Catechesis XI
CA TECHESIS XI
On the Only-begotten Son of God, Born of the Father before all Ages, True God, through whom All Things Were Made
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers in the prophets, last of all in these days has spoken to us in his Son."l
(1) In yesterday's discourse we gave adequate expression, as far as we could, to the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Yet we must not simply believe in Jesus Christ nor accept Him as one of many who are improperly called Christs. Though there were figurative Christs, He is the true Christ, not raised to the priesthood by advancement among men, but possessing the dignity of the priesthood eternally from the Father. For this reason the Faith, guarding against our supposing Him to be one of the ordinary Christs, adds to the creed we profess the words: "in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten
Son of God."
(2) Again, when you hear "Son," do not think of Him as an adopted Son, but a Son by nature, an Only-begotten
Son, having no brother. He is called Only-begotten because, in the dignity of the Godhead and His generation from the Father, He has no brother. We call Him Son of God not of ourselves, but because the Father Himself named Christ His
Son. For the name given to their children by fathers is a true one.
(3) Our Lord Jesus Christ put on man's nature, but He was not known by the many. Wishing to teach what was not 1 Heb. 1.1, 2.
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known, He gathered His disciples together and asked: "Who do men say the Son of Man is?"2 He was not seeking vain glory, but wished to show them the truth, that they, living with God, the Only-begotten Son of God, might not look down upon Him as a mere man. When they said that some said Elias and others Jeremia,3 He said to them: "They who know not are excusable; but you, My Apostles, who in My
Name cleanse the lepers, cast out devils, and raise the dead to life, you ought not to be ignorant of Him, by whom you work these wonders." When all were silent (for this lesson was beyond man's powers), Peter, the leader of the Apostles and chief herald of the Church, inventing no words, nor following human reasoning, but enlightened in mind by the Father, said to Him: "Thou art the Christ"; and not that merely, but: "the Son of the living God."4 At once a blessing follows his declaration (for truly it was above man), and upon what he said was put this seal, that it was the Father who had revealed it to him. For our Savior said: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-J ona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven."5 Therefore, he who acknowledges our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God shares this blessing; but he who denies the Son of God is a wretched and miserable man.
(4) Again, when you hear "Son," do not think of it in an improper sense, but in a true sense, that is, a Son by nature, without beginning, not raised from bondage to the rank of adoption, but a Son begotten from all eternity by an inscrutable and incomprehensible generation. Similarly, when you hear "first-born," do not think of this in human fashion; for among men the first-born have other brothers; and it is somewhere written: "Israel is my son, my first-born";6 but like Reuben, Israel was a rejected first-born; for Reuben went
2 Matt. 16.13.
3 Ibid. 14.
4 Ibid. 16.
5 Ibid. 17.
6 Exod. 4.22.
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up to his father's bed,7 and Israel cast the Son of the Father out of the vineyardS and crucified Him. To others also Scripture says: "You are children of the Lord your God";9 and elsewhere: "I said, You are gods; all of you sons of the Most
High."l0 Note "I said," not "I begot." They, from the fact that God said it, received the adoption which they did not have; but He was not begotten to be other than He was before; rather He was begotten Son from the beginning, Son of the Father, like in all things to His Genitor, begotten Life of Life, Light of Light, Truth of Truth, Wisdom of Wisdom,
King of King, God of God, Power of Power.
(5) Therefore, when you hear the words of the Gospel:
"The book of the origin of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham,"ll understand this "according to the flesh." For He is Son of David "at the end of the ages,"12 but the Son of God before all ages. That which He had not, He did receive, but that which He has, He has eternally, as begotten of the Father. He has two fathers: one, David, according to the flesh, and one, God the Father, according to the Godhead. As the son of David, He is subject to time, and He is palpable and His descent is reckoned; but in His Godhead He is subject neither to time nor place nor genealogical reckoning.
For "who shall declare his generation?"13 "God is spirit";14 He who is spirit begot spiritually, being incorporeal, by an unsearchable and incomprehensible generation. For the Son
Himself says of the Father: "The Lord said to me, 'You are my son; this day I have begotten you.' "15 Now "this day" is not recent, but eternal; "this day" is timeless, before all ages.
