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| Concerning the Word and the Son of God: a reasoned proof.
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Chapter
VI.—Concerning the Word and the Son of God:
a reasoned proof.
So then this one and only God is not
Wordless1464
| 1464 ἄλογον; without Word,
or, without Reason. | . And
possessing the Word, He will have it not as without a subsistence, nor
as having had a beginning, nor as destined to cease to be. For
there never was a time when God was not Word: but He ever
possesses His own Word, begotten of Himself, not, as our word is,
without a subsistence and dissolving into air, but having a subsistence
in Him and life and
perfection, not proceeding out of Himself but ever existing within
Himself1465
| 1465 Greg. Nyss.,
Catech., c. 1. | . For where
could it be, if it were to go outside Him? For inasmuch as our
nature is perishable and easily dissolved, our word is also without
subsistence. But since God is everlasting and perfect, He will
have His Word subsistent in Him, and everlasting and living, and
possessed of all the attributes of the Begetter. For just as our
word, proceeding as it does out of the mind, is neither wholly
identical with the mind nor utterly diverse from it (for so far as it
proceeds out of the mind it is different from it, while so far as it
reveals the mind, it is no longer absolutely diverse from the mind, but
being one in nature with the mind, it is yet to the subject diverse
from it), so in the same manner also the Word of God1466
| 1466 In R. 2427 is
added, ‘Who is the Son.’ | in its independent subsistence is
differentiated1467
| 1467 διῄρηται,
i.e. distinguished from the Father. Objection is taken to the use
of such a verb as suggestive of division. It is often employed,
however, by Greg. Naz. (e.g. Orat. 34) to express the
distinction of persons. In many passages of Gregory and other
Fathers the noun διαίρεσις is
used to express the distinction of persons. In many passages of
Gregory and other Fathers the noun διαίρεσις is
used to express the distinction of one thing from another: and in
this sense it is opposed both to the Sabellian confusion and the Arian
division. | from Him from
Whom it derives its subsistence1468
| 1468 Reading
ὑπόστασιν.
Various reading, ὕπαρξιν,
existence. | :
but inasmuch as it displays in itself the same attributes as are seen
in God, it is of the same nature as God. For just as absolute
perfection is contemplated in the Father, so also is it contemplated in
the Word that is begotten of Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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