένων αἰκίας, οὐ μεταβάλλει τὴν τάξιν, οὐδὲ αἴσθηται μικρᾶς ἢ μεγάλης πληγῆς, τὴν ἀσώματον Σοφίαν οἰόμεθα χραίνεσθαι, καὶ μεταλλάττειν τὴν φύσιν, εἰ ὁ ναὸς αὐτῆς σταυρῷ προσηλοῦται, ἢ λύσιν ὑπομένει, ἢ τρῶσιν ὑφίσταται, ἢ διαφθορὰν δέχεται; Ἀλλὰ πάσχει μὲν ὁ νεὼς, ἡ δὲ ἀκηλίδωτος οὐσία παντάπασιν ἄχραντος τὴν ἀξίαν καθέστηκεν. 32 Βαδιοῦμαι δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ πεπραγμένα. Τί οὖν; ἐπειδὴ διὰ ταῦτα σύνοδος εἰς τὴν Νικαέων ἀφικνεῖται μεγίστη, διακοσίων μήτι γε καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ὁμόσε συναχθέντων (τὸ γὰρ σαφὲς διὰ τὸν τῆς πολυανδρίας ὄχλον οὐκ οἷός τέ εἰμι γράφειν, ἐπειδὴ μὴ πάντη τοῦτο περισπουδάστως ἀνίχνευον), ὡς δὲ ἐζητεῖτο τῆς πίστεως ὁ τρόπος, ἐναργὴς μὲν ἔλεγχος τὸ γράμμα τῆς Εὐσεβίου προὐβάλλετο βλασφημίας. Ἐπὶ πάντων δὲ ἀναγνωσθὲν, αὐτίκα συμφορὰν μὲν ἀστάθμητον τῆς ἐκτροπῆς ἕνεκα τοῖς αὐτηκόοις προὐξένει, αἰσχύνην δὲ ἀνήκεστον τῷ γράψαντι παρεῖχεν. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὸ ἐργαστήριον τῶν ἀμφὶ τὸν Εὐσέβιον σαφῶς ἑάλω, τοῦ παρανόμου γράμματος διαρραγέντος ὑπ' ὄψει πάντων ὁμοῦ τινες ἐκ συσκευῆς, τοὔνομα προβαλλόμενοι τῆς εἰρήνης, κατεσίγησαν μὲν ἅπαντας τοὺς ἄριστα λέγειν εἰωθότας. Οἱ δ' Ἀρειομανῖται δείσαντες μή πη ἄρα τοσαύτης ἐν ταὐτῷ συνόδου συγκεκροτημένης ἐξοστρακισθεῖεν, ἀναθεματίζουσι μὲν προπηδήσαντες τὸ ἀπηγορευμένον δόγμα, συμφώνοις γράμμασιν ὑπογράψαντες αὐτοχειρί. Τῶν δὲ προεδριῶν διὰ πλείστης ὅσης περιδρομῆς κρατήσαντες, δέον αὐτοὺς ὑπόπτωσιν λαμβάνειν, τότε μὲν λεληθότως, τότε δὲ προφανῶς τὰς ἀποψηφισθείσας πρεσβεύουσι δόξας, διαφόροις ἐπιβουλεύοντες τοῖς ἐλέγχοις. Βουλόμενοι δὲ δὴ παγιῶσαι τὰ ζιζανιώδη φυτουργήματα, δεδοίκασι τοὺς ἐφόρους· καὶ ταύτῃ τοὺς τῆς εὐσεβείας κήρυκας ἐκπολέμουσιν. Οὐχ οὕτως δὲ πιστεύομεν, ὡς ἀνθρώπους ἀθέους δύνασθαι κρατῆσαι πώποτε τοῦ θείου. Κἂν γὰρ πάλιν ἰσχύσωσι, πάλιν ἡττηθήσονται κατὰ τὸν σεμνόφωνον προφήτην Ἡσαΐαν.

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About this text

Eustathius on Proverbs 8:22 against Arian misuse.

Eustathius of Antioch (fl. c. 320–337) wrote this treatise to defend the full divinity of the Word against those who read Proverbs 8:22, “The Lord created me,” as a statement about the divine Son. He was bishop of Antioch and a leading opponent of Arianism, and he composed this work during his years of literary polemic against the Arians, before his deposition and exile.

The occasion is the Arian claim that the Word was a created being. Eustathius argues that the Word is God from eternity with the Father, uncreated, and that the one born of the Virgin, placed under the law, crucified, and raised is the man whom the Word fashioned and wore. He distinguishes the impassible divine Spirit of Christ from the passible human temple, so that suffering and weakness belong to the man, not to the Godhead. He supports this from the Gospels, Paul, and the apostles’ preaching that God made the crucified Jesus Lord and Christ.

A reader should know that “Word” renders the Greek term for the divine Son eternally with the Father, “Wisdom” is identified with the incorporeal Spirit of Christ, and “temple” means the human body of Christ in which God dwelt. “Man” refers to the human nature the Word took on, and “image” is used for the Son as image of the Father and the man as image of the Son. The author cites the Gospels and Pauline epistles by traditional names such as Luke and Philippians, and Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint where applicable. The work survives only in fragments.

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Translated from PG 18 (Greek)

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