Oration III Against the Arians 41–52

Stop, then, you God-haters, and do not humble the Word; do not take away his Godhead, which is the Father's, as though he were in need or ignorant, lest you cast your own failings upon Christ, as the Jews did who stoned him then. For these things do not belong to the Word as Word, but are proper to human beings. And just as, when he spat, and stretched out his hand, and called Lazarus, we did not say the mighty deeds were human, even though they were done through the body, but God's; so, if human things are said of the Saviour in the Gospel, let us again look to the nature of what is said, and, since these things are foreign to God, let us not reckon them to the Godhead of the Word but to his humanity. For even though “the Word became flesh,” the passions are proper to the flesh; and even though the flesh bears God in the Word, the grace and the power are the Word's. He did the Father's works, at any rate, through the flesh; and none the less the passions of the flesh were shown in him; for instance, he inquired, and he raised Lazarus; he checked his mother, saying, “My hour has not yet come,” and at once made the water wine. For he was true God in the flesh, and true flesh in the Word. That is why he made himself known as Son of God, and made his Father known, from the works; and from the passions of the flesh he showed that he bore a true body, and that it was his own.

These things being so, come, let us examine also the saying, “But concerning the day and the hour no one knows, not even the angels, nor the Son.” For, being especially ignorant about this and growing dizzy over it, they think they have in it a great pretext for their heresy. But I see these heretics, alleging this too as a pretext and arming themselves with it, fighting against God again like the giants. For the Lord of heaven and earth, through whom all things came into being, is being judged by them about a day and an hour; and the Word who knows all things is accused by them of being ignorant about a day; and the Son who knows the Father is said to be ignorant of an hour of a day. What could one call more senseless than this, or what madness could one compare with it? Through the Word all things came into being—times, seasons, night and day, and the whole creation; and is the creator said to be ignorant of his own work? Indeed, the very sequence of the reading shows that the Son of God knows the hour and the day, even if the Arians fall into ignorance. For having said, “nor the Son,” he tells the disciples what comes before the day, saying, “This and this will happen, and then the end.” And he who tells what comes before the day surely knows the day too, which will appear after the things foretold. But if he did not know the hour, he would not have indicated what comes before it, not knowing when the hour will be. And as someone who wishes to point out a house or a city to those who do not know it describes what comes before the house or the city, and when he has indicated everything says, “Then at once comes the city,” or “the house,” the one pointing it out surely knows where the house or the city is (for if he did not know, he would not have described what comes before them, lest through ignorance he either lead his hearers far astray or, while speaking, himself overlook and pass by what he is pointing out); so the Lord, telling what comes before the day and the hour, knows exactly, and is not ignorant, when the hour and the day are at hand.

Why, then, though he knew, he did not tell the disciples plainly at that time, no one may inquire curiously, since he himself kept silent about it. “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” But why, though he knew, he said that “not even the Son knows,” I think no believer is ignorant: that he said this too, no less, as man, because of the flesh. For this too is not a defect of the Word, but of human nature, to which ignorance is proper. And one may see this well again if one examines, with a good conscience, the occasion too: when and to whom the Saviour said these things. He did not say them when the heaven came into being through him, nor when the Word was with the Father himself “harmonizing” all things, nor before he became man, but when “the Word became flesh.” That is why it is just to ascribe to his humanity everything that he says in human fashion after he became man. For it is proper to the Word to know the things that have been made, and not to be ignorant of their beginning and end; for they are his works; and he knows how many they are, and until when he has wrought their continuance. And knowing the beginning and end of each, he surely knows also the general and common end of all. Indeed, when he says in the Gospel, with respect to his humanity, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son,” it is clear that he knows the hour of the end of all things as Word, but as man is ignorant of it; for ignorance is proper to man, and especially of these things. But this too belongs to the Saviour's love for humankind. For since he has become man, he is not ashamed, because of the flesh that is ignorant, to say, “I do not know,” so as to show that, knowing as God, he is ignorant according to the flesh. At any rate, he did not say, “not even the Son of God knows,” lest the Godhead should appear ignorant, but simply, “nor the Son,” so that the ignorance might belong to the Son who was born of human beings.