7 Gen. 49.4.
8 Cf. Matt. 21.19.
9 Deut. 14.1.
10 Ps. 81.6.
11 Matt. 1.1.
12 Reb. 9.26.
13 Isa. 53.8 (Douay).
14 John 4.24.
15 Ps.2.7.
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"From the womb before the days tar I have begotten yoU."16
(6) Believe, then, in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God; and that Son, Only-begotten, according to the Gospel which says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting."17 And again: "He who believes in him is not judged,"18 "but has passed from death to life."19
But "he who is unbelieving towards the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him";!W because he has not believed in the Only-begotten Son of God.21 Bearing witness to Him John said: "And we saw his glory-the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father-full of grace and of truth."22 Before Him the devils trembled and said: "Let us be! What have we to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the living
God?"23
(7) He is, then, Son of God by nature, not by adoption, begotten of the Father. "And the one who loves him who begot, loves also the one begotten of him";24 but he who despises Him who is begotten insults in turn Him who begot.
When then you hear of God begetting, think not of bodily function, nor suppose corruptible generation, that you may not fall into impiety. "God is spirit,"25 and His generation is spiritual; for bodies beget bodies, and for the generation of bodies an interval of time is necessary; but there is no intervening time in the generation of Son from Father. In natural generation what is begotten is begotten imperfect; but the Son of God was begotten perfect; for what He now is, this
He was begotten from the beginning. We are so begotten that 16 Cf. Ps. 109.3.
17 John 3.16.
18 Ibid. 18.
19 John 5.24.
20 John 3.36.
21 Ibid. 18.
22 John 1.14.
23 Cf. Luke 4.34; Mark 5.7.
24 1 John 5.1.
25 John 4.24.
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we pass from the ignorance of infancy to the use of reason; our generation as men is imperfect, for our growth comes by progression. Do not think this is so in His case, nor charge with infirmity Him who begot; for if He begot what was imperfect, though it acquired perfection in the course of time, you impute infirmity to Him who begot; since what time afterwards bestowed, this, in your view, the Father did not bestow from the beginning.26
(8) Therefore, do not consider this generation as human or as Abraham begot Isaac. For when Abraham begot Isaac, he begot not what he would, but what another bestowed on him.
But when God the Father begets, there is neither ignorance nor intervening deliberation; for to say that He did not know what was begotten is the greatest impiety, and to say that He became a Father after deliberating in time is like impiety.27
For He was not first God without a Son, but afterwards, in time, became a Father; but He has the Son eternally, having begot Him not as men beget men, but as He Himself alone knows who begot Him before all ages, Very God.
(9) Since the Father is Very God He begot the Son like to Himself, Very God; not as teachers beget disciples, nor as Paul says to some: "For in Christ Jesus, through the gospel, did I beget yoU."28 For in this case, he who was not a son by nature became a son by instruction; but in the case of Christ, He is a natural Son, a true Son. Not as you, who are beginning enlightened, now become sons of God; for you also become sons, but by adoption through grace, as it is written: "But to as many as received him he gave the power of becoming the sons of God; to those who believe in his name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."29 We, indeed, are
26 The argument of Cyril against the advancement of the Son in time is logical and sound.
27 Cyril is again arguing against the Arians; cf. Cat. 7.5, note.
28 1 Cor. 4.15.
29 John 1.12, 13.
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begotten of water and the Spirit,30 but not thus was Christ begotten of the Father; for at the time of His baptism, addressing Him and saying: "This is my Son,"31 He did not say: This has now become my son, but, "This is my Son," that He might show that even before the act of baptism He was His Son.
(10) Nor did the Father beget the Son as among men mind begets word. For the mind in us is subsistent, but the word, when uttered, is dispersed through the air and is lost.
But we know that Christ was begotten, not as a word pronounced, but a Word subsisting and living; not uttered by the lips and dispersed, but eternally and ineffably begotten of the Father in substance. For, "In the beginning was the Word,"32 sitting at His right hand,33 the Word, understanding the will of the Father, and creating all things at His bidding; the Word, who descended and ascended;34 for the spoken word, once uttered, neither ascends nor descends; the Word speaking and saying: "I speak what I have seen with the Father";35 the Word full of power and reigning over all things; for the Father delivered all things to the Son.36
(II) Therefore, the Father begot in a manner no man would understand, but as He Himself only knows. For we do not claim to declare how He begot Him, but we merely affirm that it was not in this way or that. Nor are we alone ignorant of the generation of the Son from the Father, but so is all created nature. "Speak to the earth if it will answer thee";37 and even if you question carefully all things upon the earth they will not be able to tell you; for the earth cannot tell of the substance of its own potter and fashioner. Not only
