Bad Advertisement? Are you a Christian? Online Store: | PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP Introduction to In Illud ‘Omnia,’ Etc. This memorandum or short
article was written, as its first sentence shews, during the lifetime
of Eusebius of Nicomedia, and therefore not later than the summer of
a.d. 342. The somewhat abrupt beginning, and
the absence of any exposition of the latter portion of the text, have
led to the inference that the work is a fragment: but its conclusion is
evidently perfect, and the opening words probably refer to the text
itself. The tract is a reply to the Arian argument founded upon The interpretation of the main text given in this tract was not subsequently maintained by Athanasius: in Orat. iii. 35, he explains it of the Son, as safeguarding His separate personality against the Sabellians. It should, however, be noted that this change of ground does not involve any concession to the Arian use of the passage: it merely transfers the denial of Athanasius from their minor to their major premise. Beyond the fact that the tract was written before 342 there is no conclusive evidence as to its date. But it is generally placed (Montfaucon, Ceillier, Alzog) before the ‘Encyclical,’ which was written in 339, and in several particulars it differs from the later anti-Arian treatises: perhaps then we may conjecturally place it about 335, i.e. before the first exile of the ‘Pope.’
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