Letters to Serapion 2.3–2.9

These things being shown in this way, whoever says that the Son is a creature is impious. For he will be compelled to call a creature also the gushing fountain, and a creature the Wisdom, the Word, in whom are all the things that are the Father’s. Besides, from the following too one may see the rottenness of the heresy of the Ariomaniacs. Those to whom we are like, and with whom we have identity, are also of the same essence with us; men, at any rate, being alike and having identity, are of the same essence with one another. For the same things belong to all: being mortal, corruptible, changeable, from nothing. And angels with one another, and all the other things, are likewise of one nature with one another. Let these busybodies, then, search whether there is any likeness of the creatures to the Son, or whether they can find in originated things what is in the Son, so that they may dare to call the Word of God a creature. But they will not find it, these men who are rash in everything and go astray about piety. For among the creatures nothing is almighty, and none is ruled by another; for each is God’s own work. “The heavens declare the glory of God”; “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness”; “the sea saw and fled.” And all things are slaves of the one who made them, doing his word and obeying his command. But the Son is almighty, as the Father is; and this is written and has been shown. Again, among the creatures nothing is unchangeable by nature. For some of the angels did not keep their own rank; and “the stars are not pure before him”; and the devil fell from heaven, and Adam transgressed, and all things are subject to change. But the Son is unchangeable and unalterable, as the Father is. And Paul recalled this from the hundred and first psalm, saying: “And you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all grow old like a garment, and like a robe you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.” And again he says: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

And again, all originated things were not, and came to be. For he made the earth as nothing; and he is the one “who calls the things that are not as though they were”; and they are things made and creatures, and for this reason they have a beginning of coming to be. For “in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,” and all that is in them; and again, “My hand made all these things.” But the Son is He who is, and God over all, as the Father is; and this has been shown so; and he is not one who is made, but one who makes; not one who is created, but one who creates and makes the works of the Father. For through him the ages came to be, and all things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be; and, as the apostle taught concerning what is in the psalm, he in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of his hands. And again, none of the creatures is God by nature; but each of the things that came to be is called what it came to be: one heaven, another earth; some luminaries, others stars; others sea and deeps and four-footed beasts; and finally man; and before these, angels and archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and powers, principalities, authorities, dominions, paradise; and so each remains. And if some were called gods, it was not by nature but by participation in the Son. For so he himself said: “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came.” Therefore, not being gods by nature, some at times change, and hear: “I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you die like men.” Such was the one who heard: “But you are a man, and not God.” But the Son is true God, as the Father is. For he is in the Father, and the Father in the Son; and John wrote it, as has been shown; and David sings: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom”; and the prophet Isaiah cries out: “Egypt has labored, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabeans, tall men, shall come over to you, and shall follow after you bound in fetters, and shall worship you, because God is in you; for you are the God of Israel, and we did not know it.” Who, then, is God in whom God is, but the Son who says, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me”?

Who, these things being so and being written so, does not see that, since the Son has nothing like the creatures, while all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, the Son would be of the same essence as the Father? For as, if he had any likeness to the creatures and some kinship with them, he would be of the same essence with them, so, being foreign in essence to originated things, and being the proper Word of the Father, not other than he, since all that is the Father’s is his own, he would rightly be of the same essence as the Father. For so the fathers too understood it, and confessed at the council of Nicaea that the Son is of the same essence as the Father and from the essence of the Father. For they saw clearly that a created essence could never say, “All that the Father has is mine.” For, having a beginning of coming to be, it does not have “he who is” and “he was” eternally. And for this reason, since the Son has these, and all the things of the Father mentioned above are the Son’s, the essence of the Son must not be created, but of the same essence as the Father. And besides, a created essence could not in this respect be receptive of what is proper to God. And proper to him are the things by which God is known, such as “Almighty,” “He who is,” “unalterable,” and the others mentioned above—lest God himself, according to the senseless, should appear to be of the same essence as the creatures, by having what the creatures too can have.