30 Cf. John 3.5.
31 Matt. 3.1'7; 17.5.
32 John 1.1.
33 Cf. Ps. 109.1.
34 Cf. Eph. 4.10.
35 John 8.38.
36 Cf. Matt. 11.27.
37 Job 12.8 (Sept.).
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the earth, but even the sun does not know; for the sun was created on the fourth day, without knowledge of the thing made the three preceding days, and what does not know these things cannot declare the Creator Himself. Heaven will not relate it, for at the bidding of the Father "the heaven also like smoke was established,"38 by Christ. Neither the heavens of heavens nor the water above the heavens39 will declare this. Why then should men be distressed at not knowing what even the heavens do not know? Not only the heavens, but the whole angelic nature also are ignorant of this generation. For if anyone (supposing this were possible) mounted to the first heaven, and approached the ranks of angels perceived there, and asked how God begot His Son, they would perhaps answer: "\Ve have above us beings great~r and higher; ask them." Ascend to the second and third heaven; reach, if possible, Thrones and Dominations, and Principalities and Powers; even if you could reach them, a thing impossible, they would also decline the telling, for they do not know.
(12) I myself have always been amazed at the curiosity of rash men who, through what they consider reverence, fall into impiety. For though they know nothing about Thrones and Dominations, Principalities and Powers, the works of Christ, they venture to inquire curiously about the Creator
Himself.40 Let these rash men tell me first how a Throne differs from a Domination, and then inquire into what concerns Christ. Tell me, what is a Principality and what a Power, what a Virtue and what an Angel; and then busy yourself with the Creator; for "all things were made through Him."41 You will not question Thrones or Dominations, or rather you cannot; what other is there who knows "the deep
38 Cf. Isa. 51.6 (Sept.).
39 Cf. Ps. 148.4.
40 Cyril here testifies to the current enthusiasm for disputation. and that too. on the most technical theological questions.
41 John 1.3.
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things of God"42 but only the Holy Spirit who spoke the Divine Scriptures? But even the Holy Spirit has said nothing in Scripture of the generation of the Son from the Father.
Why then do you busy yourself about things which even the Holy Spirit has not written of in the Scriptures? Though you understand not what is written, are you curious about what is not written? There are many questions in the Divine
Scriptures; if we do not understand what is written, why weary ourselves about what is not written? It is enough to know that God begot One Only Son.
(13) Do not be ashamed to confess your ignorance, since you share it with angels. Only He who begot knows Him who was begotten; and He who is begotten of Him knows Him who begot. He who begot knows what He begot, and the Scriptures testify that He who was begotten is God. "For as the Father has life in himself, even so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself";43 and, "that all men may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father";44 and as the Father gives life to whom He will, "even so the Son also gives life to whom he will."45 Neither did He who begot suffer any loss, nor is there anything lacking to Him who was begotten. (I know that I have said these things many times, but it is for your safety that I have repeated them so much.)
Neither does He who begot have a father, nor He who was begotten a brother; nor did He who begot change into the Son, nor did He who was begotten become the Father. Of One Only Father, there is One Only-begotten Son; neither are there two unbegotten, nor two only-begotten, but there is one Father, Unbegotten (for He is Unbegotten who has no father); and One Son begoaen eternally of the Father, not begotten in time, but before all ages; not increased by advancement, but begotten that which He now is.
42 I Cor. 2.10.
43 John 5.26.
44 Ibid. 23.
45 Ibid. 21.
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(14) We believe then in the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father Very God. For the true God does not beget a false god, as we have said, nor did He deliberate and afterwards beget Him, but He begot Him eternally, and far more swiftly than our words and thoughts. For in our case, when we speak in time, we consume time; but when there is question of Divine Power, the generation is timeless.
As we have often said, He did not bring the Son from nonbeing into being, nor receive by adoption into sonship him who was not; but the Father, being eternal, eternally and ineffably begot One Only Son, who has no brother. Nor are there two first principles; but the Father is the head of the Son;46 the beginning is One. For the Father begot the Son
Very God, called Emmanuel;41 but Emmanuel is interpreted "God with US."4S (15) You must know that He who was begotten of the Father and afterwards became man is God. Hearken to the Prophet: "Such is our God; no other is to be compared to him; he has traced out all the way of understanding, and has given her to Jacob, his servant, to Israel, his beloved son.
Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men."49 Do you see God become man, after the law-giving of Moses? Here is a second testimony to the Godhead of Christ, from what was just read: "Your throne, 0 God, stands forever and ever";50 for, that He might not be thought, because of His presence here in the flesh, to have advanced in time to the dignity of the Godhead, Scripture says plainly: "Therefore
God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellow kings."51 Here you see Christ as God, anointed by God the Father.
(16) For still a third testimony of the divinity of Christ 46 Cf. 1 Cor. 11.3.
47 Cf. Isa. 7.14.
48 Matt. 1.23.
49 Bar. 3.36-38 (Douay).
50 Ps.44.7.
51 Ibid. 8.
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listen to Isaia: "The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia,"52 and a little further on: "And they shall make supplication to you: 'With you only is God and there is no God beside you.
