Oration on “The Lord Created Me” · §3 · Eustathius of Antioch

The impassible Spirit and the passible man

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Eustathius is arguing that the divine Spirit of Christ remained impassible while the human body suffered on the cross.

If it is incorporeal, it does not fall under the touch of hands or get encompassed by visible eyes. It does not endure a wound, is not nailed with nails, has no share in death, is not hidden in the earth, is not shut up in a tomb, and does not rise from graves. Jesus himself cries out, “No one takes my life from me; I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). Since he held authority over both as God, he permitted them to destroy the temple when they laid hands on it recklessly, but by raising it he was working more gloriously. It has been shown from irrefutable votes that he himself through himself raised up his own house, having built it anew.

The Son’s mighty works must also be attributed to the most divine Father, for the Son does not create without the Father, according to the unbreakable declarations of the sacred writings. For this reason, at one time the most divine Begetter is written to have raised Christ from the dead, and at another the Son promises that he will raise his own temple. If, then, from what has been examined the Spirit of Christ has been shown to be impassible, the accursed ones attack the apostolic definitions to no purpose. For if Paul said that the Lord of glory was crucified, clearly looking to the man, it will not be necessary on that account to attach suffering to the divine. Why then do they weave this together, saying that Christ was crucified out of weakness?

But if it were fitting to attach some form of weakness to him, one might say it is consistent to attach these things to the man, not indeed to the fullness of the Godhead, nor to the dignity of the highest Wisdom, nor to the God who is written by Paul to be over all (Romans 9:5). This is the manner of weakness on account of which he is written to have come to death according to Paul: for he lives by the power of God, the man clearly dwelling together with the Spirit, since the one believed to be in him has been shown by the preceding definitions to be the power of the Most High.

If he mounted the virginal womb and did not diminish his authority, neither is the Spirit defiled when the body is nailed to the wood of the cross. For the body was crucified lifted up, but the Spirit of Wisdom dwelt within the body, and mounted the heavenly places, and encompassed all the earth, and ruled the depths, and searched out and judged the souls of each, and did all things together as God in his accustomed way.

Greek

26 Εἰ γὰρ ἀσώματός ἐστιν οὔτε ἁφῇ χειρῶν ὑποπίπτει, οὔτε αἰσθητοῖς ὄμμασι

περιλαμβάνεται· οὐ τρῶσιν ὑπομένει, οὐχ ἥλοις προσηλοῦται, οὐ θανάτῳ κοινωνεῖ, οὐ κρύπτεται γῇ, οὐ τάφῳ κατακλείεται, οὐκ ἐκ μνημάτων ἀνίσταται. 27 Οὐδεὶς αἴρει τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπ' ἐμοῦ· ἐξουσίαν ἔχω θεῖναι τὴν ψυχήν μου, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω πάλιν λαβεῖν αὐτήν. Εἰ δὲ ἑκατέρων τὴν ἐξουσίαν εἶχεν οἷα Θεὸς, συνεχώρει μὲν αὐτοῖς λύειν ἀβούλως τὸν νεὼν ἐγχειροῦσιν, ἐπιφανέστερον δὲ ἀνιστῶν ἐνεούργει. Ἐξ ἀναντιρρήτων δέδεικται ψήφων, ὅτι αὐτὸς δι' ἑαυτοῦ τὸν ἴδιον ἀνεστήσατο νεουργήσας οἶκον. Ἀναθετέον δὲ καὶ τῷ θειοτάτῳ Πατρὶ τὰς τοῦ Υἱοῦ μεγαλουργίας. Οὔτε γὰρ Υἱὸς ἄνευ τοῦ Πατρὸς δημιουργεῖ, κατὰ τὰς ἀρραγεῖς τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων ἀποφάσεις. Τούτου γὰρ δὴ χάριν, τότε μὲν ὁ θειότατος Γεννήτωρ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγηγερκέναι γράφεται· τότε δὲ ὁ Υἱὸς τὸν ἴδιον ἀναστήσειν ὑπισχνεῖται ναόν. Εἰ οὖν ἐκ τῶν προεξητασμένων ἀπαθὲς δέδεικται τὸ θεῖον τοῦ Χριστοῦ Πνεῦμα, περιττῶς τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς ἐπισκήπτουσιν ὅροις οἱ ἐναγεῖς. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ Παῦλος ἔφρασε τὸν Κύριον τῆς δόξης ἐσταυρῶσθαι, σαφῶς εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀφορῶν, οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο δεήσει πάθος τῷ θείῳ προσάπτειν. Τί οὖν τοῦτο συνάπτουσι πλέκοντες, ἐξ ἀσθενείας ἐσταυρῶσθαι λέγοντες τὸν Χριστόν; 28 Εἰ δὲ δὴ καὶ ἀσθενείας εἶδος περιάπτειν αὐτῷ προσῆκον ἦν, τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ταῦτα προσαρτᾷν ἀκόλουθον εἶναι φαίη τις ἂν, οὔτι γε δὴ τῷ πληρώματι τῆς θεότητος, ἢ τῷ ἀξιώματι τῆς ἀνωτάτω Σοφίας, ἢ τῷ ἐπὶ πάντων κατὰ τὸν Παῦλον γραφομένῳ Θεῷ. 29 Οὗτος μὲν δὴ τῆς ἀσθενείας ὁ τρόπος, δι' ὃν εἰς θάνατον γράφεται κατὰ τὸν Παῦλον ἀφῖχθαι· Ζῇ γὰρ ἐκ δυνάμεως Θεοῦ, τῷ θείῳ Πνεύματι δηλονότι συνδιαιτώμενος ὁ ἄνθρωπος· ἐπειδὴ καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ὁ ἐν αὐτῷ πιστευόμενος κατὰ τοὺς φθάσαντας ὅρους ἀποδέδεικται. 30 Εἰ δὲ τῆς παρθενικῆς ἐπιβατεύσας μήτρας οὐκ ἐμείωσε τὴν ἐξουσίαν, οὐδὲ τῷ ξύλῳ τοῦ σταυροῦ προσπαγέντος τοῦ σώματος, χραίνεται τὸ Πνεῦμα. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ σῶμα μετάρσιον ἐσταυροῦτο, τὸ δὲ θεῖον τῆς Σοφίας Πνεῦμα καὶ τοῦ σώματος εἴσω διῃτᾶτο, καὶ τοῖς οὐρανίοις ἐπεβάτευε, καὶ πᾶσαν περιεῖχε τὴν γῆν, καὶ τῶν ἀβύσσων ἐκράτει, καὶ τὰς ἑκάστων ψυχὰς ἀνιχνεύων διέκρινε, καὶ πάντα ὁμοῦ συνήθως οἷα Θεὸς ἔπραττεν.

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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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