Orations against the Arians · §4 · Eustathius of Antioch

Lawful contenders must not mutilate; created and begotten exclude each other; what has a beginning admits corruption

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Eustathius is concluding his refutation of the Arians, first stating the rule for honest use of Scripture, then arguing that 'created' and 'begotten' cannot both apply to Christ, and finally that whatever has a beginning is capable of corruption.

Lawful contenders who love the truth must 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, then he is not created, since both categories cannot revolve around the same nature. Everything that has a beginning also admits an end, and everything that admits an end is capable of corruption.

Greek

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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