That is why, when speaking of the angels, he did not go on to say, “nor the Holy Spirit,” but kept silent, showing by this two things: that if the Spirit knows, much more does the Word, as Word, know, from whom the Spirit too receives; and that, by keeping silent about the Spirit, he has made it plain that it was with respect to his human ministry that he said, “nor the Son.” And a proof of this is that, having said humanly, “not even the Son knows,” he nevertheless shows divinely that he knows all things. For the Son whom he says does not know the day he says knows the Father; “for no one,” he says, “knows the Father except the Son.” And everyone except the Arians would agree that he who knows the Father knows much more the whole of creation, and the whole includes its end. And if the day and the hour have already been determined by the Father, it is clear that they have been determined through the Son, and that he himself knows what was determined through him. For there is nothing that did not come into being and was not determined through the Son; so he, being the creator of the universe, knows of what kind and how great the Father has willed it to be, and until when; and in the “how great” and “until when” lies its change. And again, if “all that is the Father's is the Son's” (for he himself said this), and knowing the day belongs to the Father, it is clear that the Son too knows it, having this too as his own from the Father. And again, if the Son is “in the Father and the Father in the Son,” and the Father knows the day and the hour, it is evident that the Son too, being in the Father and knowing what is in the Father, himself knows the day and the hour. And if the Son is the true image of the Father, and the Father knows the day and the hour, it is clear that the Son has the likeness of the Father in knowing these things too. And it is not wonderful that he through whom “all things came into being,” and in whom the universe “holds together,” himself knows the things that came into being, and when the end of each of them and of all in common will be; what is wonderful is that this rashness, befitting the madness of the Ariomaniacs, has forced us to come to so long a defence. For by numbering the Son of God, the eternal Word, with originated things, they are gradually practising to say that the Father himself is less than creation. For if he who knows the Father does not know the day or the hour, I fear lest knowledge of creation, or rather of the lesser part of creation, should be greater, as those madmen might say, than knowledge of the Father.

But let them, blaspheming thus against the Spirit, expect never to receive “forgiveness” for this impiety, as the Lord said; but we who love Christ and bear Christ know that the Word said “I do not know” not as being ignorant, as Word (for he knows), but showing his humanity: that ignorance is proper to human beings, and that he had put on flesh that is ignorant, and, being in it, he said according to the flesh, “I do not know.” At any rate, having then said that “not even the Son knows,” and having set out the ignorance of the people in Noah's time, he at once added, “Watch, therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming,” and again, “The Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect”—“for I too, having become like you for your sake, said, ‘nor the Son.’” But if he were ignorant divinely, he ought to have said, “Watch, therefore, for I do not know,” and “at an hour I do not expect”; but as it is, he did not say this, but by saying “you do not know” and “you do not expect” he showed that ignorance belongs to human beings; and it was for their sake that he too, having flesh like theirs and having become man, said, “not even the Son knows”; for he does not know in the flesh, though as Word he knows. And the example of Noah again refutes the shamelessness of the Christ-fighters; for there too he did not say, “I did not know,” but “they did not know until the flood came.” For the people did not know; but he who brought the flood (and that was the Saviour) knew the day and the hour in which he opened “the floodgates of heaven” and broke open “the deeps,” and said to Noah, “Go in, you and your sons, into the ark.” If he had been ignorant, he would not have foretold to Noah, “For in seven more days I will bring the flood upon the earth.” And if he signifies the day by the image of Noah's time, and knew the day of the flood, then he knows the day of his own coming as well.

And having told the parable of the virgins, he again showed more plainly who they are who do not know the day and the hour, saying, “Watch, therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour.” He who a little before said, “No one knows, not even the Son,” now did not say, “I do not know,” but “you do not know.” So when the disciples asked about the end, he fittingly said then too, “nor the Son,” according to the flesh, because of the body, to show that as man he does not know; for ignorance is proper to human beings. But since he is the Word, and he himself is “the one who is coming,” and himself the judge, and himself the bridegroom, he knows when and at what hour he is coming, and when he will say, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” For as, having become man, he hungers and thirsts and suffers with human beings, so with human beings, as man, he does not know; but divinely, being Word and Wisdom in the Father, he knows, and there is nothing of which he is ignorant. So too, again, about Lazarus he inquires in human fashion, he who went to raise him and knew from where he would call back Lazarus's soul; and it is a greater thing to know where the soul was than to know where the body lay; but he asked humanly in order to raise him divinely. So too he inquires of the disciples when he came into the region of Caesarea, although he knew even before Peter answered. For if the Father revealed to Peter the things about which the Lord was inquiring, it is clear that the revelation came through the Son; “for no one knows the Son,” he says, “except the Father, nor the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him.” And if the knowledge both of the Father and of the Son is revealed through the Son, there is no doubt that the Lord who inquired, having first revealed it to Peter from the Father, afterwards inquired in human fashion, to show this too: that, inquiring according to the flesh, he knew divinely what Peter was going to say. So the Son knows, since he knows all things and knows his own Father, than which knowledge nothing could be greater or more perfect.