For you are God and we knew it not, the God of Israel, the savior.' "53 You see the Son is God, having God the Father in Himself, all but saying the very thing He has said in the Gospels: "The Father in me, and I in the Father."54 He did not say: "I and the Father am one," but "I and the Father are one";55 that we might neither separate them nor confuse the identities of Son and Father. They are one in the dignity of their Godhead, since God begot God; one in the prerogative of their kingdom; for the Father does not reign over some and the Son over others, setting Himself up against His Father, like Absalom; but over what the Father reigns, the Son also reigns. They are one, because there is no discord or division between them; for the Father does not will some things, and the Son others. They are One, because there are not some things created by Christ and others by the Father; for one is the creation of all things, the Father having created them through the Son: "For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created,"56 says the Psalmist; for He who speaks, speaks to a hearer; and He who commands, commands one who is present.
(17) Therefore, the Son is Very God, having the Father in Himself, not changed into the Father; for the Father did not put on man's nature, but the Son. For let the truth be spoken freely. The Father did not suffer for us, but the Father sent
Him who suffered for us. Never let us say: There was a time when the Son was not; nor let us accept the identification of Son with Father. Let us rather proceed on the royal road and turn aside neither to the left nor to the right. Let us
52 Isa.45.14.
53 Ibid. 45.14, 15 (Sept.).
54 John 14.11.
55 John 10.30.
56 Ps. 148.5.
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not, thinking to honor the Son, call Him Father, nor, thinking to honor the Father, suppose the Son to be but one of His creatures. But let One Father be worshiped through the One Son, and let not their worship be separated. Let One
Son be proclaimed, sitting at the right hand of the Father before all ages, not having received this dignity in time by advancement after His passion, but possessing it eternally.
(18) "He who has seen the Son, has seen the Father";57 for the Son is like in all things to Him who begot Him, begotten Life of Life, Power of Power, God of God. The characteristics of Godhead in the Son are unchangeable, and he who is deigned worthy to behold the Godhead of the Son comes to the enjoyment of the Father. It is not I say this, but the Only-begotten: "Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known me, Philip. He who sees me sees also the Father."os And to speak more briefly, let us neither separate nor confuse Father and Son; and never say that the Son is alien to the Father, nor receive those who say that the Father is at one time Father and at another Son; for such expressions are strange and impious and not the teachings of the Church. But the Father, having begotten the Son, remained Father, and He is not changed. He begot Wisdom, but did not Himself become devoid of wisdom; He begot Power, but He did not become weak; He begot God, but He was not deprived of His own Godhead; neither did He lose anything by way of decrease or change, nor did He who was begotten have any defect. Perfect is He who begot, perfect that which was begotten; He who begot is God, God He who was begotten, God, indeed, of all things, but calling the Father His own God; for He is not ashamed to say: "I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God."59
(19) But that you might not think that He is in a like sense 57 John 14.9.
58 Ibid.
59 John 20.17.
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Father of the Son and the creatures, Christ, in what follows, indicated a distinction. For He did not say: "I ascend to our
Father," else a fellowship of creatures with the Only-begotten might be supposed, but He said: "my Father and your
Father";60 in one sense Mine, by nature; in another yours, by adoption. Again: "to my God and your God";61 in one sense Mine, as His true and Only-begotten Son, and in another sense yours, as His workmanship. The Son of God is, therefore, Very God, ineffably begotten before all ages; for I say the same things to you often, that it may be imprinted on your mind. That God has a Son believe, but how, do not eagerly search out; for seeking you will not find. Do not exalt yourself, that you may not fall; "what is committed to you, attend to."62 Tell me first who He is who begot, and then learn what He begot. But if you cannot comprehend the nature of Him who begot, busy not yourself with how He begot.
(20) It is enough for piety for you to know, as we have said, that God has One Only Son, One naturally begotten; who did not begin to be when He was born in Bethlehem, but is before all ages. For listen to the Prophet Michea:
"And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, are little to be among the thousands of Juda: from you shall come forth for me a leader who shall feed my people Israel; and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity."63 Therefore do not fix your attention on Him as coming from Bethlehem simply, but worship Him as begotten eternally of the Father. Admit no one who speaks of a beginning of the Son in time, but acknowledge His timeless Beginning, the Father. For the Father is the Beginning of the Son, timeless, incomprehensible, without beginning; the Father, the fountain of the streams of justice, even of the Only-begotten;
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid.
