Introduction to de Decretis or Defence of the Nicene
Definition.
————————————
letter must have
been written in the interval between the return of Athanasius in 346
and his flight in 356. Acacius was already (§3) Bishop of
Cæsarea 339; Eusebius of Nicomedia is not referred to as though
still living (he died 342). Moreover the language of §2
(“for in no long time they will turn to outrage,” &c.) implies a period of actual peace, but with a prospect of the repetition of the scenes of the year 339. This actually occurred in 356. Accordingly we must probably place the tract under the sole reign of Constantius, between 351 and the end of 355.
It is written in answer to a friend who in
disputing with Arians had been posed by their objection to the use of
non-scriptural terms in the Nicene Definition. He accordingly asks for
some account of what the council had done.
Athanasius begins his answer by stigmatising the
evasions and inconsistency of the Arianisers, and describing their
conduct at the council, and how they eventually subscribed to the terms
now complained of (1–5). He then investigates the meaning of the
divine Sonship (6–14), and how its true meaning is brought out by
the other titles of the Son (15–17). Coming to the non-scriptural
expressions he shews how they were forced upon the council by the
evasions of the Arians (18–20), and that they express no sense
not to be found in Scripture (21–24). Moreover, they had already
been in use in the Church, as is shewn by extracts from Theognostus, the two Dionysii, and Origen (25–27). Lastly (28–32) he discusses the term ἀγένητος, applied by the Arians (especially Asterius) to the Father, in contrast, not to the creation, but to the Son, who is thereby implied to be γένητος. He insists on ‘Father’ not ‘ἀγένητος’ as the divine title authorised by Scripture. Lastly he appends, in proof of what he states in §3, the letter of Eusebius to the people of Cæsarea, containing the creed of the council, which, for reasons there stated, we have inserted above, pp. 73–76.
The interest of the letter is principally
threefold; first on account of its notice of the proceedings at
Nicæa (cf. ad Afr. 5), one of the few primary sources of
our knowledge of what took place there: secondly, on account of its
fragments of early writers, especially the Dionysii, of whom more will
be said in the introduction to the next tract. With regard to
Theognostus, the quotations in this tract and in Serap. iv. 9
are important in view of the somewhat damaging accounts of his teaching
in the few other writers (Gregory of Nyssa, Photius) who mention
him.
Thirdly, the term ἀγένητος demands
attention. It is impossible to give its exact force in idiomatic
English: the rendering ‘Ingenerate’ adopted by Newman is
perhaps the most unfortunate one imaginable. ‘Uncreated,’ a
possible substitute, is also open to objection, firstly, as not
distinguishing the word from the derivatives of κτίζειν, ποιεῖν, δημιουργεῖν, secondly, as giving it a passive sense, which does not inherently attach to it. For lack of a better word, ‘Unoriginate’ may perhaps be adopted. ‘That which has not (or cannot) come to be,’ ‘that which is not the result of a process,’—is what the word strictly signifies’—‘das Ungewordene.’ It was therefore strictly applicable to the Son as well as to the Father. But throughout the earlier stages of the Arian controversy the question was embarrassed by the homophones γέννητος and ἀγέννητος, generate or begotten, and unbegotten. The confusion of thought due to the resemblance of sound is reflected in the confusion of readings in the Athanasius himself (Orat. i. 56) perceives the distinctive sense of ἀγέννητος. In the present tract and in Orat. i. 30, he has ἀγένητος only in view, the idea of begetting being absent. Here (and cf. de Syn. 46, note 5) he is denying that the Father is alone ἀγένητος, uncreated or without a ‘becoming.’ Accordingly although the word γεννήθεντα was consecrated and safeguarded in the Creed of Nicæa (Begotten not made), and although the distinctness of the derivatives of the two verbs was felt by Athanasius, and pointed out by others (Epiph. Hær. 64, 8), the use of either group of words was avoided by Catholics as dangerous. A clear distinction of the words and of their respective applicability is made by John Damascene Fid. Orth. I. viii. (see Lightfoot, Ignat. vol. 2, excursus on Eph. §7, Thilo, ubi supra, Introd. p. 14, and Harnack, Dg. 2, p. 193 note).