These things are sufficient to refute them; but I wanted to ask them a question, so that even so they may be shown still more to be enemies of the truth and Christ-fighters. The apostle, writing in the second letter to the Corinthians, says, “I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows.” What, then, do you say? Does the apostle know what he experienced in the vision, even though he says “I do not know,” or does he not know? If he does not know, take care lest, having learned to fall, you fall also into the lawlessness of the Phrygians, who say that the prophets and the others who ministered the Word did not know either what they were doing or what they were proclaiming. But if he knows, while saying, “I do not know” (for he had Christ in himself revealing all things to him), how is the heart of the fighters against God not truly perverted and self-condemned, when they say that the apostle, who says “I do not know,” knows, but that the Lord, who says “I do not know,” does not know? For if, because Christ was in him, Paul knows what he says he does not know, how much more does Christ himself know, even if he says, “I do not know”? The apostle, then, knows what he experienced, since the Lord revealed it to him; for this is why he also says, “I know a man in Christ”; and knowing the man, he knows also how the man was caught up. Elisha, at any rate, seeing Elijah, knew also how he was taken up; but although he knew, yet when the sons of the prophets thought that Elijah had been “cast by the Spirit onto one of the mountains,” he at first, knowing what he had seen, tried to persuade the men; but when they pressed him, he fell silent and let them go. Did he, then, not know, because he fell silent? He did know; but he gave way as though he did not know, so that they, once persuaded, might no longer doubt about the taking up of Elijah. Much more, then, does Paul, being himself the one who was caught up, know also how he was caught up. For Elijah too knew, and if anyone had asked, he would have said how he was taken up. Yet Paul says, “I do not know,” for two reasons, as I think: one, as he himself said, so that no one might “think of him more than what he sees” “because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations”; the other, that, since the Saviour had said, “I do not know,” it was fitting that he too should say, “I do not know,” lest he seem, “being a servant, to be above his Lord, and a disciple above the teacher.”

So he who gave Paul to know knows much more himself. For in telling what comes before the day he knows, as I said before, both when the day and when the hour will be; and yet, knowing, he says, “not even the Son knows.” Why, then, did he say at that time, “I do not know,” about what he, as Master, knows? As far as one who searches may conjecture, he did this, as I think, for our profit (may he himself grant my attempt the mind of truth). In both respects the Saviour preserved what is useful for us. For he made known what will happen before the end, so that, as he himself said, we might not be startled or “troubled” when these things happen, but from them might expect the end that follows; but about the day and the hour he did not wish to say divinely, “I know,” but said according to the flesh, because of the flesh that is ignorant, as I said before, “I do not know,” so that they might not ask him further, and so that he would neither grieve the disciples by not telling nor, by telling, act against what was profitable for them and for all of us. For whatever he does is surely for our sake, since it was for us too that “the Word became flesh.” For our sake, then, he also said, “not even the Son knows”; and he neither lied in saying this (for he said humanly, as man, “I do not know”), nor let the disciples force him to tell; for by saying, “I do not know,” he stopped their questioning. In the Acts of the Apostles, at any rate, it is written that when he mounted up above the angels, ascending as man and carrying up into heaven the flesh he bore, and the disciples, seeing this, asked again, “When will the end be, and when will you come?”, he said to them more plainly, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has set by his own authority.” And he did not then say, “nor the Son,” as he had said before in human fashion, but “it is not for you to know.” For by then the flesh had risen, and had put off mortality, and had been deified; and it was no longer fitting for him, as he was going up into the heavens, to answer according to the flesh, but thenceforth to teach divinely: “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has set by his own authority; but you will receive power.” And what is the power of the Father but the Son? “For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

So the Son knows, being Word; for in saying this he meant: “I know, but it is not for you to know; for it was for your sake too that, sitting on the mountain, I said according to the flesh, ‘not even the Son knows,’ for your good and the good of all. For it is good for you to hear this about the angels and about the Son, because of the deceivers who will come later; so that, even if demons ‘disguise themselves as angels’ and attempt to speak about the consummation, you may not believe them, since they do not know. And if the Antichrist too, disguising himself, says, ‘I am the Christ,’ and he too tries to speak about the day and the consummation in order to deceive those who hear, you, having from me the saying ‘not even the Son,’ may not believe him either.” Besides, again, it is not good for human beings to know when the end is, or when the day of the end will be, lest, knowing it, they become careless of the time in between, waiting for the days near the end; for they will make that their excuse for caring for themselves only then. That is why he also kept silent about each one's end in death, lest human beings, puffed up by the knowledge, begin to neglect themselves for most of their time. Both, then—the general end and each one's own limit—the Word has hidden from us (for each one's end is contained in the general end, and in each one's end the general is summed up), so that, since it is unknown and always awaited, we may advance day by day as those who are called, “reaching forward to what lies ahead and forgetting what lies behind.” For who, if he knew the day of the end, would not put off using the time in between; but not knowing it, who would not make himself ready day by day? That is why the Saviour added to these words, saying, “Watch, therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming,” and “The Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” So he said this for the profit that comes from not knowing. For in saying this too he wills us to be always ready: “For you,” he says, “do not know; but I, the Lord, know when I am coming, even if the Arians do not expect me as the Word of the Father.”