62 Ecclus. (Sir). 3.22.
63 Cf. Mich. 5.2; d. Matt. 2.6.
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who begot Him as He Himself only knows. But that you may know that our Lord Jesus Christ is also Eternal King, listen to His words: "Abraham . . . rejoiced that he was to see my day. He saw it and was glad."64 Then, when the Jews received this obdurately, He said something still harder for them: "Before Abraham came to be, 1 am."65 Again, He says to the Father: "And now do thou, Father, glorify me with thyself, with the glory that 1 had with thee before the world existed."66 For He has said plainly: "Before the world was,
1 had glory with thee." Again: "Because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world,"67 He clearly says: "I have eternal glory with Thee."
(21) Therefore, let us believe in One Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, Very God, through whom "all things were made."68
"Whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers, all things have been created through him";69 and no created thing has been exempted from His power. Silenced be every heresy that introduces different creators and makers of the world; silenced be that which blasphemes Christ the Son of God; silenced be they who assert that the sun is Christ; for He, not the sun we see, is the Maker of the sun. Let them be silent who say that the world is the workmanship of angels, and who wish to rob the Only-begotten of dignity. For whether visible or invisible, or Thrones or Domination, or anything that is named,70 all things were made by Christ. He reigns over the things made by Him, not having seized booty of another, but ruling over His own workmanship, as the Evangelist John has said: "All things were made through 64 John 8.56.
65 Ibid. 58.
66 John 17.5.
67 Ibid.24.
68 John 1.3.
69 Col. 1.16.
70 Cf. Eph. 1.21.
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Him, and without Him was made nothing";71 all things were made through Him, the Father working through the Son.
(22) I wish to bring in an illustration of what I am saying, but I realize that it is feeble; for there can be no exact illustration of the Divine Power in visible things. But still, feeble though it be, let it be spoken by the feeble to the feeble. For consider that a king, having a son a king, and wishing to establish a city, would propose the form of the city to the son who shared his rule, and the son in turn, taking the design, would bring the planned work to completion. In like manner, when the Father wished to form all things, the Son, at the bidding of the Father, created all things, that the Father's bidding might secure for Him His absolute authority, yet the Son might have authority over His own workmanship; thus neither is the Father alienated from the dominion over His own works, nor does the Son reign over things created by others, but by Himself. For, as I have said, the angels did not create the world, but the Only-begotten
Son, begotten, to repeat, before all ages; through whom all things were made, nothing being excepted from His creation.
Thus far my words, by the grace of Christ.
(23) But returning to our exposition of the faith, let us conclude our discourse for the present. Christ made all things, whether you mention Angels, or Archangels, or Dominations, or Thrones. Not that the Father lacked power to create the works Himself, but because He wished the Son to reign over His own workmanship, furnishing Him the design of the things to be made; for the Only-begotten, honoring His
Father, says: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever he does, this the Son does in like manner."72 Again: "My Father works even until now, and I work";73 there being no opposition in those who work, for "all things that are mine are thine, and thine
71 John 1.3.
72 John 5.19.
73 Ibid. 17.
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are mine,"74 the Lord says in the Gospels. We may know this clearly from the Old as well as from the New Testament.
For He who said: "Let us make man in our image and likeness,"75 was certainly addressing someone present. But most clear are the Psalmist's words: "For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created";76 as if the Father commanded and spoke, and the Son at the Father's bidding created all things. Job also has said this mystically:
"He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the crests of the sea,"77 signifying to those who understand that He, who during His presence here walked upon the sea, is
He who before had created the heavens. Again, the Lord says: "Or have you taken the slime of the earth and fashioned a living thing?"78 Then, subsequently: "Have the gates of death been opened to you with fear?"79 signifying that He who in His loving-kindness descended to hell is He who in the beginning created man out of slime.
(24) Therefore Christ is the Only-begotten Son of God and Maker of the world, for: "He was in the world, and the world was made through him,"80 and: "He came unto His own,"81 as the Gospel teaches us. But Christ is the Maker, at the bidding of the Father, not only of things visible, but also things invisible. For, according to the Apostle: "In him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers. All things have been created through him and unto him, and he is before all creatures, and in him all things hold together."82 Though
74 John 17.10.
75 Gen. 1.26.
76 Ps. 148.5 (Douay).
77 Job 9.8.
78 Job 38.14 (Sept.).
79 Ibid. 17 (Sept.).
80 John 1.10.
81 Ibid. 11.
82 Col. 1.16, 17.
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you mention the worlds, Jesus Christ, at the bidding of the Father, is Maker of these, too. For: "last of all in these days, he has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world";83 to whom be glory, honor, power, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.
83 Heb. 1.1, 2.