{"id":22035,"date":"2023-04-08T10:13:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/?p=22035"},"modified":"2023-04-08T10:17:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:17:46","slug":"athanasius-defence-of-the-nicene-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/athanasius-defence-of-the-nicene-definition\/","title":{"rendered":"Athanasius: Defence of the Nicene Definition"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Eternal Generation of the Son<\/h4>\n
\"Athanasius\"
Athanasius<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

God is self-existent, enclosing all things, and enclosed by none; within all according to His own goodness and power, yet without all in His proper nature. As then men create not as God creates, as their being is not such as God\u2019s being, so men\u2019s generation is in one way, and the Son is from the Father in another. For the offspring of men are portions of their fathers, since the very nature of bodies is not uncompounded, but in a state of flux, and composed of parts; and men lose their substance in begetting, and again they gain substance from the accession of food. And on this account men in their time become fathers of many children; but God, being without parts, is Father of the Son without partition or passion; for there is neither effluence of the Immaterial, nor influx from without, as among men; and being uncompounded in nature, He is Father of One Only Son.
\n…
\nTherefore the sacred writers to whom the Son has revealed Him, have given us a certain image from things visible, saying, \u2018Who is the brightness of His glory, and the Expression of His Person\u2019 and again, \u2018For with Thee is the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light\u2019 and when the Word chides Israel, He says, \u2018Thou hast forsaken the Fountain of wisdom\u2019 and this Fountain it is which says, \u2018They have forsaken Me the Fountain of living waters.\u2019 And mean indeed and very dim is the illustration compared with what we desiderate; but yet it is possible from it to understand something above man\u2019s nature, instead of thinking the Son\u2019s generation to be on a level with ours. For who can even imagine that the radiance of light ever was not, so that he should dare to say that the Son was not always, or that the Son was not before His generation? or who is capable of separating the radiance from the sun, or to conceive of the fountain as ever void of life, that he should madly say, \u2018The Son is from nothing,\u2019 who says, \u2018I am the life,\u2019 or \u2018alien to the Father\u2019s essence,\u2019 who, says, \u2018He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father?\u201d<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n