And in this way too one might refute the impiety of those who say that the Word of God is a creature. Our faith is in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, as the Son himself says to the apostles: “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And he spoke in this way so that from what we know we might understand also about what has been mentioned. As, then, we would not call fathers makers but begetters, and no one would call us creatures of our fathers, but sons by nature and of the same essence as our fathers, so, if God is Father, he is certainly Father of a Son who is so by nature and of the same essence. Abraham, at any rate, did not create Isaac but begot him; while Bezalel and Oholiab did not beget but made all the works in the tabernacle. And a shipbuilder and a house-builder do not beget what they make, but each works at it, the one the boat, the other the house. But Isaac does not make Jacob, but begets him by nature and of the same essence; and Jacob likewise Judah and his brothers. As, then, one would be mad to say that the house is of the same essence as the builder, and the boat as the shipbuilder, so one might fittingly say that every son is of the same essence as his own father. If, then, there is Father and Son, the Son must be Son by nature and in truth; and this is to be of the same essence as the Father, as has been shown from many things. Indeed, concerning the things made: “He spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created”; but concerning the Son: “My heart has uttered a good Word.” And Daniel knows the Son of God, and knows the works of God; and he saw the Son bedewing the furnace; but when speaking of the works—“Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord”—he listed each of the creatures, but did not number the Son with them, knowing that he is not a work, but that through him the works came to be, while he is hymned and highly exalted in the Father. As, then, God is revealed through him to those who know, so through him the blessing and the hymn and the glory and the power are confessed to the Father, through him and in him, so that such a confession may be acceptable, as the Scriptures say. From many things, then, and from these too, it has been shown and is shown that whoever says the Word of God is a creature is impious. … so that we may not go astray by understanding one thing for another, as the Arians have done. As, then, knowing him to be the Word, we know that “all things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be,” and “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm,” and “he sends his word and heals all”; and knowing him to be Wisdom, we know that God by wisdom founded the earth, and the Father made all things in wisdom; and knowing him to be God, we have believed that he is the Christ. For “your throne, O God,” David sings, “is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your fellows.” And in Isaiah he himself says of himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.” And Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” So, knowing that he became man, we do not deny what is said of him in a human way, such as hungering, thirsting, being struck, weeping, sleeping, and finally accepting on the cross death for our sake; for all these things are written about him. So too the Scripture did not hide “he created,” which fits men, but said it. For we men were created and made. But as, on hearing “he hungered,” “he slept,” “he was struck,” we do not deny his divinity, so, on hearing “he created,” it would follow to remember that, being God, he was created man. For being created is proper to men, as are the things mentioned above, hungering and the like.

For that saying too, which was well spoken but is badly understood by them—I mean, “Concerning that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels, nor the Son”—has a good sense. For they think that from his saying “nor the Son” he shows himself to be ignorant, and so to be a creature. But it is not so—far from it! For as in saying “He created me” he spoke in a human way, so in saying “nor the Son” he spoke in a human way. And the reason for his speaking so is a sound one. For since he became man, as is written, and ignorance is proper to men, as hunger is (for they know nothing unless they hear and learn), for this reason, having become man, he displays also the ignorance of men: first, to show that he truly has a human body; then, so that, having the ignorance of men in his body, he might redeem and cleanse humanity from all things and present it perfect and holy to the Father. What pretext will the Arians find any longer? What will they devise next to murmur about? They were condemned for not knowing “The Lord created me for his works,” and they have been shown not to understand “Concerning that day no one knows, not even the angels, nor the Son.” For as in saying “he created” he signifies what is human, that he became man and was created, while in saying “I and the Father are one,” and “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” and “I am in the Father and the Father in me,” he signifies his eternity and his being of the same essence as the Father; so in saying “No one knows, not even the Son,” he again speaks as man, for ignorance is proper to men. But when he says, “No one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father,” he knows much more the originated things. The disciples, at any rate, said to the Lord in John’s Gospel, “Now we know that you know all things.” It is very plain, then, that there is nothing he does not know, since he is the Word through whom all things came to be. And since that day too is one of all things, it will certainly come to be through him, even if the Arians burst ten thousand times with their own ignorance.