Orations against the Arians · §1 · Eustathius of Antioch

How the Arians cut Scripture, and why begotten is not created

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Eustathius opens his treatise by attacking how the Arians quote Scripture about Christ, then moves to the logical incompatibility of 'created' and 'begotten.'

But the Arians, followers of Arius, say—as they claim—that Christ committed sin. Yet the words that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19) they neither hold in memory nor utter aloud. Instead, like crafty false accusers and prosecutors, they mutilate the passage and then make their case for the accusation. But lawful contenders must love the truth and embrace all things without omission, not silence one part and tear away another part to present it for deception. For if Christ is created, then he is not begotten; and if he is begotten, he is not created, since both categories cannot apply to the same nature. Everything that has a beginning also admits an end, and everything that admits an end is capable of corruption.

Greek

Orationes contra Arianos (fragmenta) ΟΙ ΛΟΓΟΙ ΚΑΤΑ ΑΡΕΙΑΝΩΝ 54 Ἀλλ' οἱ παράδοξοι τῆς Ἀρείου θυμέλης μεσόχοροι τὸ μὲν ἁμαρτίαν πεποιηκέναι τὸν Χριστὸν φράζουσι· 55 Τὸ δὲ ὅτι Θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ κόσμον καταλλάσσων ἑαυτῷ, οὔτε ἐν μνήμῃ φέρουσιν οὔτε τοῖς τῆς γλώττης ὀργάνοις ἐκφωνοῦσιν. Ἀλλὰ ὥσπερ δεινοὶ συκοφάνται καὶ κατήγοροι ἀκρωτηριάσαντες τὸ χωρίον, τὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς κατηγορίας ποιοῦνται. 56 ∆εῖ δὲ φιλαλήθως τοὺς ἐννόμους ἀγωνιστὰς πάντα συμπεριλαβόντας ἀπαραλείπτως, ἀλλὰ μὴ πρὸς ἀπάτην μέρος μὲν ἀποσιωπᾶν, μέρος δὲ ἀποσπῶντας προφέρειν. 57 Εἰ γὰρ κτιστὸς οὐκ ἄρα γεννητός· εἰ δὲ γεννητὸς, οὐ κτιστός· ἐπεὶ μηδὲ οἷόν τε περὶ τὴν αὐτὴν φύσιν ἑκάτερον στρέφεσθαι τὸ γένος. 58 Πᾶν τὸ ἀρχὴν ἔχον καὶ τέλος ἐπιδέχεται, πᾶν τὸ τέλος ἐπιδεχόμενον φθορᾶς ἐστιν δεκτικόν.

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About this text

Orations against the Arians attributed to Eustathius of Antioch.

Eustathius of Antioch (fl. c. 320–337) wrote this treatise against the Arians, followers of the presbyter Arius. He had been bishop of Beroea before becoming bishop of Antioch, and he was one of the most prominent opponents of Arianism at the Council of Nicaea. The surviving fragments come from a larger work in eight books, written to refute Arian claims about Christ.

The occasion is a dispute over how to read Scripture. Eustathius accuses the Arians of quoting dishonestly: they say that Christ committed sin, but they suppress the words that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. He calls them false accusers and says they are mutilating the biblical passage. A reader will meet Arius himself only as the named source of the movement, while the Arians appear as quoted or paraphrased opponents whose words Eustathius reports and argues against.

The argument turns on two pairs of terms. Eustathius insists that created and begotten are mutually exclusive: if Christ is created, he is not begotten, and if begotten, not created, since both cannot apply to the same nature. He then reasons that whatever has a beginning also admits an end, and whatever admits an end is capable of corruption, implying that a created Christ would be corruptible. Readers should know that the scriptural allusion is to 2 Corinthians 5:19, and that the terms created and begotten carry the technical sense of made versus begotten as rendered here.

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Translated from PG 18 (Greek)

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