The Lord, then, knowing our profit better than we do, made the disciples secure in this way; and they, having learned these things, corrected the Thessalonians, who were about to go astray on this point. But since the Christ-fighters are not put down even so, I wish, although I know that their heart is harder than Pharaoh's, to question them again about this too. In paradise God inquires, saying, “Adam, where are you?” and he questions Cain too: “Where is Abel your brother?” What, then, do you say about this? If you think that he was ignorant and therefore inquired, you have already joined the Manichees; for such daring is theirs. But if, fearing to be openly called Manichees, you force yourselves to say that he inquired though he knew, what absurdity or strangeness do you see, that you have fallen so, if the Son, in whom God inquired then, the same Son, now clothed with flesh, inquires of the disciples as man? Unless indeed, having become Manichees, you wish to find fault also with the question put to Adam then, simply so that you may run wild in your ill will. For, refuted on every point, you mutter again because of what is said by Luke, which is well said but ill understood by you. What this is must be set out, so that even so their corrupt understanding may be shown.

Luke, then, says, “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in grace with God and men.” This is the saying; but since they stumble over this too, it is necessary again to question them, as the Pharisees and Sadducees were questioned, about the one of whom Luke speaks. The question is this: Is Jesus Christ a man like all other men, or is he God bearing flesh? If he too is an ordinary man like other men, then let him advance, as a man. This, however, is the thought of the Samosatene, which you too hold in effect, though you deny it in name only because of what people would say. But if he is God bearing flesh, as he truly is, and the Word became flesh, and being God he came down to earth, what advance could he have who is “equal to God”? Or where could the Son grow, being always in the Father? For if he who is always in the Father advances, what then is there beyond the Father from which he could advance? Then, it is well to say here the same as about receiving and being glorified: if, having become man, he advanced, it is clear that before becoming man he was imperfect; and the flesh has rather become the cause of his perfection than he of the flesh's. And again, if he advances as Word, what greater thing can he become than Word and Wisdom and Son and Power of God? For the Word is all these; and if anyone could somehow partake of them, as of a ray, such a one becomes all-perfect among human beings and equal to the angels. For angels and archangels and dominions and all the powers and thrones, partaking of the Word, “always behold the face of his Father.” How, then, does he who supplied perfection to others himself advance after them? For angels ministered even at his human birth; and what is said by Luke is said after the ministry of the angels. How, then, can it even enter a man's mind at all? Or how did Wisdom advance in wisdom? Or how did he who gives grace to others (as Paul, knowing that grace is given through him, says in every letter, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”) himself advance in grace? Let them either say that the apostle lies, or not dare to say that the Son is Wisdom. Or if he is Wisdom, as Solomon said, and Paul wrote, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,” what advance did Wisdom admit?

For human beings, being creatures, can in some way reach forward and advance in virtue. Enoch, at any rate, was “translated” in this way, and Moses was perfected as he grew, and Isaac, advancing, “became great,” and the apostle said he was “reaching forward” day by day to what lies ahead; for each had somewhere to advance, looking to the step before him. But the Son of God, who alone is, where had he to reach forward? For all things advance by looking to him; but he, being alone, is in the only Father, from whom he does not reach forward, but in whom he remains always. Advancing, then, belongs to human beings; but the Son of God, since he could not advance, being perfect in the Father, “humbled himself” for us, so that in his lowliness we might rather be able to grow. And our growth is nothing other than to withdraw from the things of sense and come to the Word himself; since his lowliness too is nothing other than taking our flesh. So it was not the Word, as Word, who advanced, he who is perfect from the perfect Father, who needs nothing, but rather leads others to advance. But here too “advancing” is said in human fashion, since advance again belongs to human beings. For the evangelist too, speaking with precise care, joined “stature” to “advancing”; but the Word, who is God, is not measured by stature; statures belong to bodies. So the advance belongs to the body; for as it advanced, the manifestation of the Godhead advanced in it for those who saw; and the more the Godhead was revealed, the more the grace grew, as of a man, before all men. For as a baby he was carried; having become a boy, he stayed behind in the temple and questioned the priests about the law; and as the body grew little by little, and the Word manifested himself in it, he was thereafter confessed, first by Peter and then by all, “Truly this is the Son of God”—even though the Jews, both those of old and these new ones, willfully “close their eyes, so that they may not see” that “advancing in wisdom” is not Wisdom itself advancing, but rather the human advancing in it. For “Jesus advanced in wisdom and grace”; and if one may speak plausibly as well as truly, he himself advanced in himself. For “Wisdom built herself a house,” and made the house advance in herself.